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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Motherhood

Home is the Place They Leave

Your first born is a novelty. Everything seems special and unique. No one’s child is like yours. Then, over time, you begin to make mistakes. Some strategies don’t work on the additional personalities born into your family, or they simply don’t scale from a practical perspective. With maturity, you realize…

by Mandi GerthMay 17, 2022
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John

Unionized Perfection

Could Jesus have sinned? Before answering the question, it's best to run through a couple of qualifiers. First, scripture clearly teaches He did not sin. Second, I realize the seeming futility when discussing hypothetical situations. The question of the peccability of Jesus, or Jesus's capacity to sin, is in reality,…

by Matthew CoreyMay 12, 2022
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Grace

The Farm

The first time I saw the inside of a prison was in 1999; I was 16. I hadn’t knocked over a fruit stand or been caught stealing hubcaps, I was just an unsuspecting teenager playing piano for a Louisiana gospel group. One Wednesday evening in October, my pastor and leader…

by Brandon MeeksMay 10, 2022
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Biblical Studies

Its Lamp is the Lamb: The Diminishing Rule of the Celestial Bodies

The act of naming carries a lot of weight in the Bible. Naming denotes authority and possession; the namer signifying that he understands the thing named, and therefore possesses the requisite wisdom to rule over it. God set the stage for naming when he named the domains during the first…

by Daniel StanleyMay 3, 2022
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Pastoral Ministry

The Algebra of Church Growth

This short essay makes an obvious point: Church growth is a matter of the rate of entry into a church relative to the rate of exit from that church. Perhaps church growth literature has long recognized that fact. Yet given the greater focus in church – at least in my…

by James R. RogersApril 26, 2022
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Boniface Option

An Arrow Has a Telos: Strategy in the Negative World

If you’ve not yet heard of Aaron Renn’s three worlds framework , here’s the quick version: once upon a time, being a Christian was a net social good in American society. Whatever was going on behind the scenes in elite institutions, the general rank-and-file perception of Christianity was positive. That…

by Tim NicholsApril 19, 2022

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Settling In

Welcome to the blog formerly known as Leithart.com. Readers of the earlier incarnation of my blog will, I trust, find the new site comfortably familiar. The contents will be consistent with what I have written over the years. Over to your right you’ll find a drop-down list of archives and…

October 30, 2012

Draw near to hear

“Come near,” Yahweh invites Israel (Isaiah 48:16). The verb is qarab , a liturgically charged term used frequently in Leviticus. Especially in Leviticus 1, various forms of the word describe what worship is for (drawing near, qarab ), what Israel does with its offerings (a different form of the verb),…

October 26, 2012

Musical evangelism

When Yahweh urges Israel to “go forth from Babylon” and “flee from the Chaldeans,” He also exhorts them sing and shout (Isaiah 48:20). The songs of deliverance are not merely expressions of joy, though they are obviously that. They are also declarations of Yahweh’s redemption. The text uses three verbs…

October 26, 2012
Theology

Voice of the Martyrs

I have some thoughts on how we non-martyrs share in the work of martyrs at www.firstthings.com .

October 26, 2012

Trinity Institute: Norman Shepherd Says

On three different occasions I have had the privilege of sitting under Jim Jordan and Peter Leithart as they have lectured for the annual Biblical Horizons conference in Florida. Each time I have come away from these conferences with new insight into the teaching of God’s word, and rejoicing in…

October 25, 2012

Trinity Institute: A Student Perspective

The year I spent in Dr. Leithart’s classroom was rich, challenging, and formative. Although I was firmly grounded in the truth of Scripture before, I had grown blind to its beauty. It was Dr. Leithart’s emphasis on reading the Bible as a story—paying attention to its themes, motifs, and type-scenes—that…

October 22, 2012

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