Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Blessing of the Father The narrative of the Exodus makes it clear that Yahweh is Israel’s Father. Moses is told to declare to Pharaoh that “Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’” (Exodus 4:22-23). In contrast to…
When reading the Old Testament, the believer faces two dilemmas. First, there is a seemingly sharp discontinuity between the universal proclamation of the gospel to the whole earth and God’s singling out of the nation of Israel. Second, the New Testament says of Jesus that “there is no other name…
John 17 contains the longest prayer that we have from Jesus, and it shows us the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son in a way that few passages do. The prayer lays out the chiastic pattern noted by Athanasius (God became man so that man could become God),…
The following meditation on the incarnation is paraphrased and quoted from Karl Barth, The Doctrine of Reconciliation (Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4, Part 1) , pp. 185ff. In the incarnation, the eternal Son of God makes His way into a far country, and takes on the form of a servant. “But…
Peter says "baptism saves you" (1 Peter 3:21). Does the New Testament teach that "baptism justifies you"? I think the answer is Yes. That's a controversial answer, and demands some defense and explanation, but first some critical qualifications. No New Testament text states "baptism justifies you," so my argument will…
In his THI article “ Son of David, Son of Abraham ,” Peter Leithart notes that Matthew's genealogy “contains a summary of redemptive history.” This statement is only too true and one that deserves further elucidation. Biblos genese ō s. The first two words of Matthew's Gospel are usually translated…
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In A World After Liberalism , Matthew Rose takes note of a generational change taking place in American conservatism. Younger conservatives associated with the alt right don’t read the same writers as their elders: “Instead of William Buckley it is Curtis Yarvin. Instead of Milton Friedman it is Peter Thiel.…
C olumbia Law School professor Philip Hamburger's The Administrative Threat makes a powerful case that the executive branch has assumed “absolute power,” albeit in a “soft” form. It is entirely unConstitutional. Through its administrative bureaucracy, the executive branch has taken on the power to create “legal obligation—the obligation to obey”…
I recently reviewed David Dusenbury’s The Innocence of Pontius Pilate in my First Things column . It’s an enthralling book, a work of scholarly detection that maps out hidden pathways of European intellectual and legal history, the first book (so far as Dusenbury knows) to investigate debates about Pilate’s innocence…
Whether they intend to or not, parents are training their children by the way they respond to COVID. Pastors are training their churches. There are temptations on every side. Put aside debates about the efficacy of masks, lockdowns, distancing, vaccines, and do some self-diagnosis: Will your response to the pandemic…
Greg Anderson began thinking about the thesis of his Realness of Things Past while working on a book on the “state” in classical Greece. He discovered there was no such thing as an Athenian “state,” and that conclusion led him to question the way historians do history. Instead of running…
To some Christians, typology is at best ornamental, pretty and cute, but irrelevant to the serious business of the church, irrelevant to the church’s mission. Some Christians have similar views of the Lord’s Supper: Inspiring and helpful, but hardly essential. To such skeptics, I say: “Luke 24. Tolle lege .”…
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