Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In this essay we will think about how the whole Bible is structured as one Word of God. To begin with, there is only one Bible, not two. While we divide the Bible into Old and New Testaments, that division has no more meaning than divisions into chapters and verse,…
How should one badly bruised and inadequate church relate to another? (I am not addressing the blessed possessors of absolutely perfect churches, naturally.) I believe there are three things to bear in mind. First, we must be open to the values in other Christian traditions - even Roman Catholic and…
The third and sixth day have a second creative act. Note the chiastic arrangement of the material in these special acts and the parallelism between them, see the figure below. The author arranges the description of each day as a chiasm. Each line in the chiasm is mated with a…
Now the two of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they did not sense shame (Genesis 2:25) The nakedness of Adam and Eve requires several comments. First of all, against those who think that nakedness is what God intended for humanity as a permanent estate, we have…
I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of integration, and our longing for integration in a fragmented world. I’ve been connecting my own covenant epistemology further with the thought of scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi, artist Makoto Fujimura, and Classical Christian metaphysician D.C. Schindler. In my last post , and now in this…
Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day…
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Treatments of Romans 7:7-25 are commonly massive exercises in missing the point. Readers pose questions that the text isn’t intended to answer, in particular: “Is the ‘I’ regenerate or unregenerate?” The passage isn’t about that. It’s about the law, and has two main aims: First, to vindicate Torah (vv. 7-13);…
Last week, I posted a critical response to David Bentley Hart's recent That All Shall Be Saved . Below, David responds. Well, Peter, let me give you credit for what you have not done. To this point, no reviewer who has written a negative piece on my book has actually…
There's a revealing moment in the "Second Meditation" of David Bentley Hart's That All Shall Be Saved . He opens the chapter with the comment that Christians must not make "any theological pronouncements in total abstraction from or contradiction of scripture" (92). He concedes "a certain presumptive authority" to the…
Romans 5-8 is arranged chiastically: A. 5:1-11: The justified have hope for glory in midst of tribulation B. 5:12-21: Adam and Christ: Adam's sin reversed C. 6:1-14: Death in baptism, deliverance from dominance of sin D. 6:15-23: Members as weapons of righteousness E. 7:1-6: Death to the law D'. 7:7-25:…
"What shall we say?" Paul asks at the beginning of Romans 6. "Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase?" This is typically taken as an "antinomian" objection. Paul emphasizes free grace. He's just said that grace abounds where sin abounds. He's heading off the false inference that we…
Ron Sider ( If Jesus Is Lord ) doesn't think the New Testament episodes about soldiers tell us anything much about the Christian ethics of war. He acknowledges that John doesn't tell the soldiers who come to him that they have to abandon their profession. BUt that doesn't matter, since…
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