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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 4

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 4. The Three Basic Phases of the Covenant We have introduced the three phases of the covenant, from childhood to adulthood to full maturity. Let us look more fully at…

by James B. JordanAugust 31, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 3

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 3. Covenant Maturation Let us now turn to the application of this One Eternal Covenant into history. We have been looking at Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology has to do with…

by James B. JordanAugust 29, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark #2: Holy, Holy, Holy

Hymn Bark is a series designed to purify our good hymns from errors, and purge some bad ones. Here is chapter 2: Not really much wrong with this hymn, though I wish musicians would teach the congregation how to sing it. Routinely the note at the end of line 3…

by James B. JordanAugust 26, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark: The Lorica of Patrick

I begin here a series of criticisms of hymns commonly sung in Reformed and Presbyterian circles. I begin with the hymn “I bind myself,” commonly called “The Lorica. There is only one textual problem with the usual sung version of this, and that is the phrase “eternal rocks.” Obviously that…

by James B. JordanAugust 22, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 2

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 2. What is the Covenant? There are many and varied descriptions of what the Bible means by the word “covenant” (Hebrew: berith). We are tempted to write that there are…

by James B. JordanAugust 22, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 1

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 1. What is Meant by Biblical Theology “Theology” is language (logos) about God (theos). We can distinguish two broad kinds of theology: Biblical Theology and Ecclesiastical Theology. Biblical Theology concerns…

by James B. JordanAugust 20, 2011

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Entering Rest, Entering Song

1 Chronicles 23:24-27 is arranged chiastically: A. Levites numbered from 20 years and up. B. David said. C. Yahweh rests and dwells. C'. Levites no longer carry tent and implements. B'. Words of David. A'. Levites numbered from 20 years and up. C' is disputable, but the structure nearly forces…

December 16, 2016

My Bright Abyss

O ne paragraph illustrates both the reasons I admire Christian Wiman's 2013 searingly honest My Bright Abyss , and the reasons I find the book frustrating to the point of irritation. A poet and erstwhile editor of Poetry , Wiman came to Christianity as an adult in the midst of…

December 15, 2016

Sincerity or Ritual

T he authors of Ritual and its Consequences (104–6) note a contrast between civilizations that are bound by authoritative rituals and those that are not. The latter are deeply concerned with sincerity: “ Civilizations or movements with a diminished concern for ritual have an overwhelming concern with sincerity, which we…

December 15, 2016

Prehistory of “Priestcraft”

“P riestcraft” was one of the charges regularly lodged by skeptics against clergy and theologians in early modern Europe. It connoted obscurantism, deception, manipulation of popular opinion. It connoted everything wrong with established Christianity, especially in its more catholic manifestations. Not all the charges of “priestcraft” were directed at clergy.…

December 14, 2016

Secularization

O ne of the virtues of Anthony J. Carroll's Protestant Modernity is his effort to put flesh on the bony term “secularization,” often batted about in an airily sociological fashion. On-the-ground secularization is easiest to spot in Revolutionary France, when institutions and personnel and property and records were removed from…

December 13, 2016

The American Religion of Psychology

K eith G. Meador devotes his contribution to The Secular Revolution to an analysis of the therapeutic takeover of American Protestantism. He focuses on the role of the Christian Century under the editorship of Charles Clayton Morrison, who used the magazine to advance a “scientific” and simplified Christianity supposedly fit…

December 13, 2016

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