INTRODUCTION Yahweh summons the nations from a distance to gather for a court session (Isaiah 41:1; cf. vv. 21-24). Yahweh is Judge. Just as importantly, Yahweh subjects Himself to scrutiny and judgment. THE TEXT “Keep silence before Me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength! . . . . Continue Reading »
Every theologian is a negative theologian in the sense that there are certain traditions and theologies that he defines himself against . Protestants have always defined themselves against Catholics, Lutherans against Reformed and vice versa, and within each tradition there are subtraditions that . . . . Continue Reading »
John 17:20-23: Jesus said, I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may be in us . . . . that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in me, that they . . . . Continue Reading »
By following the church calendar, we commemorate the events of our salvation each year. Trinity Sunday doesn’t celebrate an event. Instead, it shows that throughout the church year we commemorate the events of our salvation in order to encounter the God of our salvation. During Advent and at . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1981 article in the Journal of Religious Ethics , Paul Camenisch points to the paradox of gifts. On the one hand, a gift is only a gift if the recipient “has no right or claim upon” the thing given. It the thing or payment is compensation, it is wages and not gift. Gifts are free. . . . . Continue Reading »
I re-enter the “too catholic to be Catholic” arena again this morning at http://www.firstthings.com/ . . . . . Continue Reading »
Sarah J. Dille concludes her study of Mixing Metaphors: God as Mother and Father in Deutero-Isaiah (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) with this summary of Isaiah’s use of maternal metaphors for Yahweh (p. 176): “An appreciation of the commonplaces of the ‘mother’ . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Concentricity and Continuity: The Literary Structure of Isaiah (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) , Robert H. O’Connell argues that “the formal structure of the book of Isaiah comprises seven asymmetrically concentric sections, each of which presents a complex . . . . Continue Reading »
The opening verses of Isaiah 40 record a conversation. God instructs some unidentified group to “comfort” and “speak” and “call” the people, and gives them the message they are to speak (vv. 1-2). In verse 3, a voice from an unidentified source instructs the . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul famously declared that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, adding “Of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul qualifies as chief of sinners because he was a “blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor” (v. 13). That Jesus would save this sinner is a . . . . Continue Reading »
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