Isaiah 35:1 says that the wilderness will be glad. This could be a simple personification of a wilderness blossoming and coming to fertility. But in context, the passage is talking about the return from exile. Perhaps the wilderness is the desolated land of Israel, which rejoices at Yahweh’s return and the return of Yahweh’s people, who will dress and keep her. This fits with NT Wright’s suggestion that the groaning of the creation under the curse is relieved by the... Read more
Augustine distinguishes natural and given signs. The first signify with no intention of signifying, while the latter signify because a person has an intention to signify. The distinction, at least in part, is a distinction of will. Peirce’s typology of icon, sign, and symbol depends on a different criterion. Peirce is looking at the relation of the signifier to the thing signified, rather than to the intention of the communicator. Augustine and Peirce are (perhaps) not disagreeing with each other... Read more
Why did Yahweh determine that Judah had to be punished after the reign of Manasseh? Other kings of Judah, beginning with Solomon, had promoted idolatries of various sorts. Manasseh was uniquely evil, but there is another factor. Throughout 1-2 Kings, the narrator reports that the Kings of Israel followed the ways of Jeroboam who “made Israel sin” (1 Ki 14:16; 15:26, 30, 34, 16:2; etc.). The phrase is used with reference to Jeroboam’s influence some 20x in 1-2 Kings. Throughout... Read more
There is a recurring pattern in Kings, one that matches the structure of embedded narratives I’ve discussed in a forthcoming article in the Tyndale Bulletin: Solomon builds and dedicates the temple, 1 Ki 6-9 Lord appears to Solomon, warning about proper use of temple, 1 Ki 9 Son’s kingdom divided, 1 Ki 12 Dynasty terminated, 2 Ki 25 Temple destroyed, 2 Ki 25 Jeroboam builds the golden calves, 1 Ki 12 Man of God confronts Jeroboam, 1 Ki 13 Son... Read more
Masaru Emoto. The Hidden Messages of Water. Hillsboro, Oregon: Beyond Worlds Publishing, 2004. 157 p. Convinced that Hamlet was entirely correct that there is more in heaven and earth than philosophy (or theology) dreams, I am, out of principle, more credulous than most, but even I am a skeptic about The Hidden Messages of Water. Emoto, a Japanese writer who holds a doctorate in alternative medicine from the Open International University, makes some eyebrow-raising claims about water. He thinks that... Read more
Psalm 120:7: “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” We have seen in the sermon today that the church is an army, and our service to God and His kingdom is militant, as we deploy the weapons of righteousness, faith, salvation, the Word of God and prayer. We are to take our cues from the great heroes of the faith, who nobly fought of old – Ehud, Gideon, Samson, and David. But we would mistake... Read more
The church is the body and bride of Christ, the people of God and the new Israel, the temple of the Spirit and the house of prayer for all nations. In our sermon text (Eph 6), we learn that the church is also an army. Like soldiers, we must be disciplined, doing what our heavenly General commissions us to do. Like soldiers, we must be courageous, not retreating at the first hint of return fire. Like soldiers, we must be... Read more
INTRODUCTION Proverbs 10 begins a long central section of Proverbs. This is largely a collection of sayings, labeled “The Proverbs of Solomon” in 10:1. The organization is not random, but it is not obvious. At least one can discern topical categories in this section: speech, wealth, expectations for the future. Verses 17-32 are divided into several sections (following Waltke). Verse 17 is self-standing. Verses 18-21 concentrate on speech (“lips” appears in vv. 18, 19, 21, and “tongue” in v. 20),... Read more
Some reflections on a lecture by Mitch Stokes, a new fellow at NSA, concerning the differences between philosophy and theology. Ultimately, I don’t believe there is any room for an absolute distinction of theology and philosophy. This is what Stokes said: He defined both theology and “philosophy broadly construed” in Framean terms as “the application of Scripture to all of life.” I agree with that, and would be happy to see philosophy departments admit defeat and close down. I don’t... Read more
In its origins, the study of comparative religion in the West arose within a Christian context. Many of the early writers in this field emphasized the imperfections of other world religions, and attempted to show how those imperfections were realized or corrected in Christianity. In an 1871 volume entitled Ten Great Religions (first serialized in The Atlantic Monthly!), James Freeman Clarke argued that “comparative theology” (tinged with competitive Darwinism) could be used to establish the superiority of Christian faith. A... Read more
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