Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When I wrote my commentary on Ecclesiastes A Table in the Mist I took Eccl. 11:1-2 as a reference to the risk of international trade. It sure did seem to me like a reference to Solomon’s risky trade with other nations. Israel exported grain (bread) and Solomon’s ships returned to…
When we read an alphabetical psalm in English, we miss the fact that each verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I have found one way to get around this, which is for the leader to announce something relevant about each letter before reading his half of…
How does the Lord’s Supper proclaim the death of Jesus until He comes? (1 Corinthians 11:26). Historically, liturgists have attempted to locate some act in the rite of the Supper that corresponds to the death of Jesus: the fraction (breaking of bread), or the fact that bread and wine are…
These notes are posted here by request. We all now live in the age of slob worship thanks to the “sixties.” I never experienced sitting for prayer until 20 years ago. Jesus was unhappy when His disciples could not watch and pray for one hour. Today’s slob Christians complain if…
On September 11, 2001, Jesus brought judgment upon the United States of America. Following His normal procedure, He used an even more evil force to do it (Habakkuk 1-3). The warning Jesus gives throughout the Bible to those He uses to punish others is that they need to repent, or…
Because of Donald Trump, the “Birther” issue is heating up. It is not going away, and is only part of a larger cluster of issues in regard to the President. Virtually all of the relevant documents concerning who he is and where he has been, have been suppressed, at great…
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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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