Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
“And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets,” Zachariah 8:5. 1. Ultimatum game Ultimatum Game is an economic experiment. Its rules are simple: I will give you $100 as long as you give part of that money to the person next…
The Nephilim of Genesis 6 has been a topic of great speculation over the centuries. The word appears in Scripture two times, first in Genesis 6 and then in Numbers 13. There have been three major theories regarding the identity of the Nephilim : The Fallen-Angel Procreation Theory: this view…
Jesus on trial was silent before all His accusers, until the high priest said to Him: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” (Matthew 26:63) The high priest commanded Jesus to declare clearly whether or not He was the…
Introduction In many ways I have been disheartened—and at times distraught—by how congregations across America have responded to Covid19, not in the first weeks when so much was unknown, but in the months since. I had, like most everyone, originally thought we'd be at home a few weeks, but from…
The dust settled as Yahweh clapped his hands together to knock off any remaining clumps of dirt and soil. He had just finished forming from the dust of the ground the crowning glory of his creation. There, lying lifeless upon the newly created earth, was the first image in Yahweh's…
When reading the Psalms Christologically, it is one thing to see the prefigured sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. But what do we do with the passages concerning recompense, judgment, or vengeance? Are we to also read these Christologically, or are these vestigial Old Covenant ways of thinking, fit…
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A while back I posted a quotation that I said was from Tertullian: “You can’t serve God and the Emperor.” The more I’ve read of Tertullian the more suspicious I became about the authenticity of the quotation. I checked with David Ivan Rankin, author of a book on Tertullian and…
Warren Carter (in Horsley, ed., In the Shadow of Empire ) writes, “Not only is the imperial world violent and exploitative, under rulers opposed to and condemned by God, but the Empire is also under the power of the devil and caught up in the continuing struggle between the devil…
University of Illinois history professor Paul Schroeder is worried about the sloppiness involved in calling America an “empire.” America is said to be an empire “simply by being the world’s only superpower, by virtue of its military supremacy, economic power, global influence, technological and scientific prowess, and world-wide alliances. The…
Jon L. Berquist (in Horsley, ed., In the Shadow of Empire ) claims that during the Persian period, Israel devleoped prayer and observance of Sabbath as anti-imperial practices. Daniel’s prayers “resist the law of the king and the rule of the empire.” Sabbath too is anti-imperial: “Sabbath was always construed…
INTRODUCTION Jesus’ lawsuit against the scribes and Pharisees focuses on their failures of leadership (vv. 13-15), their neglect of the important things in the law (vv. 16-24), and their concentration on external show rather than internal purity (vv. 25-28). Of course, these diseases of the soul are not confined to…
Was Jesus condemning the use of all terms of address for religious leaders when He told His disciples not to call anyone Rabbi, Father, or Instructor? Several possible interpretations are absurd on the face of it. Jesus could not have been condemning the use of the specific terms, but leaving…
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