Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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I offer some thoughts on the controversial Rupert Sheldrake at First Things today.
Isaiah searingly indicts the “watchmen” of Judah. They are blind - not a good thing in a watchman (Isaiah 56:10-12). They are like dumb dogs, incapable of barking out a warning when danger shows up. But they wouldn’t bark anyway because they spend their days lying around sleeping. They live…
Isaiah invites two categories of beasts to come to the house of God: Beasts of the field, and beasts of the forest (56:9). What kinds of beasts does he have in mind? Both are wild animals. Beast ( chayyah ) is undomesticated; while cattle ( behemah ) is a general…
According to Isaiah 56:3, sons of strangers ought not say that the Lord has separated him from the people; eunuchs ought not to think of themselves as dry trees. When eunuchs keep Sabbath, they become fruitful (vv. 4-5). The blessings to strangers and eunuchs are spelled out chiastically: A. What…
Sabbath-keeping is about what you do with your hands. Hands are organs for action. We set our hands to tasks. We give or withhold our hands from helping. You keep Sabbath by opening your hands, rather than grasping with them (cf. Deuteronomy 15:3, 7). Sabbath hands release debts, give food…
In an interview with the New York Times Book Review , Clive James anticipates Dan Brown’s Inferno : “Dan Brown’s forthcoming Inferno , of which Dante will be the central subject, has already got me trembling. Brown might have discovered that The Divine Comedy is an encrypted prediction of how…
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