Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
For Part 1, click HERE . How did Paul’s earliest commentators view his juxtaposition of music and drunkenness, and did they connect it to the ancient Greek ideas of musical ethos described in Part I? Origen, one of the earliest commentators on Paul, writes about Ephesians 5:18-19: One, however, who…
Perhaps it is because I am a musician that I have always found Ephesians 5:18-19 so arbitrary. But isn’t it a little odd to contrast music and drunkenness? Perhaps it is not obvious that that is what Paul is doing; I know, for myself, that it is remarkably easy to…
In 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 Paul deals with how the Corinthian Christians are supposed to be relating to unbelieving spouses. He essentially tells them, “Look, if your unbelieving spouse is willing to stay with you as a faithful Christian, don’t initiate a divorce. If he/she wants to leave you, let him/her…
For Part 1, click HERE . Those who focus on the supposed “pacifism” of Jesus and condemn the violence of God’s judgments throughout the Old Testament overlook the ministry of sacrificial bloodshed as an alternative to human bloodshed. The sword bearing of the sacrificial system was introduced to avoid the…
How should a Christian respond to the objection that the Bible, like the Koran, is a book of violence and bloodshed? Numerous answers have been offered by well-meaning exegetes, but none of them gets to the heart of the matter: God desires to place a sword in the hands of…
Beginning this summer, Dr. Alastair Roberts will join the Theopolis Institute as an adjunct Senior Fellow, the Institute has announced. Dr. Roberts will be a regular on the Theopolis podcast, teach intensive courses and in the Fellows Program, and help develop new programs and outlets. Roberts earned his PhD from…
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Naturalistic explanations of nature’s existence are impossible, David Hart contends ( The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss , 96), because “nature . . . is that which by definition already exists.” Nature’s explanation thus inevitably and “logically” must lie “beyond the system of causes that nature comprises; it is,…
The great change in the modern world picture was not the abandonment of the Aristotelian and Ptolmaic cosmology. That, argues David Hart ( The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss , 58-9) was only a ripple on the surface. The really big change came in the idea of causation: “The…
The nations will be saved. They will come to the light (Isaiah 60:3). How? We can work backward through Isaiah. They come into the light that shines from Israel. That light is the light of Yahweh Himself dwelling among and shining through His translucent people. Israel becomes that light after…
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen ( zarach ) upon you,” Isaiah announces (60:1). It’s a rich statement. Yahweh’s glory is said to “rise” in Deuteronomy 33:2, as the Lord moves from Sinai to Seir with his 10,000 holy ones shining with…
Psalm 37 is a wisdom Psalm that assures Israel that Yahweh will not let the wicked flourish forever. The faithful should persevere in seemingly fruitless faithfulness because the wicked who spring up like grass will also wither like grass. Part of this assurance is that the Lord will rescue His…
The NYTBR reviewer of Martin Gardner’s Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner recounts some of Gardner’s many pranks. “Once, a houseguest left behind a single glove at the home of Gardners friend Bob Murray. Murray went to several local department stores until he found a pair of gloves that…
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