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

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Biblical Horizons

Amillennial Eschatology

Brian: This is, I guess, the ultimate news flash. Maybe the last one. Just a couple of minutes ago a lot of people ascended up into the air and met the returning Jesus Christ. At least that seems to be what happened. As you can see, our cameras are on…

by James B. JordanFebruary 15, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Can Saul Alinsky Be Saved?

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who knows where mythology leaves off and history begins–or which id which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that…

by Richard BledsoeFebruary 10, 2011
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Esther

Why Mordecai Was Angry

One of the mysteries in Esther is why Mordecai refused to acknowledge Haman. We are never explicitly told, and such guesses as that he was continuing Yahweh’s war against Amalek do not carry weight. If such was Mordecai’s purpose he was in sin, because it was Yahweh’s war, not his.…

by James B. JordanJanuary 26, 2011
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Anxiety

Two Views of Marriage

Below are two views of marriage that came out of an e-mail exchange. The first is a kind of of phenomenology of marriage, and of behavior within marriage. It is who we are by nature. It is bad news, very bad news. The second entry is what can be done…

by Richard BledsoeJanuary 23, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

“Imputation of Active Obedience” – Some Notes

The previous essay on “Monocovenantalism” brought up this matter, so a few comments here. In this area also the mindless militants have perverted the conversation. The notion that the death of Jesus was insufficient for our justification and that we must also have an imputation of His perfect life in…

by James B. JordanJune 8, 2010
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Biblical Horizons

Monocovenantalism

Repeatedly over the last several years a variety of characters have accused the so-called “Federal Vision” of being “monocovenantal.” Many other wild and unsubstantiated accusations against the “Federal Vision” have been made, of course. Recently I learned that two of the men on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s study committee on…

by James B. JordanJune 5, 2010

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Entering Rest, Entering Song

1 Chronicles 23:24-27 is arranged chiastically: A. Levites numbered from 20 years and up. B. David said. C. Yahweh rests and dwells. C'. Levites no longer carry tent and implements. B'. Words of David. A'. Levites numbered from 20 years and up. C' is disputable, but the structure nearly forces…

December 16, 2016

My Bright Abyss

O ne paragraph illustrates both the reasons I admire Christian Wiman's 2013 searingly honest My Bright Abyss , and the reasons I find the book frustrating to the point of irritation. A poet and erstwhile editor of Poetry , Wiman came to Christianity as an adult in the midst of…

December 15, 2016

Sincerity or Ritual

T he authors of Ritual and its Consequences (104–6) note a contrast between civilizations that are bound by authoritative rituals and those that are not. The latter are deeply concerned with sincerity: “ Civilizations or movements with a diminished concern for ritual have an overwhelming concern with sincerity, which we…

December 15, 2016

Prehistory of “Priestcraft”

“P riestcraft” was one of the charges regularly lodged by skeptics against clergy and theologians in early modern Europe. It connoted obscurantism, deception, manipulation of popular opinion. It connoted everything wrong with established Christianity, especially in its more catholic manifestations. Not all the charges of “priestcraft” were directed at clergy.…

December 14, 2016

Secularization

O ne of the virtues of Anthony J. Carroll's Protestant Modernity is his effort to put flesh on the bony term “secularization,” often batted about in an airily sociological fashion. On-the-ground secularization is easiest to spot in Revolutionary France, when institutions and personnel and property and records were removed from…

December 13, 2016

The American Religion of Psychology

K eith G. Meador devotes his contribution to The Secular Revolution to an analysis of the therapeutic takeover of American Protestantism. He focuses on the role of the Christian Century under the editorship of Charles Clayton Morrison, who used the magazine to advance a “scientific” and simplified Christianity supposedly fit…

December 13, 2016

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