Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Because of sin, the arts sometimes do not serve to glorify but to debase. Sinful men make their environments ugly, and create ugly art to “enhance” their ugly words. But since all men are still God’s images, no men are able to live with such ugliness all the time. Thus,…
Arts and literature reviews in most evangelical Christian publications generally approach their subjects in terms of ideology. We are told whether or not the film or book is acceptable in terms of morals, sexual graphicness, and theological accuracy. While there is definitely a place for such reviews, I fear that…
We speak of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The early Church tended to speak of Him as Father, Word, and Spirit. In this short essay, I want to suggest some other ways to think of the Trinity, ways that I have found pastorally helpful in my own life…
I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and guard My commandments (Ex. 20:5-6). The Second Word forbids acts of ceremonial…
8. The Table of Nations If we assume births every two years, and about 30 years between generations (cp. Gen. 11:12-24), we can come up with an approximate series of dates for the generations recorded in Genesis 10. We shall assume that all three of Noah’s sons had their firstborn…
Zechariah’s first prophecy (Zech. 1:1-6) was delivered in the eighth month of the second year of Darius. The notation of this date serves a number of purposes. Most obviously, it relates Zechariah’s prophecies to those of Haggai. By the time Zechariah delivered his first prophecy, Haggai had already chided the…
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This is an old essay from Biblical Horizons, which is not currently available on the BH site. Jude 9 raises several difficulties (though not insuperable difficulties) for conservative commentators. The event that Jude recounts does not seem to be drawn from the Old Testament, and most scholars claim, based on…
INTRODUCTION Jesus promises rest to the weary who come to Him (11:28-30). Next thing we know, He’s in conflict with the Pharisees over the Sabbath (12:1-14). Jesus’ Sabbath-keeping stands in sharp contrast to the Sabbath-keeping of the Pharisees. The response of Israel’s leaders is becoming more defined: They want to…
Matthew 11:25, 27: At that time Jesus answered and said, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes . . . . All things have been handed over to Me by…
In our sermon text, Jesus speaks of the Father who hides and reveals things. We like the idea of a God who reveals things, but a God who hides things is disturbing. Jesus is not the first to talk about the hiding and hidden God. Isaiah said, “You are a…
In her recent book on the temple origins of Christian worship (T&T Clark, 2007), Margaret Barker notes the various meanings attached to baptism in the NT. She disputes Paul Bradshaw’s conclusion that this variety means “the process of becoming a Christian was interpreted and expressed in a variety of ways,”…
When we speak of “clock time” we tend to mean the natural movement of moments. But of course, the clock is a mechanical device, and its measurements of moments is purely conventional. It ignores natural seasonal variations in the length of daylight and night and generally, as Barbara Adam notes,…
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