Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The story of Judges 19 and the subsequent chapters are some of the most shocking and appalling accounts in all of Scripture. The callousness of the old host and the Levite, and the monstrous brutality of the men of Gibeah, leaves us feebly scrabbling for words by which to surmount…
David has become king. He has conquered the capital city of Jerusalem. He has brought the ark of Yahweh into the city and placed it in a tent. He has stationed Levites at the tent to offer sacrifices of praise. An anomaly hits him: He has a cedar-paneled palace, and…
In Part 2 of this series we traced what we have of the development of the epiclesis in the liturgy of the Church. In this third and final part we’ll look at the theological implications of this and how we may apply what we’ve learned. As we saw in Part…
In a 2014 piece published in First Things , I offered a "wish list" for Protestant churches, a checklist for a future catholic Protestantism. The wish list doesn't cover everything. It doesn't mention those things that Protestants, especially Evangelicals, already do, often exceedingly well, things like missions and evangelism and…
In the first part of this series we examined the meaning of “blessing” in Scripture and its parallels in Jewish liturgical tradition, but did not find anything that we could properly call an epiclesis (an invocation of the Holy Spirit). We did find examples of invocation of Jesus to “come”…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
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I don’t have my sermons taped, and have been asked why. Here’s a couple of reasons: 1) Jeff Meyers pointed out a number of years ago that taping sermons tempts a pastor to preach to a group other than the church in front of him. Instead of addressing the specific…
Listening to Jim Jordan’s tapes on Daniel has helped me to put some pieces together in Luke. Jim discusses the “remnant covenant” at some length in the first couple of tapes, and points out some of the main features of that period of Israel’s history. In many respects, these features…
The gods in Euripides are savage, unpredictable, random, liable to sneak up and destroy you at a moment’s notice. No wonder that Paul’s announcement that Jesus had defeated the principalities and powers came as such great good news.
The gods in Euripides are savage, unpredictable, random, liable to sneak up and destroy you at a moment’s notice. No wonder that Paul’s announcement that Jesus had defeated the principalities and powers came as such great good news.
Lecture #3: Chosen in Christ: Election and Trinity INTRODUCTION Scripture teaches that God does all things according to the purpose of His will (Ephesians 1:11), and that the God who does this is the Triune God. How are those two teachings of Scripture related? How does the doctrine of the…
Lecture #2: Surplus at the Origin: Trinity, Eschatology, and Story INTRODUCTION This is going to be difficult. I hope it’s worth it. I begin with two observations. First, on any millennial view, the Christian account of history is progressive, moving from the garden to the city. It is eschatological not…
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