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

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Judges

God’s War Against Humanism: A Practical and Theological Review of "Judges" by James Jordan

This is the third of a three part symposium commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Dr. James B. Jordan’s publication of Judges: a Practical and Theological Commentary . Judges was the first book length exposition of Theopolitan Reading, a practice of reading Scripture in its fullness that Theopolis continues to refine…

by Stiven PeterDecember 19, 2024
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Judges

Politics and Conflict in Ancient Israel: A Critical Review of Judges by James B. Jordan

This is the second of a three part symposium commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Dr. James B. Jordan’s publication of Judges: a Practical and Theological Commentary . Judges was the first book length exposition of Theopolitan Reading, a practice of reading Scripture in its fullness that Theopolis continues to refine…

by Darren DukeDecember 18, 2024
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Judges

America in the Days of the Judges: A Pastoral Review of Judges by James Jordan

This is the first of a three part symposium commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Dr. James B. Jordan’s publication of Judges: a Practical and Theological Commentary . Judges was the first book length exposition of Theopolitan Reading, a practice of reading Scripture in its fullness that Theopolis continues to refine…

by Chase DavisDecember 17, 2024
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Advent

All Life is the Lord’s

From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew: the only way out of this is death. Either this life inside me disappears without my consent, or I lay my own life down to line the road for another. Like palm leaves at the city entrance, allowing the…

by MargaretAnn HesterDecember 12, 2024
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Apostle Paul

The Split of Paul and Barnabas

After the Jerusalem Council (AD 48/49), which endorsed Paul’s teaching of the Gospel and established a universal theology among Christian churches, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch and taught for some time (Acts 15:30–35). Then, it occurred to Paul to go on a second missionary trip to visit the churches…

by Ralph Allan SmithDecember 10, 2024
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Acts

The Future of Jesus | The Bodily Resurrection as Essential Context

This essay first appeared at SolomonSays.net and has been lightly edited for publishing purposes. Before I go any further on what the Bible tells us about the future history of the mortal human race , I must address the end of that history: the final resurrection. When Paul was arrested…

by Mark HorneNovember 27, 2024

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Idolatry After Idols

During the Second Temple period, the Talmud says, "the temptation for idolatry was slaughtered" (quoted in Haberthal and Margalit, Idolatry , 2). Then the fight returned, with Maimonides. Now, though, idolatry was a contrast-concept to a new conception of God. Halberthal and Margalit summarize: "The central effort of philosophical religion…

May 9, 2018
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Exodus

No Graven Images

The First of the Ten Words speaks to the question of whom we worship: We are to have no other gods before the face of Yahweh. The Second Word had to do with how we worship: We are to approach God as He commands us to approach Him. The Second…

May 9, 2018

Text Patterns in Exodus 20

There are Ten Words, but they are grouped in several different ways. The first two commandments stand out from the rest. Only in the first three commandments does the Lord speak in the first person (FW Farrar): “I am Yahweh your God . . . thou shalt have no other…

May 8, 2018

Patterned by Idols

A little over a year ago, I wrote the following in a post reflecting on the Hebrew term tabnit, used in Exodus and Chronicles to describe the heavenly "pattern" of the sanctuary: "Deuteronomy 4:16-18 uses the word five times, not of a 'model' or 'plan' but of likenesses made according…

May 7, 2018

Rosenzweig on Anthropomorphism

Franz Rosenzweig didn't buy Maimonides philosophical critique of the Bible's anthropomorphism. In 1928, he wrote a short essay on the topic and, in the summary of Leora Batnitzky ( Idolatry and Representation ) he "argues that the tendency to rationalize away biblical anthropomorphisms . . . is both dishonest and…

May 4, 2018

Secularizing Sacrifice

In Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice , Ivan Strenski recounts an epochal shift in the study of religion, and of sacrifice in particular, that took place in the France of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, the "lions" of the field of religion were…

May 4, 2018

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