Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jer 31:15). The Night of the Hunter belongs on every Christian’s Christmas list. My family has even…
One important part of Jesus's birth narrative is the presence of angels. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she would bear a son. And then, on the night Jesus was born, a whole host of angels appeared to the shepherds. Angels are mysterious creatures to us.…
I was settled nicely into my chair and listening to the conversation in an undergrad religion seminar, my last required course to graduate. Though a few Christians sat scattered around the room, the course itself was dedicated to poking holes in traditional understandings of the Bible: our readings deconstructed notions…
God’s symbols belong to Him and to His people. They are constantly at work in the world, including the world of film, music, painting, architecture, and other artforms. You cannot escape God’s symbols or the meaning He has woven into the created order. Artists use and borrow God’s symbols, whether…
For centuries, Christians identified Israel in the Old Testament as a single, literal ethnic group, often called “the Jews.” Even supersessionists – those who believed the Church superseded Israel – assumed the clear-cut, technical definition of “Israel” in the Bible is the ethnic group. However, a deeper dive into Genesis,…
Misreading Intent In the opening verses of Matthew 11, the reader is confronted immediately by John the baptizer who has been imprisoned since 4:12. John poses a question to Jesus, inquiring from prison as to whether or not he is Israel’s awaited Messiah or if they should anticipate another: “Are…
Showing page 1 of 309
Showing page 43 of 43
At the Retreat organized by the asylum reformer Samuel Tuke, the inmates would occasionally enjoy social occasions where the rules of etiquette would be strictly observed. In Tuke’s own description, they would “dress in their best clothes, and vie with each other in politeness and propriety. The best fare is…
Johann Arndt (1555-1621), one of theleaders of German Pietism, wrote of baptism: “This is the true new birth and the new creature that appears before God’s face, pure and holy, cleaned and purified through the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit without any blemish. So perfect is this washing…
In sorting through questions about efficacy of baptism, it’s important to realize that terms are used differently by various theologians. Chemnitz, for instance, claims that baptism has a twofold effect, “regeneration and renewal.” The very fact that he describes these as distinct effects should alert us to the fact that…
Baptism is made by word and water, Luther says. But the word is not the word of the minister that blesses the water, but the authorizing word of Jesus: “God’s word beside and with the water, which is not something we have invented or dreamed up, but is rather the…
The purpose of the proclamation of the Word of Life, John says, is to extend the fellowship of the apostles to include others; and this means to include others within the community – the sharing of things, and particularly the sharing of life – that the apostles have with the…
1) This is a oddly rambling opening to a letter. It starts with a relative pronoun, and doesn’t get to a finite verb until verse 3. Plus, it leaves a number of things initially unexplained. “That which” – what does this refer to? We don’t know for a while. “From…
Showing page 1789 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
