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Romans

The Politics of Justification

The doctrine of justification is precious among Protestants. And it should be. The fact that God has declared our sins forgiven and that we have a righteous standing in the sight of God united to Christ is comforting and brings great joy. Unfortunately, the biblical teaching on justification is, many…

by Bill SmithNovember 21, 2017
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Priest

What is a Priest?

The Old Testament priests were given a number of seemingly disparate duties. As everyone knows, the priests led the sacrificial worship of Israel; only the priests could sprinkle blood on the altar or within the tabernacle, and only they could approach the altar to turn sacrificial animals into smoke. But…

by Peter LeithartNovember 17, 2017
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Liturgy

Ite, Missa Est

M issional ecclesiology is all the rage these days, but for many being “missional” means downplaying or even eliminating concern for the “internal” life of the church, particularly its liturgical life. Missional and liturgical, mission and communio , are locked in zero-sum combat. That cannot be right. The liturgy is…

by Peter LeithartNovember 14, 2017
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Romans

The New Gospel

An old friend of mine, now passed into Heaven, started to say this in relationship to his sometimes troubled family, in the last quarter of his life, "I just had to take responsibility for the whole thing..." That was the seed for a new reading of the Gospel for me,…

by Richard BledsoeNovember 9, 2017
reformers
Reformation

Reformation Retrospection

She departed the port, dressed in her best ceremonial regalia, with tassels and flags fluttering from her mast and rigging. She stood tall, robed in mist, crowned in white, and backlit by the rising sun. There she sat, shimmering and spotless; with a perfect ragtop, and a full tank of…

by Jon HerrNovember 7, 2017
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Revelation

Locusts and Honey

John the Baptist is presented in the gospels as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise that God would send His messenger to prepare the way for the coming of the glory of the Lord (Is. 40), and the promise to send Elijah before Him to turn the people to…

by Peter LeithartNovember 2, 2017

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In a Beehive Far, Far Away

Max Gladstone doesn’t think that the human-looking creatures in Star Wars can be humans. After all, they inhabit a galaxy far, far away in a distant time. Humans evolved on earth, and fairly recently. He assembles the clues to their species identity. There are few women, yet the ones who…

May 12, 2014

Cold Warrior?

It’s popular to deride Putin as a throwback, a Cold Warrior out of his time. Peter Pomerantsev thinks this underestimates Putin’s grasp of contemporary geopolitical realities. A short story by one of Vladislav Surkov, an advisor to Putin, offers a clue to Putin’s strategy. Surkov’s story is about the fifth…

May 12, 2014

Reformational Catholicism Now

Pastor Tom Clark tells some stories of local catholicity at the Trinity House page this morning.

May 12, 2014

Tragedy of Disorder

King Lear is a tragedy of disorder, or so I argue at the Colson Center web site .

May 12, 2014

Ceaseless worship

When John enters heaven, he stumbles into a worship service. Four living creatures offer praise “day and night without cease” ( anapausis ), like the saints in 7:15 (like the temple servants in Leviticus 8:35; 1 Chronicles 9:33). The Lord exacts ceaseless day-and-night worship later on in the book: Those…

May 10, 2014

Ox, Lion, Eagle, Man

In Ezekiel and Revelation, the cherubim-living creatures are ox, lion, eagle, and man. If they represent the whole of living creation as worshipers, why are there no fish? Why two land creatures - ox and lion? Isn’t that discriminatory? Why not ox, crab, eagle, man? Other biblical lists of creatures,…

May 10, 2014

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