Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…
The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…
Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…
The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…
Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…
The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…
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Psalm 38 says some shocking things about God. He is wrathful toward David (v. 1). He is not just distant; indeed, he is altogether too near, near as an enemy, ready to attack. Yahweh has drawn his bow and beaten David down with His hand of power (v. 2). Some…
An elder tells John to stop weeping because someone worthy has been found in heaven (Revelation 5:5). The worthy one is the victorious lion who is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David. How does “root of David” ( he riza David ) fit grammatically? Is it an…
With the ascent of the Lamb (Revelation 5:13-14), the triple-decker vertical dimension of the universe - heaven, earth, sea - has turned into a fourfold arena - heaven, earth, under earth, sea - and this fourfold is populated by “things in them.” This follows a familiar separation-filling pattern. Four zones…
One of the central insights of Jeff Meyers’ book The Lord’s Service is that the liturgy is pre-eminently God’s service to us rather than our service to Him. When we gather each week as His people and bride, He draws near to declare forgiveness, to speak His live-giving Word, to…
Yahweh brings Israel to Sinai and shows Moses the pattern for the tabernacle. For the first time, Yahweh moves into Israel’s neighborhood. The house is closed. Only priests go to the altar, only priests into the holy place, nobody into the most holy place. But focusing on the restrictions on…
Gil Anidjar ( Blood: A Critique of Christianity ) makes the surprising claim that while “there may be a deep link between sacrifice and kinship, indeed, between blood and covenant, it is simply a fact that for the Old Testament, flesh and bone - never flesh and blood - signify…
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