Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
For Part 1, click HERE . How did Paul’s earliest commentators view his juxtaposition of music and drunkenness, and did they connect it to the ancient Greek ideas of musical ethos described in Part I? Origen, one of the earliest commentators on Paul, writes about Ephesians 5:18-19: One, however, who…
Perhaps it is because I am a musician that I have always found Ephesians 5:18-19 so arbitrary. But isn’t it a little odd to contrast music and drunkenness? Perhaps it is not obvious that that is what Paul is doing; I know, for myself, that it is remarkably easy to…
In 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 Paul deals with how the Corinthian Christians are supposed to be relating to unbelieving spouses. He essentially tells them, “Look, if your unbelieving spouse is willing to stay with you as a faithful Christian, don’t initiate a divorce. If he/she wants to leave you, let him/her…
For Part 1, click HERE . Those who focus on the supposed “pacifism” of Jesus and condemn the violence of God’s judgments throughout the Old Testament overlook the ministry of sacrificial bloodshed as an alternative to human bloodshed. The sword bearing of the sacrificial system was introduced to avoid the…
How should a Christian respond to the objection that the Bible, like the Koran, is a book of violence and bloodshed? Numerous answers have been offered by well-meaning exegetes, but none of them gets to the heart of the matter: God desires to place a sword in the hands of…
Beginning this summer, Dr. Alastair Roberts will join the Theopolis Institute as an adjunct Senior Fellow, the Institute has announced. Dr. Roberts will be a regular on the Theopolis podcast, teach intensive courses and in the Fellows Program, and help develop new programs and outlets. Roberts earned his PhD from…
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Naaman is the epitome of the natural man: Powerful, successful, and convinced that he can use his clout and wealth to purchase just about anything. He believes that Syria has the best rivers. He is also a leper, estranged from God and from God’s prophet. 2 Kings 5 is the…
In his 1999 book, How the News Makes Us Dumb , C. John Sommerville wisely notes the difference between power and celebrity. He notes that news is a product, determined by “what publishers think they can get us interested in and get us to pay for.” There’s no reason, then,…
Hart, Beauty of the Infinite Part 2, section I: Trinity Proposition 3: The Christian God shows the beauty of the infinite, and thus can be “traversed” by way of beauty. i. Desire’s Flight. God, Hart suggests is “all” but not a totality. That is, He is not a pantheistic all,…
Now ‘Eliysha’ the prophet called to one from the sons of the prophets And he said to him, “Tie your loins And take a flask of this oil in your hand And go/walk to Ramot Gil’ad. And you enter there And you see there Yehu’ son of Jehoshafat son of…
2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” One of the similarities between these two brief stories is that both are stories of gathering, bringing, and feeding.…
In our sermon text, an indebted widow appeals to Elisha for deliverance from creditors, and he responds by telling her to fill vessels with oil from a single jar. The supply of oil lasts as long as she has vessels to fill. She sells the oil and with the proceeds…
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