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

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Biblical Studies

Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones

[This essay was originally published in 1988. Given the situation that our new national socialists are getting the world into, I thought it might be useful to reprint it here. – JBJordan] The Bible has quite a bit to say about gold, silver, and precious stones, and the Bible always…

by James B. JordanMay 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

The Pastoral Function

I wrote this elsewhere and was encouraged to put it here. It is a comment on what a pastor is. Today, this is not very well understood, and God’s people suffer because of it. There are four professions: medicine, education, law, and religion. Each of these, when done at a…

by James B. JordanMay 17, 2009
Biblical Horizons

The Virgin Tomb: The Womb of the New Birth

James Jordan recently pointed out in private conversation how appropriate it is, in John’s Gospel, that Nicodemus is present both to ask Jesus about being born again, and to see Jesus re-enter the womb of the mother. Nicodemus rhetorically asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?…

by Mark HorneMay 8, 2009
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Romans

Romans 7

This is a problematic and much discussed passage. I’ve been discussing it in another forum, and have decided to move it here and present some very preliminary observations about it. One large question is this: Who is the speaker here and what is his situation? Traditionally, the speaker is seen…

by James B. JordanApril 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

Good New Sci-Fi

1. The current issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction includes a good fantasy novella by John C. Wright, who since his conversion has been writing Christianly. This is a fine fantasy with nods to C. S. Lewis and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and probably Gene Wolfe as well.…

by James B. JordanApril 15, 2009
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American Culture

The Name of Jesus

“It is an experience of our days that the spoken name of Jesus alone exercises an unforeseen power; and the effort which it cost to speak this name is perhaps connected to some faint apprehension of the power which is inherent within it. Wherever the name of Jesus Christ is…

by Richard BledsoeMarch 20, 2009

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Missing Cross?

Revelation 12 is an allegory of Jesus and the church. A laboring woman clothed with the sun is stalked by a dragon. The woman gives birth, and the child is snatched away to heaven. This is Christ, but He seems a crossless Christ: A theology of glory if there ever…

May 26, 2014

Priest, King, Reader

Uche Anizor’s Kings and Priests is a useful contribution to the burgeoning library of theological interpretation. Anizor uses the biblical categories of king and priest to harmonize a stress the theological dimension of Scripture interpretation (God’s initiative in revelation) with the ethical dimension (what kinds of people make good Scripture…

May 26, 2014

Tale of Two Readings

Uche Anizor’s Kings and Priests includes a neat description of a “tale of two readings” - that of Josiah (2 Kings 22-23) and that of Jehoikim (Jeremiah 36). In both cases, a text is presented to a king, and Jeremiah wrote his account of Jehoiakim to evoke the memory of…

May 26, 2014

Eights on Eights

Uche Anizor writes ( Kings and Priests , 78-9) analyzes Psalm 119 as a “developed expression of devotion to God’s Word” and a complex literary structure: “The first is its acrostic form: each stanza is headed by a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each line begins with that…

May 26, 2014
Reformational Catholicism

Bible Belt Catholicity

Pastor Rich Lusk reflects on the difficulties of pursuing Reformational Catholicism in the Bible Belt at the Trinity House site .

May 26, 2014

Tears of Heaven

When John learns that there is no worthy one to open the Father’s book, he weeps greatly (Revelation 5:4). It seems a melodramatic touch, more at home in the Shepherd of Hermas or Pilgrim’s Progress than the Bible. It is an essential moment in the scene, though. For starters, John…

May 24, 2014

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