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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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Nicea for real

Thomas Buchan gave a superb response paper at the Ancient Evangelical Future Conference at Trinity School of Ministry. Buchan’s paper was dynamite under every idealization of Nicea and its effect on the church. For starters, he pointed out that the Nicene Creed was not the only creed in circulation. There…

June 6, 2013

Singing with Jesus

Michael Lefebvre’s Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms is a solid, remarkably in-depth defense of Psalm-singing. He roots the study in an examination of the organization of the Levitical choir in Chronicles, and the king’s role as the lay liturgical leader “under whose hand” the Levites led the…

June 5, 2013

Wrath Revealed

On the Trinity House site, Mark Horne discusses Romans 1 and asks how Paul says wrath is revealed .

June 5, 2013

Blind curse

Blind people are not themselves cursed. Jesus made that clear. Yet blindness is a sign of the curse. It signals the possibility of objectification, the possibility (unknown in Eden) of gazing at a person who cannot return the gaze, the possibility of a unilateral gaze. In blindness is embedded the…

June 3, 2013
History

Civilizing Process

The NYT Book Review has a review of Giovanni Della Casa’s Renaissance etiquette book, Galateo: Or, The Rules of Polite Behavior . The reviewer, Judith Martin sums up some of the wisdom: “Don’t be disgusting. Pretty much everything that comes out of a bodily orifice meets his definition of disgusting…

June 3, 2013

The Third Word

Pastor Ralph Smith continues his analysis of Deuteronomy 14 at the Trinity House web site.

June 3, 2013

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