Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The doctrine of justification is precious among Protestants. And it should be. The fact that God has declared our sins forgiven and that we have a righteous standing in the sight of God united to Christ is comforting and brings great joy. Unfortunately, the biblical teaching on justification is, many…
The Old Testament priests were given a number of seemingly disparate duties. As everyone knows, the priests led the sacrificial worship of Israel; only the priests could sprinkle blood on the altar or within the tabernacle, and only they could approach the altar to turn sacrificial animals into smoke. But…
M issional ecclesiology is all the rage these days, but for many being “missional” means downplaying or even eliminating concern for the “internal” life of the church, particularly its liturgical life. Missional and liturgical, mission and communio , are locked in zero-sum combat. That cannot be right. The liturgy is…
An old friend of mine, now passed into Heaven, started to say this in relationship to his sometimes troubled family, in the last quarter of his life, "I just had to take responsibility for the whole thing..." That was the seed for a new reading of the Gospel for me,…
She departed the port, dressed in her best ceremonial regalia, with tassels and flags fluttering from her mast and rigging. She stood tall, robed in mist, crowned in white, and backlit by the rising sun. There she sat, shimmering and spotless; with a perfect ragtop, and a full tank of…
John the Baptist is presented in the gospels as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise that God would send His messenger to prepare the way for the coming of the glory of the Lord (Is. 40), and the promise to send Elijah before Him to turn the people to…
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Peter Turchin offers a sobering analysis of the state of America in 2020. He thinks we're in a potentially revolutionary moment. Revolutions are products of structural instabilities combined with triggering events. America's structural dislocations are serious: “increasing popular immiseration (declining incomes, falling life expectancies, growing social pessimism and despair), elite…
The description of the rite of ordination ends with a brief notice of what the priests are to do at the altar as a “continuous” ( tamiyd ) daily offering (Exodus 29:38, 42). Verses 38-42 are arranged in a simple chasm: A. Continuous offering each day, v. 38 B. Morning…
In a recent Theopolis podcast, Alastair Roberts called attention to the chameleon quality of the apostle Paul. When the magistrates of Philippi want to send him away quietly, Paul reveals he’s a Roman citizen – news both to the magistrates and to readers of Acts (Acts 16:35-40). In Jerusalem, his…
All Levitical sacrifices are food rites. Sometimes, Yahweh alone eats from His altar-table (the ‘olah , “ascension offering”). Sometimes, He shares His bread with the priests (certain forms of the hattat , “sin offering”). Sometimes, the food gets split three ways, among Yahweh, priests, and worshipers ( shelem , “peace…
Matthew Bates argues in The Birth of the Trinity that Trinitarian theology emerged from prosopological reading of the Old Testament. This isn't the same as typology. In a typological reading, David, say, is “regarded . . . as a type or pattern for the future Christ, while at the same…
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, many today put their hopes in a vaccine. It’s a vain hope. Our capacity to control the world of viruses is very limited. Microbes are the most common forms of life on our planet, with “5 x 10 30 bacteria” and ten times…
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