Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Timon Cline wrote recently that “theonomists” didn’t run Puritan New England. 1 He is correct, in his major thesis, that the claim that “Puritanism and the natural law tradition are antithetical” is “wildly ahistorical.” Mr. Cline demonstrates that Puritans repeatedly extolled natural law. Besides the Puritan sources Mr. Cline mustered,…
The Church is the land of the walking trees. In Mark’s Gospel, the identity of Jesus is slowly and progressively revealed. Though St. Mark announces at the beginning of his narrative that Jesus Christ is “the Son of God” (1:1), this is a reality that must be spoon-fed to His…
All Scripture is of ultimate significance as the word of God, but it may be helpful to think about what makes a book (in this case, a letter) possibly unique within the canon. In this case, the “general” nature of Ephesians should stand out, but it often is not recognized…
Where do we draw the lines between what is right and wrong? This question is fundamental to civilization, fundamental to a free society. To put this question in the bluntest and most offense terms: if there is a time to kill — which Solomon says there is — whom shall…
This article was originally posted in May of 1994. We speak of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The early Church tended to speak of Him as Father, Word, and Spirit. In this short essay, I want to suggest some other ways to think of the Trinity, ways that…
Jonah’s Home The story of JONAH belongs in the book of KINGS. JONAH balances the story of the unnamed Judean prophet (1K13) in KINGS’ literary structure. Each story describes a journeying prophet that crosses land or sea to confront a wayward king. The two stories are located during the reigns…
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Keil and Delitzsch argue that the phrasing of Job 19:25-26 doesn’t directly point to a hope for bodily resurrection. When his flesh is cut off (like a tree; the piel of the same verb is in Isaiah 10:34), he will see God “from ( min ) his flesh.” But, as…
PROVERBS 27:1 Like James (4:13-17), Solomon teaches us that we don’t have control over the future. We are creatures, living in sequence from moment to moment. The past leaves its imprint in our memories and in the artifacts that surround us – books and buildings, roads and institutions. But we…
In a superb article in a 1963 issue of Past & Present , GEM de Ste. Croix asks why Christians were persecuted. He finds the answer in Christian exclusiveness, their refusal to pay homage to the gods, which endangered the pax deorum on which the empire depended. Both common pagans…
The idea of Odysseus as a hero of mind or thought has an ancient pedigree. The Pythagoreans interpreted Odysseus as a thinking man who passed through the underworld on a path of denial of the flesh and escape from the eternal round of reincarnation. Proclus wrote, “Many are the wanderings…
Proverbs 9:1-5: Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; s he has slaughtered her meat, she has mixed her wine, she has also furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens, she cries out from the highest places of the city, “w hoever is…
“With what disgust, contempt, and hatred Christ must look upon every second of our lives, the reviewing of which must be a long torture for us, were such a judgment in our future!” These are the words of a Presbyterian minister, writing in a prominent evangelical magazine. He’s trying to…
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