Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the previous part of this series , we showed how the serpent, through Adam’s failure to protect his bride and her subsequent deception, alienated man from woman. It’s difficult to overstate the consequences of man’s disobedience: disregarding God's commands begins to break down the order which He created. God…
In the first part of this series , we showed that God declared that the division between man and woman would be “not good.” There was a division between heaven and earth, which, in contrast to the rest of the creation account, is conspicuously not described as “good,” and there…
The evangelical community is caught in a controversy between one of its most influential members, pastor John MacArthur, and one of its rising stars, Beth Moore. For those who haven’t been following this fight, here’s the summary: Beth Moore is a well-known public teacher and author on the Bible. MacArthur,…
When one of the most famous personalities of the “young, restless, reformed” world starts sounding like an emissary from Vatican City, #BigEva social media takes note. That’s what happened this week when a sermon clip surfaced of Francis Chan hinting at his evolving view of the eucharist: “I didn't know…
All of the Gospels have a story about a fig tree. Not just parables, actually. There are those, too, when Jesus uses illustrations having to do with fig trees. But there are accounts of actual events having to do with fig trees in all four Gospels. Matthew has given the…
I. Introduction With the final installment of the sequel trilogy complete, it’s fair to say that Star Wars fans are, and evermore will be, a house divided. The sequels have split opinion since they were announced. The chief accusation has perhaps been that they amount to little more than nostalgia—not…
Showing page 71 of 309
Showing page 7 of 43
Jesus observes that Israel wanders like sheep without a shepherd, so He sends the Twelve to be shepherds to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In the next breath, He says that the Twelve go out as “sheep in the midst of wolves.” So which are they? Sheep…
“Be wise as serpents,” Jesus says. The first wise serpent in the Bible is a deceiver. Is Jesus encouraging His disciples to use deception to protect themselves? In part, the answer is a tentative Yes. Paul escaped the ethnarch Aretas in a basket let down through a window in the…
Martin Amis’s 2001 collection of criticism was entitled The War Against Cliche . Now he comes out with The Second Plane: September 11: 2001-2007 . According to Marjorie Perloff (in the TLS), it’s mostly cliche. There are religious cliches. Though the age of ideology in the last century was bad,…
Clever move by the McCain campaign: A scandalous piece in the NYT becomes an opportunity to rally the right to McCain’s side. The piece and the campaign’s well-organized and long-anticipated response puts the anti-McCain right into a bind: If they jump in against McCain, they’re in bed with Media Enemy…
Rahner says, “if the ordination [toward the supernatural] cannot be detached from nature, the fulfillment of the ordination from God’s point of view is exacted.” Reno explains, “this obligatory or necessary fulfillment violates the logic of love. There can be no ‘must’ of this sort in the relationship of self-giving.”…
This is fuzzy, but let me try to write toward clarity. The great problem for the nouvelle theologie , Rahner, and neo-scholasticism was to preserve the gratuity of grace. If man is created with an inbuilt orientation toward a supernatural fulfillment, then God cannot deny the supernatural fulfillment “without offending…
Showing page 1563 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
