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Proverbs

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 6

10. Do not slander [tattle on] a slave to his master, Lest he curse [denounce] you and you be found guilty. The Sojourner of Proverbs 30 is a humble man. He makes this clear in verses 2-4, where he says that he is stupider than anyone else on earth, but…

by James B. JordanMay 2, 1990
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Biblical Horizons

An Old Debate Revisited

In retrospect and at first glance, many of the issues that have plagued and divided the Church seem incredibly trivial. The Quartodecimians were branded as heretics for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. One of the issues that divided the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 was the kind of bread…

by Peter LeithartApril 13, 1990
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Advent

Gold, Incense, and Myrrh

The gifts of the wise men have been commonly interpreted as royal gifts to the infant King of the Jews. Each of the three gifts is, indeed, connected with kings and kingship in Scripture. The Lord’s anointed is pictured wearing a crown of gold in Psalm 21:3, and the gold…

by Peter LeithartApril 13, 1990
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Biblical Studies

Why Should I Join A Church?

The Church is not in good shape. Nearly every week we hear about another prominent Christian leader who has fallen into scandalous sin. Many shepherds feed their flocks a diet of baby food, if not outright poison. Few Churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper regularly, and few Christians appreciate its importance.…

by Peter LeithartApril 13, 1990
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Proverbs

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 5

Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and words of falsehood far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that it my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee, And say, "Who is the LORD?"…

by James B. JordanApril 2, 1990
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Biblical Studies

Joseph, the Righteous Husband

During the Middle Ages, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the butt of many jokes. Medieval theater and art often depicted him as something of a buffoon, decidedly marginal to the gospel story. In part, this was the unfortunate obverse of the exaltation of Mary; any man would suffer by…

by Peter LeithartMarch 13, 1990

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Priests, Levites, Bread

1 Chronicles 23 begins the concluding section of 1 Chronicles (chs. 23–29), which is mainly concerned with David’s arrangements for personnel and material of the temple. Chapter 23 consists of two chiastically arranged sections. The first is framed by references to David (vv. 1, 2, 6; 25–27). A. David old,…

February 2, 2017

Tallying Up Trump

T rump is an executive, used to making twenty-five major decisions a day. Now the press is watching every motion of his hand, and it looks as if he's overturning the world as we have known it with each stroke of his pen. Tallying up pluses and minuses is a…

February 2, 2017

Aging and Ends

A year ago, I had a long debate about aging with a Polish friend while driving from Poznan, Poland, to Rivne, Ukraine. My friend said he didn't mind dying young, while I said I wanted to live to a ripe old age. My friend accused me of fearing death (not…

February 1, 2017

Eucharistic Sacrifice

D aniel Waterland's 1737 A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist includes a lengthy section on Eucharistic sacrifice that begins from the premise that Eucharistic sacrifice is a belief shared by the entire catholic church: “That the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in whole or in part, in a sense…

January 31, 2017

Ite, Missa Est

M issional ecclesiology is all the rage these days, but for many being “missional” means downplaying or even eliminating concern for the “internal” life of the church, particularly its liturgical life. Missional and liturgical, mission and communio , are locked in zero-sum combat. That cannot be right. The liturgy is…

January 31, 2017

Yahweh's Sorrow

D avid's census makes him a Pharaoh but he doesn't end like Pharoah. It's not exactly because he offers sacrifice (21:26). By the time he does that, the Lord has already relented (21:15). The chapter's structure makes it clear that the Lord's mercy is the turning point. The story is…

January 30, 2017

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