Withered Tree

Isaiah 34 prophesies about Yahweh’s assault on the nations and their armies.  They will be slaughtered, their corpses will rot on the earth, adn the mountains will be drenched with their blood (vv. 1-3).  Instead of sacrificial smoke with its pleasing aroma, the stench of corpses . . . . Continue Reading »

Blameless in holiness

Paul alludes to Zechariah 14:5 in 1 Thessalonians 3:13.  Both passages speak of the coming of the Lord with “holy ones.” There may also be another allusion. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to establish their hearts in love and faith, so that they will be “umblameable in . . . . Continue Reading »

Letham Contra Kline

Robert Letham is among the best Reformed theologians writing today.  His books are deeply researched, up-to-date, his conclusions judicious and balanced; he knows the Reformed tradition, but is not narrow in either his reading or sympathies; he is resolutely Reformed, but makes bold in his . . . . Continue Reading »

Asymmetry

Is the Son dependent on the Father?  Yes; the Father begets the Son, so the Son is Son only because the Father has begotten Him.  This is an eternal begetting, and so the Son always was.  But the Son’s always-existing depends on the Father. Is the Father dependent upon the Son? . . . . Continue Reading »

Two Axioms

One: There is no absolute dualism except that of Creator and creature. Two: While “faith and reason” might be a reasonable discussion, debates on “reason v. revelation” rest on a category mistake. It would be an exaggeration to say that all theological wisdom . . . . Continue Reading »

From Behind the Veil

In one of his posthumously published series of lectures ( Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ ), TF Torrance writes of the incarnation as God coming from behind the veil of the law. The law is a barrier, a form of bondage, since it is “a form of self-imprisonment because it is the result . . . . Continue Reading »

The Soul of Christ

Did Christ have a human soul?  Athanasius asks in his two treatises against Apollinaris.  He answers Yes, of course, but the way he answers is intriguing.  One argument focuses on the death of Jesus: The body of Jesus died, as everyone acknowledges; but death is separation of the . . . . Continue Reading »

What Mad Pursuit

Over at the New Atlantis site, Ivan Kenneally gives a brief and damning summary of the contents of emails hacked from University of East Anglia’s Climactic Research Unit (CRU).  He writes, “Perhaps the most damning e-mails concern CRU deputy director . . . . Continue Reading »

Enthroned on Praise

When I pick up a book on the OT and worship, I always look for Jeff Meyers’ The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship in the bibliography.  Sadly, I’m usually disappointed. I was disappointed by Thomas Pierce’s recent Enthroned on Our Praise: An Old . . . . Continue Reading »

Theanthropology

MC Steenberg’s Of God and Man: Theology As Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius concludes with the claim that for Irenaeus, Cyril, Tertullian, and Athanasius, “it is in and through the human, the anthropos in which the eternal Son is known, that God is disclosed to the creature, and . . . . Continue Reading »