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Writing

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

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Isaiah

The Desert of the Sea

Introduction Isaiah 21 can only be understood in the light of its placement in the architecture of the second “volume” of the prophecy (chapters 13–27). The contents are arranged in twin sevenfold “columns” that represent the great bronze pillars of Solomon’s Temple: Jachin and Boaz, priest and king. The priestly…

by Mike BullFebruary 20, 2025
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Isaiah

Jesus Enthroned on the Zodiac

A Biblical Reflection on the Purpose of the Constellations The starry heavens hold a place of wonder in the hearts of men. Since man’s creation we have looked up into the heavens and have beheld its glory. This is particularly true of the night sky. The stars, in their shinning…

by Matthew DarbyFebruary 19, 2025
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Matthew

An Overall Chiasm around Six Discourses in the Gospel According to Matthew  

The case for there being five discourses within the Gospel according to Matthew is a hard one to challenge: surely the closing formula “when Jesus finished these sayings” as found in 8:1, 11:1, 13:53, 19:1, and 26:1 settles it once and for all. And by the five instances of the…

by Benoit EngelFebruary 13, 2025
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Matthew

Exegesis of the Great Commission

The Long Commission The Great Commission of Matthew 28 has long been a cornerstone of American Evangelicalism. It has formed and fashioned the American church’s missional impulse. Yet when viewed from the wide lens of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, the Great Commission is revealed as one of the pillars…

by Ralph Allan SmithFebruary 11, 2025
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Lord's Supper

Genuine Paedocommunion

I am delighted to see that more and more churches in the Reformed tradition are now recognizing that all baptized children are members of the body of Christ and therefore ought to be communing with the rest of the body at the Lord’s Table. This has been decades in the…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 6, 2025
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Twitter and Emotional Sabotage

Good leaders have always been rare. In today’s world, they seem extinct. Joe Rigney’s recent book Leadership and Emotional Sabotage digs into the spiritual reasons for the leadership epidemic and recommends cures. Rigney starts with a summary of a book by Edwin Friedman called A Failure of Nerve . Friedman’s…

by Christian LeithartFebruary 4, 2025

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Theology

Schelling and the Johannine Age

Harold Stahmer traces Rosenstock-Huessy’s notion of a “Johannine” age to Schelling: “In Schelling’s Philosophy of Revelation . . . the millennarian idea of the successive ‘ages’ of the world - the Petrine, the Pauline, and finally the Johannine - is developed at length. These ages were linked by schelling to…

January 24, 2007

Song of the Bride

Markus Barth describes Ephesians 5:22-33 as a lover’s song, but distinguishes the love expressed there, the love of Jesus for His bride, from all other loves: “The vision of love described by Paul is sui generis . Though Christ’s love includes features found in many a strong, wise and devoted…

January 24, 2007

Christ and Church

Markus Barth gives a thrilling summary of Paul’s description of Christ and the church in Ephesians (I’ve left out the texts Barth refers to): “Christ was called the beloved Son; the church, the chosen people, God’s children. He, the administrator; they, the heirs. He, the risen; they, those raised with…

January 24, 2007

Calvin’s Sacramental Hermeneutics

Ephesians 5:31’s description of marriage, Calvin argues, refers to the Supper, a seal of our union with Christ: “As Eve was formed out of the substance of her husband, and thus was a part of himself; so, if we are the true members of Christ, we share his substance, and…

January 24, 2007

Calvin’s Sacramental Hermeneutics

Ephesians 5:31’s description of marriage, Calvin argues, refers to the Supper, a seal of our union with Christ: “As Eve was formed out of the substance of her husband, and thus was a part of himself; so, if we are the true members of Christ, we share his substance, and…

January 24, 2007

Calvin on Baptism

Calvin interprets the “washing of water” in Ephesians 5:26 as a reference to baptism, and goes into a little digression on baptism. Paul is telling us “that we are washed by baptism,” and by this he means “that God employs it for declaring to us that we are washed, and…

January 24, 2007

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