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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Acts

No One Dared Join Them

And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. Acts 5:12-13 When Grandma needed healing, her children knew the…

by Tim NicholsAugust 31, 2021
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How to Worship

Why Sacraments?

Like certain kinds of music, the unchanging rhythm of Aquinas's Summa gets into your bones. Read a few sections and it begins to run through your head. You start drumming your fingers, humming, swaying gently to the rhythm of Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, “It seems-On the contrary-I answer.” The only…

by Peter LeithartAugust 26, 2021
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Biblical Chronology

The Embarrassment of Biblical Chronology

And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah . . . And Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber . . . and Eber lived thirty-four years and became the father of Peleg . . . and Peleg lived thirty years, and became the…

by James B. JordanAugust 24, 2021
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Hermeneutics

The Fall of Satan

Of course, the title should be something like, “The Fall of the Angel Who Came to be Satan,” but that and other more accurate titles are too cumbersome. The question is: who is Satan, and when and how did he become “Satan” (Adversary, Accuser) and the “devil” (slanderer)? By my…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 19, 2021
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Baptism

Baptismal Rain and the Feast of Booths

In The Oddness of the Feast of Booths , we saw that the Feast of Booths is a commemoration of the first encampment of Israel at Sukkoth (Booths) in Exodus 12:37, almost certainly the first celebration of the week of Unleavened Bread after the first Passover. The Feast of Booths…

by James B. JordanAugust 17, 2021
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Proverbs

An Antidote for Yuppie Postmillennialism

This piece was originally published in 1989. 1. The Blessed Hope "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Titus 2:13 I was recently asked how I as a postmillennialist would preach on "The Blessed Hope." This is often…

by James B. JordanAugust 12, 2021

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Yield Your Members

It is striking that when Paul begins to discuss the specifics of life under grace and in Christ, he emphasizes the bodily character of this life. We are “co-crucified” with Jesus, so that the “body of sin” might be done away (Rom 6:6). And the key exhortation that grows out…

July 10, 2004

“In Christ”

Brendan Byrne has this to say about Paul’s description of baptism as baptism into the death of Jesus: “behind the expression here lies the characteristically Pauline idea of the risen Lord as personally constituting a sphere of influence or milieu of salvation’into’ which believers are drawn through faith and baptism,…

July 10, 2004

“In Christ”

Brendan Byrne has this to say about Paul’s description of baptism as baptism into the death of Jesus: “behind the expression here lies the characteristically Pauline idea of the risen Lord as personally constituting a sphere of influence or milieu of salvation’into’ which believers are drawn through faith and baptism,…

July 10, 2004

Under Grace

What does it mean to be “under grace”? Does this reality somehow cancel out the necessity of obedience? Is an insistence on obedience inconsistent with Paul’s insistence that we are justified by faith alone? Rom 6:14-15 provides the answer. This is the only place in Romans (unless I’ve missed something)…

July 10, 2004

Another Stab at Rom 5

The word Paul uses for “impute” in Rom 5:13 is used in only one other passage in the NT, Philemon 18. (The Greek is ELLOGEO; elsewhere, the word translated as “impute” is LOGIZOMAI.) Perhaps an examination of Philemon 18 will shed some light on Paul’s usage in Rom 5:13. Paul’s…

July 9, 2004

Cross and Culture

This is a brief overview of a project on the atonement, first delivered as my inaugural lecture as Senior Fellow of Theology at NSA a few years ago. (I don’t think this has been posted already; if it has, my deep apologies.) My title is ?Cross and Culture,?Ebut that needs…

July 9, 2004

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