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Ephesians

Music and Drunkenness, Part 2

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…

by John AhernMay 17, 2018
group-of-musicians-jan-van-bijlert-or-bylert
Ephesians

Music and Drunkenness, Part 1

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…

by John AhernMay 15, 2018
infant-baptism
Baptism

Unequal Holiness

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…

by Bill SmithMay 10, 2018
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Violence

The Sword of Adam: Preterism vs. Pacifism, (Part 2)

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…

by Mike BullMay 8, 2018
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Violence

The Sword of Adam: Preterism vs. Pacifism, Part 1

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…

by Mike BullMay 3, 2018
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Theopolis News

Alastair Roberts Appointed As Adjunct Senior Fellow

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…

by TheopolisMay 2, 2018

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Saul's Death in Chronicles

A fter nine long chapters of names, genealogies, and snippets of narrative, the Chronicler plunges the reader into a scene of frantic action: Saul's battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa (1 Chronicles 10; cf. 1 Samuel 31). The story of Israel's monarchy starts out as a sad story of…

July 25, 2016

Blog News

I ‘ll return to blogging next week, with changes. Since I started blogging more than a decade ago, I've used my blog as a public notebook to record quotations I want to remember, summarize articles I've come across in research, explore a problem or question, mainly in biblical studies or…

July 22, 2016
Uncategorized

Gone Fishin'

T aking a summer break. I will return to blogging in the latter part of July.

July 1, 2016

Bread for the World

I n the Holy Place of the tabernacle, there was a table toward the north, spread with twelve loaves of “showbread” or “bread of the presence.” To the south was a golden lampstand, seven lamps making a burning tree. The Holy Place provided a glimpse of Israel's place and mission…

June 30, 2016

Liberalism's Paradox

D omenico Losurdo's “counter-history” of Liberalism is a long riff on a central paradox: Many of the founding fathers of modern liberal thought were indifferent to, or even advocates of, slavery. John Calhoun is a prime example: “This eminent statesman, vice president of the United States in the mid-nineteenth century,…

June 30, 2016
Trinity

Clarity in Trinitarian Debate

Kevin Giles's The Eternal Generation of the Son targets Evangelical theologians who deny the Son's eternal generation. He also challenges Evangelical theologians who teach that the Son is “functionally” but not ontologically subordinate to the Father, or subordinate in “role” though not in being, or eternally under the authority of…

June 30, 2016

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