Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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Barth offers these wise words about the purpose of dogmatics (which consists, for Barth, of the correction, clarification, and criticism of church proclamation by measuring proclamation against the Word of God in the Bible): “Repetitive exposition according to the intentions of the theologians named will, of course, be indispensable for…
And it was according to the finishing of Shlomoh to build the house of Yahweh And the house of the king And all the desire of Shlomoh which he took pleasure to do. And appeared Yahweh to Shlomoh a second time According as he appeared to him in Gibeon. And…
Ask any church planter, and he’ll tell you that one of the dangers of starting a new work is that it tends to attract all the people who are disaffected and discontented from the churches of the surrounding area. They have made an utter nuisance of themselves in their own…
As noted in my sermon outline earlier this week, there is an intriguing reversal going on with Solomon and Pharaoh in 1 Kings 9. Solomon does not wipe out the Canaanites (v. 20-21), but Pharaoh does (v. 16). On the other hand, Solomon is acting like a Pharaoh, not only…
Yahweh’s “Name” must be His personal presence. He “consecrates” the temple by setting His name in the house (1 Ki 9:3, 7), and consecration is accomplished by the presence of Yahweh, particularly the presence of His glory (Ex 29:43). Name and glory must be coordinate if not identical realities. The…
Though resting a theological case on a linguistic “accident” would be a mistake, it is intriguing that the Hebrew word for “convert” is the same as the Hebrew word for “go apostate.” The word in both cases is SHUB, “turn,” which means “turn away” or “turn toward” or “turn back”…
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