Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Christmas is a joyful season, but for many it turns into something else. Instead of joy, it is full of disappointment and unhappiness. Instead of an occasion for family fellowship, it becomes an opportunity for opening old wounds, reigniting old arguments, giving new life to rancor that should have died…
The Temple of Time The “covenant-literary matrix” of the Bible is not a pattern imposed upon the text, but the internal logic of its arrangement. This fundamental structure, functioning at multiple levels simultaneously, is a ceaseless reiteration of God’s primary theme. It is an algorithm forged in the furnace of…
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Exodus, Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. [1] That the author of Kings should date the start of the building of the temple from the Exodus is noteworthy. In Exodus 15:17, in Moses’ song following the…
Philip Schaff, a German Reformed theologian, states in The Principle of Protestantism that the material principle of Protestantism is “the doctrine of the justification of the sinner before God by the merit of Christ alone through faith.” This is the core message of the Church which leads “to the abandonment…
“Religion” is an attempt to create or build a tower with a top, or to build a temple that is self-contained. The story of The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is the story of mankind’s attempt to create a world that is self-contained and does not need God. All…
In the first essay in this series, I presented a case for dating Matthew before AD 70, contrary to the present scholarly consensus. In this essay, I intend to present cultural, personal, ecclesiological, and theological arguments for a very early date for Matthew. [1] The cultural argument concerns literacy in…
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The contrast between the angels and the Son in Hebrews 1-2 is primarily a contrast of the law “delivered through angels” (cf. 2:2) and the word now spoken in the Son. But these chapters also touch on another aspect of angelic ministry. Twice the author mentions the oikoumene , once…
OK, so the ubiquity of the Obamas at the news stand is an annoyance, but consider the alternative: Another round of Angelina v. Brad v. Jen v. the world, or Brittany’s latest meltdown, or whatever. The usual celebrities will be back soon enough, but for the moment let’s bask in…
Galatians 4:4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son. Advent is about the beginning of a new time, a new history, a new calendar, a new creation. We know that it’s about a new time because it brings a new table. This has been God’s way…
Galatians 4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent for…
Christians often have a hard time with the incarnation. How can an exalted, sovereign God become flesh? This question starts from the wrong end. Instead of trying to learn about God and then trying to make sense of the incarnation, we should learn of God as the God of the…
Barth provides a flurry of quotations to demonstrate that Calvin’s Christology was perfectly catholic. Augustine wrote, “Quando in forma servi et mediator esset, infra angelos esse voluit in forma Dei supra angelos mansit; idem in inferioribus via vitae qui in superioribus vita.” It could also be called the extra-Thomasisticum: Christ…
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