Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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Jesus evaluates and assesses the angels of the churches of Asian Minor (Revelation 2-3). On what basis? What does He know about them? Mainly, He knows their works ( erga ), as He repeatedly says: “I know your works” (2:2); “I know your works” (2:19); “I know your works” (3:1);…
In his Paul and the Torah , Lloyd Gaston argues that the Pauline phrase erga tou nomou , “works of the law,” is a subjective genitive. That is, it refers to what the law works, and specifically to what Torah works, not to the obedience that one may or may…
The parable of the sower teaches that some receive the word, have life, and grow, only to wither and die. Yet in other places the NT seems to indicate that those who ultimately die were never alive to begin with. Tares were sown by the evil one from the outset.…
In his study of Papuans of the Trans-Fly , F.E. Williams remarked on the role of homosexual relations in the rites of initiation: “The bachelors had recourse to sodomy, a practice which was not reprobated but was actually a custom of the country - and a custom in the true…
Abortion rights have been defended as a matter of protecting a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body. Why not allow a woman to choose to use her body to sell sexual favors, or to perform sex acts before a camera? That is even more obviously a…
A woman clothed in the sun, standing on the moon, crowned with stars, is about to give birth (Revelation 12). The child is a male ( arsen , v. 5), the shepherd who will rule the nations (v. 5). He is a new Adam, a point neatly underscored by the…
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