Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
My good friend, Jason Ewert, recently posted a review of Pastor Douglas Wilson’s book, Against the Church . Jason correctly notes that Pastor Wilson’s main pastoral motivation in writing this book is to combat dead orthodoxy. Dead orthodoxy is a real problem in Reformed churches that celebrate the primacy of…
At the church I pastor, we have four servers who distribute the communion elements to the congregation, and I distribute the elements to those in the foyer and nursery. The servers and I do not partake of the bread and wine until the congregation is served first. As this has…
We at Trinity House believe that the church ought to raise and train her future pastors. Part of that training may be carried out by specialized institutions like Trinity House, but the church and her leaders are ultimately responsible for that training. To encourage churches to assume that responsibility, Trinity…
Sandra Jacobs's The Body as Property examines the role of physical disfigurement in the Hebrew Bible, with focus on the Torah, and more specifically on the (fictitious) Priestly document, P. After an introduction laying out a rationale for the comparative method that guides her research, she explores circumcision, the use…
Yahweh saves. That’s what Isaiah’s name means, and that’s what Isaiah’s prophecy is about. Yah saves Judah when Aram and Israel pressure her. He saves Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege. He brings Judah back from the grave of Babylonian exile. But this triumphant message of Isaiah fizzles. The last few…
Are apostasy and assurance mutually exclusive? Some seem to think so. But let’s consider this a bit: No Reformed man would ever say that a man who is “saved” today will be safe forever no matter what . Rather we say, “your sins are forgiven, now, walk faithfully, glorify the…
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Douglas Oakman’s Jesus, Debt, and the Lord’s Prayer spends an inordinate amount of space on source-critical questions concerning the Lord’s prayer. His claim that “Jesus was attempting to mitigate the situation of the indebted (‘sinner’) by promoting the subversion of the imperial tax system in Galilee” (100) is unconvincing. His…
Timothy Carson thinks the number one is a “giddy” number, “delighted in its unity, ecstatic about its own irreducible, undivided self” ( The Square Root of God , 10). It has good reason to be giddy. It is “always a component of, a part of everything else, no matter how…
The opening verses of Proverbs describe the aims of wisdom, its purposes and gifts. The same verses also point to the source of wisdom: Where is skill in living well to be found? Where do we get training and instruction in this art? Ultimately, wisdom has its source in Yahweh.…
P aul reminds the Corinthians that those who served the altar shared in the proceeds of the altar, and applies that model to the church’s responsibility to support minsters of the gospel. That means that the Levitical system of paying priests (cf. Leviticus 7–8; Numbers 18) provides a model for…
Jesus begins the sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes, which are phrased in third person: Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom; blessed are those . . . , for they. That continues through verse 10. Then Jesus basically repeats verse 10, but with a…
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, John tells us. What might that mean? God is an eternal fellowship of light, eternal source, eternal radiance, and eternal dispersion that illumines the source and radiance. Light gives life. Nothing can live without light. To say that God…
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