Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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Eran Shalev ( American Zion ) puts the Scriptural debate over slavery in the context of a shift from a predominantly Old Testament orientation to a predominantly New Testament one. But the lines were not as neat as one might think: Anti-slavery writers drew on Old Testament laws on slavery,…
During the discussion at Biola Tuesday evening, Carl Trueman expressed the worry that Reformational Catholicism was at odds with the word-centeredness of the Reformation. This post is intended as reassurance. First a bit of apologia pro vita mea , and for mea friends, inevitably mixed with a dash of Barnumesque…
It’s common - and correct - to say that “eternal life” doesn’t just refer to the duration of life. It refers to a quality of life. But we ought not to skip past the duration issue too rapidly. Duration affects quality. Knowing that we are heading toward death changes the…
While David is fleeing from Saul, he spends time near Carmel, guarding and assisting the shepherds of the wealthy Nabal. When he asks Nabal to let his men participate in the sheep-shearing festivities, Nabal rebuffs him, and David gets ready to attack Nabal’s house (1 Samuel 25). Fortunately, Nabal has…
Jesus called people to eat his flesh and drink His blood (John 6). It scandalized His hearers and led to accusations of cannibalism. Christian mystics have spoken of sacramental communion with erotic overtones, using the love-feast of the Song of Songs as a paradigm. Brannon Hancock thinks that much Christian…
Barth famously condemned infant baptism as a wound in the body of Christ, and that resounding Nein has been taken as a natural application of Barth’s theology as a whole. Some have seen it as a stark choice: Barth or infant baptism. W. Travis McMaken thinks there’s more to say,…
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