Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A while back a friend told me that his church had finally introduced weekly communion. He told me that they were having an 8:00 a.m. service on Sundays for anyone who wanted to have communion. At present only about five people were coming to this service, but he was hopeful…
According to James B. Jordan’s outline of Deuteronomy, the first commandment section runs from 6:1 to 11:32, and the second commandment section begins with 12:1. 1 That this division of the text is sound is confirmed by a comparison of 6:1 with 12:1. Deuteronomy 6:1 announces that "this is the…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Nicodemus’s conversation with Jesus in John 3:1-15 is often regarded as an illustration of the tremendous stupidity of the Jews of our Lord’s day. Those who take the passage this way fail to recognize the profound nature of Nicodemus’s questions and of Jesus’ answers. In verse 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus…
In his book 1994? , Harold Camping asserts that the life spans of the primeval patriarchs of Genesis 5 & 11 were actually epochs, one after another. This together with other mistakes in interpretation yields for him a creation date of 11013 B.C. From here, Camping tries to work out…
I have received a number of letters asking for my comments on this difficult passage. Here is my best shot! 2. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. This statement opens a new section…
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Sermon outline for Feb 1: The Days of the Son of Man, Luke 17:11-37 INTRODUCTION Jesus’ mission was to proclaim “the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43; 8:1). By this, He meant that God was taking control of the world through Him, and putting a sinful and shattered world back together.…
Barth says that the conflict of faith and heresy is far more serious and important than the conflicts between faith and unbelief. Unbelief cannot be taken with seriousness, he says, because we believe in the forgiveness of sins. But heresy is taken seriously to the extent that it has the…
Henry Ansgar Kelly (pp. 139-140 of Chaucerian Tragedy ) makes this important historical comment at the end of his analysis of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde : “The selection introduction of Aristotelian criteria of excellent in tragedy has been a source of untold confusion in modern discussions of tragedy. For Aristotle,…
While I’m on that subject: I’ve often wondered about the etymology of the “f-word.” The Shorter Oxford says that the derivation is unknown. I have a theory: Medieval courtly love poetry (such as the Roman de la Rose ) traced the development of courtship through several stages. The stage of…
While I’m on that subject: I’ve often wondered about the etymology of the “f-word.” The Shorter Oxford says that the derivation is unknown. I have a theory: Medieval courtly love poetry (such as the Roman de la Rose ) traced the development of courtship through several stages. The stage of…
In his beautifully written tribute to the ancient Greeks. Thomas Cahill interprets Euripides’ Medea as a cautionary tale to aristocratic Athenian men. The question he poses to the audience is: “What could drive a woman to such extremes that she would kill her own children.” Cahill’s summary of Euripides’ target…
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