Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…
Sermons are rarely more tiresome than when they strive for relevance. Drawing from the latest headlines transforms the preacher into a one-man MacLaughlin Group, a Crossfire without the cross though perhaps with some of the fire, and leave the congregation thinking, "If I wanted Meet the Press, I could have…
Part One: The Old Testament “Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan, the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil” Increase Mather in Wo to Drunkards (1673). 1. The “wine”…
28. These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the 7th year 3023 Jews. 29. In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem. 30. In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4600…
Revelation 21:24 says, concerning the light shining from the New Jerusalem, "and the nations will walk by her light, and the kings of the land will bring their glory into her." Similarly, Revelation 22:2 says, concerning the Tree of Life, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing…
Jeremiah and the Beginning of Jehoiakim’s Reign Now comes Jeremiah, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, with similar words (Jeremiah 26). Harken to God’s law, he said, or else God will destroy the Temple the same way He sent the Philistines to tear down the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Jeremiah 26:6;…
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Why do we baptize babies? This seems to many Christians, especially in America, like a strange tradition, a leftover of the formalism and nominal Christianity of the medieval Roman Catholic church. And even to many of us who believe we should baptize our babies, it seems like a somewhat extraneous…
Suppose I told you that Trinity Reformed Church had been asked to perform a choir concert this morning? Would you be prepared? Or would it be like one of those dreams where you find yourself taking a test without studying, or realizing suddenly that you?ve arrived at church in your…
CONTRASTING MINDSETS, Romans 8:5-13 Paul has announced that through the work of Father, Son and Spirit, we who are in Christ have been set free from Sin and Death, and are now capable of keeping the requirement of the Law. Torah aimed at giving life; but that purpose cannot not…
In the Spring issue of the American Scholar, William Deresiewicz discusses the sexualization of dance during the twelve years he write dance criticism for various publications: “For one thing, dancers have been wearing less and less. Sometimes they don’t wear anythng at all, though this nudity or semi-nudity almost never…
Notes on Thomas Aquinas on The Effects of Grace, ST I-II, q. 113. 1) Article 1: Justification of the ungodly consists in the remission of sins, Aquinas argues, over against the claim that justification must involve some movement toward justice and that the remission of sins is not a movement.…
Some notes on Augustine?s Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter . 1) Augustine treats ?letter?Ein 2 Corinthians as a reference to the law itself, which kills. The law kills, however, in the absence of the Spirit: ?the letter of the law, which teaches us not to commit sin, kills,…
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