Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
1 Chronicles 9:1 seems to bring the genealogies of 1 Chronicles to an end. The Chronicler has recorded the genealogy of the human race from Adam, focusing on the descendants of Abraham through Jacob. Summing it all up, he says, “So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they…
The “personalist” understanding of the Trinity, articulated most influentially in the work of John Zizioulas, has fallen on hard times. Recent scholars have attacked Zizioulas’s idea that Cappadocian Trinitarianism represented an ontological revolution, hammering on the distinction between divine and human personhood. Michel Barnes’s conclusion is the most drastic of…
Biblical Theology is often defined as the historical unfolding of God’s revelation, or of God’s revelation and of the history of his covenantal redemption and transformation of humanity and the world. In practice, Biblical Theology is usually broader than this, and also includes the study of literary structure and of…
We are made to be happy. Created to enter into the eternal joy of God, our whole being inclines to that end, but the fallen world has put forth barriers and by our own sin we bar ourselves from that endless delight, and death blinds us to that reality. Yet…
At the end of Revelation, John sees the heavenly city descending to earth. The city shines with the brilliance of God's glory, which lightens the nations, so that kings bring their glory to the city. This is not a vision of the final new heaven and new earth. It's a…
“No one has ever seen God,” writes John (John 1:18). If this is the case, then how can we speak about God? Some people say we actually cannot. Or at least we cannot speak about God positively, i.e. who He is. We can only say who or what God is…
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Romans 1-2 are like a one-two punch, Paul's prophetic trap to bring his Jewish readers to a shock of repentance. First he gives a blistering indictment of the world. It's dominated by idolatry, sexual perversion, depravity and all unrighteousness (Romans 1:18-32). It's an indictment that every Jew would agree with.…
Nearly every commentator on Romans recognizes that 1:16-17 contains the theme of the letter. Paul boasts of His gospel because in it the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith. Everyone agrees the verses are crucial. But there's little agreement about what the verses mean. In the medieval…
The day of the Lord has not come, Paul assures the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). It will not come until two things happen: the apostasy and the revelation of the man of lawlessness (v. 3). Paul tells Timothy the same: In the latter days, some will fall away from the…
This essay was written by Rev. Ralph Smith, a missionary in Tokyo, Japan, and a regular contributor to Theopolis . Jeffrey Epstein called our bluff. Writing in the New York Times , James B. Stewart reports Epstein’s opinion that “criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that…
Paul introduces himself to the Roman church as an apostle, set apart for the "gospel of God." What is the good news? We don't have to guess because Paul tells us. It's a message rooted in the promises of the prophets in the Scriptures (Romans 1:2). It's about the Son…
The Sixth Word says, “Thou shalt not kill.” But the Bible doesn’t treat all forms of man-slaying equally. It doesn’t prohibit every form of killing. Scripture permits killing animals for food, self-defense (Samson kills a lion), or protection of property (David kills a bear that threatens his flock). Israelites were…
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