Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Every attempt to understand the Christian sacraments makes use of comparisons or analogies with other rituals, events, or customs. Calvin and those who followed him, for example, spoke of the sacraments as “seals,” and compared them to the “seal of approval” that an official impresses on a document. Thinking about…
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out in his essay "Hitler and Israel, or On Prayer" (available for $2.00 from Biblical Horizons ) that it is God’s word "No!" that establishes in a culture the distinction between the Creator and the creature. The Bible repeatedly says "No!" to every human attempt to…
If you missed Gattaca at the movie theaters, you can probably check it out from your local video store now. And you should. This is one of those relatively rare thought-provoking movies that can stand being watched with brain in gear more than once. It is also poetic, sensitive, visually…
Part 4: The Nephilim Factor Western Civilization partakes of what I call "the Nephilim Factor." The Enoch Factor means that the pagans get there first. This is both a blessing and a danger. As a blessing, it means that they work out techniques of dominion over the lower creation that…
The Worship Service Then the one speaking with me took me by the hair and lifted me into the air in the middle of the great room. And as I watched, I saw people entering the room to the sound of the great bells outside. Then entered from all four…
Part 3: Philosophy (continued) If we realize that human beings are the images of God, and that man hates God, then we realize that all non-Christian political philosophy is founded on a fundamental hatred of other human beings, a hatred manifest in contempt. Rome, like Enoch, was founded on the…
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Mike Allen and Scott Swain summarize John Owen’s account of the “spiritual habit of grace” ( Reformed Catholicity , 39-40): “According to Owen, in regenerating fallen human beings, the Holy Spirit plants a new spiritual habit within them, replacing the old sinful habit inherited from Adam and purged by the…
Robin Parry’s The Biblical Cosmos is packed with good things. His opening discussion of the “living cosmos” of the Bible is wonderful - emphasizing the fact that God speaks to and commands animals, plants, stars, mountains, and the sea, and that these “inanimate” objects speak about God, and are even…
Many modern theologians have argued that sacrifice is no longer a meaningful category with which to discuss the atonement. Frances Young ( Sacrifice and the Death of Christ ) begs to differ, and lays out a fine summary of the advantages of sacrificial accounts: “For the early church, sacrifice was…
Someone needs to write a monograph, at least an article, about justification in Job. Perhaps someone already has. Job would shed some important light on the subject. The term “justify” is used a number of times in the book. Elihu joins the fray because he’s angry that Job “justified himself…
Dallas Denery’s The Devil Wins is a “history of lying from the garden of Eden to the Enlightenment.” Denery’s leading question is, Is is ever acceptable to life? and he looks at answers to this question from several angles. The book explores theologians’ treatments of the deceptions of the devil,…
E veryone is talking about blasphemy since the murders last week in Paris. Many on every side of the political spectrum are saying that, much as they abhor blasphemy, everyone should have the right to blaspheme. The right to blaspheme is the cornerstone of liberty. This is the liberal response,…
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