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Biblical Horizons

The Sin of Ham and the Curse of Canaan, Part 1

The history of the sin of Ham and the curse of Canaan comes in the middle of the Generations of Noah, a section of Genesis that begins at Genesis 6:9 and extends to the closing notice, Genesis 11:9. To understand the story better, it is necessary to get in mind…

by James B. JordanJune 3, 1997
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Eucharist

You and Your Son and Daughter: Christ’s Communion with Young Children

This paper was written to persuade people who were members of the Presbyterian Church in America. It should be accessible to anyone who believes in baptizing infants–especially to those who consider themselves a part of the Reformation Tradition. References to “our Confession” or “our standards” invoke the Westmeinster Confession of…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 1997
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Baptism

The Westminster Standards & Sacramental Efficacy

Version 1.2 I write this brief essay in order to address a problem I have encountered. I keep reading explanations of doctrine of the sacraments fundamentally empty of the content which was once held by virtually all Reformed confessions and formulations. Furthermore, I read explanations and commentaries on the Westminster…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

John Sailhamer Weighs In, Part 2

We continue our analysis of John Sailhamer’s book *Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account* (Multnomah Books, 1996), which argues that Genesis 1:2ff. is not about the creation of the whole world, but about the preparation of the Land of Eden, which is also the Promised Land.…

by James B. JordanMay 31, 1997
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Matthew

Toward a Chiastic Understanding of the Gospel According to Matthew, Part 2

III. Death of God’s Firstborn in the real Egypt: This huge chiasm has as its center the betrayal of Peter, as the leader of the disciples himself rejects Jesus. Peter holds an oficial position as high priest among the disciples of the incarnate Lord. His rejection of Jesus is the…

by James B. JordanMay 31, 1997
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Eucharist

A Response to Rev. Bacon’s Argument that Manna was not a Sacrament

I wrote a response to Rev. Richard Bacon’s tract, What Mean Ye by This Service , a copy of which I borrowed from the library at Covenant Theological Seminary. However, I recently discovered that a new appendix was added to the version available on the Blue Banner’s web page. This…

by Mark HorneMay 29, 1997

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Eucharist, Evangelical and Catholic

Theodore Beza's opening speech at the Colloquy of Poissy was a model of irenic Protestantism (Nugent, Ecumenism is the Age of the Reformation ). He stressed the creedal commonalities of Rome and the Reformed, and argued that the differences were “matters of interpretation” and unnecessary accretions” (97). As Nugent says,…

September 16, 2015

Phone Booth

Way out in the Mojave desert is a phone booth. Some years ago, a resident of LA published a picture, which inspired Godfrey Daniels to start calling the phone. He was prepared to keep calling for years until someone picked up. A month later, Lorene Aiken, who worked at the…

September 16, 2015

Conformist Subversives

To secular analysts, “Progressive Pentecostals” seem naively apolitical. In their study of Global Pentecostalism , Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori agree that the “integral” or “holistic” Pentecostals that they study are not social gospellers or liberation theologians. They don't aim to “reform social structures or challenge government policies.” They are…

September 16, 2015

Exit and Voice

What do people do when social institutions go wrong? Albert Hirschman ( Exit, Voice, and Loyalty ) argues that there are two main alternatives: One withdraws (exit) or one speaks out (voice). He admits that these categories sound “suspiciously neat,” but defends them because they “reflect a more fundamental schism:…

September 15, 2015

Deuteronomic Penalties

Deuteronomy 25 begins like a law-and-order text. Judges are to condemn the wicked and justify the innocent. Convicted criminals are beaten, and beaten publicly “in the presence” of the judge, beaten as much as his crime deserves (v. 2). Verse 3 takes a slight turn: It places a limit on…

September 15, 2015

Irenicism in the Reformation

“Perhaps irenicism is the finest synthesis of Renaissance and Reformation,” writes Donald Nugent in his 1974 monograph on the Colloquy of Poissy, Ecumenism in the Age of the Reformation (4). The irenicists had roots in the late medieval conciliarism and in Cusa's efforts to unite contraries, but it was humanism…

September 15, 2015

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