Why We Shouldn’t Change the Lord’s Prayer
Pope Francis has caused another round of cheering and dismay by calling for a “better translation” of the words of the Lord’s Prayer.
Someone else will say that language changes over time, and that is why we need revisions. Perhaps; but the ancient Greek has not changed, and English in this regard has not changed. “Lead us not into temptation” means “do not lead us into temptation,” and that is that. We might revise and render “temptation” as... Continue Reading
What About Titus 2?
We’ve taken one phrase in a New Testament epistle and applied it exclusively to one Old Testament passage and decided that that’s all women are allowed to be: homemakers.
But my job isn’t just to keep this home. In fact, my husband shoulders some of that responsibility, since it’s his home, too, and he’s the leader of it. Nor is my job just to raise our children. That, too, is also my husband’s responsibility, since they are his children, and he, too, is commanded in the... Continue Reading
I Don’t Love to Pray, But I Want To
Prayer isn’t always easy (why should it be?).
In the school of prayer, the Bible is our textbook. Our prayers often indicate how long and how deeply we have drunk from the Scriptures. This doesn’t mean that the best prayers are fancy; many of the prayers in the Bible are simple pleas for help (e.g. Neh. 13:22) or outbursts of praise (e.g. Ps. 117), but... Continue Reading
Far as the Curse is Found
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Where is the curse found? Everywhere we look, we see the curse and its malignant effects. How far does it extend? To every atom and molecule of creation — from coast to coast, shore to shore, sky to sky, and to every square inch of the planet. That’s how far the curse is found. Most... Continue Reading
When Evil Has Nice Manners
The reality is, evil often appears normal. Evil beliefs and actions often show up alongside “midwestern manners” with a slice of “cherry pie.”
To be sure, it is unsettling to think that the kind kid down the street could become an ISIS radical, or that the boy who sits behind you in church could be visiting neo-Nazi websites, or that the talkative woman you talk to on the subway aids and abets a man in power who preys... Continue Reading
The Church Adorned with Beauty
The God of heaven and earth is deeply concerned about and appreciative of beauty.
“And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the... Continue Reading
Creation, Incarnation and the Immutability of God
If God added to Himself a human nature (something that did not exist prior to the incarnation) how was there not a change in God?
Herman Bavinck gave the only suitable answer when he wrote: “Neither creation, nor revelation, nor incarnation (affects, etc.) brought about any change in God. No new plan ever arose in God. In God there was always one single immutable will”2 The immutability of God is in no way whatsoever affected by the incarnation on account... Continue Reading
On Being a Lifelong Learner
Why wouldn’t we want to know as much as possible about the living and true God–both from His word and from those he has appointed to teach us the riches of His word?
We have more resources available to us today than every before in human history. The number of publications–both print and electronic (e.g. Google Books, Internet Archive and Logos)—at our disposal is astonishing. When we find ourselves criticizing theologians or historians of a bygone generation, it would do us well to remember that many of them did not have access to... Continue Reading
From Genesis 3:16 to Dinah – Man’s Desire to Rule Over Woman
The Biblical narrative, from Genesis 3:16 to Dinah, shows that the fall of humankind introduced a power dynamic into the man-woman relationship.
It is our job to war against the effects of the fall. The power men feel they can wield over women is one such effect. The Church must stand against the subjugation of women because in so doing we push back against the Fall of Humanity with the power of the Kingdom. The Church has... Continue Reading
Why Saying “She’s Just a Friend” is an Insult
We say that we are thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ but often our responses reveal our ingratitude.
Because we live in such a romanticized and sexualized age where every meaningful relationship with the opposite sex is expected to result in the bedroom, we often try to react by minimizing friendship. We set marriage up as the ultimate relationship in which all of our commitment, passion, and intimacy is shared and invested. So... Continue Reading