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Nevin Lectures

Fourth Annual Nevin Lectures: Robert Kolb

Why Do Siblings Feud? Presuppositions, Principles, and Practice in Reformed-Lutheran Relationships Robert Kolb, International Research Emeritus Professor for Institute for Mission Studies, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri. Lecture Topics 1) Law and Gospel: Answering the Question Posed 2) The Lord's Supper: Christ's Presence and Promise 3) Worship and Created Things:…

by Brian MoatsDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Exodus to Eden

From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden to the east, and when Cain was later cast out he was sent to the land east of Eden. The men of Babel,…

by Peter LeithartDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Immanuel's Table

In his account of Jesus' birth, Matthew cites a prophecy assuring Judah of her victory over Israel and Aram. Immanuel is also a sign of the Lord’s judgment. When God comes near, He comes to bless and to curse, to save and to condemn, for deliverance and for judgment. The…

by Peter LeithartDecember 29, 2016
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Abortion

Holy Innocents

For many in the modern era, Christianity has been seen as an apolitical religion. Christianity is a private, spiritual religion. It's a convenient myth for modern people. After the Reformation, Europe entered a period of protracted and often vicious conflict that left large portions of Western Europe devastated. Many concluded…

by Peter LeithartDecember 28, 2016
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Advent

Christmas Light, Christmas Love

The Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.…

by Peter LeithartDecember 27, 2016
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Advent

Word Made Food

How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ was born for us. He sent His Son to take on human…

by Peter LeithartDecember 26, 2016

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Ritual

Ritual Inventory

My Solemn Charge and Exhortation to inaugurate our 2019 Pentecost Term course . The anthropologist Mary Douglas once observed that modernity has witnessed “a wide-spread, explicit rejection of ritual as such. Ritual is become a bad word signifying empty conformity.” To which many would reply, So what? Haven’t Christians been…

May 15, 2019
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At the Feast

I offered the following remarks at the beginning of the Theopolis Feast, which we celebrated last Saturday evening . Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Theopolis Feast, the first of what we hope will become an annual event. I’m…

May 13, 2019
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Menial Greatness

A friend asked me to write an exhortation for a newly ordained deacon. Here’s what I wrote . In many churches, deacons seem to be menial laborers. They prepare budgets, maintain church buildings, organize work days, clean up after pot luck dinners. Pastors and elders do spiritual things; deacons worry…

May 6, 2019
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Politics Without Fear

In a column this week on David Brooks's new book, Rod Dreher admitted, “my politics are driven entirely by fear of the Left, specifically on matters of religious liberty and social policy.” As always, Rod writes with a searing honesty, but his self-assessment also exposes the weakness of his political…

May 1, 2019
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Economics

Scarcity

Once, argues Nicholas Xenos ( Scarcity and Modernity ), “scarcity” did not exist. What existed with “scarcities,” or “periods of scarcity.” He writes, “Of medieval origin, ‘scarcity’ derives from the Old Northern French escarcete . Its original usage denoted an insufficiency of supply, and by the fifteenth century the word…

April 22, 2019
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Memorial Incense

Leviticus 2 prescribes the rite for the tribute offering ( minchah ). Three general forms are described, differing mainly by the ways they are prepared before they are brought to the sanctuary. There are flour offerings (vv. 1-3), baked minchah (vv. 4-10), and grains roasted in fire (vv. 14-16). Baked…

April 18, 2019

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In Medias Res

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