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

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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Nation of Laws?

W illiam Stuntz's Collapse of American Criminal Justice is as relentless as a prosecutor's closing. His main charge is that American criminal justice has become a preserve of arbitrary discretionary power. Speed limits offer a simple opening example. Everyone knows that the posted speed limits are not the real speed…

June 24, 2015

Ten Horns v. One Whore

An angel unravels the mystery of Babylon the harlot and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. Most of what the angel says has to do with the beast, first explaining the beast (v. 8), then its seven heads (vv. 9-11), then its horns (vv. 12-18). The horn…

June 23, 2015
Denominationalism

Culture War in the Churches

Battles between liberals/progressive and conservatives have broken out in many denominations, from Missouri Synod Lutherans to Southern Baptists, and they are still going on in the Episcopal and Presbyterian and other churches. Some have suggested that this internecine warfare is the cause of the decline of denominational identity, loyalty, and…

June 23, 2015

Open Heart

Paul opens his mouth wide ( anoigo ) to speak to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:11), and his open mouth expresses the openness of his heart ( he kardia hemon peplatuntai ). He wants the Corinthians to respond by opening themselves up just as wide (v. 13), so that there…

June 23, 2015

Lacan v. Foucault

Joan Copjec's 1994 Read My Desire (recently reprinted by Verso) sets Lacan against the historicists, specifically against Foucault. But also, along the way, Lacan against the structuralists. It's dense going, as one might expect. Early on, Copjec isolates the trouble with Foucault. He “realizes the necessity of conceiving the mode…

June 23, 2015

Authority, Given and Received

The notion of conferred authority is strange. After all, if authority is conferred, it has to be conferred by someone with authority, presumably someone with more authority than the recipient of authority. Can a lesser authority confer greater authority? Medieval Popes thought not, and their coronation powers ritualized their superiority…

June 22, 2015

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