Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
"The faithful use of sacraments, and indeed a fully sacramental view of creation, is vital to the life of the Church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are rites that directly shape the community and the Body, because they were given by God for that express purpose. A deficient practice of…
Weightlessness is fun. At the beginning of Gravity (2013) , we can see one astronaut dancing the Macarena and another one playing with his jetpack. They like it out there in the space. Apart from zero-gravity they can enjoy beautiful views, and even the silence is likable, although Matt Kowalski…
I recently went to a lunch that is more or less quarterly. About a dozen of us go. It is a lunch held in honor of a retired professor of religion and philosophy. I have been one of his acquaintances for more than 40 years. In his tenure as professor,…
Why Theopolis? Don't we already have seminaries and Bible colleges and other institutions for theological education? Why do we need another one? I get this question now and again. I ask myself this question even more often. What follows is a partial answer. Back in the 1990s, seminaries seemed to…
I think the logic of the Lutheran Reformation can be summarized in one sentence, attributed to Luther himself: "God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does." The first half of that statement is justification by faith . God doesn't need our works to satisfy his justice or…
If you are looking to start a fight with Christians, there is hardly a better subject to do so than the arts. Music, movies, paintings, and literature have provided no small battlegrounds for Christians to war. We are emotionally invested in the arts. A song, a book, or a film…
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Pastor Rich Bledsoe explores the connections of glory and unity at the Trinity House site .
For some today, double imputation alone grounds the gospel. If Christ’s passive obedience (death on the cross) alone is imputed, then we are forgiven but not positively righteous. We need to have Christ’s active obedience (in life) imputed if we are to be counted positively as law-keepers, as righteous in…
A Lamb arrives in heaven to take the book from the Enthroned One (Revelation 5). Why a Lamb? We think of the “Lamb” in association with Passover, but Passover is not the only time when a lamb has to be offered. In fact, Passover doesn’t even requires a lamb but…
One of the virtues of Steven Studebaker’s Jonathan Edwards’ Social Augustinian Trinitarianism is his attention to forgotten debates. Our contemporary debates are not as cutting-edge as we think. We - and I do include myself in we - only think so because of our ignorance and amnesia. He traces social…
In a fascinating 2009 JETS article, Nicholas Lunn shows that John’s account of Jesus’ death and resurrection follows the pattern of the day of atonement. He begins from the common observation that the tomb of Jesus, with its flanking angels and discarded linens, is analogous to the ark of the…
Geerhardus Vos nicely synthesizes different moments of sacrifice: “to the prospherein , ‘offering,’ belongs more than the self-surrender in death; its culminating part is the self-presentation in heaven. It is not merely necessary that a sacrifice be slain; it is equally necessary that the sacrifice be brought into the immediate…
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Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
