Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Study in Biblical and Practical Theology Sunday School Notes / Epiphany 2004 Introductory Note: January 6 is Epiphany in the traditional church calendar. Though Epiphany is often treated as a single day, with the Sundays following counted as “Sundays after Epiphany,” we will treat Epiphany as an extended season.…
Imagine someone from another world trying to learn to live in our society according to our customs. What if someone gave him a check for a hundred dollars for his birthday–the first check he had ever seen in his life? Would he immediately understand how a check was used? Perhaps…
According to Presbyterian doctrine, as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, baptism is a baptized person’s “admission… into the visible church.” By referring to the “visible church,” the document makes clear it is referring to the present institutional Church with all her imperfections, as opposed to the future Church…
N. T. Wright claims that in the Apostle Paul’s writings “righteousness,” as it predicated of humans, denotes “covenant membership.” When he wrote this in the New Bible Dictionary edited by Sinclair Ferguson, J. I. Packer, and David Wright, no one thought this was too big a deal. However, when he…
It seems almost human nature to think that we can find something to do for God that will make Him do us favors. If we live more virtuously, or cut down on a vice or two, then God will have to reward us. But the problem with this notion is…
The First Commandment teaches us to trust in Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. The First Commandment reads (I’m using NASB throughout): “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Obviously, trusting in someone or something else (even one’s own good works) for justification, sanctification, and eternal life”…
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Douglas Rushkoff ( Program or Be Programmed ) argues that we don’t think enough about how our new technologies run, or how they are biased. Most of us know how to use software; few know how to make it, and we don’t think about how those who do make it…
The Balaamites of Pergamum and Jezebel in Thyatira have the same teaching. Both entice the saints to fornication, which much be a spiritual form of adultery, and to each things sacrificed to idols. These twin sins link back to the apostolic decree after the Council of Jerusalem, which forbade Gentile…
The church at Smyrna will suffer “ten days” (Revelation 2:10). That suggests a brief tribulation, but why ten days? There are various speculations, but James Jordan’s suggestion seems the most fruitful: The ten day tribulation refers to the period between the feast of trumpets (Day 1 of Month 7) and…
Policy debates today are often framed as debates over state intervention, pro or con. It’s assumed that we know what a state intervention is. Ha-Joon Chang questions this assumption in a contribution to Institutions and the Role of the State . Whether child labor laws, environmental standards, or immigration laws…
What’s new about New Institutional Economics (NIE)? In their editorial introduction to Handbook of New Institutional Economics , Claude Menard and Mary Shirley explain that NIE abandons certain assumptions of neoclassical economics, specifically the assumptions that actors possess “perfect information and unbounded rationality and that transactions are costless and instantaneous.”…
In an essay on sacred law in ancient Athens ( The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law , 67), Robert Parker assesses the scope and limits of freedom of speech and religion. He notes, “If one asks how tolerant of unorthodox teachings (and cults) Athenian society was in practice, the…
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