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Writing

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

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Acts

Journeys of the Prophets in Luke-Acts

In an earlier paper 1 I argued that the story of Jonah belongs in the book of KINGS. Jonah and the unnamed Judean prophet in 1K13 are paired by the author through literary links. The Judean prophet travels longitudinally to confront national paganism and is killed but not swallowed by…

by Scott FairbanksNovember 15, 2022
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Biblical Theology

The Liturgical Day and the Eschatological Day

The Scriptures have much to say about “the day.” “This is the day that the Lord has made,” sings the Psalmist (Psalm 118:24). But what exactly is the day ? Or, more broadly, what even is a day? Days make up human life like water, light, and air. There’s no…

by Jackson ShepardNovember 8, 2022
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John

Worship in Spirit and Truth

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith 21:5, “God is to be worshipped everywhere, in spirit and truth, …” A similar phrase is found in the OPC’s Directory for Public Worship (II.6). In my experience in the OPC and other Reformed churches, the phrase is often interpreted to mean that…

by Brian NolderNovember 1, 2022
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Genesis

Through New Eyes: Eve's Desire and Adam's Rule

Introduction In Genesis 3:16, after the fall, God said that Eve would “desire” her husband and that her husband would “rule” over her. It is popular for Christians to interpret Eve's desire as sinful, that she would try to usurp her husband's authority. Likewise, some interpret Adam's rule as sinful,…

by Adam McIntoshOctober 25, 2022
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American Culture

LGBTQ+ Is Not Enough! — TMPZ+

White Western/Christian society has long discriminated against lesbians and homosexuals — ever since the days of Moses — who was neither white nor Christian, but that is beside the point — who claimed that God gave him revelation about what a man or woman is and how they should relate…

by Ralph Allan SmithOctober 18, 2022
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Humor

A History of Quiet Times

They Found a Book in a Wall, You Won’t Believe What Happens Next The secret behind the history of quiet times will make your quiet times more effective than ever. One of the enduring mysteries of American Evangelicalism is the question of the source of Quiet Times: A Handbook ,…

by George EdemaOctober 11, 2022

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God’s Whimsy

Wiker and Witt suggest that God created pandas as “comic relief” in a blessed fit of “divine whimsy.” The suggestion is troubling even for Christians who defend creation, because, being engineers, they have swallowed the reductive notion that creation must be functional. Wiker and Witt offer this rejoinder: “To spurn…

July 9, 2007
Science

Monkeys and Typewriters

How long will monkeys typing randomly on typewriters take to produce the works of Shakespeare? That’s been a way of thinking about Darwinian evolution since who knows where. In 2002, researches at the Paignton Zoo in England decided to find out. They left a computer terminal in a cage with…

July 9, 2007
Literature

Little Red Pentecostal

The earliest known version of “Little Red Riding Hood” comes from Egbert of Liege’s school trivium textbook Fecunda natis ( The Richly Laden Ship , c. 1022/24). Egbert’s verse version, which appears to be drawn from an oral folktale, begins with Red’s baptism: “A certain man took up a girl…

July 9, 2007

As the preacher preaches

In a footnote in Fear and Trembling explaining the phrase “things do not go in the world as the preacher preaches,” Kierkegaard says, “In the old days, people said: It is too bad that things do not go in the world as the preacher preaches. Maybe the time will come,…

July 6, 2007
History

Forced ecumenism

During the 19th century, various European states forcibly united divided churches. A similar thing happened in Zaire in 1970. Mbiti writes, “the Eglise du Christ au Zaire . . . brought together Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples and a host of other Protestant traditions.” The Church of Christ became the only…

July 6, 2007
History

Exporting schism

Mbiti tells a disheartening story about an effort to unite Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Moravians in Kenya and Tanzania. At a 1965 meeting that lasted several days, the group had come to agreement on all the issues that had been seen as obstacles to union. Mbiti picks up the…

July 6, 2007

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