Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
References to the Son of Man coming on the clouds occur five times in the Synoptic Gospels. Three times such expressions appear in the parallel accounts of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:36; Luke 21:27). Then, in parallel accounts of Jesus’ trial before the leaders of Israel, such expressions…
Just what the difference is in the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the New Testament is a question not so easily answered. The distinction is often said to be that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is on the believer, but in the New…
1. Introduction You should think of 1917 at church on Sunday. Why? Let me explain. There's one film every Oscar season which everyone seems to have watched—your parents, your colleagues, even your pastor. This year, it's 1917— Sam Mendes' WW1 epic following two British Tommies on a seemingly impossible quest…
This piece was originally part of the Bowyer response to the Theopolis series surrounding Professor McDermott’s essay, “Rethinking Israel.” For the sake of brevity, it was removed from the initial response, to be published as a standalone piece. As we’ve argued previously , we are strongly supportive of the right…
Richard Bauckham’s groundbreaking work, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony , is profoundly insightful, but the message of the book is hampered by the presupposition of Marcan priority. Ironically the place where this assumption perhaps does its most damage is in Bauckham’s discussion of the apostle Matthew…
The Protestant Reformation was defined by certain clarifying disagreements between the medieval Church and those who came to be known as Protestant Reformers. Chief among these was the nature of justification: whether one was justified by works, or by faith and works, or—as Martin Luther contended—by faith alone. Now over…
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The Spirit is the Spirit of love. He is the love-gift that binds the Father and Son, and is the love of God poured into our hearts. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, male or female. Each of us…
Was the American Revolution inspired by the Enlightenment? Or was it an evangelical Presbyterian rebellion? One way to get at that would be to examine the rhetoric concerning “priestcraft” in the American revolution. More than forty years ago, Carl Bridenbaugh pointed to the importance of debates about Anglicanism in the…
Already in 1976, Daniel Bell noticed the cultural contradiction similar to what David Brooks has labeled the “Bobo” phenomenon: Americans aspire to be a “Puritan by day and a playboy by night.” I suppose the main difference between Bell’s cultural contradiction is that the Bobo wants to be a playboy…
OK, let me try this again. Land is Israel, sea is Gentiles. A boat is a bit of land floating on the sea, and a boat with Jesus in it is a perfect picture of the little flock of disciples that constitutes Jesus’ first church. It’s a bit of Israel…
Matthew 13:11: to you [it is given] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. In the early church, one of the most common terms for the sacraments was “mystery.” One (Theodore of Mopsuestia) wrote “Every mystery is a manifestation by signs and symbols of invisible and ineffable realities.”…
“To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus tells His disciples (Matthew 13:11). What mysteries? A clue from the OT: The only place where the word “mystery” is used in the canonical books of the LXX is Daniel 2, where it is…
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