Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
After the identification of the recipients of his letter at the beginning of Revelation, John gives a benediction that resembles the benedictions of the Pauline letters. He pronounces grace/favor and peace, grace and favor that lead to peace, grace that leads to fullness and harmony that is the biblical definition…
Throughout the latter half of 1-2 Samuel, Saul and David are locked in hand-to-hand combat. It seems an unequal contest. All the heavy artillery is on Saul's side. To understand the full scope of the conflict, we need to back up to the beginning of the book. Prior to Saul's…
Last week, I lectured at Ostrog Academy in Ostrog, Ukraine, and at a pastors' conference in Kyiv. The latter was co-sponsored by Trinity House and the Alliance of Reformed Churches in Ukraine. I offer my impressions of Ukraine this morning at Firstthings.com .
Why do I bristle when I see someone with white wires hanging from his ears, flipping through what must be a million songs downloaded onto his iPod? No doubt, it’s the threat of the new. I've only recently begun carrying a cell phone, and now I hear tell of compact…
Judah is in terrible shape (Isaiah 57). Yahweh told Israel to worship Him only at the temple, but the people worship on every hill and under every green and leafy tree. He commanded them to worship Him alone, but they are devoted to many gods. Worshipers set up their beds…
Like any great writer, the Lord foreshadows late happenings in early happenings. Like many greater writers, the Lord ends where he begins, returning to a glorified Edenic city-sanctuary at the end of his cosmic story. The Lord writes with history, real people and events, not merely with words. But His…
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The word “Gethsemane” means “wine-press of oil.” It’s built from the same Hebrew root as Gath-Hepher, “the wine-press of the well,” a city in the tribal area of Zebulun, the birthplace of Jonah, and Gath-Rimmon, the “wine-press of the pomegranate,” a town in Dan. One of the five cities of…
God is, Barth repeatedly insists, as He reveals Himself. But Barth also hesitates about reading the relations expressed in the economic Trinity into the ontological Trinity ( Church Dogmatics , I.1, ch. 10). The relations as revealed are comprehensible, but these relations as revealed, precisely insofar as they are comprehensible,…
When Ewa Thompson joined the Indiana University faculty in 1968 as an assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature, Vietnam War protests were at their peak. A native of Poland, Thompson could not understand why Americans didn't unite against the Communists in Vietnam. Her first-hand experience with Communism, and…
David Goldman reports that “From 1977 t0 2005, business startups accounted for almost all economic growth and all net job creation. Established firms shrank and new firms grew. After the Great Recession of 2008, the opposite occurred: established firms accounted for all the recovery in employment, and startups contributed nothing…
The Mount of Olives is mentioned by name only twice in the Old Testament, and once it is alluded to as the “mountain east of Jerusalem.” When David abandons Jerusalem during the rebellion of Absalom, he travels east to the Mount of Olives, and then into the wilderness (2 Samuel…
According to Barth, when the decree loses its Christological focus, a gap emerges between a fundamental decree regarding predestination and reprobation and the “functional” decree to save in Christ. Christ becomes an instrument for carrying out that more basic decree, but He is not identified with the content of that…
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