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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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Anti-Catholicism and Religious Freedom

John Pinheiro's Missionaries of Republicanism is, according to the subtitle, a “religious history of the Mexican-American War.” He shows how the war was infused with religious themes, linking American Protestantism with Anglo-Saxonism and Manifest Destiny. Near the heart of the religious justification of the war was anti-Catholicism: The United States…

August 17, 2015

Complacent City

John condemns harlot Babylon for her luxury. The Greek word is strenos , which is used only once in the LXX, to describe the “complacency” of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:28). The Hebrew term behind it is sha'anan , which describe the women of Jerusalem (Isaiah 32:9, 11), those who are…

August 17, 2015

Unique Minority

In a contribution to the 1988 volume, Eliminating Racism , Thomas Pettigrew explained the uniqueness of the African-American experience, which “uniquely combines a long history of being simultaneously an integral part and on the outside of the society” (23). Few of even the most racist Americans consider blacks to be…

August 17, 2015

The Demographics of Exile

When Israel was deported to Babylonian exile, it would have been natural for Israelites to reason that they ought to limit the size of their families and wait for a return to the land. It might even be best to avoid marriage/ After all, who wants to support a wife…

August 17, 2015

Sociality in Modern Cities

Since Ferdinant Toennies introduced the categories, sociologists have often contrasted the gemeinschaftlich forms of social life in traditional societies with the gesellschaftlich forms in modernity. As Nancy Ammerman explains the distinction, the former are marked by “affectivity, particularism, ascription, and diffuseness. In such communities, relationships had emotional depth, were idiosyncratic,…

August 14, 2015

Race and Rootedness

Charles Bambach's Heidegger's Roots is an attempt to trace the roots of Heidegger's affinity for Naziism. The “roots” of the title have a double meaning - both the intellectual background to Heidegger and Heidegger's formulation of Bodenstandigkeit , “rootedness.” Early on, Bambach summarizes Ernst Bloch's “caustic and penetrating” response to…

August 14, 2015

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