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Writing

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

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Ezra

Ezra: The Aaronic Rest-Giver

If you’re a preacher looking for good commentaries on Ezra, you’ll struggle. Certainly to find ones that wrestle in good detail with the text. And certainly ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. There’s a good bit more for Nehemiah, which is odd, as the two are…

by Rhys LavertyJune 8, 2021
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1 John

1 John in Community

Quick thought experiment: try to pretend you’ve never read 1 John before. Read 1:1-6. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Now, on to v. 7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with ______….” What word would you expect in that blank, based…

by Tim NicholsJune 1, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Spending Time with Noah: Reflections on Prepositions in the Flood Narrative

In my work as a Bible translator, I was recently checking our translation team’s draft of Genesis 8:8, which says of Noah (translating the Hebrew quite literally): And he sent out the dove from with him to see: had the waters lessened from upon the face of the ground? Part…

by Josh JensenMay 25, 2021
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Philosophy

Steven Weinberg Destroyed My Faith

Just in case a reader may not know Weinberg, he is a theoretical physicist and the winner of the Nobel prize in physics in 1979, as well as countless other prizes for his research. He is also a prolific, lucid, and captivating writer. If you want to read something on…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 18, 2021
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Colossians

Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:15-20 is a famous passage in Paul’s epistles because it is a succinct and powerful poem. It appears even to have been a hymn. Given the uniquely Pauline language — “reconciliation” is a term used only by Paul — it should not seem odd to attribute the poem/hymn to…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 11, 2021
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Movies

Terror of Knowing Myself

Stalker (1979) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky based on Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It shows a day from the life of a stalker, a man who enters the so-called "Zone", an Alien landing site, where he leads people to a room that grants people’s innermost desires, which…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 4, 2021

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Cut Stone, Cut Covenant

The NASB translates 1 Kings 8:9 as follows: “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.” The Hebrew, however, does…

September 30, 2004

Girard the Gnostic

In his new book Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross , Hans Boersma offers this insightful and devastating criticism of Girard’s construct of a non-violent atonement: “One of the main reasons that [Girard’s] theory continues to increase in popularity is that he helps Christians avoid the embarrassment of having to acknowledge…

September 30, 2004

Sermon Outline, October 3

House of Prayer, 1 Kings 8:1-66 INTRODUCTION As Chronicles makes clear, one of the big changes in worship at the time of Solomon was in the area of music. David organized a Levitical choir and orchestra, and these accompanied the sacrificial music with song. As 1 Kings 8 makes clear,…

September 30, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, September 26

1 Kings 7:48-50 In the sermon this morning, I noted that the two rows of water ?chariots?Eoutside the temple formed a gauntlet of water that the worshiper or priest passed through as he approached the temple. Every time anyone walked toward the temple, he symbolically relived the exodus, passing through…

September 26, 2004

Exhortation, September 26

Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Though we are reluctant to contradict an apostle, it may seem that Paul has overstated his case. All…

September 26, 2004
Theology

Wedding Sermon, September 25

Today, you are entering into the covenant of Christian marriage. David, you?re swearing in God?s name that you will love Alisha as Jesus loves the church and gave Himself for her. You are promising with an oath to give your life for her sake. Alisha, you are swearing in the…

September 25, 2004

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