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Biblical Theology

The Old Testament Precursor to the Pastor

WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 1999
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Biblical Horizons

The Geocentricity Question

[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…

by James B. JordanJune 4, 1999
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Biblical Horizons

Call Me Ishmael, Part 2

Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…

by James B. JordanJune 4, 1999
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Biblical Horizons

Call Me Ishmael, Part 1

Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…

by James B. JordanMay 4, 1999
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Isaiah

Five Cities and Isaiah 19

There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1999
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Biblical Horizons

Lot

Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1999

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The Critical History of Israel’s Priesthood

According to the critical consensus, 2 Samuel 8:18, 20:26 and 1 Kings 4:5 above show no acquaintance with ?P?s?Enotion that priesthood was restricted to members of the tribe of Levi; from this evidence, inter alia, the conclusion is drawn that P must not then have been in existence, for if…

October 19, 2004

The Critical History of Israel’s Priesthood

According to the critical consensus, 2 Samuel 8:18, 20:26 and 1 Kings 4:5 above show no acquaintance with ?P?s?Enotion that priesthood was restricted to members of the tribe of Levi; from this evidence, inter alia, the conclusion is drawn that P must not then have been in existence, for if…

October 19, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, October 17

1 Cor 11:28-32 In our churches here in Moscow, we like to emphasize that the Lord?s Supper is a feast of joy, a time of gladness not gloom, a time for celebration not self-flagellation. These emphases are all right and proper, and are profoundly important. For centuries, many Christians reduced…

October 19, 2004

Translation, 1 Kings 8

Then assembled Shlomoh the elders of Israel All the heads of the tribes The chiefs of the fathers to the sons of Israel To the king Shlomoh in Jerusalem. To cause to ascend the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh From the city of David, that is, Zion. And they…

October 18, 2004

Sin in the Dock

The main point of Romans 8:3, of course, is that the Law was undermined and made ineffective because of flesh, “flesh” here being shorthand for the condition of men and women under the reign of Sin and Death that characterized the OC. Made ineffective by flesh, by Sin, the Law…

October 18, 2004

Paul’s Deliverdict

At the end of Rom 7, Paul is looking forward to a deliverance from the power of sin and death that holds him. His wretchedness is not relieved by the law, but only made worse. But he hopes for a deliverance, one that he characterizes as a future deliverance: ?Who…

October 18, 2004

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