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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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Philosophy

Kant, Religion, Book 4

Kant’s Book 4 is on “counterfeit service” or “religion and priestcraft.” In this book, Kant launches a critique of cultic religion. He is not condemning cult and ritual per se, but says that it must not be construed as divine service. The statutory laws that govern religious cult, and the…

September 11, 2007
Philosophy

Kant, Religion, Book 3

Some notes on Book 3 of Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone . Having established that there is an evil principle at work in humanity as well as a predisposition to good, Kant begins book 3 with the claim that morals is always a matter of warfare and battle.…

September 10, 2007
Literature

Bowdlerized Austen, 2

Austen’s great-nephew Lord Brabourne perpetuated the Victorianized Austen in his edition of Austen’s letters. He found Regency England far too frank and coarse for his tastes, and removes Austen’s occasional comments about the seeming perpetual pregnancies of her sisters-in-law and other acquaintances. And for Austen’s comment concerning a party that…

September 10, 2007
Literature

Bowdlerized Austen

In his Jane Austen and Representations of Regency England , Roger Sales tells about the formation of the “Austen industry.” The industry, Sales claims, started nearly as soon as Austen was in the grave. Her brother Henry’s memoir, published the year after her death, offers a conventionally pious and domestic…

September 10, 2007

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION As we follow Jesus’ commandments, we become agents for advancing God’s reign and His redemptive righteousness. Marriages are transformed into life-long partnerships in ministry, and our words are become truthful. THE TEXT “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’…

September 10, 2007

Eucharistic exhortation

1 Corinthians 6:15-17: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one…

September 9, 2007

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