Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God…
As Pastor Wilson will remind us in the sermon this morning, the Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to…
Here is a selection of a 1530 Christmas Sermon by Martin Luther. You have heard the story from the Gospel of St. Luke of how it came to pass that our Lord Christ was born and then also the message of the angel, who announced who the boy was who…
In his essay, “White Mythology,” Derrida offers this critical discussion of Aristotle: “This is the difference between animals and man: according to Aristotle both can emit indivisible sounds, but only man can make of them a letter . . . Aristotle does not analyze this difference; he interprets it by…
There’s a chronological problem in 2 Kings 15:1. Here’s the issue: Amaziah of Judah reigned for 29 years (14:2). Jeroboam II became king in the 15th year of Amaziah (14:23). Yet, Azariah, the son of Amaziah, does not become king until the 27th year of Jeroboam II. Hence: Year 1…
Wells makes the very interesting point that postmodernism has done to modernity in a few decades what Christian opposition to modernity was incapable of doing over the course of centuries: “On just about every front Enlightenment ideas have been fought by Christians - whether in the academy, with its pervasive…
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