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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 3

The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Patriarchal Dominion

The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 6

Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Studies

Re-creation in the Ascension Offering

The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
Biblical Horizons

The Framework Hypothesis: A Gnostic Heresy

Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 2

The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998

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Baptismal Meditation, July 25

Rom 6:1-4 Today, we?ve looked at several passages in Romans that display Paul?s interest in the redemption of the body. For Paul, salvation is ultimately about the resurrection and transfiguration of our bodies into bodies of glory, and in the present our salvation is about submitting to a new authority…

July 25, 2004

Exhortation, July 25

Our chief goal in organizing the worship of God is to conform to Scriptural patterns of worship. When we look at the whole biblical teaching on worship, we learn that worship is basically covenant renewal, and we also learn that many features of traditional liturgical worship are grounded in Scripture.…

July 25, 2004

Resurrection of the Body

It is traditional, and true, to say that the resurrection of the body is still future. What Paul calls the “redemption of our body” (Rom 8) has not occurred; and what he describes as the springing up of a plant from the seed of the dead body (1 Cor 15)…

July 25, 2004
Literature

Boy of Tears: Coriolanus

INTRODUCTION Coriolanus is the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, and has often been criticized as an inferior piece of work. There have been exceptions: T. S. Eliot said that Coriolanus was one Shakespeare’s most accomplished artistic successes. And in recent years, the critical evaluation has been shifting. Still, the play…

July 22, 2004
Literature

Shakespeare and Rome

Following is a set of notes for a lecture given at the Biblical Horizons conference, July 21. I will deliver the same lecture as part of a series on Shakespeare’s Classical World at the NSA Summer Institute next week. Shakespeare’s Classical World INTRODUCTION There are a variety of ways to…

July 21, 2004

Sermon Outline, July 25

Present Your Bodies, Romans 12:1-21 INTRODUCTION As we’ve seen in previous sermons in this seriees, “spiritual” worship is not disembodied worship. Throughout Scripture, worship involves various uses of the body. These gestures, postures, and movements are an important part of our worship. As we worship with our bodies on the…

July 20, 2004

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