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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Angels

Michael’s Dispute with the Devil

But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you" (Jude 9). Jude 9 raises several difficulties (though not insuperable difficulties) for conservative commentators. The event that Jude…

by Peter LeithartFebruary 22, 1989
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Angels

Who Were the Angels of Jude 6?

The prophecy of Jude concerns apostasy. An illustration of apostasy and its consequences is found in verse 6, which the New American Standard Bible translates this way: "And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for…

by James B. JordanJanuary 12, 1989
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Biblical Studies

The Mosaic Law and Social Issues

One of the most pressing problems facing Christians today is how the faith relates to the crises of our civilization. On all sides, Christian spokesmen are trying to offer solutions and perspectives on social issues, in order to try and reform our degenerating society. Abortion, pornography, homosexuality, immigration, war, criminal…

by James B. JordanJanuary 12, 1989
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Uncategorized

ZIKLAG BIVOUAC

In the last several months, a number of people have written or phoned to ask me why I and the other men of Geneva Ministries are remaining in a tiny Presbyterian denomination, rather than joining a large, historic, liturgical body. The question arises, it seems, because in my writings and…

by James B. JordanOctober 23, 1985
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Advent

The Menace of Chinese Food

One of the unrecognized and most deadly evils of modern life’s facets is Chinese food. Most people are wholly unaware of the critical nature of the Chinese food question, and blithely continue to participate in this wicked and dangerous activity: eating Chinese food. Of course, to speak against such a…

by James B. JordanDecember 12, 1984
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God’s Body

Judaism and Christianity are often contrasted as an opposition between “ritualistic” and “nonritualistic” systems. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz ( The Savage in Judaism , 140) argues that this is a mistake. The real difference is a difference of “root metaphor.” This is partly a difference between the pastoral/agricultural setting of Israel’s imaginative…

March 27, 2014

Prophetic Liturgy

Tercio Bretanha Junker’s Prophetic Liturgy has much to commend it. Junker aims to show how the church is trained for “prophetic praxis” through the liturgy. Liturgy “should facilitate the community’s awareness of its biblical foundations, the Christian historical trajectory, a consciousness of its cultural unity, and attentiveness to the transformative…

March 27, 2014

Lord of the Lake

Stepan Trofimovich, the vain Francophone liberal in Dostoevsky’s Demons , claims to know the gospels well from reading Renan, but in fact hasn’t read the Bible itself in a long time. During an illness, he comes to see himself as the liar he is and asks Sophia to read the…

March 27, 2014

Do Guard Duty

Jesus comes like a thief to the unsuspecting, the sleepy (Revelation 3:3). That doesn’t simply mean that His coming is a surprise. It means that He comes to take. That’s what thieves do. To prevent this, the angel of the church at Sardis has to “keep” ( tereo ) or…

March 26, 2014

Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, and the Outsider

George Pattison’s closing essay in Dostoevsky and the Christian Tradition explores the similarities between Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky. It’s been common to read both as “prophets revealing to `modern man’ the abyssal freedom, the wild frontiers and the midnight cries that threaten both the rational system-building of philosophers and social engineers…

March 26, 2014

Sermon in a Tavern

In her contribution to Dostoevsky and the Christian Tradition , Diane Thompson offers a brilliant analysis of Marmeladov’s speech to Raskolnikov at the beginning of Crime and Punishment . Everything he says is seasoned with grandiloquent references to the gospels, and especially to the Passion and last judgment narratives. He…

March 26, 2014

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