Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
We lost Crimea. That is very clear. Putin proved he was not lying when he said he would place women and children ahead of his soldiers to storm Ukrainian military bases. Russian soldiers did exactly that with women (some who volunteered and some who were forced). Russia now occupies all…
Sound is an indicator of life and energy. “Sound signals the present use of power, since sound must be in active production to exist at all.” Things don’t have to be alive to make themselves visible, and “a primitive hunter can see, feel, smell, and taste an elephant when the…
In the most famous section of his best-known novel, Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov brings forward his case against God. He opens with a horrific litany of outrages against children. Turkish soldiers make a baby laugh and then shoot a pistol into his face. A little girl is beaten, thrashed, kicked by…
At the heart of Esther Lightcap Meek's splendid Little Manual for Knowing is a concept she picked up from Michael Polanyi, "subsidiary-focal integration." The concept begins from the insight that all our knowing, all our experience, is double. We focus on something, but we are capable of "indwelling" that focal…
Jesus promises the overcomers of Pergamum "hidden manna" and a "white stone." The hidden manna is often linked with the manna stashed away in the ark of the covenant. The white stone has proved more elusive. Exodus tells us that manna was white (Exodus 16:31) and like bdellium (Numbers 11:7),…
Leviticus 23 begins with a reference to “Yahweh’s appointed times” ( mo’ade-YHWH ). Mo’ed is the common term for the feasts of Israel. A few dimensions to this term. First, it means “appointed time” or “designated time.” It is a time set by Yahweh. Yahweh has claimed certain times as…
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Tyler Mayfield’s monograph, Literary Structure and Setting in Ezekiel , focuses on the literary markers on the surface of the text of Ezekiel, rather than on conceptual or genre, as a guide for literary structure of the book. He argues that the book divides into 13 units, each of which…
Klaus Wengst argues that the harlot city of Revelation can “only” be Rome (contribution to Politics and Theopolitics in the Bible and Postbiblical Literature , 191). He follows with all sorts of good reasons to doubt that conclusion. For starters, he point out the odd doubling: The beast on which…
Amos warns Israel about her injustices. If they do not seek Yahweh, He will consume them, those who “turn justice to wormwood and cast righteousness to the earth” (5:1-7). Amos supports this with a description of God’s creative power (vv. 8-9). The declaration of God’s creative power is complexly structured.…
Everyone who reads Paul knows that Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). What is not evident in Paul, but certainly assumed by him, is the specific promise that Abram believed: “So shall your descendants be” (Genesis 15:5). How shall Abram’s descendants be? Yahweh…
Jesus is justified by the Spirit in His resurrection. Though all the courts of mankind condemned Him to death, the Father reverses the sentence and therefore the verdict by raising Him. That is also the vindication of Jesus’ followers. Peter, James, John, and the rest had been groping toward the…
A thought inspired by a sermon from Pastor Rich Lusk. Jesus tells His disciples that they disciple the nations by baptizing and teaching the nations His commands. That is precisely the sequence of Jesus’ own life: Jesus moves out of the wilderness, crosses the Jordan in baptism, sets up a…
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