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Writing

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

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Technology

Simulation as Inoculation

Every advent of new media creates the justifiable reaction from some that the necessarily accompanied amputation may not be worth the extension made possible by the new tools. This is not unique to the Digital Age. Lamoignon Malesherbes, the French politician who was counsel for the defense of Louis XVI,…

by Garrett SoucyApril 2, 2024
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Eschatology

Reject Optimism

A response to Gage Crowder's " The Hole in our Hope ?" Already, the first pages of the Bible promise a bright future. The story starts with the creation of heaven and earth, where heaven is perfect, but the earth is in a state of formless emptiness. Yet, God takes…

by Bogumil JarmulakMarch 27, 2024
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Eschatology

The Hole in our Hope? A Rejoinder

A rejoinder to Bubu Jarmulak's essay, " Embrace Pessimism ." Whereas calumnious critiques are reflections of more on the critic than the work criticized, good critiques are always opportunities for reassessment and improvement if they are received as such . Since its renaissance, the biblical doctrine of postmillennialism—or “optimistic eschatology,”…

by Gage CrowderMarch 26, 2024
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Biblical Studies

Jesus Did Not Pray to Avoid the Cross at Gethsemane

Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…

by James R. RogersMarch 19, 2024
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Church Music

Holy Toledo: A Critique of Eclecticism

On May 21, 1604, the cathedral of Toledo in Spain held job interviews for the post of choirmaster, the head of music at the church. The position had been vacated when the previous occupant, Alonso Lobo, was poached by the nearby cathedral of Seville, and Toledo needed a replacement who…

by John AhernMarch 5, 2024
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Covenant

The Docetic Covenant and Phantom Church Membership

Imagine — counterfactually: on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus held up an empty hand and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for you. Drink of it.’ But there was no cup, no wine, nothing. If there’s no sign of the covenant, is there…

by John CarpenterFebruary 27, 2024

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Exhortation

We Americans like to pretend we are self-made men and women. We don’t need nobody’s help, don’t tread on me, we’ll go it alone if only they’ll leave us alone. My life, my body, my person are mine and mine alone. We think that we can make our way through…

October 8, 2006

Wedding Sermon

Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold,…

October 8, 2006
History

Courtship and American culture

In a widely cited article, Leon Kass offers a partial, but still numbing, list of the social and cultural changes that have undermined traditional courtship: “the sexual revolution, made possible especially by effective female contraception; the ideology of feminism and the changing educational and occupational status of women; the destigmatization…

October 7, 2006

Knowing that we know

John’s statements about “knowing that we know” (1 John 2:3) have been the historical basis for the practical syllogism: 1. All who keep the commandments may be assured God’s favor. 2. I am keeping the commandments. 3. Therefore, I am assured of God’s favor. But the practical syllogism pushes John’s…

October 7, 2006

Trinitarian propitiation

Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. While “propitiation” has a concrete reference to the ark-cover and the firmament, it also has to do with pacifying wrath. But if Jesus is the eternal Son of the God whose name is Jealous, if He is Jealous in Himself, whose wrath is…

October 7, 2006

Justice and Mercy

Suppose we said that Jesus received the Father’s approval of His work by grace, rather than by strict justice. What damage does that do to our soteriology? I’m not saying this is the case; I’m merely trying to pinpoint the motivation behind the Klinean position that insists on the strict…

October 7, 2006

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