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Writing

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

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Art

The Second Word IV: Implications

What About Catholics? (continued) Usually, such people are not seeking graven images, but rather their idolatry is of a broader character. They are seeking a home on earth. Scott Hahn’s book is called Rome Sweet Home . This is the essential sin, for there is no home on earth. The…

by James B. JordanDecember 7, 1994
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Biblical Studies

The Gospel and the Virtues

Reading the earliest Christian apologists is like watching a movie in which the hero has the means to demolish his opponents in his grasp but never realizes it. The apologists come across as men not altogether aware of the radical character of the gospel they defend. In response to charges…

by Peter LeithartNovember 23, 1994
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Biblical Studies

Suffer the Little Children

Then [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, ne`arim came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!" When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in…

by Peter LeithartNovember 23, 1994
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Biblical Chronology

Genesis 5 & 11: Chronological-Theological Reflections (Part 2)

Further Numerical Items of Interest Umberto Cassuto points out some other numerical factors in Genesis 5. 1 For one thing, he observes that every number in Genesis 5 is a multiple of 5, sometimes with the addition of 7. We have, in essence, made this point already. He also points…

by James B. JordanNovember 7, 1994
Biblical Horizons

The Second Word III: Exposition; Implications

Prostration God has designed the human body in a marvelous way, and Biblical religion is very physical. We believe in the resurrection of the body, against all pagan ideas of the immortality of the soul. We bury our bodies, not burning them. Human beings in their totality, including our bodies,…

by James B. JordanOctober 7, 1994
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Revelation

The Last Eight Visions of Revelation

Since Revelation is laid out in serieses of sevens, it is worth investigating to see if there is a series of seven after the seven libation-bowls of chapter 16. I believe there is, and it is the burden of this essay to expose it. The series of sevens, or heptamerous…

by James B. JordanOctober 7, 1994

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God’s freedom

Dumitru Staniloae has this to say about the asymmetry between the economic and ontological relation of Son and Spirit in Orthodoxy: “from the order in which the divine persons are manifested in the world Catholic theology infers an order of their relations within the Godhead, and admits no freedom for…

March 31, 2008

Blind obedience

According to Balthasar, the Father’s abandonment of Jesus on the cross leaves him without any knowledge - he enters a state of absolute unknowing, and in this state remains faithful and obedient to the Father. As Levering explains it, “Jesus only moves to the pinnacle of obedience (the pinnacle of…

March 31, 2008

Thomas and moral influence

Explaining the fittingness of Christ’s passion as the means for salvation, Thomas says “In the first place, man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love him in return, and therein lies the perfection of human salvation.” The “second” reason is that Christ by His…

March 31, 2008

Thomas, gift theologian

Thomas is not typically viewed as a theologian of gift, but Matthew Levering argues that Thomas teaches that the Trinity is a communion of gift-giving. Thomas says in a comment on John 5:20, “because the Father perfectly loves the Son, this is a sign that the Father has shown him…

March 31, 2008

Sermon Outline, Second Sunday After Easter

INTRODUCTION Jesus has done works of power in the cities of Galilee, but they refuse to repent (11:20-24). They are too wise to receive God’s revelation through Jesus, too proud to take on His yoke. THE TEXT “ Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His…

March 31, 2008

Reeds, Soft Clothing, Prophets

Jesus asks a series of questions about who John is, about what people were expecting from him. Did they go into the wilderness to see reeds shaken by the wind? Or a man in soft clothing? Or a prophet? The answer to the second is clearly No: John is not…

March 30, 2008

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