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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Horizons

On Not Yoking an Ox and an Ass Together

5. Simeon and Levi: Brothers they destroyed. They treated violently their circumcised-covenant fellows. 6. "Into their counsel let not my soul enter. Into their assembly let not my glory join. For in their anger they killed a man, And in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox. 7. Cursed is their…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

The Seven Edomite Kings

The fact that there is a "week" of seven kings over Edom, before we come to an eighth, hints that perhaps these have some link with the days of Genesis 1, especially as we find this list in the book of Genesis. Clearly the list of seven speaks of the…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 2000
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Theologia

The Ethic of Eternal Schism

Remember, whatever sins are committed by those with whom you are in covenant are your sins as well. You need to fear the judgment of God if you continue to be part of this denomination. I have recently discovered that the above rationalization is floating around cyberspace to justify breaking…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

Not Drunk As You Suppose

While Samuel’s mother Hannah prays at the tabernacle, the high priest Eli sees her lips moving silently and concludes that she is drunk (1 Samuel 1:13-14). Hannah protests that she has poured nothing into her, but is "pouring out" her soul before Yahweh; far from being giddy with wine, she…

by Peter LeithartMay 27, 2000
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Federal Vision

CREDO | Regarding Personal Justification before God

For the record: I believe that those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone;…

by Mark HorneMay 20, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

How to Chant the Psalms

Over the years, the ministry of Biblical Horizons has strongly advocated singing the psalms in worship. The Psalter is God’s hymnal, and we don’t need any prooftexts to know that as such, it should form the center of our praise to Him. To be sure, other hymns are permitted, just…

by James B. JordanJanuary 4, 2000

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Context, context

Reader Chris Jones rebuked me, rightly, for putting up Dana Milbank’s version of an Obama quote and accusing him of a Messiah complex. Here’s a fuller version of the quotation, which makes it clear that Obama was actually saying the enthusiasm was about America’s importance and not his own: “It…

July 31, 2008

HBC

Alvin Plantinga has great fun skewering HBC - “historical biblical criticism” - in an essay in Behind the Text . He notes that critics lament that Christians go on as if HBC never happened, and asks if the advocates of HBC have given Christians reason to do otherwise. He concludes…

July 30, 2008

Messiah complex

Dana Milbank reports that Obama told a House delegation yesterday: “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Yes, indeed, a return to American tradition, particularly the American tradition…

July 30, 2008
History

Latitude Men

Rivers (volume 1 of Reason, Grace, and Sentiment ) gives a sympathetic portrayal of the post-Restoration latitudinarians. She cites Gilbert Burnet’s history several times. According to Burnet, the latitude-men “and those who were formed under them, studied to examine farther into the nature of things than had been done formerly.…

July 29, 2008

Berkeley on Priests

In Berkeley, the freethinkers had an opponent at least as smart and witty. In an essay in the Guardian , Berkeley’s character, Ulysses Cosmopolita sees a vision: “I saw a great castle with a fortification cast round it, and a tower adjoining to it that through the windows appeared to…

July 29, 2008
Uncategorized

Freethinkers and Priests

Isabel Rivers (Volume 2 of Reason, Grace, and Sentiment ) has a superb summary of the freethinkers’ account of the corruption of religion. In its origins, religion was “plain, easy, true” and was rooted in and expressed “nature.” But this was diverted “by priests, who, motivated by greed and playing…

July 29, 2008

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