Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The god of Israel was not just any god. Two thousand years of Christian history, with it’s besetting philosophical temptations, and full-blown deist and transcendentalist and universalist problems, have obscured the fact that, in itself, the identity of the true god (or gods) cannot be predetermined, any more than the…
Jacob and Solomon God gave wealth and possessions to Jacob, and then threatened to take them all away at Peniel. Jacob wrestled with God, and through prayer Jacob saw through the crisis by faith and was made victor (Hosea 12:4). The Kingdom period in Israel concerns the same themes. We…
In our study of the historical impact and unfolding of the Ten Words of God, we now arrive at the Third Word. The Third Word prohibits hypocrisy, and when we realize this, we can see right away that disobeying the Third Word is closely tied to the situation of Israel…
Abraham and Joshua In our previous two essays, we considered aspects of the lives of Abraham and Jacob, as these display how God works with men in history. These two men carry in themselves all the future of Israel, so to speak, and their lives at the individual level correspond…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World (continued) Physical Training Though it is seldom recognized any more, the fact is that no liberal arts and no science is possible apart from peace, and peace is only possible if there is a strong military presence that protects a nation.…
Last month, in our essay " Patriarchal Dominion ," we observed the flow from Abraham to Jacob to Joseph. Our concern here is to advance our understanding of that narrative flow. I should mention that I am assuming much that is found in my book Primeval Saints: Studies in the…
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If the writer must be open to the manifestation of God in “what-is,” she must begin with the senses. Following Aquinas, Flannery O'Connor writes, “The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where human perception begins. He appeals through the senses, and you cannot…
C. E. Douglas's 1915 study of Revelation, The Mystery of the Kingdom , is an eccentric work in a number of ways, but for just that reason highly stimulating, provocative of insight. He rejects, for instance, both the “standard” dating of the book in the reign of Domitian (based on…
Jesus condemned the temple as a “den of thieves.” He was quoting Jeremiah, who said that the Jews of his time were using the temple as a “safe house” where they could store and enjoy their ill-gotten gains. The temple was not where their thieving took place, but their hideout.…
Yahweh is the “Holy One of Israel” ( qedosh yisrael ). It is a name used almost exclusively in Isaiah. It appears once in Kings (2 Kings 19:22), three times in the Psalms (71:22; 78:41; 89:18), a couple of times in Jeremiah. Isaiah uses the name twenty-five times (significant? 2…
Israelite kings were not to be like kings of the nations (Deuteronomy 17). Kings from the nations multiplied wealth and lived in luxury; they built military machines to conquer their neighbors; they kept harems full of princesses, wives and concubines that represented political alliances. Israel's kings were to be different…
Blame it on Marburg. The 1529 Colloquy at Marburg attempted to reconcile Lutherans and Zwinglians on the doctrine of the real presence, and was nearly able to achieve its aim. To Luther's surprise, the Zwinglian party agreed with fourteen of his fifteen propositions, and even conceded most of what was…
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