Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Book Review The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation & Evangelism by Norman Shepherd The Call of Grace is an excellent manual to put in the hands of laymen to teach them how to rest in God’s grace while taking seriously the prize of the upward call of…
My Role as a Parent in My Children’s Salvation Evangeline Jael Horne is our third child. My two boys were born while we were at seminary and we had the privilege of giving them to Jeff Meyers, our pastor at that time, for baptism. When Evangeline was born, however, I…
John Calvin writes in the Institutes about the possibility of admitting children to the Lord’s Supper by virtue of their baptism once and only once: At length they object, that there is not greater reason for admitting infants to baptism than to the Lord’s Supper, to which, however, they are…
The debate over paedocommunion does not seem to have made much headway on either side in recent years. Certainly both sides have made a solid effort to argue for their position. But no resolution seems to be forthcoming in the near future. As a convinced paedocommunionist, I find the church’s…
Lots of conservative Protestants want to answer “no” to this question. The problem with this position is that conservative Protestants are bound to believe what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says inconvenient things, like “baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3.21), or “all of you who were baptized into…
This paper is something of a follow-up to my earlier study, “ Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future .” One of the more controversial aspects of that paper was my claim that Calvin held to a very high view of baptismal efficacy. Indeed, he was a…
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Matthew 14:11: And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she carried it to her mother. There are two tables in our sermon text, two feasts. There is the murderous feast of Herod, a cannibal king, a shepherd who devours the best of his…
There are echoes in the story of the book of Esther, at least in Mark’s version of John’s execution. Matthew tells us that when the daughter of Herodias danced before Herod, he promised with an oath to give whatever she asked. Mark records Herod’s words somewhat differently: He promises not…
In an old JBL article (on Peter in Matthew), Jack Dean Kingsbury points out that “with” statements frame the gospel of Matthew: “God with us” at one end, and “I am with you always” at the other. Within the gospel, Kingsbury argues that Jesus is mainly “with” the Twelve. Matthew…
Every time the name “Herod” appears in the gospel of Matthew, innocents die. Herod the Great is a prominent character in chapter 2, and the name Herod doesn’t appear again until chapter 14, where Antipas agrees to give Herod’s head to the female Herod, Herodias. Herod doesn’t appear in the…
Peter’s name is used 24 times in Matthew’s gospel. He is identified as “Simon, who is called Peter” or “Simon Peter” three times (4:18; 10:2; 16:16), once called “Simon” (17:25) and once “Simon Barjona” (and two more times is identified as “Simon” (16:17). The distribution of his major appearances in…
I suggested in an earlier post that time is not a lava flow that is liquid and dynamic until it reaches the past, at which point it hardens to rock. If not lava, then what? How does the past keep flowing when it’s no longer present (except as the “present…
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