Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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In his remarkable book, Ascension and Ecclesia , Douglas Farrow points to the common modern conflation of resurrection with ascension, and points to some of the theological consequences of this conflation: “First of all, it puts in jeopardy the continuity between our present world and the higher places of the…
The ascension is one of the key issues in historical discussions about the Lord?s Supper. The question posed by many has been: How can Jesus, who has ascended into heaven, still be with us at this table, and feed us His flesh and blood? Many answers have been given, some…
In his commentary on Romans, John Murray offers these comments on Paul’s statement that “sin is not imputed when there is no law”: This “enunciates a general principle on which Paul is insistent. ‘Where there is no law, neither is there transgression’ (4:15). Since sin is transgression of law, it…
Keil and Delitzsch point out that Psalm 110 is structured as three sets of seven clauses. Each of these sets of seven consists of a “tetrastich together with a tristich.” These three sets are verses 1-2, verses 3-4, and verses 5-7. Verse 1 is the first tetrastich (Lord says; Sit;…
There’s a remarkably huge story on Indian-born evangelist Dr. K. A. Paul, described as the world’s most popular evangelist, in the May 17 issue of The New Republic . The story is weird not only for its length ( TNR is not given to reporting on the latest evangelistic trends,…
Reviewing Edith Grossman’s recent translation of Don Quixote for the Weekly Standard , Algis Valiunas notes that Cervantes’ parody of chivalry contains within it some veiled assaults on Christianity: “in destroying the fancies of chivalric romance stories, Cervantes simultaneously mounts a sneak attack on Christianity itself, chipping subtly away at…
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