Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
(continued from previous issue) Between 30 and 50 What did the Levites do between age 30 and 50? Numbers 4 shows us that they carried the house of God on their shoulders. Lifting up the Lord is an image of worship in the Bible, and David’s restructuring of the Levites…
When God created the world, He created two lands: the Throne-land of Eden (entered through the sanctuary-garden, the Garden of Eden), and the Outlying Lands, such as the lands of Havilah and Cush. This essentially bi-polar world is the world of the Old Creation, and it continued to exist until…
Color is inescapable, except for those who are color blind. In our church architecture, we either employ color schemes that are helpful to worship, or we employ color schemes that are not helpful. Of course, this assertion merely begs the question: What color schemes are most helpful. God showed interest…
As I noted in an earlier article in Rite Reasons , the Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine all claimed that baptism inducts the baptized person into membership in the royal priesthood of the church, and Thomas Aquinas said that baptism, by imprinting an indelible “character” on the soul, confers…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
In my Preliminary Commentary on Daniel , which many of you have obtained, I argued in chapter 13 that the four monsters called up from the sea by the evangelistic work of the four winds (the saints) represented the deep hatred of God that evangelistic work brings to the fore…
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Those who keep ( tereo ) Jesus’ words will be kept ( tereo ) from the hour that is coming (Revelation 3:10). It’s a global hour, coming on the whole oikoumene . And it will test the ones who dwell on the earth ( ge ). Is that simply saying…
Diaspora Jews “stood aside virtually completely” from the Jewish war of 66-70, writes Mary Smallwood in her Jews Under Roman Rule (356). By that, she means that Diaspora Jews didn’t send men or material to help their brothers in Judea, She admits that “Possibly rather more help was offered than…
God has no needs. He is independent of His creation, perfectly blissful before He created it. But that’s not the same thing as saying that neediness is in no way a feature of the life of God. God doesn’t need anything outside Himself, but God does need God. Unless we’re…
Jesus has a triple title in both the letter to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) and the one to Laodicea (3:14-22). To the Philadelphians, He is holy, true, the one-with-keys. To the Laodiceans, He is the Amen, the martyr, the beginning-of-creation. Those traids suggest the Trinity, perhaps in detail. The Father is…
When the father welcomes the prodigal back, he instructs his slaves to bring a robe, a ring, and sandals to adorn his son, and to slaughter a fatted calf for a celebrated (Luke 15:22-23). This in response to the son’s confession, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight;…
Herodotus thought it a silly story: “how Herakles came to Egypt and was taken away by the Egyptians to be sacrificed to Zeus , with all due pomp and the sacrificial wreath upon his head; and how he quietly submitted until the moment came for the beginning of the actual…
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