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Writing

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

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Art

Toward a Biblical Definition of Obscenity

My copy of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1976: not so new, really) defines obscene as (1) "disgusting to the senses; repulsive" and (2) "abhorrent to morality or virtue; specif: designed to incite lust or depravity." Definitions such as this serve a useful purpose only when there is agreement on what…

by Peter LeithartMay 30, 1991
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Biblical Studies

The Abomination of Desolation, Part 1

An Overview Here begins a series of studies in the Abomination of Desolation, or Desolating Sacrilege. This month and next I shall set out an overview of what I regard as the best interpretation of the phenomenon. Later essays will look at it in more detail. (The original form of…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Studies

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 12

29. There are three things that are stately in their march, Even four that are stately when they walk: 30. The lion is mighty among beasts And does not turn back before any, 31. The strutting cock, The male goat, And a king with his army around him. 32. If…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Studies

The Chronology of Ezra & Nehemiah, Part 4

We have seen that it is likely that the Artaxerxes of Ezra-Nehemiah is the same as Darius the Great. If this solution be correct, and I think it is, possibly there is another problem in Ezra that can be resolved by it. In Ezra 4:6 we are told that "in…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

The Weight of Being

Czech novelist Milan Kundera, though hardly a household name in the English-speaking world, has achieved a certain notoriety in America in recent years, largely on the strength of the English translation and film version of his novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 1 The Unbearable Lightness of Being — the…

by Peter LeithartMay 6, 1991
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Proverbs

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 11

24. Four things are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise; 25. The ants are not a strong folk, But they prepare their food in the summer; 26. The coneys are not a mighty folk, Yet they make their houses in the rocks; 27. The locusts have no…

by James B. JordanApril 22, 1991

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Numbers

The word “number” (Greek, arithmos ) occurs ten times in Revelation, and the word occurs in climactic sections of the major sections of the book. It occurs first in 5:11, describing the “number” of the angels who join in worship, at the climax of the rippling expansion of praise from…

August 25, 2014

Elam’s Afterlife

After the flood, the sons of Noah repopulated the earth. Shem’s first son was Elam (Genesis 10:22; cf. Genesis 14:1), the ancestor of the Elamite people that lived in the South of present-day Iran, with Susa as their capital. Elam is apparently the firstborn of the Shemites, displaced from that…

August 25, 2014
Science

The Notebook

In his Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science , Richard Yeo further dispels the myth of the lone scientific genius. Early modern science made its advances because of collaboration among researchers. And they used the highest of contemporary high-tech to pass around their research - the notebook. It was…

August 25, 2014

Not Religious

Mehdi Hasan presents evidence in an article in the New Statesman that jihadists aren’t the most devout of Muslims. Often the opposite. “In 2008, a classified briefing note on radicalisation, prepared by MI5’s behavioural science unit, was leaked to the Guardian . It revealed that, ‘far from being religious zealots,…

August 23, 2014

Eternal Matter Matters

Most ancient myths and philosophies, and not a few modern scientific and philosophical theories, posit or assume that matter is eternal. Does that matter? Yes. If matter is eternal, then creation can only be control, limitation, ordering. If matter is eternal, creativity can only be negative. If matter is eternal,…

August 22, 2014

Universal Truth

It’s often suggested today that any argument or claim drawn from revelation is “sectarian.” In order to make a “universal” claim, we need to ground it in something more general than a particular revelation. Christians assume this as much as secularists. Many think we have to move from revelation to…

August 22, 2014

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