Ross Douthat observes ( Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics ) that American politics oscillates between mad messianic hopes and insane apocalyptic fears. When our guy wins, we scan the prairie expecting to see the lambs lying with lions. When the other guy wins, we can hear the sky crack and run for cover from the falling stars. Christians get caught up in the passions, but we should know better. We know there is one Messiah, and... Read more
Newbigin ( Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain ) endorses Os Guinness’s idea of “chartered pluralism,” but argues vigorously that the gospel provides the only framework within which it can be realized. “What is unique about the Christian gospel,” he says, “is that those who are called to be its witnesses are committed to the public affirmation that it is true – true for all peoples and at all times – and are at the same time... Read more
In his contribution to Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain , the late Leslie Newbigin gives an eschatological perspective on the notion of a Christian society: “The focus of the biblical vision is on the final vindication of God in the gift of his perfect reign, symbolized in a city of perfect beauty and glory into which all the nations are to bring their honour and glory. The gift of God’s blessed reign is both imminent, in... Read more
The Greek koilia can mean belly (Matthew 15:17) or womb (Mathew 19:12). What happens when we try out the second translation on passages that normally use the first? John 7:38 now reads, “He that believes on me . . . out of his womb shall flow rivers of living water.” That is the only use of koilia in John other than 3:4, where Nicodemus wonders whether humanity ( anthropos , anarthrous) can repeat Adam’s birth by going back into mother... Read more
In the “jealousy rite” of Numbers 5, a woman suspected of adultery has to drink a concoction of holy water and holy dust and a written curse. If she is an adulteress, the water will go into her and cause bitterness, swelling in the thigh, and a wasting in her belly (v. 27). Implicitly, she will be left barren (cf. v. 28). In Colossians 3:7, Paul tells husbands to love their wives, and not to become embittered ( pikraino )... Read more
Do sacraments have power “in themselves”? The question is often posed in a confusing fashion. One confusion is the assumption that non -sacramental things do have power to accomplish things “in themselves.” Created things have powers only because of God’s continuous gift, so in an absolute sense nothing created has power to accomplish anything “in itself” – if “in itself” means apart from all primary divine work. A second and more common confusion has to do with the definition of... Read more
Peter Leithart and James B. Jordan have been highly influential in my life and ministry. Leithart’s book The Kingdom and the Power was an important book in my journey, giving me a solid foundation to see a biblical churchly vision, at a time when I was majoring on minors. Couple that understanding of the centrality of the Church with the breadth of biblical vision expounded in books such as Through New Eyes (Jordan) and Deep Exegesis (Leithart), and it is... Read more
Isaiah 49 is reassurance to Zion that Yahweh has not forgotten her. Her walls are continuously ( tamid ) before Yahweh, like the sacrifices and showbread (v. 16). And Yahweh goes beyond the assurance of His concern to promise that Zion will be surrounded by gathered people, returned exiles and the Gentiles who accompany them from the islands (v. 18). He swears that Zion will put “all of them” on like ornaments (v. 19). All of what? Perhaps we are... Read more
The Hebrew of Isaiah 49:17 is beautifully symmetrical. Transliterated, it reads: miharu banayik meharsayik umacharivayik mimmek yetze’u . The endings of the six words form a neat pattern: one – u followed by four words ending with the second person singular pronomial suffix ( k ), and then another – u at the end. Four of the words begin with mem , and three of them begin with mhr (or, mchr ). Three words in a row end with the... Read more
The Hebrew word beten frequently means “womb” (Genesis 25:23; Number 5:22; Psalm 22:9-10; 71:6; Jeremiah 1:5). In a few instances, though, the word is used in unusual contexts. When Yahweh offers Ezekiel a scroll to eat, He orders him to eat it with his beten and to fill his “bowels” ( me’ah ) with it. Ezekiel takes the scroll into himself not only as food, but also as a sort of seed, and the words that he speaks are “born”... Read more
Leithart
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