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

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Hermeneutics

Beginning and New Beginning in Luke

Although the events are, of course, not perfectly parallel, Luke in his gospel intends us to connect Jesus’ birth from the womb and His re-birth from the tomb. Luke 1:27 introduces us to Joseph and in verse 30 we learn that his betrothed wife was named Mary. An angel appeared…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Matthew

A Note on Matthew

The apostle Matthew is also known as Levi son of Alphaeus. While not much is said about this man, the few things that are told us are significant. Matthew in Greek is Matthaios and comes from the Hebrew name Mattithiah, or Mattith-Yah, "Gift of Yah(weh)." Matthew’s other name is Levi,…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Twelve Fundamental Avenues of Revelation (Part 1)

Theologians often speak of "special" and "general" revelation, or of "natural" and "supernatural" revelation, or of "word" and "deed" revelation. While there are many worthwhile insights in these discussions, particularly in the discussions in Cornelius Van Til’s Introduction to Systematic Theology , I have not found any that satisfied my…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Ezekiel

Countdown to Exile IV: Ezekiel and the Structure of History

Ezekiel’s 430 Years In Ezekiel 4, the prophet is told to begin his ministry by setting up a model of Jerusalem and lying on his side and prophesying against it. He is to do this for 430 days, a day for a year. 390 days are against "Israel," and 40…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

The Oddness of the Feast of Booths

The Feast of Ingathering in the seventh month of the Sinaitic calendar is also called the Feast of Sukkoth, of Booths, also called Feast of Tabernacles. I have usually called it by that last phrase, and it is the most common today; but there is a problem: A tabernacle is…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Ezekiel

Countdown to Exile III: Warnings Against False Hopes

The End of Jehoiakim’s Reign We have seen that Jehoiakim rejected Jeremiah’s prophetic warnings at the beginning of his reign. Let us now make a year-by-year survey of his reign down to its end. In the spring of 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish. In the summer, he…

by James B. JordanNovember 28, 1996

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Technology

The Myth of AI

As David Goldman sees, it , last week's fatal accident involving an Uber self-driving car is emblematic of our techno-Utopianism. "If the brain is merely a machine that white-coated lab techs can measure and manipulate like any other machine, and if machines can programmed to emulate the human brain, then…

March 23, 2018
Liberalism

Ahistorical Anti-liberalism

Eric Cohen puts his finger on one of the glaring flaws of Patrick Deneen's recent Why Liberalism Failed . Deneen's is a strangely ahistorical account of liberalism: "Deneen treats American society as if it is simply a Lockean (or Madisonian) abstraction. For a book that celebrates the importance of particular…

March 23, 2018

Ahaz as Aaron

Ahaz of Judah makes "molten images for the Baals" (2 Chronicles 28:2). He's the only king in Chronicles to do so. The term massekah is used only twice in Chronicles, once of Ahaz's making, the other of Josiah's destruction of molten things (2 Chronicles 34:3-4). The term reaches back to…

March 23, 2018

Earth's Age

Alan Hayward ( Creation and Evolution ) summarizes some of the evidence for an old earth. Some lines of evidence are fairly powerful. He points to sandwich structures on the ocean floor: A base of hardened sediment with fossils, a layer of large coral reefs, an upper layer of sediment…

March 23, 2018

Prophets of a New Age

Lytton Strachey, famed as a member of the "Bloomsbury Group" and for his war against Victorian values, wrote to Leonard (husband of Virginia) Woolf in 1904: "I sometimes feel as if it were not only ourselves who are concerned, but that the destinies of the whole world are somehow involved…

March 23, 2018

Sevenfold Evil

By the Chronicler's lights, Ahaz is the worst king Judah ever has. He is the only king of whom it's explicitly said that he did " not do right" (2 Chronicles 28:1). That not-right is unpacked with six more verbs, making a full seven of wickedness. 1)Did not do right,…

March 23, 2018

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