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Writing

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

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Ezra

Ezra: The Aaronic Rest-Giver

If you’re a preacher looking for good commentaries on Ezra, you’ll struggle. Certainly to find ones that wrestle in good detail with the text. And certainly ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. There’s a good bit more for Nehemiah, which is odd, as the two are…

by Rhys LavertyJune 8, 2021
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1 John

1 John in Community

Quick thought experiment: try to pretend you’ve never read 1 John before. Read 1:1-6. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Now, on to v. 7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with ______….” What word would you expect in that blank, based…

by Tim NicholsJune 1, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Spending Time with Noah: Reflections on Prepositions in the Flood Narrative

In my work as a Bible translator, I was recently checking our translation team’s draft of Genesis 8:8, which says of Noah (translating the Hebrew quite literally): And he sent out the dove from with him to see: had the waters lessened from upon the face of the ground? Part…

by Josh JensenMay 25, 2021
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Philosophy

Steven Weinberg Destroyed My Faith

Just in case a reader may not know Weinberg, he is a theoretical physicist and the winner of the Nobel prize in physics in 1979, as well as countless other prizes for his research. He is also a prolific, lucid, and captivating writer. If you want to read something on…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 18, 2021
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Colossians

Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:15-20 is a famous passage in Paul’s epistles because it is a succinct and powerful poem. It appears even to have been a hymn. Given the uniquely Pauline language — “reconciliation” is a term used only by Paul — it should not seem odd to attribute the poem/hymn to…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 11, 2021
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Movies

Terror of Knowing Myself

Stalker (1979) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky based on Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It shows a day from the life of a stalker, a man who enters the so-called "Zone", an Alien landing site, where he leads people to a room that grants people’s innermost desires, which…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 4, 2021

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A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 3

INTRODUCTION The liturgy is a journey. We begin by gathering from our homes to one place, where we can worship God together. The minister invites us to enter the Lord?s house by faith, to ascend the heavenly Zion to worship Him. Recognizing that we are unfit to enter, we confess…

February 5, 2005

Theology of the Cross

Speaking of Forde, his little book on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation (1518), entitled On Being a Theologian of the Cross includes a number of insights worth pondering. 1) Theological Thesis 15 of the Disputation states that free will could not “remain in a state of innocence, much less do good, in…

February 4, 2005

Lutheran “Deliverdict”

In the Husbands and Treier volume, Robert Kolb discusses various contemporary Lutheran theologians who are attempting to bring Luther to bear on contemporary theology and life. He focuses attention on Gerhard Forde, Wilfried Harle, Oswald Bayer, and a few others. His discussion of the claim that “Justification is God’s killing…

February 4, 2005

Lutheran “Deliverdict”

In the Husbands and Treier volume, Robert Kolb discusses various contemporary Lutheran theologians who are attempting to bring Luther to bear on contemporary theology and life. He focuses attention on Gerhard Forde, Wilfried Harle, Oswald Bayer, and a few others. His discussion of the claim that “Justification is God’s killing…

February 4, 2005

Seifrid on Luther on Justification

Mark Seifrid has an important article contrasting Luther and Melanchthon on justification in the Husbands and Treier volume on the subject. He examines a private discussion between the two Reformers that took place in the home of Johannes Bugenhagen in 1536. A number of differences emerge, in their assessment of…

February 3, 2005

Church Fights

In an unsentimental discussion of the promise and difficulties of Christian community (in Freedom for Ministry ), Richard Neuhaus has these sage words about church fights: “Not infrequently, life together is mainly strife together. This commonly comes as a shock to young men and women entering the ministry. Among those…

February 3, 2005

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