Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the first post of this series, I proposed that the sacraments of baptism and communion are the nexus point for the evangelical and ecumenical movements. In the following post , I proposed a new orientation for ecumenism – a conciliarity of the cross – with the necessary confession of…
“Contextualization” is now, and has been for a long time, the buzzword for the day. 1 Missionary effort in non-Western countries is all about “contextualization” — making our communication of the Gospel, if not the Gospel itself, fit into the culture to whom we from the West speak. 2 There…
In my previous post , I highlighted the sacraments as the point of convergence between evangelicalism and ecumenism arguing that baptism and communion are presented in the New Testament as signs of the gospel that simultaneously enact and remember union with Christ and the unity of Christ’s body. I concluded…
Click HERE for Part I of this series. What does baptism have to do with culture? As I said in the previous essay, the short answer is “everything!” To begin with, baptism is baptism into Jesus’ death (Romans 6:3). Paul explains this as the crucifixion of the “old man” (“old…
In the accounts of our Lord’s nativity and early childhood, so familiar to us from many years of Advent and Christmas services, we often fail to recognize in them the gentle intimations of a greater nativity that is yet to come. The attentive ear, however, can discover in these passages…
Isaiah warns that Yahweh is coming to remove Judah’s leaders in every area of social, economic and political life so completely that there will be no one left to lead besides children (3:4) and women (v. 12). As Isaiah goes on, however, it becomes clear that the women of Judah…
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Isaiah 57 begins with a chiastically arranged fragment of wisdom literature. Verse 1 begins and ends with “righteous one” ( tzaddiyq ): A. The righteous man perishes B. there is not a man there of heart C. men of loyalty taken away B’. there is not consideration A’. for from…
Ralph Smith continues his series of studies in Deuteronomy at the Trinity House site.
Creation is threefold: Heaven, earth, sea. Alternatively, creation is sixfold, because each zone has things in it: Heaven and things, earth and things, sea and things (Revelation 10:6). A nice symmetry: The sixfold creation was formed over six days. At the origin and end of the sixfold creation, there has…
For seven periods of time, Nebuchadnezzar lived like a beast, eating grass, his hair growing like wings (Daniel 4:28-33). Then he became human again. Like an Enlightenment philosopher, Daniel describes this as a restoration of “reason,” that most distinctive human trait. Twice, the king declares, “my reason (Ar. manda ‘)…
NT Wright has sparked controversy for saying that Jesus announces the kingdom as the end of exile. It’s hardly a new thought. In his discussion of the “particular and general” in his Tyconius: The Book of Rules , Tyconius observes an alternating movement in the prophets. Prophets speak of the…
Exodus says that Israel was in Egypt 430 years, Genesis says 400. Can we just round them off to make them coincide? Tyconius ( The Book of Rules ) isn’t satisfied with that. Perhaps, he suggests, “they were not in slaver for the whole time? We need to find out,…
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