Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Evangelistic Message to the Uninformed: 1 Timothy 3.14-16 Even though this is written as a sermon for delivery, and even though it was preached in a homiletics class, I decided I can’t post it as a sermon because it was not truly preached at a place where nonchristians wanted to…
If we only read the Gospels of Mark and Luke, we might get the impression that Jesus’ ascension was on resurrection Sunday. Matthew speaks of going to Galilee but he does not put things into a clear time frame. John shows us that Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days…
The most cursory glance at the history of Western literature reveals that it has been deeply influenced by the Bible. Some of the greatest classics of Western literature draw their plots, characters, and ideas largely from Scripture; Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost are two of the most notable…
Few themes emerge as profoundly and persistently in the streams of biblical narrative as the conflict between light and darkness, and the juxtaposition of humanity with monstrosity. These themes not only weave through the fabric of Scripture, emerging in stories from Genesis to Revelation, but also stitch together the human…
In John Wenham’s work, Easter Enigma , he devotes an entire chapter to Mary Magdalene, which is rephrased and summarized here. 1 One of the interesting things that Wenham said was that Mary Magdalene was the second “most favored woman in the Bible.” 2 He adds, “Yet apart from a…
God made man to live in a larger relational context, and even in high rebellion, man cannot escape his created nature. Instead, that nature takes revenge on rebellious man. Autonomous and alone, the self craves absolution but recognizes no authority that might give it; it thirsts for glory but rejects…
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In the first phase of the sixth trumpet, a voice instructs the trumpet angel to release the four angels at the Euphrates (Revelation 9:14). When they do, a 200 million horse cavalry appears. It’s a huge army; what sort of army is it? The horsemen and horses are terrifying, fire-breathing…
More than one scholar has asked whether the new “apocalyptic” Paul is a Marcionite Paul. Douglas Moo has accused Douglas Campbell’s Deliverance of God of presenting a Paul who teaches an “incipient Marcionism.” Contributors to Beyond Old and New Perspectives on Paul raise similar concerns about Campbell more gently. David…
With all the pomp of an intrepid investigative reporter who has uncovered the next Watergate, Jerry Coyne announces that Catholics believe that God created the world: “The Church’s support of evolution, then, has been equivocal: while allowing that humans had evolved, it also affirmed human exceptionalism in the form of…
Douglas Campbell ( Deliverance of God , 640-656) solves a number of issues at a stroke with his complex, layered explanation of Paul’s use of hilasterion in Romans 3:25. The word is used most commonly in the LXX to refer to the “mercy seat” above the ark, especially in connection…
Douglas Campbell suggests ( Deliverance of God , 739-40) that Genesis 17:5 creates a problem for Paul. There, God promises that Abraham will be the father of many nations, but ties that promise to circumcision. Campbell writes, the birth of Isaac, though whom this promise is realized, “creates a difficult…
Douglas Campbell ( Deliverance of God , 749) convincingly suggests that the promise to Abraham is specifically embodied in his son Isaac: “Abraham is convinced that God is capable of giving him an heir. And if God does so, then the further promises are enabled - more offspring, land, and…
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