Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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If you have read a number of books by the same author, or a number of books in the same genre, you have developed a feel for how the plot is developing. When Inspector Poirot begins to suspect the maid early in the book, you know it?s going to turn…
Psalm 104:14-15 Wine, Scripture says, is one of God?s great gifts to man. Yahweh is the true God of the vine, the true Dionysus. And wine is one of the great gifts of the New Covenant. One of the signs of Israel?s immaturity in the OT was the prohibition of…
Scripture says, ?You shall not bear the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.?E And Jesus said, ?Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,…
According to Jacob Viner ‘s Religious Thought and Economic Society , Protestants were more apt to advocate mercantilism than Catholics, and the differences were rooted in their different attitudes toward the nation-state: “Mercantilism penetrated much less into Catholic than into Protestan theology. Catholic doctrine as such as universalist by tradition,…
According to a web article by J. Paul Rajashekar, “Luther wrote six different pieces of literature on the subject between 1528 through 1542: On War Against Turk (1529); A Sermon Against the Turks (1529); A Book on Life and Customs of the Turks (1530, originally compiled by one George von…
Prophetic Insight, 1 Kings 22:1-40 INTRODUCTION The stages of Israel?s history overlap a great deal. Priests served in the sanctuaries of Israel throughout her history, and Abraham was a prophet (Genesis 20:7). Yet, different offices come to prominence at different stages of that history. And prophets become especially prominent during…
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