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Biblical Horizons

Schizophrenia?

> Dave, > Jason > > I am surprised this is so hard for me to communicate effectively. Prosecuting Leithart while inwardly struggling with my questions was easy, because the issue was NEVER “Whose views are correct?” In a Reformed denomination we all operate under the supposition that our doctrinal…

by Richard BledsoeJune 8, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

The Onesiphorus Nonsense

Discussions on the catholicity of the church have led one RC advocate to write to me that according to 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Paul is clearly and unmistakably praying for a dead person. He points to a couple of Protestant writers who had agreed with this, though they are in a…

by James B. JordanJune 7, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Schaff on Praying to Saints

The great True Catholic historian, Philip Schaff, points out as regards the beginning of prayers to the saints in the post-Nicene Church: Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Volume III, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity A.D. 311-390, P. 409-427). In the first three centuries the veneration of the martyrs in…

by James B. JordanMay 31, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

The Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets in (or into) one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Contrary to usual translations, neither the Greek nor the Latin originals say “ I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” As written, the thought of the authors…

by James B. JordanMay 25, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Family Disintegrated Worship

One of the latest sectarian movements to arise around the fringes of the Christian religion is something called “family integrated churches.” What this seems to mean, depending on the advocate, is that youth groups are bad, age-segregated Sunday Schools are bad, families need to sit together in church, and even…

by James B. JordanFebruary 2, 2012
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 8

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 8. Comments on The Covenantal Gospel by Cornelis van der Waal This is an excellent book, and every Bible student should read and master it. Cornelis van der Waal was…

by James B. JordanSeptember 22, 2011

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Idols of gold, silver, brass

At the end of Revelation 9, we are informed that even the three plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone did not drive men to repentance. Instead, they clung to their idols. Once idols are mentioned, they are described in terms of both materials and their threefold inability. They are constructed…

September 27, 2012

Ashes for breakfast

The idolater ends up eating ashes, Isaiah says (Isaiah 44:20). In context, that fits with Isaiah’s emphasis on the fact that the idols is made from the refuse of a building project. A carpenter cuts cedar, builds a fire, cooks bread and his meat, and from the leftovers he makes…

September 27, 2012

Techno-god

Isaiah’s attack on idols elaborates on the tools and technologies that the id0l-maker uses. The smith uses an iron tool and hammer (Isaiah 44:12), the carpenter a measuring line, plane, and compass (v. 13). Several of these words are used nowhere else in the Old Testament, and this is one…

September 27, 2012

Alternative temple

Idols are substitutes for the true God. But as Isaiah describes the construction of idols in his idol polemic in Isaiah 44, the idol emerges equally as an alternative temple, an alternative “meeting place” between God and man. The echoes of the temple texts are numerous. Isaiah refers to iron…

September 27, 2012

Trinity Institute Exists!

We are now certain that the Trinity Institute exists. It’s on Facebook - www.facebook.com/TheTrinityInstitute

September 26, 2012
History

Folly about Martyrdom

Lacey Baldwin Smith’s 1997 Fools, Martyrs, Traitors: The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World (CUSA) is a maddening book. On the one hand, it is peppered with insights into the dynamics and history of martyrdom. Like: “martyrdom for all of its religious and teleological overtones is at heart a…

September 26, 2012

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