Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When someone expounds the way of salvation found in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms and in the easily-accessible writings of the Reformed heritage, he often finds him embroiled in a debates about the covenant of works and the Mosaic Covenant. One is “proven” to be aberrant by allegations that one…
The ultimate condemnation of a position in Reformed circles is to show that it “leads back to Rome.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that Rome is a worse destination for a Presbyterian than even hell itself. The accusation of Rome stings deeply, of course, because it means that all the…
One of the odd features of Michael Horton’s version of Covenant theology is his interpretation of the covenant God made with Abraham 1 in Genesis 15. According to Horton, The very way in which God made the covenant with Abraham (putting him to sleep; walking through the torn animals by…
What was I trying to do, when I wrote my book on Mark’s Gospel ? Fundamentally, I wanted a book that would change readers by making them better readers of the Gospel of Mark. My ideal reader is not someone who goes to the book to use as a resource…
Why do we need sacraments? According to the Westminster Confession, sacraments were instituted by Christ “to confirm our interest in him” (27.1), “to strengthen and increase” the “faith” of those within the Covenant of Grace and “to distinguish them from those that are without” that covenant (Westminster Larger Catechism, #162).…
In Isaiah 5:1-7, we have a typical covenant lawsuit, in which the Lord accuses his people of rejecting his grace and mercy. It is not my intention here to exegete the entire passage, or to look at the way the vineyard image used here serves as a metaphor in other…
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Yahweh takes a vine from Egypt and plants it in the land (Isaiah 5; Psalm 80). He cares for it and cultivates it. He removes all obstacles that would prevent Israel from growing and flourishing in the land, clears the ground, digs a protective furrow around it. He takes the…
Judah is threatened by an alliance of Syria and Israel, who are frightened by the expanding Assyrian empire. The Lord's response, through Isaiah, is to offer the sign of Immanuel. That is an assurance in the face of imperial invasion. The Assyrians are going to flow into the land, the…
In one of the great essays on Great Expectations , J. Hillis Miller claims that Pip exemplifies a consistent view expressed in Dickens’s hero, which is equally a philosophical view of identity that tends toward existentialism and a closely related view of modern social order: “Dickens’s heroes and heroines have…
In Isaiah 4, the Lord describes the glory over Israel as a “bridal chamber.” Yahweh’s glory is the place where Yahweh and His bride will meet. Then Isaiah begins a song, a song of the vineyard. But the nuptial imagery continues. The Song of the vineyard is a song about…
In an interview with Image magazine, Rowan Williams explains the at of trust that is inherent in writing poetry: “Poetry is always a risky enterprise. You don’t know where you’re going when you start writing. One thing you do know is that you’re not going to exhaust what you’re talking…
Yuval Levin has listened carefully to the GOP hopefuls, entire speeches at a time. He discerns an overall theme - variations on populist distrust of the establishment. It is a peculiar brand of populism, not a protest against a too-powerful elite, but a protest against weakness and incompetence at the…
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