Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Interwoven within Leviticus’ opening offerings is a redemptive storyline meant to be rehearsed. Each offering makes a particular contribution to the retelling of the Exodus deliverance. Like learning a dance, Israel’s opening rituals recount their steps from Egypt to Sinai in a fashion meant to perpetually imprint its experience on…
In Capernaum, the leaders of Israel questioned Jesus in their hearts. Beside the sea, they questioned his disciples about their rabbi’s practices. They challenged Jesus in the grain fields, sought to trap him in the synagogue, tried to seize him, thinking he was mad, and accused him of being possessed.…
An essay on ministry taken from recent notes for a ‘solemn charge’ I gave our pastoral team (together with their spouses) at All Saints Honolulu, a church-plant that enters its fifth year. I. After receiving the sword of Goliath from Ahimelech at Nob, and after fleeing first to and then…
When thinking about the book of Genesis, we often think of beginnings, the beginning of the world, humanity, the elect people of God. The word “genesis” itself means beginning. Genesis is also known as the book of promises. Genesis contains three of the major Old Testament covenants: Adamic, Noahic and…
A Theological and Typological Commentary on Luke 24:4 In Luke 24:4, we are told that as the women arrived at the tomb on Easter morning, they encountered “two men in dazzling apparel” standing beside them. This description, on its own, may not immediately provoke questions. The traditional interpretation identifies these…
For Part 1, click HERE . The four Gospel accounts give us their strange and wonderful historical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. The rest of the New Testament, either explicitly or by suggestion, refers to the resurrection in every book except 3 John. Unlike the Gospel accounts, however, most…
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At the center of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches about three duties of Jewish piety – alms, prayer, and fasting. Regarding the last, He says, “when you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites, for they render their faces unrecognizable in order to be…
This Friday and Saturday, the Theopolis Institute will host the third annual Nevin Lecture series. The Nevin Lectures are an exercise in what Paul Murray calls “receptive ecumenism.” Each year, Theopolis invites a theologian, pastor, or thinker from outside our Protestant Reformed tradition to lecture about what divides us. We…
Revelation has several lists of social classes. The first is given when the Lamb opens the sixth seal and the world starts coming apart at the seams (6:12-17). There is another when the land beast imposes his mark on every class of society (13:16). The last comes after the Rider…
Esther is a dramatic story of God's rescue of the Jews, His clever inversion of Haman's plot, the courage of Esther. It is also an exodus story. Haman the Agagite is a Pharaoh who wants to wipe out all the Jews. Ahasuerus, fortunately, is an anti-Pharaoh who works to protect…
A number of people have raised objections of different sorts to my posts on Protestants and writing. In the nature of the case, I'm not going to resolve these issues with a blog post or two, and it would be passing tedious to answer every criticism of every critic. The…
In a 1962 article in JBL , Houston Smith traces the connections between Exodus and the gospel of John, focusing attention on the parallels between the plagues (signs and wonders) performed in Egypt and Jesus' signs. There are not only parallels between individual plagues and Jesus' signs but, Smith argues,…
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