Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the first installment of this essay, I offered the following chiastic outline of 1 Timothy: A. 1:1-2. Paul greets Timothy as a true child of the Faith, and blesses with grace, mercy, and peace. B. 1:3-7. Timothy is urged to command against heresy. C. 1:8-11. The reason the Law…
In the first installment of this essay, I offered the following chiastic outline of 1 Timothy: A. 1:1-2. Paul greets Timothy as a true child of the Faith, and blesses with grace, mercy, and peace. B. 1:3-7. Timothy is urged to command against heresy. C. 1:8-11. The reason the Law…
In the Bible, a memorial is something that brings God's promises and previous actions to mind, so that He can do them again. The rainbow is the model, set in heaven so that Yahweh remembers the covenant He makes with Noah (Genesis 9:13-15). God is light and dwells in a…
The First Epistle to Timothy fits neatly in the context of what King Jesus and the church are doing in the gospels, in Acts, Revelation, and all of the Apostolic Age in between. Paul writes to Timothy to encourage him in his work as a pastor in the “latter days,”…
I have been pastoring Cornerstone Reformed Church in Carbondale, Illinois since 1999. We are members of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), but have been practicing catholicity for many years, both personally and corporately. I’ve always believed that the Church of Jesus Christ is much more than the local…
Ecumenism is easy to talk about. It’s doing something to promote it that’s the problem. As a pastor in a town with churches of different denominations, all of whom love their doctrinal distinctions and are jealous to defend them whenever they perceive the slightest challenge, how can you be ecumenical…
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Augustine said that in crowning the merit of human works, he is simply crowning his own gifts: “si ergo Dei dona sunt bona merita tua, non Deus coronat merita tua tanquam merita tua, sed tanquam dona sua.” McGrath points out that this axiom concerning merit is set by Augustine in…
Dante understood Aquinas: The prime mover is not pushy; He/it is not the first domino that knocks down all the others. He is Beautiful and Beauty in Himself, Glorious and Triune Glory, and by His beauty He arouses desire, which moves us toward Him. That is why people in the…
INTRODUCTION Jean-Luc Marion is one of the major figures in contemporary French Philosophy, and particularly a leader in French phenomenology. As introduction to Marion’s work on gift and givenness, we’ll be looking at the key figures and ideas of phenomenology, the “theological turn” in French phenomenology, and other work of…
Justification, Protestants confess, is a declaration of God as judge. But is this ever audible? Where? Is the judgment ever publicly promulgated? Is it merely the secret declaration in the heart? And if so, how can we be sure that the declaration we’re hearing is God’s voice of commendation and…
The canonical ordering of the NT does not carry the authority of the text itself, but it is not irrelevant. (Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, among others, has shown that the canonical order of the gospels links them together into a unified literary unit.) With this in mind, it is not irrelevant that…
INTRODUCTION Because of Israel’s faithlessness, and her hardness toward Yahweh’s prophets, He sends Assyria in to remove Israel and resettle the land with Gentiles. The arc of Israel’s history comes to a great, tragic conclusion, with Israel removed from her land. THE TEXT “In the twelfth year of Ahaz king…
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