Category: Theology
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Sermon: The Trinity in Romans
A couple of weeks ago I preached at my home church, Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada. We had just completed a months-long series that had taken us through the whole book of Romans, and were finishing up with a few sermons on big topics in Romans that required us to look at the…
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Barth’s “Almost Hypnotic Elegance”
In chapter 3 of his helpful 1996 book Truth & Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life, J. I. Packer takes a few paragraphs to evaluate the effect of Karl Barth’s theology on biblical interpretation in the twentieth century. “Barth’s work over half a century has certainly renewed in some quarters a sense…
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The Prodigal Holiday
I will be bringing (among other things) dessert number four to our Thanksgiving feast. I may make a pear tart. It’s strategic, making a light and fruity dessert number four. How else should I expect it to be eaten, after the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and a big fat et cetera, in competition with whatever chocolate…
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Proud to be Protestant
In the few years that I have been an Anglican, I have met a number of people who identify themselves as Anglo-Catholics. What these particular Anglo-Catholics mean by this, of course, is that they are Anglicans who see themselves in unbroken communion with the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.” What they do not mean…
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Patriotism Firmly Rooted in Mid-Air
One morning last week, as I was driving to the Biola campus to teach a session on Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, I came across two vehicles with two very different sets of bumper stickers. One said “God Bless the World,” and the other, displaying his patriotism for all to see, featured a proud portrayal of the…
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A Theology of Hugging
I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the call to let others be. This, I take it, is the ethical correlate of the Christian doctrine of creation, in which the perfectly strong God makes room for the world, in which he lets it be. It is true that creation is always utterly dependent on…
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The Coming of the Book
What are the major events in the history of salvation, according to Christianity? If you made a little diagram with stick figures, what would you have to include? The choosing of Abraham, of course. The giving of the law, and the whole Mosaic ministry of God redeeming his people from Egypt and making them his…
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Lyra Fidelium
Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900) was an Anglican clergyman and poet whose claim to fame is that he wrote the hymn, The Church’s One Foundation. But that’s just the hit single off a great album. That hymn is from an interesting collection that Stone wrote in 1866 entitled Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles…
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Pursuing a World of Dreams
Daily, I see people pursuing things they believe will make them happy. They live lives where one must be sleep deprived to the point of exhaustion to really be taking advantage of all that this life has to offer. They are always looking for the newest thing-be it the newest movie, TV show or iPhone.…
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A New Type of Christianity is Coming, is Here
Something new is coming, or perhaps is already here. It’s a new type of Christianity. It is still taking shape all around us, so it’s hard to describe. Labels won’t be any help. But one thing’s for sure. It Is The Future. Everything changes, and everything has to be left wide open to new developments.…
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Let Us Now Praise Study Bibles
The ESV Study Bible is soon to be released, and from the plentiful pre-release materials that I’ve seen online, this promises to be a great resource. The editors seem to have crammed a lot of helpful things into a single volume, including background info, maps where you need them, and essays that I wouldn’t normally…
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Worship as Gift
I was recently directed towards Andrew Jones’ blog entitled “A Gift Economy,” where the author was reflecting on Christian worship and the concept of gift. Jones’ main contention is that much Christian worship is passive, in that most worshippers are expected to receive during the worship time as opposed to giving something of themselves. I…