Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

On Ecumenical Questions

I am afraid to say that I have become a more regular listener to a podcast from an atheist blog than I am a poster here at Evangel. Luke Muehlhauser’s Conversations From the Pale Blue Dot is one of the better podcasts out there that takes time to examine both sides of important issues in . . . . Continue Reading »

Satan’s Hermeneutic

Satan. A word which the LXX and translators of the Masoretic Old Testament chose different methods. A translator has two different choices when dealing with a proper name or title. Transliteration or translation ... that is make the word sound the same, or literally translate the meaning of the . . . . Continue Reading »

No “End Run” Around the Cross

Here is a graphic that, Rev. James Douthwaite, at St. Athanasius Lutheran Church in Vienna, Virginia, uses to explain how we should always factor in the Cross when we consider our relationship to God and His relationship to us. (A parishioner made this visual image.)So, in God’s relationship . . . . Continue Reading »

A Sampling of What Publishers Receive

My day job is serving as the Publisher at Concordia Publishing House in Saint Louis, Missouri. We’ve been around since 1869, serving as the publishing arm of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. One of the more interesting “benefits” of my position is that I receive, daily, let us say, . . . . Continue Reading »

6-Part Harmony

It’s a Christmas tradition in many homes to read the Christmas story before the festivities begin, which is of course a good thing. Most of us open up Luke 2, read down to through the Shepherds, pray a brief prayer, and then we begin with the wrapping paper and the mixture of joy and . . . . Continue Reading »

A Different Kind of Party

It’s funny because Linus makes the grave reading of Luke 2 for Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what it’s all about, Charlie Brown,” and we feel like something really important® has been said by Dollie Madison cakes and Coca-Cola. But Luke 2 isn’t in a vacuum. The matter of what happened on the night in question in the city of David when there was no room in the inn is not really about anything – unless there is something more to this child than a birth in poverty into an indifferent world. Continue Reading »

Filter Tag Articles