Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Platitudes are often sayings whose truthfulness is so apparent, so accepted, and so repeated that they are divested of their power and in fact become the object of ridicule. Their failure lies in their fame, and the contempt they invite is bred by their familiarity. To say that children are…
Click here to download the Translation Here we have the seven-fold Voice of Yahweh, bracketed by two sets of four lines about Yahweh. The central seven-fold Voice section uses "Yahweh" ten times, for a total in this psalm of eighteen usages of "Yahweh" (3 x 3 x 2). The psalm,…
As Adam and Eve walked to the Garden of Eden to meet with Yahweh on their first Sabbath they conversed about the origin and age of the earth. Adam: You know, honey, we spent a lot of time yesterday making preparations for this house, and we still have an awful…
Knowing His paths through Moses and David, in the darkness of the prophets we yet walk in His light. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted…
These days, to be “candid” is to be frank, honest, genuine. But the word didn’t always mean that. It used to be the name for a virtue that we don’t really have a name for anymore. Its obsolete meaning is “kindliness”: a disposition to think well of others, a tendency…
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Denominations, argues Craig Van Gelder, rest on an “organizational” conception of the church that thinks of the church in “primarily functional terms” according to which “the church is responsible to do something on behalf of God in the world” (24). Citing Martin Marty, he claims that this is “a turning…
Revelation 15:1 forms an inclusio with Revelation 12:1, 3: Both speak of a “great sign in heaven.” There is progression from chapter 12 to 15: At the beginning of the sequence, the dragon and woman are in heaven. In the course of chapter 12, both leave. When 15:1 returns to…
The 144,000 martyrs of Revelation 14 are prepared for self-sacrifice. They are the firstfruits harvested in death. They offer their blood on the altar of the world, and ascend like smoke beyond the firmament. Their enemies, those who worship the beast, are also sacrifices. Worshiping the beast ultimately leads to…
In a 2005 piece in Word & World , Russell Richey argues that denominationalism in the US has passed through several stages of development. Though denominationalism always exists in situations of religious pluralism and is always (like the political party, the free press and free enterprise) a “creature of modernity,”…
We live in unnatural times because of our unnatural time. We can eat foods produced on the other side of the globe. We can eat fruit out of season, partly because the fruit is in season somewhere and partly because of modern technologies of preservation. We seem to have detached…
Revelation 14 ends with a harvest scene. First grain is harvested by the son of man, then grapes are gathered by an angel with a sickle (vv. 17-19a). Three parts of the grape plant are mentioned: The clusters ( botruos ) of the vine ( ampelos ) and the individual…
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