The scene in heaven in Revelation 4 is a temple scene. It’s also the beginning of John’s sky journey among the stars and constellations. But the combination of a throne and thrones indicates another setting: This is a courtroom.That’s what thrones indicate elsewhere in Scripture . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus has to keys to open and close doors (Revelation 3:7-8). That could be a door of mission, but the next chapter of the book shows an open door. It doesn’t stand between church and world but between heaven and earth (4:1).The door Jesus opens to the church in Philadelphia is a door . . . . Continue Reading »
At Aeon magazine, Rebecca Giggs reflects on sakura, Japan’s cherry blossom season, and draws some conclusions about the lack of environmental imagination in environmental politics.“Gazing into the throats of flowers is surely one of the most trite, and universal, acts of . . . . Continue Reading »
John ascends through a door in heaven, powered by the Spirit and the trumpet-voice of Jesus (Revelation 4:1-2). A complicated scene greets him in the heavenly temple/throne room.There are several pieces to the tableau: a throne, a rainbow, 24 additional thrones, seven lamps, a sea like glass, and . . . . Continue Reading »
“For you first,” Peter tells the people at the portico of Solomon, “God raised His paida and sent Him to bless you by turning every one from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:26).This “raising up” (anistemi) might be a reference to the incarnation: the Father raised Jesus . . . . Continue Reading »
The songs of praise in the heavenly temple are tradically structured (Revelation 4). The first (Revelation 4:8) is the most obvious; it is a triad of traids. A triple sanctus, followed by a triple name of God (kurios, theos, pantokrator), followed by the name of God in three tenses (was, is, . . . . Continue Reading »
The living creatures in heaven give glory, honor and thanks to the Enthroned One (Revelation 4:9). But when the elders sing, they don’t offer “thanks,” but praise the worthiness of God to receive “glory, honor, and power” (4:11).This isn’t glory, honor, and power . . . . Continue Reading »
Click here for a lecture I gave on Dostoevsky a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs. The event was co-sponsored by the Anselm Society and the John Jay . . . . Continue Reading »
Conservatives often point to the 60s as the hinge point in the history of sexual morality. They mean the 1960s. As Faramerz Dabhoiwala shows in his Origins of Sex, the sexual revolution has much deeper roots, in the 1660s and 1760s as much as in the 1960s. Dabhoiwala places . . . . Continue Reading »
Christians and traditionalists often condemn homosexual activity as “unnatural” behavior. The apostle Paul uses precisely this term. What does it mean?If it is taken to mean that there is no homosexual behavior in the natural world, then the claim is manifestly untrue. As James Neill . . . . Continue Reading »
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