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Deuteronomy

Torah as Testimony (Part 2)

Cornelius Van Til offered a revolutionary exposition of the Christian worldview through the lens of Reformed theology. He argued and, I believe demonstrated, that Biblical metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics mutually presuppose and include one another. Every ethical statement of the Bible — commands about righteousness — presuppose the existence and…

by Ralph Allan SmithJune 21, 2022
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Deuteronomy

Torah as Testimony (Part 1)

In the introductory portion of Deuteronomy, Moses’ last sermons to the people of Israel — people that he regarded as his own beloved children — there is a statement that may seem paradoxical to a modern reader. It invites questions and maybe even creates problems in our understanding. Here are…

by Ralph Allan SmithJune 14, 2022
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Biblical Studies

The View from Gerar: Looking Back to Moriah (and Forward to Sinai)

In his discussion of the biblical type scene, Robert Alter speaks of the “patterns of repetition, symmetry, [and] contrast” which characterize the narratives of Scripture, patterns that give pleasure to the reader while also building up a web of meaningful connections between texts. 1 But if readers are to notice…

by Josh JensenJune 7, 2022
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Genesis

Did Eve Ruin Female Ordination?

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul writes: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:12-14). This…

by Adam McIntoshMay 31, 2022
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Matthew

Warhorse Meek

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 When the above verse is read during a Lord’s Day service, no doubt, every extrovert in the room thinks to himself, “Well, that rules out me.” After all, the meek folks in the room are the ones you…

by Garrett SoucyMay 24, 2022
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Biblical Studies

Earth and Fire

The flames of the altar tell a mysterious story beyond mere atonement. The altar was a place of union, glory, worship, love and forgiveness, laughter and tears, renewal and hope. The altar is where Israel would feast with God, sacrifice to God, worship God, confess, and receive forgiveness from God.…

by Kyle LammottMay 23, 2022

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Luther on baptism and justification

In an article in Bruce McCormack, ed., Justification in Perspective , Carl Trueman makes some helpful comments about the assumptions and consequences of Luther’s views on baptism and justification. “At the heart of Luther’s mature understanding of baptism,” he writes, “as with his mature understanding of justification, is a notion…

April 10, 2007

Easter Sermon

The following is largely inspired by Jon D. Levenson’s Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel . In his novel, The Death of Ivan Illych, Leo Tolstoy tells the story of the life and death of his title character. Ivan Illych is a government lawyer who has devoted his life to…

April 8, 2007

Eucharistic meditation, Easter Sunday

John 21:15: So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You. He said to him, Tend my lambs. Jesus’ breakfast on the beach is a…

April 8, 2007
Uncategorized

Exhortation, Easter Sunday

From beginning to end, from Alpha to Omega, God is a God of life, a God of resurrection. In the beginning, He called into being things that were not. He cried out into the darkness of the first day, so that light dispelled the darkness. He spoke again, and plants…

April 8, 2007

Excerpt from a Funeral Sermon

Resurrection life isn’t only for the future, not only for the end. Because Jesus rose on the third day, and because He poured out His Spirit on us, resurrection life has already begun to spread throughout this world of Sin and Death. Through Jesus and His Spirit, we already live…

April 8, 2007
Literature

Hamlet and the Prayer Book

More from Targoff, discussing Hamlet’s relation to the differing views of worship in the Elizabethan period. Targoff complains that “what is strikingly, and mistakenly, absent from our accounts of the Elizabethan settlement is precisely what the play interrogates in staging Claudius’s prayer: the belief that external practices might not only…

April 7, 2007

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