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Advent

Advent and Christmas Music Recommendations

Inspired by our recent podcast on Christmas and Advent music recommendations, we offer here a list of excellent recordings that are sure to enrich your Advent and Christmas season. Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning Paul McCreesh with the Gabrieli Consort and Players Amazon | Spotify | Apple Music 2. Christmas…

by John Ahern and Paul BuckleyDecember 23, 2020
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Advent

Between the Altar and the City: Isaiah 65:17-25

In the year 1483 in the city of Nuremberg, the leaders of the renowned Saint Lawrence Church were seeking to redesign their altar, and above the table where the priests presided over the eucharist, they wanted new art installed above the prestigious Krell altar. What they decided on took everyone…

by Casey BedellDecember 22, 2020
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Advent

Why We're the Real Seventh Day Adventists

The consequences of disobedience start with exile from the garden of God and the Tree of Yahweh, but they do not end there. They cascade down through the structure of the dynastic order. Everything which had previously been given in the Kingdom of Elohim is either taken back or curtailed…

by Jerry BowyerDecember 18, 2020
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Biblical Studies

Psalm 23: A Lesson in Reading Biblical Poetry

Parallelism: A Course Correction If you have ever studied Hebrew poetry, you have probably heard its basic poetic feature described as “parallelism.” Hebrew poetry is not metered, it does not rhyme, it does not employ many of the common poetical tropes, but its distinctive (and almost universal) feature is commonly…

by Ryan HandermannDecember 15, 2020
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Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 17 and the Separation of Powers

In The Crown and the Courts , David C. Flatto traces the development of the idea of judicial independence in Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures – particularly Deuteronomy 17 – from the Second Temple and early rabbinic periods. These periods roughly span 400 BC to 300 AD. Flatto does not…

by James R. RogersDecember 11, 2020
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Advent

Zechariah and John: A Story in Names

A curious feature of the Infancy Narratives in the Gospel of Luke is the naming of John the Baptist. When the angel appears to Zechariah, he is instructed to give his promised son the name John (Luke 1:13). On the day of John’s circumcision, Luke tells us that “they [presumably…

by Rhys LavertyDecember 8, 2020

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Doing Right

Chris Tilling’s Beyond Old and New Perspectives on Paul reviews, summarizes, evaluates the work of Douglas Campbell, especially his monumental The Deliverance of God . It’s a thorough review. There are essays from leading New Testament scholars, and Campbell responds to each, and also contributes several substantial essays of his…

August 19, 2014

Leaves Without Fruit

Jesus comes to a fig tree looking for fruit, and finds only leaves. He curses the tree (Mark 11:12-14). In the next scene, He’s in the temple throwing the furniture and calling it a den of brigands (vv. 15-18). The next morning, the fig tree is withered, and Jesus talks…

August 19, 2014

Patterning the 144,000

When Israel camps around the tabernacle at Sinai, Yahweh lays out a map for the tribes, the Levites and priests forming the inner cordon around the tent and the tribes arranged more distantly with groups of three at each point of the compass (Numbers 2). Each group has a lead…

August 18, 2014

Relational Soul

Richard Plass and James Cofield base their book, The Relational Soul , with the claim that “a deep participation in the life of another is the lifeblood of the soul” (15). Relationships are not epiphenomenal or added extras. They form the core of the soul. Plass and Cofield cite recent…

August 18, 2014

Ravished and Reformed

Belden Lane knows that his thesis is surprising. In fact, the word “surprising” appears in the subtitle of his 2011 Ravished by Beauty , a study of Reformed spirituality’s “surprising legacy.” Neither ravishment nor beauty fits the stereotype of Reformed Christianity. But Lane says that both are central to Reformed…

August 18, 2014

Unripe figs

In the Song of Songs, the Lover calls His beloved out to romp, encouraging her by telling her it’s the time of love - springtime, when everything comes back to life. There are seven signs of the new creation of spring: winter past, rain over, flowers appear, pruning, turtledoves coo,…

August 18, 2014

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