Christians who venerate icons often say that the Second Commandment applied to Israel, but now that God has shown Himself in a visible form, the rules have changed. We can now not only depict God in visible form, but we can worship God by bowing, kissing, burning candles, and venerating images. It can seem a powerful argument. After all, the eternal Son who was the image of God did become a visible image. Yet, it is not what the apostles... Read more
The New Testament frequently turns prophetic texts inside out. In Revelation 3, for instance, Jesus applies prophecies that originally promised that Gentiles would bow to Jews to Jews bowing to the (largely Gentile) church of Philadelphia (3:9; cf. Isaiah 60:14). In one respect, the import is obvious: The church is the new and true Israel, the Jews are now outsiders. But how do the biblical writers justify this kind of twist? Is it just a clever rhetorical inversion? If it... Read more
Smith again: Step #3 is to “notice the Bible’s inability to settle matters in dispute.” He points to “the women’s issue,” war and pacifism, creation, the millennium, mode of baptism, etc. Several responses. On the surface, he’s right. The church has had trouble settling disputes for centuries now. But I don’t think that’s due to reliance on Scripture. I’d place the blame more on the fact that we ignore essential teachings of Scripture, particularly its teaching about the unity of... Read more
Christian Smith is on a roll. The Notre Dame sociologist came out earlier this year with a critique of “biblicism” ( Bible Made Impossible, The: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture ), about which I hope to write more later. He more recently has published a how-to guide for evangelicals heading toward the Roman Catholic church ( How to Go from Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps ). Step #47... Read more
At the Financial Times web site, Gautam Malkani points to the motiveless malignancy of the London riots: “In A Clockwork Orange . . . Burgess captures his delinquent protagonists’ complete lack of political motivation, but without dismissing their actions as simple opportunism. Numbed by the dullness of their existence, Alex and his gang of ‘droogs’ revel in demonic violence to stave off the demon of boredom. The only way for them to feel alive is to be literally ‘alive and... Read more
Jesus sets up the victors of Philadelphia as pillars in the house, and then writes names on them. Numbers 17 is in the background, where the names of tribal leaders are written on rods and placed in the house of God. The rod that blossoms with almond (watcher) blossoms is the rod of the priest. Aaron’s rod buds and blossoms, proving that he is the chosen holy one who can flourish as a pillar and rod in the house of... Read more
Jesus promises to write a triple name on the pillars that are in the temple (Revelation 3:12). The three uses of the word ????? are the name of “My God,” the name of the city, which is New Jerusalem, and Jesus’ own new name. This has got to be a Trinitarian formula. “My God” is definitely the Father, and Jesus’ own Name is the Name of the Son. The sticking point is that the third Name is not the name... Read more
The victors in Philadelphia ( not the 76ers) will become pillars in the house of God (Revelation 3:12). Structural pillars are replaced by people-pillars because the temple is replaced by a people-house. The structural and decorative pillars of Solomon’s temple were cut to pieces and shipped off to Babylon. Not so the people-pillars: They “will not go out from it anymore.” Architectural temples go up, and come down. The people-house is final. Jesus can guarantee this because He’s the man... Read more
Jesus warns two of the churches in Asia about the “hour” that is coming (Sardis, Revelation 3:3; Philadelphia, 3:10). In John’s gospel, Jesus talks about the “hour” with reference to the hour of the cross, which is also the hour of glory. Now, Jesus speaks of the “hour” of testing and temptation that is about to come on the entire oikoumene , the Greco-ROman world. What the cross was, so is the coming trial: An hour of testing for the... Read more
Some of my thoughts on Jesus and violence over at http://www.firstthings.com/ . Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In