Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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We’re ready to obey God, but our eagerness often lasts only as long as we have guarantees that obedience will be easy. As soon as obedience causes discomfort, we look escape routes. In a sinful world, easy obedience is impossible. If we are agents of the Lord’s righteousness, we will…
The song of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 11:17-18 begins with thanksgiving for God’s exertion of power that inaugurates His reign. Verse 18 describes how that reign comes to pass. It is a complexly organized verse. It begins and ends with lex talionis judgments against God’s enemies, and in the…
In an essay on ” Abortion and Personhood ,” Alastair Roberts suggests that “”taking a stand against same-sex marriage is essentially a pro-life matter.” Roberts continues: “the paradigmatic family of liberal ideology is the same-sex couple with adopted children or children born through reproductive technology, a family of purely volitional…
One of my students, Susanna Winecoff, pointed to the parallels between the famine that drove Israel into Egypt and the famine in Jerusalem mentioned at the end of Acts 11. For support, one can point to the parallel of Genesis and Acts: “Famine was over all the face of the…
I report on the Christian revival in the Muslim Middle East next door at First Things this morning.
Isaiah 50:7-9 is structured chiastically. On either side of verse 8 are declarations that “Lord Yahweh will help me” (vv. 7, 9; the clause is identical in Hebrew). In verse 8 itself, we have this structure: A. Near my vindicator B. Who brings a case? C. Let us stand as…
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