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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 3

The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Patriarchal Dominion

The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 6

Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Studies

Re-creation in the Ascension Offering

The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
Biblical Horizons

The Framework Hypothesis: A Gnostic Heresy

Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 2

The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998

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Neuhaus’s “Pattern of defiance”

I’m just now getting around to looking at Damon Linker’s expose book on the Theocons , so’s I can find out what those First Things folks are really like. I discover that Neuhaus early developed a “pattern of defiance.” Evidence? Oh, you would ask. Well, Neuhaus said his father was…

February 15, 2007

Neuhaus’s “Pattern of defiance”

I’m just now getting around to looking at Damon Linker’s expose book on the Theocons , so’s I can find out what those First Things folks are really like. I discover that Neuhaus early developed a “pattern of defiance.” Evidence? Oh, you would ask. Well, Neuhaus said his father was…

February 15, 2007

Trinitarian concursus

In the latest IJST , Paul Nimmo of Cambridge discusses Barth’s doctrine of divine concursus, contesting the idea (advanced by George Hunsinger among others) that Barth’s concursus doctrine is “Chalcedonian.” Early in the article, he summarizes Barth’s treatment in the Church Dogmatics . As one would expect, Barth wants to…

February 15, 2007

The typology of 2 John

John, the elder, addresses a “chosen Lady,” warning her and her children about “deceivers” who might try to win them over. John especially wants to draw the line at table fellowship: Don’t eat with the deceiver, John tells the Lady. Sound familiar? It’s Eden, but not quite Eden. After all,…

February 15, 2007
Theology

Law as gospel

I recently saw the film, The End of the Spear , the story of Nate Saint and Jim Eliot’s mission to Ecuador. After the tribe spears the missionaries, one of the women from the tribe, who had left to live with the missionaries some years before, returns home to announce…

February 15, 2007

Fourfold truth

John uses the word “truth” four times in the opening three verses of 2 John. Truth is fourfold, stretching out to the four corners of the earth. It also seems possible to take “truth” here, at least at a secondary level, as a reference to Christ - especially in the…

February 15, 2007

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