Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Whatever else the 2016 Presidential cycle has accomplished, it has brought the chasm between nationalism and globalism into sharp relief. Many see this divide as the issue of the campaign (Robert Merry) or of the century (Pat Buchanan). It seems to be a choice we have to make. Christians must…
Salvation is a gift. The righteousness of justification (Romans 5:17) and eternal life (Romans 6:23) are gifts freely offered. According to Risto Saarinen ( God and the Gift ), “God is directly called the giver 104 times [in Scripture], of which 42 are in John’s Gospel and John’s Letters. In…
In the last 40 odd years of studying the Bible, I have read more essays and commentaries on Deuteronomy 6:4 than I can recall. I have also more than twice changed my view on what should be the correct translation of Israel’s central confession. What is so complicated? After the…
Satan is currently bound from gathering the nations in kingly rebellion so that Jesus might gather them in priestly unity. Everything which Scripture records for us, no matter how mundane or mysterious, exists as part of a process of growth to maturity. This transformation is achieved through relationships established by…
God’s people are a missionary people, and this is not true only of the New Testament church. God called Abraham to bless the Gentiles through him, and one of Israel’s recurring sins was her failure to carry out this mission. Israel was supposed evoke praise from the Gentiles, but instead…
Are you ready for the New Year? Are you ready to follow Jesus wherever He takes you this year? Are you read to follow Him into the garden? Are you ready to stay at His side to be arrested, interrogated, tortured, crucified, buried? Are you ready to follow Jesus wherever…
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"Stay, you are so fair." That is the sentence that Mephistopheles tempts Faust to utter in Goethe's poem. To wish to remain in one moment is to abandon the restlessness of human experience. Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse takes the opposing tack: "Making of the moment something permanent" is the…
"That the kiss is the icon of intimacy is so obvious it is in danger of becoming a cliché," writes Ziyad Marar ( Intimacy , 33). "How many romantic films end, or at least peak, with that image? The orchestra swells, the hearts melt in one long embrace. Just as…
Nathan Mitchell (writing in the Oxford History of Christian Worship , 324) denies that Zwingli taught a "mere symbolist" according to which the Supper "simply served to remind believers of the great benefits bestowed on them through Christ's passion and death." Zwingli wasn't a symbolist "in any modern sense." Mitchell…
Beverly Gaventa ( The Child in the Bible ) points to the role of speech in Romans. Perverse speech is one of the key symptoms of the world of sin; by the cross and resurrection, Jesus has redeemed speech. She points to the inclusio around chapters 1-3: "the indictment itself…
How did the American federal government expand its power and reach? World War I is often cited as a turning point, but Christopher Capozzola's Uncle Sam Wants You shows that this expansion wasn't just a federal project. New forms of political obligations were enforced by local, unofficial forms of force…
Some years ago, I gave a quiz to college-bound high school students. Take it yourself: Finish the following sentences or phrases : With great power . . . . Hasta la vista . . . . Do the . . . (Dew) Shaken, not . . . . Space, the…
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