Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Evangelistic Message to the Uninformed: 1 Timothy 3.14-16 Even though this is written as a sermon for delivery, and even though it was preached in a homiletics class, I decided I can’t post it as a sermon because it was not truly preached at a place where nonchristians wanted to…
If we only read the Gospels of Mark and Luke, we might get the impression that Jesus’ ascension was on resurrection Sunday. Matthew speaks of going to Galilee but he does not put things into a clear time frame. John shows us that Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days…
The most cursory glance at the history of Western literature reveals that it has been deeply influenced by the Bible. Some of the greatest classics of Western literature draw their plots, characters, and ideas largely from Scripture; Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost are two of the most notable…
Few themes emerge as profoundly and persistently in the streams of biblical narrative as the conflict between light and darkness, and the juxtaposition of humanity with monstrosity. These themes not only weave through the fabric of Scripture, emerging in stories from Genesis to Revelation, but also stitch together the human…
In John Wenham’s work, Easter Enigma , he devotes an entire chapter to Mary Magdalene, which is rephrased and summarized here. 1 One of the interesting things that Wenham said was that Mary Magdalene was the second “most favored woman in the Bible.” 2 He adds, “Yet apart from a…
God made man to live in a larger relational context, and even in high rebellion, man cannot escape his created nature. Instead, that nature takes revenge on rebellious man. Autonomous and alone, the self craves absolution but recognizes no authority that might give it; it thirsts for glory but rejects…
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Isaiah 53 has often been read as a text dealing mainly with “atonement theory.” That is, it is a text that explains the mechanics of how the atonement dealt with sin. That is certainly part of what we’ll find, but the text itself is really more a prediction of the…
Leonard Vander Zee ( Christ, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper ) shows some chutzpah in addressing the question of Eucharistic sacrifice, and in suggesting that there are senses in which the Eucharist is properly said to be sacrificial. He offers a few quotations to show the Reformation pedigree of this…
A 1982 debate between architects Christopher Alexander and Peter Einsenman focused on contrasting cosmologies expressed by traditional versus modernist architecture. At one point, the exchanged focused specifically on the pitched roof. Alexander, advocating an architecture of comfort, harmony, and feeling, claimed that “the pitched roof contains a very, very primitive…
Following hints from David Aune, Alastair Campbell argues (in an Evangelical Quarterly article) that Revelation 19:11-21 does not describe a last battle but a triumphal parade modeled on a Roman Triumph. He quotes the following description of such an event: “The victorious general whom the senate had granted the right…
William Dumbrell's The End of the Beginning examines the Old Testament backgrounds to the final visions of Revelation, chapters 21-22. He looks at those chapters through various lenses - new Jerusalem, new temple, new covenant, new Israel, new creation. Reviewing Ezekiel's vision of restoration, he points to the obvious, that…
In the ancient world, Aries was, Bruce Malina observes, “the first of all constellations, the first created celestial body marking the inauguration of the cosmos” ( The New Jerusalem in the Revelation of John , 67). He cites Cicero in support: “When the vault of the sky returns to the…
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