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Writing

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

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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 3

The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Patriarchal Dominion

The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 6

Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Studies

Re-creation in the Ascension Offering

The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
Biblical Horizons

The Framework Hypothesis: A Gnostic Heresy

Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 2

The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998

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Dating of the Gospels

Late dating of the gospels is historically preposterous. Even the most “conservative” dating assumes that Jewish Christians, who believed that the long-awaited salvation had finally occurred in Jesus, would wait over a decade before putting an ordered account on paper. On the contrary: The very first thing a Jew would…

February 3, 2004
Literature

The Pleasure of My Company

Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company . New York: Hyperion, 2003. 163 pp. In his second novel, Steve Martin (yes, the actor) tells the story of the “redemption” of Daniel Pecan Cambridge. Daniel is a narcissistic neurotic so frightened of walking off curbs that he maps out a serpentine…

February 3, 2004
Theology

Gd’s Righteousness and Eschatology

As mentioned in an earlier post, Paul says that God works out salvation through the cross and resurrection so that “God might BE just and the justifier of those who are of the faith of Jesus.” That “be” is crucial; God would not BE just if He did not manifest…

February 2, 2004
Theology

Gd’s Righteousness and Eschatology

As mentioned in an earlier post, Paul says that God works out salvation through the cross and resurrection so that “God might BE just and the justifier of those who are of the faith of Jesus.” That “be” is crucial; God would not BE just if He did not manifest…

February 2, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, February 1

Eucharistic Meditation, Feb 1: Luke 17:26-29 Jesus describes the coming of the Son of Man by comparing it to the coming of the flood in the days of Noah and the rain of fire and brimstone on Sodom in the days of Lot. One of the main points of the…

February 1, 2004

Exhortation, February 1

Exhortation for February 1: Jesus has many things to say about faith in our sermon text this morning. One of the main things has to do with the power of faith: He says that anyone who has faith the size of a mustard seed can say to a deeply rooted…

February 1, 2004

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