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abortion
Abortion

Letters on Abortion, (Part 1)

What is below is fairly self-explanatory. This is an exchange I had with a local liberal clergyman on the subject of abortion. The circumstances of the debate are included in the text itself. I initially e-mailed this out to a list of clergy in our city after a local (and…

by Richard BledsoeNovember 17, 2015
wall-2
Ezra

The Perfumed Butler and the Wisdom of Civil Obedience

The seemingly humdrum parts of the Bible often hide overlooked wisdom. Take, for example, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Their stories aren't exactly the most gripping or memorable. They are far less concrete than, say, the story of the Exodus. No one in Ezra is stricken blind or devoured…

by Christian LeithartNovember 10, 2015
sparkler
Happiness

"Happy! Happy! Happy!" Authentic Happiness and Its Knock-Offs

For most of the past century, philosophical perspectives on life in the western world have been overtly grim and pessimistic. The optimism of the Enlightenment, generated by confidence in the scientific method and the potential of an increasingly civilized humanity to redress the evils of the world, was shattered by…

by Bill DeJongNovember 5, 2015
aaron-burden-1ebsmyrau-s-unsplash
Hermeneutics

How Does a Chiasm Mean?

Chiastic structures are found all over the Bible, and in recent decades commentators have become more adept at spotting them. But identifying these literary structures is only part of the challenge. There remains the challenge of understanding what they mean. Part of the answer is found in the recognition that…

by Steve JefferyNovember 3, 2015
last-supper
Eucharist

How To Change the World, (Part 2)

Part 1 can be found HERE . Clearly, more than just getting worship right is important in changing the world, but since worship is the central act of God’s people, performed on the first day of the week at the center of the world before the very face of God,…

by James B. JordanOctober 29, 2015
solomonsidolatry
Biblical Theology

Big Love: A History of Stolen Fruit

“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed.” ( Luke 11:27 ) Arguing for Christian morality in a secular society is difficult. A culture which accepts evolutionary dogma has no intellectual place — or inherent desire — for absolute morality, since it believes morality…

by Mike BullOctober 27, 2015

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Jesus and Christ

The fundamental Christology of the New Testament, Barth insists ( The Doctrine of the Word of God (Church Dogmatics, vol. 1, pt. 2) , pp. 15-7), is that “God’s Son is called Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Son.” But this cannot be understood in the sense…

November 5, 2012

Oath of Joy

When King Asa of Judah heard the prophecy of Azariah, he “took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin” (2 Chronicles 15:8). Then he gathered the people to Jerusalem to re-enter into the covenant with Yahweh, promising to hold to the terms of…

November 5, 2012

Eucharistic meditation

Isaiah 49:26: I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, and they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Jacob. Isaiah 49 ends with a macabre feast…

November 4, 2012

Baptism exhortation

1 Corinthians 6: Don’t you know that you are not your own? “What is your comfort in life and in death?” begins the Heidelberg Catechism. And it answers, “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus…

November 4, 2012
Politics

Exhortation

It’s easy to be cynical about American politics. It’s easy to think we can safety check out. Many have concluded that politics doesn’t matter. That’s a mistake. Laws and regulations form the institutional and even the physical shape of the world we live in every day, and there is no…

November 4, 2012
Politics

Non-Apocalypolitics

Ross Douthat observes ( Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics ) that American politics oscillates between mad messianic hopes and insane apocalyptic fears. When our guy wins, we scan the prairie expecting to see the lambs lying with lions. When the other guy wins, we can hear…

November 3, 2012

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