Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In a recent article in Biblical Horizons , I argued that the imagery of James 1:21 alludes to baptism, and particularly to baptism as an ordination and incorporation into the holy priesthood. This understanding of baptism as ordination to priesthood is not, I have since discovered, original, but in fact…
He will be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two of them (Zechariah 6:13b). A prime difficulty in the interpretation of this verse is the antecedent of the pronoun "them." A number of alternatives have been offered. Some suggest that the "two"…
Like certain kinds of music, the unchanging rhythm of Aquinas's Summa gets into your bones. Read a few sections and it begins to run through your head. You start drumming your fingers, humming, swaying gently to the rhythm of Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, “It seems-On the contrary-I answer.” The only…
The Book of Revelation is a gold mine of liturgical information. The various hymns and exclamations in Revelation have always been used in Christian worship. As I have been studying Revelation this year, it occurred to me that make a complete hymn out of the various hymns in the book.…
In the book of Revelation we find a triad of Strong Angels, and another triad of Other Angels. The purpose of this essay is to explore the Biblical background of these two sets, and thus fill out their meaning. The first triad of angels we encounter in the Bible comes…
In Revelation, the term aggelos means messenger, of course, but with a special emphasis on messenger as covenant administrator. This is immediately obvious from the fact that the angels are constantly acting to enforce the covenant one way or another: sealing people, bringing judgment, calling for repentance, etc. They are…
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Robert Weldon Whalen, Sacred Spring: God and the Birth of Modernism in Fin de Siecle Vienna . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Hardback, 339 pp. $25.00. Sacred Spring is part travelogue, part intellectual history, part art and music criticism. Whalen’s thesis is that Viennese modernism, the source of so much of…
One Axel Schmidt has written a book entitled: Die Suche nach dem rechten Lebens-Mittel. Harry Potter als Beispiel einer modernen praeparatio Evangelii . “Harry Potter” is part of the subtitle, of course, the Harry Potter that, for Schmidt, is an “example of a modern preparation of the gospel.” Harry Potter.…
Two notes about Babel: 1) What does it mean to construct a tower to heaven? Traditionally, this has been understood literally: They were trying to build a tower high enough to reach the sky. But were they really that naive? Surely they had climbed mountains and realized that the sky…
INTRODUCTION “Follow Me,” Jesus said as the new Moses, leading a restored Israel out of the old Egypt-Israel that was under the reign of Death. How do we follow Him? That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. THE TEXT “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on…
Matthew 4:24: And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Jesus comes preaching, casting out demons, and healing. In doing all this, He fulfills the prophecies…
Jesus is the light of the world, the eternal radiance of His Father. When He comes into the world, He chooses to dwell in a place of darkness and gloom, a place under the shadow of death, the despised borderland of Galilee. Good for Jesus, we say. We’re happy He…
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