Category: Scripture
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Saul Among the Prophets
What was Israel’s worship like outside the Temple? Some intriguing clues are seen in the bands of prophets and their ecstatic worship. I wish we knew more about it. I read a bit on the subject lately, as follows: In the Westminster Theological Journal, 56:2, John W. Hilber writes: The function of prophetic bands is also unclear.…
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The Sociology of the Church
Some unrelated quotes from the book by James Jordan: …the reasons for denominational diversity are deep-seated, complex, and cannot be removed by a wave of a magic wand or anathema. The problem can only be effectively resolved by local communication, cooperation, and prayer. It must be recognized by all parties that there are legitimate strengths…
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The Regulative Principle Redefined
I finished up Leithart’s From Silence to Song yesterday and found his writing illuminating as always. He discusses the Reformed “Regulative Principle” and recasts it in a very different light (a much better one). The Regulative Principle is usually held to mean that anything God hasn’t expressly commanded in worship is forbidden, you’ll often see it trumpeted…
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The Petrine Office
This is me thinking out loud. The prominence of Peter in the New Testament is striking, but it does not mean what the modern RCC says it means. So what does it mean? I’m not sure. The famous passage from Matthew 16 says: And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and…
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New Covenant Scribes
Last week I read something Jesus said that puzzled me, it is in Matthew 13.51-52 where he finishes a string of parables and told the disciples: Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and…
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The Sermon on the Mount
I was struck this morning while reading the Sermon on the Mount, how Jesus’ first teaching as recorded by St. Matthew is an ethics-laden sermon. Jesus called Israel to repent, and then went up on the mountain and issued all kinds of teaching on care for the poor, sexual ethics, the way marriage should work,…
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N.T. Wright on Predestination
In Wright’s commentary on Romans, he says: Foreknowledge is a form of love or grace; to speak thus is to speak of God’s reaching out, in advance of anything the person may do or think, to reveal love and to solicit an answering love, to reveal a particular purpose and to call forth obedience to…
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The family tree of Jesus
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The One Another’s
Be at peace with each other – Mark 9.50Love one another – John 13.34Be joined to one another – Romans 12.5Be devoted to one another – Romans 12.10Honor one another – Romans 12.15Rejoice with one another – Romans 12.15Weep with one another – Romans 12.15Live in harmony with one another – Romans 12.16Accept one another…
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Kabbalah and Calvinism
Many Biblical interpreters in the Calvinist tradition were influenced by Jewish Kabbalistic methods of interpretation. Among these was Petrus Cunaeus of Leiden whose De Republica Hebraeorum was first published in 1617 defined as “true Cabala” the “mystical sense of those things that are concealed in the sacred books.” John Sailhamer has an extended treatment of…