Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Whatever else the 2016 Presidential cycle has accomplished, it has brought the chasm between nationalism and globalism into sharp relief. Many see this divide as the issue of the campaign (Robert Merry) or of the century (Pat Buchanan). It seems to be a choice we have to make. Christians must…
Salvation is a gift. The righteousness of justification (Romans 5:17) and eternal life (Romans 6:23) are gifts freely offered. According to Risto Saarinen ( God and the Gift ), “God is directly called the giver 104 times [in Scripture], of which 42 are in John’s Gospel and John’s Letters. In…
In the last 40 odd years of studying the Bible, I have read more essays and commentaries on Deuteronomy 6:4 than I can recall. I have also more than twice changed my view on what should be the correct translation of Israel’s central confession. What is so complicated? After the…
Satan is currently bound from gathering the nations in kingly rebellion so that Jesus might gather them in priestly unity. Everything which Scripture records for us, no matter how mundane or mysterious, exists as part of a process of growth to maturity. This transformation is achieved through relationships established by…
God’s people are a missionary people, and this is not true only of the New Testament church. God called Abraham to bless the Gentiles through him, and one of Israel’s recurring sins was her failure to carry out this mission. Israel was supposed evoke praise from the Gentiles, but instead…
Are you ready for the New Year? Are you ready to follow Jesus wherever He takes you this year? Are you read to follow Him into the garden? Are you ready to stay at His side to be arrested, interrogated, tortured, crucified, buried? Are you ready to follow Jesus wherever…
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Revelation 18 ends with a terrible description of post-apocalyptic Babylon, a city fallen. The description focuses on the silence, enumerating the sounds ( phone , 3x in vv. 22-23) that are no longer found. Sounds, and the unseen sights. We've seen this scene before - in I Am Legend and…
Though over a decade old, David Martin's Pentecotalism: The World Their Parish is still a revelation. Densely textured in both form and matter, it demands, and rewards, slow and careful reading. This is partly because of the book's reprise of Martin's arguments concerning secularization (see his updated theorizing On Secularization…
April Westbrook's “And He Will Take Your Daughters” takes its title from 1 Samuel 8, the prophet Samuel's warning speech to Israel about the dangers of kingship. Westbrook shows that the stories of both Saul and David bear out the warning. The “woman stories” in 1-2 Samuel not only expose…
In a number of places in his writing on Pentecostalism, David Martin refers to a musical variant of the “Halevy thesis,” Elie Halevy's argument that the evangelical revival that birthed Methodism was the framework within which English religion and culture developed during the 19th century. Martin's variant is a musical…
Revelation 18 has an obvious surface structure. Three speakers are introduced - an angel from heaven (v. 1), another voice from heaven (v. 4), and a strong angel tossing a millstone (v. 21). The first angel and the strong angel have a similar message. The first speaks of the fall…
To defend the resurrection, Paul indulges in a piece of cosmology (1 Corinthians 15:35-49), which circulates around seed, body, flesh, and glory. A seed goes into the ground and a plant comes up. Each seed has a body of its own, a gift from God, and each plant too has…
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