Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). Eschatologically, the alternation of light and dark ceases for the creation (Rev. 21:25). Yet, all things were created by Him and manifest Him, and the first form of creation to come from Him was covered with “darkness.”…
INTRODUCTION Prophets were involved from the beginning of the monarchy, but Israel’s prophets did not interfere with Gentile politics during the days of Saul, David and Solomon. Now, for the first time, a prophet anoints a Gentile king, and this initiates several centuries of prophetic ministry toward the Gentiles. Israel…
One of the intriguing aspects of Elisha’ ministry is his attitude toward Jehoram. The house of Ahab was doomed before Jehoram ever became king. Their fate was sealed during the lifetime of Ahab. And Jehoram shows few signs of repentance. He put away the pillar of Baal that had belonged…
Apart from a few suggestive comments in Ephraim Radner’s The End of the Church , I know of no study that examines the Reformers’ use of Israel’s history as a paradigm for understanding the Reformation itself and as a program for that Reformation. (Radner cites an article by Congar that…
Much as I like the Nevin that’s emerging from Hart’s biography, he seems to be stuck in modern dualisms that need to be overcome. Hart quotes him as saying that if the Supper were only a sign it would “carry with it no virtue or force, more than might be…
Much as I like the Nevin that’s emerging from Hart’s biography, he seems to be stuck in modern dualisms that need to be overcome. Hart quotes him as saying that if the Supper were only a sign it would “carry with it no virtue or force, more than might be…
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