Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
“We have a God who hides things because He loves to be sought out, chewed out and found out.” As Christians, we are rightly taught that we must not question God’s Word. The problem is that the Scriptures record many things which appear to have been given to us for…
The book of Revelation is a liturgy. John begins “in the Spirit” on the “Lord’s day” (1:10). Jesus appears, and Jesus tells him to record messages to seven churches, words of encouragement and rebuke, like the call to worship and confession at the beginning of a Christian liturgy. In chapter…
In my previous posts, I looked at the theme of creation as it is found in a sequence of psalms devoted to Yahweh’s Kingship (Psalms 93-100). Among other matters, these psalms declare that when the Kingdom of Israel’s God comes, it is the Kingdom of the world’s own Creator .…
The church in Corinth was a pastoral nightmare. Factionalism, sexual immorality, incipient syncretism, using the church as a stage for self-promotion, and denial of the final resurrection were just some of the problems. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he confronts each of these problems directly and in…
The first chapters of the Word of God have a poetic rhythm. This is used to discredit their accuracy as historical narrative, but the truth is that these same rhythms continue far beyond the book of Genesis. In fact, the later texts shed light on the frustratingly succinct account of…
Mr. Martian: What’s that there? Mr. Edison: (Edison holds up a standard, 60 watt lightbulb). It’s a lightbulb. Mr. Martian: A “lightbulb” you say? What exactly is a “lightbulb”? Mr. Edison: A lightbulb is an object used to illuminate a dark area, say a room. It’s made primarily of filament…
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Barth issues a sharp caution for those who frequently condemn the Reformed emphasis on the “primacy of the intellect” ( CD 1.1): “What man does when he uses this faculty, when he thinks and tries to understand, can in fact be indolence, hubris or both like any other human self-determination.…
I’ve wondered why the earliest and some of the greatest Arthurian legends were first written down by Frenchmen (Chretien de Troyes, eg). Turns out, the answer is pretty simple. As Richard Barber explains in his The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief , “In the late eleventh century, the Normans overran…
The Bible gives a lot of attention to sacred architecture. About 1/3 of the book of Exodus is a detailed and repetitive description of the dimensions and furnishings of the tabernacle. We have two descriptions of the temple of Solomon, in 1 Kings 6-8 and 2 Chronicles 1-7. The last…
Deuteronomy 12:10-12 Deuteronomy 12 forms an important part of the background for the narrative of the temple-building in 1 Kings. Here, the Lord promises to give rest to Israel, and in 1 Kings 5 Solomon tells Hiram that Israel now has rest from their enemies around them. In Deuteronomy 12,…
This from the department of corrections: Contrary to what I stated in the sermon outline posted earlier in the week, the word ?finish?E(KLH) is used seven times in these chapters, as Solomon completes each stage of the ?house.?E This is obscured by the NASB translation, for in one place a…
This from the department of corrections: Contrary to what I stated in the sermon outline posted earlier in the week, the word ?finish?E(KLH) is used seven times in these chapters, as Solomon completes each stage of the ?house.?E This is obscured by the NASB translation, for in one place a…
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