Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A while back a friend told me that his church had finally introduced weekly communion. He told me that they were having an 8:00 a.m. service on Sundays for anyone who wanted to have communion. At present only about five people were coming to this service, but he was hopeful…
According to James B. Jordan’s outline of Deuteronomy, the first commandment section runs from 6:1 to 11:32, and the second commandment section begins with 12:1. 1 That this division of the text is sound is confirmed by a comparison of 6:1 with 12:1. Deuteronomy 6:1 announces that "this is the…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Nicodemus’s conversation with Jesus in John 3:1-15 is often regarded as an illustration of the tremendous stupidity of the Jews of our Lord’s day. Those who take the passage this way fail to recognize the profound nature of Nicodemus’s questions and of Jesus’ answers. In verse 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus…
In his book 1994? , Harold Camping asserts that the life spans of the primeval patriarchs of Genesis 5 & 11 were actually epochs, one after another. This together with other mistakes in interpretation yields for him a creation date of 11013 B.C. From here, Camping tries to work out…
I have received a number of letters asking for my comments on this difficult passage. Here is my best shot! 2. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. This statement opens a new section…
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It’s a joke. It’s a comedy routine. Doom is coming! Doom doom doom! The world is ending, the kingdom is coming. Head for the hills, run, escape! The end is near! Repent! So says John, so repeats Jesus, like long-hairs with picket signs at the street corner. But then it…
How many Protestants are comfortable applying the label “righteous” to themselves? How many Protestants can sing or pray the Psalms with a clean conscience, appealing to the Lord to accept them because of their righteousness? How many Protestants instead experience an instinctive mental reservation when they speak of their justification?…
This is a gloss and summary of the overview I offer in my Brazos commentary on 1-2 Kings . Though the book is detailed and sometimes convoluted, the overall shape is neatly symmetrical. A. David and Solomon found the United Kingdom; Solomon builds a house. B. Jeroboam founds the Northern…
Ward Blanton’s Materialism for the Masses provides a rebuttal to Nietzsche’s claim that Christianity was nothing but pop-Platonism. On the contrary: Paul can be read as offering a “materialist spirituality” that has never been more needed than it is today. There’s something in that, though Blanton’s meandering book makes it…
Jesus was an ingrate. That’s on of the themes of Gratitude: An Intellectual History . Sign up now for the Theopolis newsletter, In Medias Res , and receive a free excerpt of the book. Fill out the simple subscription form here .
The army revealed by the sixth seal (Revelation 9:13-21) wears breastplates of “fire, hyacinth, and brimstone” (v. 17a) and breathes out “fire, smoke, and brimstone” (v. 17b), with which it kills a third of humanity (v. 18). Hyacinth is an anomaly on the first list, but essentially the army wears…
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