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The Lady and Her Jewels: An Epiphany Meditation

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery (Revelation 12:1-2). Then Joshua spoke…

by Richard BledsoeJanuary 6, 2015
extreme-unction
Anointing

Fattening Our Suffering

In his post asking Ought we Anoint the Dying? Peter Leithart makes an excellent and important point about our suffering as members of Christ. However, he only parenthetically mentions that the verb in question in James 5 is not chrio but aleipho . By assuming that these words are interchangeable,…

by Robert MaddoxDecember 30, 2014
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James

Death as Frenemy

We spend a lot of time in the church talking about what it means to live like a Christian. But what does it mean to die like a Christian? If we are to follow Christ in life, what does it mean for us to follow him in death as well?…

by Rich LuskDecember 23, 2014
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Literature

Was Shakespeare A Christian?

How would one go about answering the question posed by my title? That depends on what the question means. Obviously, different definitions of the question would require different approaches to an answer. Right off hand, I can think of at least three possible — though not necessarily mutually exclusive —…

by Ralph Allan SmithDecember 23, 2014
day-2-ferguson-protests-nationwide
American Culture

Phobophobia

In recent weeks and months, we have seen events that are not the event. The drama around these events is not the events themselves, but the anxiety about the events, and then even the anxiety about the anxiety about the events. That is the real event. The events in Ferguson,…

by Richard BledsoeDecember 22, 2014
anointing-david
Anointing

Ought We Anoint the Dying?

Anointing the sick, including the dying, is one of the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The Reformers denied that the rite qualified as a sacrament. Formally, this was because anointing did not have a direct authorization from Jesus; more theologically, it was not one of the marks that…

by Peter LeithartDecember 18, 2014

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Ascension

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…

May 23, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, May 23

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…

May 23, 2004

Imputation of Sin (Rom 5:13)

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…

May 23, 2004

Creation Patterns in Psalm 110

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;…

May 22, 2004
American Religion

K. A. Paul

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,…

May 21, 2004
Literature

Cervantes and Christianity

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…

May 21, 2004

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