Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Because of sin, the arts sometimes do not serve to glorify but to debase. Sinful men make their environments ugly, and create ugly art to “enhance” their ugly words. But since all men are still God’s images, no men are able to live with such ugliness all the time. Thus,…
Arts and literature reviews in most evangelical Christian publications generally approach their subjects in terms of ideology. We are told whether or not the film or book is acceptable in terms of morals, sexual graphicness, and theological accuracy. While there is definitely a place for such reviews, I fear that…
We speak of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The early Church tended to speak of Him as Father, Word, and Spirit. In this short essay, I want to suggest some other ways to think of the Trinity, ways that I have found pastorally helpful in my own life…
I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and guard My commandments (Ex. 20:5-6). The Second Word forbids acts of ceremonial…
8. The Table of Nations If we assume births every two years, and about 30 years between generations (cp. Gen. 11:12-24), we can come up with an approximate series of dates for the generations recorded in Genesis 10. We shall assume that all three of Noah’s sons had their firstborn…
Zechariah’s first prophecy (Zech. 1:1-6) was delivered in the eighth month of the second year of Darius. The notation of this date serves a number of purposes. Most obviously, it relates Zechariah’s prophecies to those of Haggai. By the time Zechariah delivered his first prophecy, Haggai had already chided the…
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Luther writes (Commentary on Gal 2:20), “Christ and I must be joined together so that He lives in me and I in Him - and what a wonderful way of speaking that is. For because He lives in me, whatever there is in me of grace, righteousness, life, peace, salvation…
Calvin uses “regeneration” to describe the process of mortification and vivification by which the sinner is renewed in the image of God. This differs from the sense the word has in later Reformed writers. Melanchthon ( Apology for the Augsburg Confession ) uses the word in yet another sense: “we…
Robert Preus has a refreshingly unreconstructed chapter on divergent views on grace in his 1997 Justification and Rome . He asks why recent Catholic-Protestant dialogues have not addressed the issue of grace more directly, and claims that the affirmation that “justification is by grace” has quite a different meaning in…
There’s a fascinating review of Richard Rhodes’ recent biography of Audubon in the Dec 6 issue of The Weekly Standard . The reviewer has this to say about the “pervasive strangeness ” of Audubon’s art: “Audubon’s most powerful compositions (with few exceptions, such as the regal wild turkey cock and…
Martin Chemnitz provides an intriguing discussion of Abraham’s justification in his classic Examination of the Council of Trent . He pinpoints the debate between Protestant and “papalist” as follows: The issue is whether the ground of our justification is found in our post-regeneration works or in an alien righteousness of…
INTRODUCTION According to Jesus?Econsistent testimony, the Father sent Jesus into the world (John 3:34; 5:24, 30; 7:28-29; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3). Jesus didn?t come to protect us from an overbearing and hostile Father. He came in obedience to the Father?s commission. In fact, everything Jesus did manifests the Father (John 5:19-20),…
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