Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Where do we go from here? Depending on one’s perspective, the American story can plausibly be interpreted in different ways. Looked at from past to present , we can see a great deal of continuity from medieval Christendom and the Reformation to America’s founding. The War for Independence, after all,…
Click HERE for Part 1 Civic Religion: American or Christian? We have already traced out the basic contours of the shift in America from an ecclesiocentric, theocratic social order to a secular one. Building on Locke and Hobbes, the Enlightenment accomplished an astonishing coup of Christendom. That victory for the…
Author’s Introductory Note: Engaging in broad historical interpretation as I am about to do is always risky. Necessarily, one “stylizes” history by simplifying, over generalizing, and stereotyping. But the narrative qualities of history are not simply due to the imposition of human rationality upon brute facts; rather history is always…
A. Repentance to life involves endeavoring to believe real hard that you’re saved. reject infant baptism. stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. walk with God in all the ways of his commandments. B. What is necessary so that no sinner may expect to be forgiven unless he does it? Only…
The machine works mechanically and it is flawless. Slander/libel a group of Presbyterian ministers as “Romanist” because robes and James 2 are no worse than praying to Mary or relying on purgatory to pay for unconfessed sins. Drive off anyone who disagrees. Of that number, there may be a tiny…
If we take as a starting point the Tribal / Monarchical / Empire model, we can then add to it the Late Empire Phase. The particular ‘marker sin’ of Empire is false intermarriage, which signifies pluralism and syncretism. Empires by definition are “cosmopolitan” dominated by cities, high culture, many cultures,…
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Erhard Gerstenberger ( Leviticus , 34) claims that “The completely burned sacrifice is probably an Israelite peculiarity.” James Watts ( Ritual and Rhetoric ) disagrees. He argues (75) that “The practice of burning offerings gained popularity during the first millennium and spread from its original home in northwest Syria. Burnt…
Sacramental interpretations of the blood and water from Jesus’ side are too tempting to resist. We ought not resist them. Of course, it is the blood of the new covenant and the water of baptism (John 20:34). But the order brings us up short: Not water and blood, but blood…
It’s one of the most famous lines in one of the most famous songs: “You spread a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23). Israel knows very well that this is what Yahweh the Shepherd does. This is how Israel was born as a people -…
Ancient Israelites offered the inner organs of sacrificial animals - entrails, kidneys, a portion of the liver. The heart is never mentioned. In all of the complicated sacrificial instructions of Leviticus, the word leb never appears, even once. We learn what happens to the stomach (Deuteronomy 18:3) but not the…
If we stay with the strict terminology of Leviticus, the word “sacrifice” ( zabach ) is not a generic term for offering animals on altars but is used specifically of the “peace offering,” often in phrases like “the sacrifice of the peace offerings.” The burnt or ascension offering ( olah…
As Wilfried Warning points out in his engaging study, Literary Artistry in Leviticus , the book of Leviticus uses word repetitions to create meaningful literary and theological patterns. At times, the word repetitions are designed to highlight the themes of a particular section. “Fat” ( chalev ) occurs twelve times…
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