When Moses turns the water of the Nile to blood, the Egyptians don’t have any water to drink. Do the Israelites? We’re not told. In the second plague, frogs creep from the Nile and fill the land of Egypt. Do they infest Goshen, where the Israelites live? . . . . Continue Reading »
Warren Gage of Knox Seminary kindly agreed to let me post his essay on Protestant hermeneutics. To find a pdf of the essay, click on “Downloads” at the top of the page and find the essay called “Crisis of Protestant Hermeneutics.” . . . . Continue Reading »
In his recent The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy (echoes of Niebuhr), William Pfaff argues that the real targets of Islamic violence are not Western or American but closer to home. He notes that “For nearly a century Washington has supported the . . . . Continue Reading »
Many of the debates in the Reformed world these days have a sizable church-historical, historical-theological component. What was the Reformation about? How much was it in continuity with the patristic and medieval past? To what extent did Protestant Orthodoxy or American . . . . Continue Reading »
Some thoughts arising from a discussion of Proverbs 29:8, 11 with Toby Sumpter. Verse 11 says that a fool “sends forth all his spirit, but a wise man holds it back.” ”Sending forth spirit” is what Yahweh does in creating (Psalm 104:30), what Jesus does on the cross . . . . Continue Reading »
Yale’s David Gelernter reviews Martin Amis’ Pregnant Widow in the current issue of The Weekly Standard , and uses the occasion for reflections on the state of culture. A few money quotes: “This postmodern era is the Age of Irony. Irony implies detachment. Detachment is . . . . Continue Reading »
Alec Motyer ( The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary ) observes that “Isaiah is the prophet of holiness. In the Isaianic literature the adjective ‘holy’ ( qadosh ) is used of God more frequently than in all the rest of the Old Testament taken . . . . Continue Reading »
When Moses turned the Nile to blood, the fish died and a stench arose (Exodus 7:18, 21). Nothing is said about fish or putrid smells in the account of Exodus in the Pentateuch. When Isaiah recounts the exodus, however, he talks about the dying stinking fish: “Behold, I dry up . . . . Continue Reading »
Some thoughts arising from a conversation with Toby Sumpter, Doug Jones and Gabe Telling. Moses is the first human god ( elohim ) in Scripture, the first man to grow up to the fuller image of Yahweh. He is god in relation to his mouth, his brother Aaron (Exodus 4:16) and also to Pharaoh . . . . Continue Reading »
In his best-selling WAR , Vanity Fair ‘s Sebastian Junger explains how war envelops the soldiers who make it. Some representative quotations: “Almost none of the things that make life feel worth living back home are present at Restrepo, so the entire range of a young man’s . . . . Continue Reading »
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