Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jer 31:15). The Night of the Hunter belongs on every Christian’s Christmas list. My family has even…
One important part of Jesus's birth narrative is the presence of angels. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she would bear a son. And then, on the night Jesus was born, a whole host of angels appeared to the shepherds. Angels are mysterious creatures to us.…
I was settled nicely into my chair and listening to the conversation in an undergrad religion seminar, my last required course to graduate. Though a few Christians sat scattered around the room, the course itself was dedicated to poking holes in traditional understandings of the Bible: our readings deconstructed notions…
God’s symbols belong to Him and to His people. They are constantly at work in the world, including the world of film, music, painting, architecture, and other artforms. You cannot escape God’s symbols or the meaning He has woven into the created order. Artists use and borrow God’s symbols, whether…
For centuries, Christians identified Israel in the Old Testament as a single, literal ethnic group, often called “the Jews.” Even supersessionists – those who believed the Church superseded Israel – assumed the clear-cut, technical definition of “Israel” in the Bible is the ethnic group. However, a deeper dive into Genesis,…
Misreading Intent In the opening verses of Matthew 11, the reader is confronted immediately by John the baptizer who has been imprisoned since 4:12. John poses a question to Jesus, inquiring from prison as to whether or not he is Israel’s awaited Messiah or if they should anticipate another: “Are…
Showing page 1 of 309
Showing page 5 of 43
2 John 1, 3: The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth . . . Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. In the sermon, we…
2 John 4: I was glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. As we saw in the sermon this morning, John addresses this second epistle to a church that he calls the “chosen Lady.” This Lady…
This Wednesday is “Ash Wednesday,” the beginning of the traditional church season of Lent. Lent is a fast season, traditionally set aside as a time of penitence and abstinence, a forty-day period of self-denial and meditation on the cross. How depressing, we might think, to spend forty days every year…
Why did God make horse flies? In 1728, William Byrd of Virginia had a guess: God made horseflies “that men should exercise their wits and industry to guard themselves against them.”
INTRODUCTION The opening verses of Proverbs 17 continue a section begun in 16:31. 16:31 refers to the “crown of glory” of gray hair, and that matches the “crown of old men” and “glory” referred to in 17:6. These verses form a frame around the section and set up the themes…
Elsewhere on the Web, a number of people have taken issue, vigorous issue, with a few posts on this site where I quote other writers using vulgar words. I intend to write something more specific in response to that, but for the moment I’ll simply post an article I wrote…
Showing page 1716 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
