Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the previous part of this series , we showed how the serpent, through Adam’s failure to protect his bride and her subsequent deception, alienated man from woman. It’s difficult to overstate the consequences of man’s disobedience: disregarding God's commands begins to break down the order which He created. God…
In the first part of this series , we showed that God declared that the division between man and woman would be “not good.” There was a division between heaven and earth, which, in contrast to the rest of the creation account, is conspicuously not described as “good,” and there…
The evangelical community is caught in a controversy between one of its most influential members, pastor John MacArthur, and one of its rising stars, Beth Moore. For those who haven’t been following this fight, here’s the summary: Beth Moore is a well-known public teacher and author on the Bible. MacArthur,…
When one of the most famous personalities of the “young, restless, reformed” world starts sounding like an emissary from Vatican City, #BigEva social media takes note. That’s what happened this week when a sermon clip surfaced of Francis Chan hinting at his evolving view of the eucharist: “I didn't know…
All of the Gospels have a story about a fig tree. Not just parables, actually. There are those, too, when Jesus uses illustrations having to do with fig trees. But there are accounts of actual events having to do with fig trees in all four Gospels. Matthew has given the…
I. Introduction With the final installment of the sequel trilogy complete, it’s fair to say that Star Wars fans are, and evermore will be, a house divided. The sequels have split opinion since they were announced. The chief accusation has perhaps been that they amount to little more than nostalgia—not…
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John Gray ( Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals , 19) argues that “Among us, science serves two needs: for hope and censorship.” It feeds hope because science is the only institution where progress is evident: “The political projects of the twentieth century have failed, or achieved much…
The bracing premise of John Gray’s Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (xi-xii) is that liberal humanism is grounded in a “superstition” that is “further from the truth about the human animal than any of the world’s religions.” That superstition is a belief in progress, which outside of…
In his 1976 study of Godly Man in Stuart England: Anglicans, Puritans and the Two Tables, 1620-70 (Historical Publications) , J. Sears McGee uses the law’s “two tables” to distinguish Anglicans from Puritans. Puritans were men of the “first table,” Anglicans of the second. Both worked with the same “palette…
Visser ( Beyond Fate (Massey Lectures) (CBC Massey Lecture) , 43-4) makes the commonplace observation that Christianity dislodged the honor-shame patterns of the ancient world and replaced it with a sin-guilt nexus. Unlike many, Visser views this as a tremendous gain, even a liberation: “In recognizing wrongdoing as sin, we…
In her Beyond Fate (Massey Lectures) (CBC Massey Lecture ) (15-16) , the always-stimulating Margaret Visser describes the cultural achievement of making a “place” at table. For us Westerners, “Each diner sits on an upright, separate chair drawn up to a table on which is laid his or her ‘place.’…
In the twelfth book his Christian Topography , the sixth-century Italian known as Cosmas the Indian Navigator tries to show that biblical history is consistent with the best records of ancient pagans. “Best” means not -Greek. It’s a highly inaccurate, charming, amusing passage: “But the Chaldaeans and the Medes and…
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