Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
After Elijah’s battered and depressed howling in the wilderness it must have seemed like the new prophet came eating and drinking. Which is a pattern we see again in the New Testament—John is explicitly identified with Elijah (Luke 1.17, Matthew 11.14), howling the truth in the wilderness that the people…
Reading Robert Conquest’s biography of Stalin 1 has opened new lines of meditation on Paul’s command in Colossians 3:9. But before turning to that, let me briefly indicate what Paul is not saying. He is not saying that there is no such thing as righteous deception, such as Jael practiced…
You won’t find wild lions today in Israel. But lions used to range much more widely than they do now, and in biblical times they were a menace that shepherds in Israel had to contend with. David did as a shepherd boy, and Amos—who “ was among the sheepbreeders of…
I would like to remedy a flaw for English speakers in the book of Genesis. A flaw that may seem innocuous, but we must remember where the devil lives...in the details. If we are to fear the Lord, it behooves our translation committees to ensure that the fearfulness of God…
While reading at my son’s baseball game this week, a mom from our school approached me and asked if I was reading Dante. I wasn’t, but our sons are both reading Divine Comedy in their sophomore literature class, so it was a reasonable question. What unfolded was a quick conversation…
In the first two essays in this series, I addressed the question of how the nations would learn about Israel’s Torah, in the second essay especially emphasizing the aesthetic aspects of Israel’s testimony. For we naturally wonder: How would people in Mesopotamia or Egypt, not to mention the rest of…
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In his challenging revisionist treatment of justification ( Judgment & Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul , Hendrickson), Chris VanLandingham examines various meanings of the verb DIKAIOO in both the Old Testament and intertestamental Jewish literature. He finds a close connection between the DIKAI- root and purity concerns,…
NT Wright has become famous, or notorious, for suggesting that justification is a declaration concerning one’s membership in the community of God. In his 2006 book Justified before God (Abingdon), Methodist theologian Walter Klaiber describes the Hebrew court situation in a way that makes sense of Wright’s claims: In declaring…
A while back, Covenant Seminary’s Sean Lucas reviewed my book Against Christianity . I read the review at the time, not carefully, and quickly found other things to do. Few things are more boring than defending what I’ve written. With the recent release PCA statement on the Federal Vision, and…
One of my recurring frustrations with recent debates in the Reformed world is a widespread failure of theological imagination. Too many seem to operate on the assumption that we have everything already figured out; we have all possible categories and positions ready to hand. All we need do is deploy…
Like several other Reformed denominations, the RCUS has a study committee examining the Federal Vision theology, particularly as it pertains to justification, and part of that report focuses on my article, “Judge Me, O God.” I have a few comments on the report’s representation of my argument in that article.…
Nathaniel Altman writes in his book Sacred Water : “underground aqueducts have brought water from the Croton Reservoir to New York City since the early 1840s. The water flowed originally into a reservoir located in Central Park that could hold 180 million gallons. Soon realizing that even such a large…
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