Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Camping’s Attempted Substantiation Camping attempts to justify his hypothesis with several lines of argument, all of which are erroneous. 1. Gaps in Genealogies He first mentions the fact that in some of the "begatitudes" of the Bible, generations are left out for some reason or other. Matthew 1:8 and 11,…
I am often asked why I am not an Episcopalian, since I like liturgy so much. My answer is that if I had a call to serve in Episcopal circles, I would certainly entertain it. When I have looked into such groups as the Reformed Episcopal Church, however, I have…
For Part 1, click HERE . Now, what does this mean? Are we to believe that Adam was supposed to earn "merits" before God apart from faith ? Surely nobody wants to maintain this. The traditional explainers of the covenant of works always try to nuance their theology so as…
This issue of Biblical Chronology begins a second series of studies. The first series, Vols. I:1–V:4, concerned the chronology of the Bible itself. We saw, first, that the Bible is indeed concerned with chronology, contains much chronological information, and that the chronology in the Bible is complete from creation to…
David A. Weir, The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century Reformation Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). A thorough reevaluation of the federal theology is desperately needed today. John Murray, in his introduction to The Covenant of Grace (1953) appropriately reminds us that it is of the essence…
An "essay" is a foray into a topic. It is not the last word. I hope that this essay or foray is a helpful word. This essay is designed as brief and suggestive. The doctrine of the covenant of works finds expression in the Westminster Standards, where it is also…
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In the current issue of Pro Ecclesia (Spring 2014) Todd Billings offers what he describes as a “Catholic-Reformed” alternative to Moral Therapeutic Deism and to contemporary “correlationist” approaches to contemporary theology. He finds “correlationist” instincts operating not only in latter-day Tillichian efforts to catch the wave of postmodernity, but also…
The Spurs are back in the finals against the formidable Heat, and of course Spurs fans everywhere are jittery (there are at least 3 outside San Antonio, perhaps more). It’s a good time to steel oneself against the possibility of tragedy and turn philosophical about sports. Or, to be philosophical,…
Ramses III was not the only ancient conqueror who castrated his conquered enemies (see Niehaus, Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology , 143). He destroyed the household of the conquered enemy by making it impossible for the household to reproduce. They were made eunuchs for the kingdom of Ramses.…
In a recent post , I presented a case for seeing the sacrificial system of Leviticus as a continuous wedding feast. The portions of the animal placed on the altar were considered “bridal” food for Yahweh the divine husband. I was drawing on the work of James Jordan, and Jordan…
John Walton observes that there are no real parallels to the imprecatory Psalms in Ancient Near Eastern hymnody ( Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context , 147). That is no accident: “In the monotheism of Israel, the suffering of the righteous constituted a much more serious problem than it…
It was suggested long ago by Origen that the canonical arrangement of the three books of wisdom - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song - is deliberate. It represents the progress of wisdom. Origen saw it the trajectory as one from the principles of “moral knowledge” through the recognition of the…
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