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Biblical Horizons

Schizophrenia?

> Dave, > Jason > > I am surprised this is so hard for me to communicate effectively. Prosecuting Leithart while inwardly struggling with my questions was easy, because the issue was NEVER “Whose views are correct?” In a Reformed denomination we all operate under the supposition that our doctrinal…

by Richard BledsoeJune 8, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

The Onesiphorus Nonsense

Discussions on the catholicity of the church have led one RC advocate to write to me that according to 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Paul is clearly and unmistakably praying for a dead person. He points to a couple of Protestant writers who had agreed with this, though they are in a…

by James B. JordanJune 7, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Schaff on Praying to Saints

The great True Catholic historian, Philip Schaff, points out as regards the beginning of prayers to the saints in the post-Nicene Church: Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Volume III, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity A.D. 311-390, P. 409-427). In the first three centuries the veneration of the martyrs in…

by James B. JordanMay 31, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

The Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets in (or into) one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Contrary to usual translations, neither the Greek nor the Latin originals say “ I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” As written, the thought of the authors…

by James B. JordanMay 25, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Family Disintegrated Worship

One of the latest sectarian movements to arise around the fringes of the Christian religion is something called “family integrated churches.” What this seems to mean, depending on the advocate, is that youth groups are bad, age-segregated Sunday Schools are bad, families need to sit together in church, and even…

by James B. JordanFebruary 2, 2012
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 8

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 8. Comments on The Covenantal Gospel by Cornelis van der Waal This is an excellent book, and every Bible student should read and master it. Cornelis van der Waal was…

by James B. JordanSeptember 22, 2011

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Exhortation

Most of the Beatitudes in Matthew are stated in third person. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ” They shall be comforted,” ” they shall inherit the earth,” ” they shall be called the sons of God.” At the end, Jesus changes the…

September 2, 2007
Theology

Music, Time, and Augustine

One of the best discussions of Augustine’s views on time comes from Jeremy Begbie’s Theology, Music, and Time (ch. 3). Following Ricoeur’s discussion, Begbie claims that Augustine’s distentio “is conceived as the three-fold present, and the threefold present as distentio . The distentio consists in the non-coincidence of the mind’s…

August 30, 2007
Theology

Escaping time

John Rist offers some important insights into Augustine’s view of time. He notes, as many commentators do, that Augustine is not aiming to provide a definition of time but to answer the question of how time can be measured. The dilemma is: If the past no longer is, and the…

August 30, 2007

Distention and eschatology

In a 1957 essay in Man and Time , Gilles Quispel claims that Augustine’s views of time have been extracted from the “great struggle between a cyclical and a historical view of the world, between archaism and Christianity,” and therefore have been misunderstood. Augustine “comes to grips with the Neoplatonists…

August 30, 2007
Philosophy

Augustine’s non-Aristotelian Universe

Augustine argues in Confessions that time is not reducible to the movement of the celestial bodies. Aristotle agreed; but, as Ricoeur points out, the arguments that Augustine used departed radically from Aristotle. First, if the sun and stars stopped moving, and yet a potter’s wheel continued to move, time would…

August 30, 2007
Philosophy

Augustine’s non-Aristotelian Universe

Augustine argues in Confessions that time is not reducible to the movement of the celestial bodies. Aristotle agreed; but, as Ricoeur points out, the arguments that Augustine used departed radically from Aristotle. First, if the sun and stars stopped moving, and yet a potter’s wheel continued to move, time would…

August 30, 2007

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