Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
(continued from previous issue) Between 30 and 50 What did the Levites do between age 30 and 50? Numbers 4 shows us that they carried the house of God on their shoulders. Lifting up the Lord is an image of worship in the Bible, and David’s restructuring of the Levites…
When God created the world, He created two lands: the Throne-land of Eden (entered through the sanctuary-garden, the Garden of Eden), and the Outlying Lands, such as the lands of Havilah and Cush. This essentially bi-polar world is the world of the Old Creation, and it continued to exist until…
Color is inescapable, except for those who are color blind. In our church architecture, we either employ color schemes that are helpful to worship, or we employ color schemes that are not helpful. Of course, this assertion merely begs the question: What color schemes are most helpful. God showed interest…
As I noted in an earlier article in Rite Reasons , the Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine all claimed that baptism inducts the baptized person into membership in the royal priesthood of the church, and Thomas Aquinas said that baptism, by imprinting an indelible “character” on the soul, confers…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
In my Preliminary Commentary on Daniel , which many of you have obtained, I argued in chapter 13 that the four monsters called up from the sea by the evangelistic work of the four winds (the saints) represented the deep hatred of God that evangelistic work brings to the fore…
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Near the end of his prayer in 2 Samuel 7, David confesses his confidence in Yahweh’s promises concerning David’s house, saying “Thy words are truth” (v. 28). Jesus echoes this words in John 17:17. The connection seems to be a fruitful one, and perhaps there are more verbal links than…
I and many of my friends have been criticized for our supposed lack theological rigor. It’s meant as an insult. I take it as a compliment. Rigor has its place. But it’s not the be and end all of theology. A Turretin is necessary for consolidating a Reformation. He could…
INTRODUCTION 16:20 starts a new section of the chapter, as Solomon returns again to the issue of speech. Waltke sees two sections here, verses 20-24 and 25-30. The first section focuses on the benefits of wise and winning speech, while the second section focuses negatively on destructive speech. Verse 20…
Artists never accepted the attribution of genius as readily as theorists and bourgeois admirers applied it. Artists knew too much about the recalcitrantly physical qualities of words, paint, stone, ink, and sounds for that. Artists are as interested in technique as in inspirations. But for Kant genius was the criterion…
Gadamer says, “One day someone should write the history of ‘purity.’” He cites one H. Sedlmayr, who “refers to Calvinistic purism and the deism of the Enlightenment.” Kant would play a key role: He “linked himself directly with the classical Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of purity.” Gadamer wonders whether “Platonism…
Contrary to empiricism, perception is never pure, never merely a response to stimulus. That it is is merely a kind of “epistmological dogmatism” (Gadamer), which can only be defended if all instinct and fantasy is removed. In actual life, we never perceive without instinct or fantasy, and so “pure perception,…
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