In his recent Inerrancy and the Gospels: A God-Centered Approach to the Challenges of Harmonization , Vern Poythress emphasizes the personalism of the biblical worldview. There’s a Trinitarian root to this point: “Each person of the Trinity has his distinct personal perspective on knowledge. God the Father knows all things by being the Father, and in being the Father he knows the Son. The Son as Son knows the Father, and in doing so knows all things. Similarly, the Holy... Read more
Isaiah 45 concludes with the declaration, “In Yahweh shall be justified and shall glory all the seed of Israel” (v. 25). The context makes it clear what this justification consists of: To be justified is to be delivered from exile, to be rescued from chains, to be the object of homage from the nations, to find salvation in Yahweh and not idols. Israel’s justification is linked to her glorification, her glorying and boasting in Yahweh. As Paul would say, there... Read more
Yahweh does what He does to demonstrate His uniqueness, both to Cyrus and to everyone else. From the rising to the setting of the sun, men will know “none besides me, I myself Yahweh, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:6; Heb. ki-‘efes bil’aday ‘aniy yawh v’eyn ‘od ). Virtually the same claim of uniqueness appears a few verseslater in Isaiah 45, in the same somewhat broken Hebrew: “there is none other, no other God (v. 14; Heb. v’eyn ‘od... Read more
Yahweh calls on the heavens to drop and the clouds to pour out the rain of righteousness. Justice drops from heaven, just like mercy (ask Portia!). The result is that the earth produces the fruit of salvation and justice (Isaiah 45:8). In a drought, nothing springs up from the earth; there’s no fruit. The fruit of justice depends on what comes down from the sky, the rain of the Spirit. And it depends on the earth’s receptiveness of that heavenly... Read more
Psalm 80 is addressed to the “shepherd ( ra’ah ) of Israel,” Yahweh, who leads Joseph like a flock. The Psalm is a lament; instead of bringing the flock of Israel to green pastures, he pastures them with the bread of tears and makes them to drink tears. Worse, though he led them from Egypt to the land and planted them there, He has abandoned His vineyard/flock and allowed the boars and wild beasts to ravage it. The Shepherd of... Read more
I offer a biblical case for the “Catholic” sense that ordinary sacrament are extraordinary events at http://www.firstthings.com/ Read more
Peter J. Leithart is one of the most respected scholars in the American Evangelical world. He has written nearly thirty books on biblical exegesis, theology, literature, and history. His work is never predictable. Some of his titles, like Against Christianity and Defending Constantine , defy conventional evangelical wisdom. But behind the title is always a solid case, indeed a powerful case for the truth of the Reformed faith. I’m delighted that Peter will be available at a new study center... Read more
Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics is good. Though not a theologian, Douthat’s navigation of the last half-century of American religious history is theologically impressive. His instincts are sound, and his sketch of current heresies (a redesigned Jesus, prosperity gospel, the Oprahesque “God Within,” and Americanism) is well-selected and richly described. His outline of what a recovered Christianity would look like is sober and inspiring in equal measures. Douthat is an entertaining, highly engaging tour... Read more
Sean Michael Ryan’s Hearing at the Boundaries of Vision: Education Informing Cosmology in Revelation 9 (Library of New Testament Studies, The) is a careful and interesting study of how different ancient hearers or readers would have heard the Apocalypse depending on their literary education. Someone equipped only with the OT, for instance, will hear Joel and Exodus in the plague of locusts (Revelation 9), but someone with tertiary education in Greek literature and science will recognize astronomical allusions in the... Read more
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