Category: Blog
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The Suffering of the Christ in the Psalms
As soon as Jesus had confirmed to his disciples that he was “the Christ, the son of the living God,” he went on to tell them that it was necessary that he would suffer and die at the hands of the leaders of his people (Mat 16:16, 21). Peter was taken aback, and his disciples…
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The Abundant Style of Erasmus
I had heard that Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) wrote a book showing hundreds of ways to say “thanks for your letter,” so I went and looked it up, just to see what one of the Renaissance’s prime movers was thinking when he did that. The book in question –originally published as De duplici copia verborum…
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Remembering Chris Mitchell
On Thursday night, my dear friend Chris died of a heart attack. We in the Torrey Honors Institute were—are—in complete shock. There were no warning signs, nothing indicating that his health was in decline. (An undetected heart disease proved to be the cause.) Chris and his wife Julie had moved to LA only a year…
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In Memoriam: Chris Mitchell (1950-2014)
“We cannot understand. The best is perhaps what we understand least.” ― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord.Whoever has faith in me shall have life,even though he die.And everyone who has life,and has committed himself to me in faith,shall not die for ever. As for me, I know that…
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Leaf By Niggle: A Recommendation
Beauty, Eucatastrophe, and the Doctrine of Grace in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Leaf By Niggle In September 1944, J. R. R. Tolkien received a request from The Dublin Review for a story that would be “an effective expression of Catholic humanity.” In response, he sent Leaf By Niggle, a short story he had written a year or…
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I Believe in the Communion of (Global) Saints: Writing World Christianity
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice,“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to…
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Loving Life Under the Sun
“Vanity, all is vanity” is the theme of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, the fruit of wide experience and deep reflection. Pleasure, folly, great projects, householding, riches, opulence, art, sex, honor, public works, all fall under the same verdict: there is nothing to be gained under the sun. By all means, take what joy in your…
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Thanks for the Ephesians
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; ~Ephesians 1:15, 16 Because the Ephesian believers were “in Christ” and were “sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise,” and because of…
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Theses on the Revelation of the Trinity
As I’ve been working on a large writing project on the doctrine of the Trinity (The Triune God in Zondervan’s New Studies in Dogmatics series), one of the things that has increasingly called for attention is the peculiarity of the way this doctrine was revealed. It’s simply not like other doctrines. I think the doctrine…
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The Voices of the Father and the Son
To interpret the Bible correctly, one of the skills you need to develop is the ability to discern the voices of God the Father and God the Son, speaking about each other and to each other, in the words of the Old Testament. Without this skill, a reader will fail to perceive many things, and will…
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A Push and Pull in Trinity & Christology (3,2,1)
Theologian Brian Daley points out a curious feature of what happens when the doctrines of the Trinity and christology are (as they ought to be) put together. Each doctrine exerts a pressure on the other, so that anything you do in one area tends to have some corresponding effects in the other. The more you…
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How’s Life Treatin’ Ya?
The eminent philosopher Bertram Wilberforce Wooster once wrote, I spent the afternoon musing on Life. If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don’t you know, if you see what I mean. And how right he was, don’t you know. Life is a word that presents…