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Writing

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

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Biblical Studies

Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones

[This essay was originally published in 1988. Given the situation that our new national socialists are getting the world into, I thought it might be useful to reprint it here. – JBJordan] The Bible has quite a bit to say about gold, silver, and precious stones, and the Bible always…

by James B. JordanMay 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

The Pastoral Function

I wrote this elsewhere and was encouraged to put it here. It is a comment on what a pastor is. Today, this is not very well understood, and God’s people suffer because of it. There are four professions: medicine, education, law, and religion. Each of these, when done at a…

by James B. JordanMay 17, 2009
Biblical Horizons

The Virgin Tomb: The Womb of the New Birth

James Jordan recently pointed out in private conversation how appropriate it is, in John’s Gospel, that Nicodemus is present both to ask Jesus about being born again, and to see Jesus re-enter the womb of the mother. Nicodemus rhetorically asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?…

by Mark HorneMay 8, 2009
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Romans

Romans 7

This is a problematic and much discussed passage. I’ve been discussing it in another forum, and have decided to move it here and present some very preliminary observations about it. One large question is this: Who is the speaker here and what is his situation? Traditionally, the speaker is seen…

by James B. JordanApril 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

Good New Sci-Fi

1. The current issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction includes a good fantasy novella by John C. Wright, who since his conversion has been writing Christianly. This is a fine fantasy with nods to C. S. Lewis and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and probably Gene Wolfe as well.…

by James B. JordanApril 15, 2009
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American Culture

The Name of Jesus

“It is an experience of our days that the spoken name of Jesus alone exercises an unforeseen power; and the effort which it cost to speak this name is perhaps connected to some faint apprehension of the power which is inherent within it. Wherever the name of Jesus Christ is…

by Richard BledsoeMarch 20, 2009

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Naaman the convert

Naaman is the epitome of the natural man: Powerful, successful, and convinced that he can use his clout and wealth to purchase just about anything. He believes that Syria has the best rivers. He is also a leper, estranged from God and from God’s prophet. 2 Kings 5 is the…

June 24, 2005
Media

Power and Celebrity

In his 1999 book, How the News Makes Us Dumb , C. John Sommerville wisely notes the difference between power and celebrity. He notes that news is a product, determined by “what publishers think they can get us interested in and get us to pay for.” There’s no reason, then,…

June 22, 2005

More on Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite

Hart, Beauty of the Infinite Part 2, section I: Trinity Proposition 3: The Christian God shows the beauty of the infinite, and thus can be “traversed” by way of beauty. i. Desire’s Flight. God, Hart suggests is “all” but not a totality. That is, He is not a pantheistic all,…

June 22, 2005

Translation, 2 Kings 9

Now ‘Eliysha’ the prophet called to one from the sons of the prophets And he said to him, “Tie your loins And take a flask of this oil in your hand And go/walk to Ramot Gil’ad. And you enter there And you see there Yehu’ son of Jehoshafat son of…

June 21, 2005

Eucharistic meditation, June 19

2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” One of the similarities between these two brief stories is that both are stories of gathering, bringing, and feeding.…

June 19, 2005

Exhortation, June 19

In our sermon text, an indebted widow appeals to Elisha for deliverance from creditors, and he responds by telling her to fill vessels with oil from a single jar. The supply of oil lasts as long as she has vessels to fill. She sells the oil and with the proceeds…

June 19, 2005

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