Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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Tyler Mayfield’s monograph, Literary Structure and Setting in Ezekiel , focuses on the literary markers on the surface of the text of Ezekiel, rather than on conceptual or genre, as a guide for literary structure of the book. He argues that the book divides into 13 units, each of which…
Klaus Wengst argues that the harlot city of Revelation can “only” be Rome (contribution to Politics and Theopolitics in the Bible and Postbiblical Literature , 191). He follows with all sorts of good reasons to doubt that conclusion. For starters, he point out the odd doubling: The beast on which…
Amos warns Israel about her injustices. If they do not seek Yahweh, He will consume them, those who “turn justice to wormwood and cast righteousness to the earth” (5:1-7). Amos supports this with a description of God’s creative power (vv. 8-9). The declaration of God’s creative power is complexly structured.…
Everyone who reads Paul knows that Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). What is not evident in Paul, but certainly assumed by him, is the specific promise that Abram believed: “So shall your descendants be” (Genesis 15:5). How shall Abram’s descendants be? Yahweh…
Jesus is justified by the Spirit in His resurrection. Though all the courts of mankind condemned Him to death, the Father reverses the sentence and therefore the verdict by raising Him. That is also the vindication of Jesus’ followers. Peter, James, John, and the rest had been groping toward the…
A thought inspired by a sermon from Pastor Rich Lusk. Jesus tells His disciples that they disciple the nations by baptizing and teaching the nations His commands. That is precisely the sequence of Jesus’ own life: Jesus moves out of the wilderness, crosses the Jordan in baptism, sets up a…
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