Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
G.K. Chesterton assumes a surprising and memorable perspective from which to view the events of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11) The Donkey by: G.K. Chesterton When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head…
There is a common biblical principle: you must give back what you steal. In the Bible, restitution is repayment with interest. If you rob someone of their money, you have to pay back double what you stole. A thief must pay back fourfold if he steals a sheep, and if…
Identifying Isaiah’s suffering servant with the promised Messiah is unthinkable for a Jew because it combines the offices of humble priest and victorious king. While it is frustrating that Jews refuse to see the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53, the reluctance of Christians to interpret the passage in its…
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6 (ESV) The command to praise God is pervasive throughout Scripture. In the verse above the Spirit calls all things with breath to praise the Lord. Song is also clearly featured all throughout Scripture and is a featured…
“Gender is a social construct.” That’s shocking to people who have assumed that gender and sex were synonyms but at least since I was in college, in the ‘80s, we were taught that “gender” refers to the forms, the customs, the traditions that our culture teaches us to define what…
In Genesis 49, Jacob prophesies about (blesses and curses?) his twelve sons. The first three of them don’t fare well. Jacob recalls Reuben’s offense of taking his concubine (Genesis 35:22) and the murderous violence of Simeon’s and Levi against the Canaanite inhabitants of the city of Shechem (Genesis 34). He…
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John Robbins ‘s current Trinity Review is devoted to a sharply negative review of my book Against Christianity . So far as I can tell, Robbins caught me in one error: I did, as he said, misuse the phrase “beg the question” at one point. Otherwise, I would say that…
Again, much of this is from Jim Jordan ‘s From Bread to Wine . Kingly Rule, 1 Kings 3:1-28 INTRODUCTION Israel moved from its priestly to its kingly phase through a process of destruction and renewal. The Mosaic order broke down after the battle of Aphek (1 Samuel 4-6), and…
David Yeago makes this important comment about Luther’s “catholic” turn after 1518: “For Luther after 1518, Christ is central not as pattern but as person; we are saved by the faith that acknowledges his authority, competence, and willingness to rescue those who call upon him. The gospel that is proclaimed…
McGrath gives an account of the development of the doctrine of imputation within early Reformation theology. He notes that there are elements of the doctrine already in the early Luther: “The reinterpretation of grace as an absolute external, and faith as a partial internal, quality permits Luther to maintain what…
Who wrote this? ” opera sunt necessaria ad salutem, sed non causant salutem, quia fides sola dat vitam ” (works are necessary to salvation, yet they do not cause salvation, for faith alone gives life). Norman Shepherd would be a good guess, except that he doesn’t write in Latin. Calvin…
Alister McGrath’s discussion of Luther’s theology of justification in his standard work, Iustitia Dei , shows that understanding grace as favor Dei rather than as a “medicinal substance” was an essential part of the Reformation doctrine of grace. He writes, “The most significant discussion of faith [in Luther’s earler writings]…
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