Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
(continued from previous issue) Between 30 and 50 What did the Levites do between age 30 and 50? Numbers 4 shows us that they carried the house of God on their shoulders. Lifting up the Lord is an image of worship in the Bible, and David’s restructuring of the Levites…
When God created the world, He created two lands: the Throne-land of Eden (entered through the sanctuary-garden, the Garden of Eden), and the Outlying Lands, such as the lands of Havilah and Cush. This essentially bi-polar world is the world of the Old Creation, and it continued to exist until…
Color is inescapable, except for those who are color blind. In our church architecture, we either employ color schemes that are helpful to worship, or we employ color schemes that are not helpful. Of course, this assertion merely begs the question: What color schemes are most helpful. God showed interest…
As I noted in an earlier article in Rite Reasons , the Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine all claimed that baptism inducts the baptized person into membership in the royal priesthood of the church, and Thomas Aquinas said that baptism, by imprinting an indelible “character” on the soul, confers…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
In my Preliminary Commentary on Daniel , which many of you have obtained, I argued in chapter 13 that the four monsters called up from the sea by the evangelistic work of the four winds (the saints) represented the deep hatred of God that evangelistic work brings to the fore…
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Some more quotations from the same Auden essay (the whole thing is wonderful): He is, like CS Lewis in Allegory of Love , comparing Greek conceptions of love with medieval and modern romantic conceptions, but adds a dash of de Rougemont: The Tristan-Isolde myth is unGreek because no Greek could…
In an introduction to a volume called The Portable Greek Reader , W. H. Auden made these comments about Greek philosophy: The great difference between the Greek conception of Nature and later ones is that the Greeks thought of the universe as analogous to a city-state, so that for them…
Who was the most spiritual man of the Old Testament? Judging from word count alone (admittedly not an infallible guide), the answer would have to be Samson. The Spirit comes on him four times, more than any other OT character. Samson was the most spiritual man prior to Jesus.
An insight on the conversion of Levi in Luke 5:27-32, suggested by my wife: Levi is called away from his tax booth, leaves everything to follow Jesus, and in the very next scene is hosting a banquet. There are two dimensions to this: first, Levi leaves a profession notorious for…
Sermon notes for August 24, 2003 What Shall We Do? Luke 3:1-38 INTRODUCTION John’s message of impending judgment on Israel is not some side issue for him or for Jesus. Both are prophets of doom, warning Israel as Moses warned Pharaoh. This message is an essential part of “preaching the…
Some very interesting material in Richard Muller’s book on the Trinity, the fourth volume of his monumental Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics . First, a couple of quotations about the treatment of the Trinity in early Reformed Orthodoxy: One of the major features of this period was “a broadened sense of the…
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