Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
Showing page 244 of 309
Showing page 1 of 43
The notion that the church is an “extension” of the incarnation has been a source of controversy. For many, especially Protestant theologians, the notion seems to blur the necessary distinction between Head and body, Husband and bride, Lord and servants. If the church is an extension of the incarnation, the…
Those who come through the great tribulation need white robes. Their own robes aren’t white, and their own blood isn’t enough to wash them. But once they have shed their blood and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, their robes are white enough to pass inspection in the…
Temple University Sociologist Amanda Czerniawski is interested in how fatness functions in contemporary culture, and especially in contemporary understanding of beauty. Considering herself a vivacious, attractive plus-size woman, and with some acting experience under her belt, she decided to become an under-cover sociologist in the plus-size modeling world. Her forthcoming…
Two linguists - Jack Grieve of Aston University and blogging linguist Mark Lieberman - have been sifting through millions of tweets trying to uncover the “geography of filler words,” Quartz reports . Their results show a clear preference for “um” in the Plains States and the central Midwest. “Uh” is…
Some reflections on the judgment scene from Matthew 25 over at the Trinity House site .
The angels who receive trumpets are identified as “the seven angels who stand before Yahweh.” The phrasing suggests that they have already been identified somewhere, somehow. Where? The angels who perform various actions in Revelation are the twenty-four elders that were identified at the beginning of the book. These are…
Showing page 527 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
