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

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Apostle Paul

Jonah’s Pauline Move: Finding Mercy for Gentiles in Texts about Mercy for Israel

Jonah is Paul’s typological opposite. Indeed, in the whole Old Testament, it would be difficult to find a more perfect foil to Paul than Jonah. Whereas Paul crosses the sea to enact God’s saving purposes for the Gentiles, Jonah crosses the sea to avoid bringing Gentiles God’s mercy. For that…

by Josh JensenJanuary 11, 2024
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Family

A House for Me

Years ago, I realized that if my children wanted to feel like their house was a home, I needed to be intentional about making our physical shelter a place of spiritual refuge. I began to see the Holy Spirit as the indwelling person of the Trinity—the one who makes His…

by Mandi GerthJanuary 9, 2024
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Charity

On Parrhesia and Gospel Witness

When the crowds encircle Christ in Solomon’s Porch during the Festival of Dedication, they charge him: “tell us boldly who you are!” 1 They do not draw-up to him to with excited anticipation as they did earlier in the Gospel, 2 instead they flank him like a gang of wolves.…

by Mark BriansJanuary 4, 2024
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Deuteronomy

Misunderstanding Moses

1 In Deuteronomy 7:1-5, Moses wrote: When Yahweh your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations…

by Ralph Allan SmithJanuary 3, 2024
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Advent

40 Theses on Christmas

Every Advent witnesses the gruesome reanimation of the voice that whispers “you know , Christmas is just a pagan holiday…” with that sort of conversational ellipsis that does not so much invite further reflection but halts and forecloses it. The claims are several and equally spurious: Jesus wasn’t born on…

by Mark BriansDecember 26, 2023
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Genesis

The Twelve Trials of Abraham

Abraham's life in Genesis is a series of trials. He travels hundreds of miles from his family into a new land, flees from a famine into the hands of a king who takes his wife, and after returning, has to rescue his brother from a war. He's involved with two…

by Donald LinnemeyerDecember 26, 2023

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Move On?

S COTUS has spoken. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land. Time to move on. This insistent message comes from leaders in both parties, but Michael Needham, writing at The American Interest , says that “moving on is not so easy for some Americans. Moving on wasn’t an option…

June 15, 2016
American Politics

Boomer Bust

W alter Russell Mead writes that Hillary Clinton's candidacy is the climax of a long progress, the march of the Boomers through the institutions. Unfortunately, she's the triumphant defender of a status quo that many believe to be broken, perhaps beyond repair. Mead is explaining the Trump phenomenon, but his…

June 15, 2016

Structure in 1 Chronicles 8

T he first portion of 1 Chronicles 8 is structured roughly by two sets of five lists of the descendants of Benjamin. The first group lists the names of sons for Benjamin, and then for succeeding generations of Benjamites: 1. Sons of Benjamin, vv. 1-2 2. Sons of Bela, vv.…

June 14, 2016

Bridge to Nowhere

A ndrew Bacevich argues that we are building a “multi-trillion dollar bridge to nowhere” in the Middle East. Coming to the Presidency as the anti-Bush, Obama will end his Presidency with America in Bushian shape throughout the world: “Like Bush, Obama will bequeath to his successor wars he failed to…

June 14, 2016

Redeeming Benjamin

P aul the apostle was a Hebrew of the Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin. That tribal association is significant, introducing a multi-layered typology of apostolic ministry. Paul was originally Saul, the namesake of the first and fallen king of Israel. That a Benjamin Saul would become the leader of…

June 13, 2016

Islamicization of Europe, or Christianization of Islam?

R od Dreher summarized several reports that many Muslim refugees have converted to Christianity when they arrived in Europe. Harriet Sherwood at The Guardian reports: “At Trinity church in the Berlin suburb of Steglitz, the congregation has grown from 150 two years ago to almost 700, swollen by Muslim converts,…

June 13, 2016

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