Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When someone expounds the way of salvation found in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms and in the easily-accessible writings of the Reformed heritage, he often finds him embroiled in a debates about the covenant of works and the Mosaic Covenant. One is “proven” to be aberrant by allegations that one…
The ultimate condemnation of a position in Reformed circles is to show that it “leads back to Rome.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that Rome is a worse destination for a Presbyterian than even hell itself. The accusation of Rome stings deeply, of course, because it means that all the…
One of the odd features of Michael Horton’s version of Covenant theology is his interpretation of the covenant God made with Abraham 1 in Genesis 15. According to Horton, The very way in which God made the covenant with Abraham (putting him to sleep; walking through the torn animals by…
What was I trying to do, when I wrote my book on Mark’s Gospel ? Fundamentally, I wanted a book that would change readers by making them better readers of the Gospel of Mark. My ideal reader is not someone who goes to the book to use as a resource…
Why do we need sacraments? According to the Westminster Confession, sacraments were instituted by Christ “to confirm our interest in him” (27.1), “to strengthen and increase” the “faith” of those within the Covenant of Grace and “to distinguish them from those that are without” that covenant (Westminster Larger Catechism, #162).…
In Isaiah 5:1-7, we have a typical covenant lawsuit, in which the Lord accuses his people of rejecting his grace and mercy. It is not my intention here to exegete the entire passage, or to look at the way the vineyard image used here serves as a metaphor in other…
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In a 2002 article, Lester Little notes the biblical inspiration for Carolingian Benedictine monasticism: “In inspiration, thought patterns, and rhetoric, this liturgical monasticism shared in a culture that was deeply indebted to the Old Testament. Models for the duties and prerogatives of the religious were found in the instructions given…
Charles Eisenstein offers this arresting description of the divine attributes of money in modern culture ( Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition , xiii-xv): “The one thing on the planet most closely resembling the . . . conception of the divine is money. It is…
In his Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why It Matters , Thomas H. McCall cites some alarming statements about the logic of atonement from evangelical theologians, who claim that there is a “strife of attributes” in God: “Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy describe this position as one that…
According to most ancient myths, the origin of the creation is violent violent. It must be so. Reality as we know it is in constant motion, a realm of constant change. But antique religions are quests for a place of stability. To get to that “rock of ages,” change has…
In his outline of theology proper in Christian Dogmatics, Volume 1 , Jenson describes the “usual god” of ancient religion: “The usual God, whose eternity is persistence of the beginning, has as his very honor among us that in him we are secure against the threats of the future. Ancient…
In their classic study of The Cuisine of Sacrifice Among the Greeks (13), Detienne and Vernant describe how the distribution of meat from a sacrificed animal traces the boundaries and ranks of a social order: “The commensal meal begins with division. Two systems seem to compete, both in the carving…
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