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Apostle Paul

Paul in Prison: Ephesus or Rome?

In the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to hardships in his ministry in Asia, specifically Ephesus (1 Corinthians 4:9-13; 15:32; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 4:8-12; 6:4-5; 11:23-25). However, the multiple imprisonments Paul mentions are not fully reflected in Luke’s account of Paul’s ministry — Luke only records a…

by Ralph Allan SmithFebruary 15, 2022
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Epistemology

Vertical Living

After all these months pondering integration, I have come to the point of believing that the dynamic of integration just is the real at its heart. Everything that is real or comes to be real is a dynamo of integrative coherence. I also believe it is true that the real…

by Esther Lightcap MeekFebruary 1, 2022
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Books

Tom Holland and the Liberating Power of Christianity

Have you heard of Tom Holland? Not the young Tom Holland of Spiderman fame. No doubt you’ve heard of him. I’m referring to the middle age Oxford-trained historian who recently wrote Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind . (Both Hollands are British, so you’ll be forgiven for confusing them.)…

by Gerald HiestandJanuary 25, 2022
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Biblical Horizons

"Do This!"

This article was originally published in 1990. (The essay that follows concerns a rather touchy subject: how the Lord’s Supper is to be done. I am not writing to insult or offend, but to challenge. To that end I have not "held back" but have "gone ahead" and said what…

by James B. JordanJanuary 19, 2022
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American Culture

The Dominion Trap

This article was originally published in 1990. In Genesis One, God told Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on…

by James B. JordanJanuary 13, 2022
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Biblical Studies

Will Few Be Saved?

On several occasions the gospels record Jesus teaching that only a few will be saved (Matthew 7:14, Matthew 22:14, and Luke 13:23). Careful readers of Scripture should begin to wrestle with how these passages found in the gospels fit together with other passages that teach that many will be saved…

by Manny LucasJanuary 11, 2022

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Become as I am

Paul appeals to the Galatians to “become as I, because I also as you” (4:12). In what respect are they to become like Paul? In what respect did Paul become as they? Paul immediately follows with: “you know that through a weakness of flesh I preached to you at first”…

February 19, 2013
History

University Terrorism

Max Boot defines terrorism as “the use of violence by nonstate actors directed primarily against noncombatants . . . in order to intimidate or coerce them and change their government’s policies or composition” ( Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present ). So…

February 19, 2013
History

Jew among Romans

Josephus is known mainly as a historian of ancient Judaism and the Jewish war. Frederic Raphael’s lucid A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus pays more attention to the life than the work, and presents Josephus as archetype as well as man: “The attachment, in midlife,…

February 19, 2013

Obedient death

Anselm is commonly charged with portraying the Father as a sadistic child-abuser who demands a death from His innocent Son. In a 2009 article in The Saint Anselm Journal , Daniel Shannon argues that Anselm says no such thing, and that in fact “God did not compel the innocent to…

February 18, 2013

Baptismal efficacy

The Reformers are often charged with diminishing the potency of baptism. The opposite is the case. George Huntston Williams (article in Church History , 1957) notes the gradual “depression and routinization of baptism” in the early medieval period, a process that he says was nearly complete by the 11th century.…

February 18, 2013

Idiopoiesis

In an old (1957) Church History article, George Huntston Williams explored the sacramental background to various atonement theories. Patristic theories ( Christus Victor in its various forms) he associates with baptism; Anselm with penitence and Eucharist. Along the way he notes that Athanasius speaks of baptismal appropriation of the work…

February 18, 2013

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