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

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Romans

Paul’s Gospel & the Theme of Romans

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2003
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History

The Nelda Boswell Scroll: The Apostle Paul’s Town Hall Meeting in Iconium

With the surprising discovery of the Nelda Boswell scroll historians have deciphered its contents and concluded that the apostle Paul returned to the region of Galatia shortly after he wrote the letter that we call Galatians. The evidence suggests that a number of local pastors, elders, and deacons, along with…

by Jeff MeyersJune 6, 2003
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Jonah

Jonah, the Judaizers, and the Gospel

Second Temple Judaism was a form of covenantal nomism, according to E. P. Sanders’ terminology. This means that Torah-observance was a way of expressing loyalty to the Lord of the covenant who had graciously elected Israel. I think Sanders’ view (taken up in bits and pieces and with some modifications…

by Rich LuskJune 6, 2003
Theologia

Gratitude or Faith?

We often hear that the key to Christian obedience is thankfulness for what God has done. But the Bible stresses faith and hope much more than gratitude. The Baptist pastor and author John Piper has written, “Nowhere in the Bible is gratitude connected explicitly with obedience as a motivation. We…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2003
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Federal Vision

God’s Righteousness & Our Justification

One of the questions that is commonly asked about Tom Wright regards his teaching about how Paul uses the term “the righteousness of God.” Since Wright’s interpretation of the term in Paul’s epistles is commonly mentioned in passing but rarely analyzed, it seems like a good idea to explicitly spell…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2003
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Genesis

Forever Means Forever: God’s Promises to the Jews

If God promised a certain land to the seed of Abraham, saying that it would be theirs “forever” (Gen. 13:15), why do Reformed churches teach that the Jews permanently lost their right to the land? What about all these Old Testament “forever” promises and prophesies made to the Jews? How…

by Jeff MeyersJune 6, 2003

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Murder and Manuscript

We might not have the Nag Hammadi library if it had not been for a gruesome murder. The collection was found in 1945 by two brothers in Egypt, Muhammed and Kalifah Ali. As Giovanni Filoramo tells it, when the brothers took the jar containing the texts back to their village,…

December 20, 2007
Theology

Guy Waters

One Brian Cosby has a review of Guy Waters’s book on the Federal Vision in the latest issue of the Westminster Journal. After a fair summary of Waters’s book, Cosby levels two charges: First, that Waters “criticizes the various FV proponents’ positions and doctrines appealing to older, unrevised editions that…

December 19, 2007
History

Mr Magoo Abroad

In the October 22 issue of TNR , Walter Russell Mead compares American foreign policy to Mr Magoo, since it seems to “wanter nearsightedly but relatively unscathed past one hazard after another.” The pattern goes back at least to the Jefferson administration, and Mead quickly summarizes Magoo’s foreign policy through…

December 19, 2007
History

Covenant of Peace

Bossy again, from the same essay: He quotes Oberman’s claim that “in the old dispensation the holiness of the Church and its governors was made manifest by their power to transmit to the body of Christians the condition of peace, and conversely that the absence of peace was an indication…

December 19, 2007
History

Priesthood of Plebs

In a 1977 review in Past and Present , John Bossy summarizes an essay by Heiko Oberman about the “closing gap between the sacred and the secular” in late medieval life (Oberman’s description). Bossy says this involved “an abandonment of metaphysical hierarchies in favor of a direct and covenantal partnership…

December 19, 2007
History

The Last Theocrats

In his controversial book, The Stillborn God , Mark Lilla suggests that nineteenth-century German liberalism attempted to raise political theology from the grave to which it had been consigned since Hobbes. Their political theology had little to recommend it. Charlotte Allen sums up in her Weekly Standard review: “The liberal…

December 18, 2007

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