1 Corinthians 14:26: Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. Paul portrays the church as a body. That captures the unity and diversity of the church. The church is . . . . Continue Reading »
2 Kings 2:9-10: And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you? Elisha said, Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. So he said, You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you . . . . Continue Reading »
Exodus 8:22-23: in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow . . . . Continue Reading »
Exodus 7:20-21: All the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink from the Nile. As Pastor Sumpter has pointed out, when Moses turns the Nile to blood, it only makes visible what was . . . . Continue Reading »
Exodus 7:19: Then Yahweh said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of . . . . Continue Reading »
In his classic Patterns in Comparative Religion , Mircea Eliade notes the doubleness of water symbolism across religions. The natural properties of water provide the basis for the view that water is both deadly dangerous and life-giving: “In whatever religious framework it appears, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Church history provides a compelling argument in favor of infant baptism, but not in the usual way. The argument is not that there is evidence of the practice of infant baptism throughout church history (though there is). The argument is rather that the shape of church history is more . . . . Continue Reading »
Augustine famously declared that the sacraments are bodily things and actions that function as “certain visible words.” Sacraments are word-like, but operate in the visual rather than the audible sphere. And the analogy between the two is often taken to be communication: Words teach us . . . . Continue Reading »
Micah 3:1-3: And I said, Hear now, heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, and who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from . . . . Continue Reading »
Romans 6:4, 12-13: We have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might walk in newness of life . . . . Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go . . . . Continue Reading »
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