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Colossians

Tychicus and Onesimus

In Colossians 4:7-9, Paul tells the Colossian church that he is sending Tychicus and Onesimus to them. It is clear that they are to deliver the letter Paul has written to the church and that they are also to report to the church the details of Paul’s ministry in chains…

by Ralph Allan SmithJanuary 26, 2023
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Mission

Sustainable Development

On the 11 th of April, 1985, the communist dictator Enver Hoxha breathed his last. It was the beginning of the end of communist Albania. After 40 years of being isolated from almost the entire world, the Albanian people started to see what life really looked like outside their borders.…

by James LeithartJanuary 24, 2023
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Biblical Studies

Sex Drives Building

Karl Ove Knausgaard once reminisced about an author he referred to as “the man with his sweater tucked into his trousers” who, upon entering the room, would declare as if it was his creed, “I write because I am dying.” Knausgaard acknowledges this to be one reason among many why…

by Garrett SoucyJanuary 19, 2023
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Biblical Studies

The World is Charged with the Threeness of God

The Missing “It Was Good” The patterns and repetitions of Genesis 1 are well known: God speaks, it happens, and God sees that it’s good; names are given, and there’s evening and there’s morning: a day. But the patterns of creation, like the patterns throughout Scripture, are marked by variation…

by Josh JensenJanuary 17, 2023
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Biblical Studies

The Day of Christ: Philippians 1:10

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the…

by Ralph Allan SmithJanuary 12, 2023
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Biblical Studies

Arboreal theology: Trees in Colossians

The Bible is a book about trees. We start in Eden with two trees, we end in the New Jerusalem with a single double-trunked tree, and the story hinges around the tree they nailed our Lord to. Seeing the Forest We find trees singled out on day three of creation.…

by Tim SuffieldJanuary 10, 2023

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Corpus at the Cross

Psalm 22 provides much of the background for the crucifixion of Jesus. It begins with “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me,” the words of Jesus from the cross. “Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? O my God, I…

March 30, 2018
Eucharist

Do This

Evangelicals need to thicken our theology of the Lord’s Supper, first by drawing more of the Bible into the discussion of the Supper, and second by drawing more of the Supper into discussion of the Supper. Even a fine recent treatment of Reformed sacramental theology, Todd Billings’s Remembrance, Communion, and…

March 29, 2018

Prepared for Burial

The Passion Narrative is about Jesus’ arrest, trial, and death; it’s about the Son of Man being “delivered up.” But there’s a lot more going on. The story is actually woven of several distinct stories. Two other characters are introduced in Matthew 26 – the woman who anoints Jesus and…

March 28, 2018

Silent Savior

After the Olivet Discourse, Jesus “finished all these words.” Matthew has used a similar phrase before (26:1; cf. 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1). Throughout the book, in fact, each time that Jesus finishes a long section of teaching, Matthew tells us that Jesus “finished these words.” That refrain doesn't just tell…

March 27, 2018

Mount of Olives

Jesus starts His procession from the Mount of Olives, the mountain just east of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. It’s the first time He has come to the Mount of Olives, but it takes on prominence in the last week of Jesus’ life. He begins His triumphal entry from the…

March 26, 2018

Limits of Reason

In a review of Steven Pinker's new book on Enlightenment, Peter Harrison observes that Pinker treats reason "as an unproblematic given, as if we all know what it is and are happy to sign up to Pinker's version of it." It's not so simple, and in fact Pinker's easy use…

March 23, 2018

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