On a first viewing of Frozen, there is perhaps no moment more likely to get a laugh out of the whole audience than a little twist near the end of "In Summer." As Olaf the snowman skips through his fantasy of a bright summer field, he approaches a tiny puddle where the snow has melted and gaily declares: Wint… Read more…

On Whether the Church Is In Exile To think of the Church as a people perpetually in exile is a most grievous confusion. Though it is now popular, especially (perhaps ironically) among Christians of great influence and name recognition, to speak this way, the claim is mostly confused. On the surface perhaps my objection… Read more…

In the beginning, God made man in His image, to be His kings and queens in creation. But man was young and inexperienced. For reasons known only to God, he was dependent on this strange process of learning by observation, reasoning, and abstraction. In order to train man for his royal office and protect him, he was pla… Read more…

[A review I wrote a couple years ago on Goodreads but which I ran across again and still like.] James Jordan is always a worthwhile read, but I was not expecting this Crisis, Opportunity, and the Christian Future to be what it is. This book is perhaps one of the most important books for the 21st century Church that I'v… Read more…

Over the past several days I've read Joshua through 2 Samuel. By sheer coincidence (because those are totally real), I've also recently been reading a newly discovered blog―A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry by Bret Devereaux―which largely discusses the intersection of pop culture and history. The combination of havi… Read more…

Divine authority and nature interplay in subtle ways in Jeremiah 1. One of the first audible notes is a peculiar dynamic God introduces into the economy of redemption: the inversion of the order of nature to magnify God's unique power and master over that order. Jeremiah is a very young man, untrained in speech, and he… Read more…

Jesus has performed numerous miracles. Most recently He has fed another group of thousands, but afterwards His disciples still did not understand Him. Next He healed a blind man, and we enter this scene wondering: if Jesus can cure the beggar's blindness, can He not cure His own disciples'? For a moment, it seems that … Read more…

Jesus leaves home abruptly to go the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus stills the sea, which may foreshadow the stillness He is about to bring to a Gentile demoniac, given the Old Testament association of the Gentile nations and the sea. The event also evokes Old Testament imagery of God’s power over nature, and … Read more…

In 1 Samuel 8, Israel infamously demands that Samuel appoint for them a king. This event involves some weighty issues for the idea of law and authority. On the surface, at least in many popular readings, what happened may seem simple: God was Israel's only king, but they grew jealous of nations having tangible kings, s… Read more…

[Continued notes for my Davenant Hall class, “Reading the Gospels with Wisdom.”] Jesus' return home may have been full of strife up to this point, with dark accusations from the scribes and someone tense relations with His family, but the rest of the visit moves from events to teaching in one of the few extended sectio… Read more…

[Continued notes for my Davenant Hall class, "Reading the Gospels with Wisdom."] Mark 2 opens with Jesus' return to Capernaum. It refers to this as Jesus "at home," which does not introduce a great deal of meaning but nonetheless strikes one accustomed to thinking so much of Jesus' deity as unusuall… Read more…

[For my Natural Law and Scriptural Authority Davenant Hall class, every other week I must write a reflection on a biblical text as it pertains to the themes of the course. This is my first of these, on Genesis 6 & 11.] Genesis 6 makes for a very peculiar case when considering natural law and the natural order more … Read more…

[This is just a copy-paste job from a Twitter thread I wrote the other day.] In John 6, Jesus says, "All the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out," and "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." These verses take high place in a common ar… Read more…

[For my Davenant Hall class, "Reading the Gospels with Wisdom," I will be analysing a portion of Mark's Gospel each week. I figured I would also post the notes here.] Mark opens his account by declaring the beginning of the Gospel (ευαγγελιου) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (perhaps, depending on the textual… Read more…

Most Christians grow up learning, or at least becoming somewhat familiar with, the Ten Commandments. However, often they seem too simple to be a real moral guide as we grow up. I mean, just look at the list: Don't worship other gods. Don't worship images. Don't take God's name in vain. Honor the Sabbath. Honor your pa… Read more…

Introduction Every year when the Christmas season rolls around, pulpits and televisions recite as though under orders Matthew 2 in all its glory. Anyone strolling the streets will find Nativity scenes full of donkeys, mangers, stables, shepherds, wise men, and often a bright star. The star itself is a staple, but rarel… Read more…

A key word in the apostolic message of the Gospel is "believe." A common refrain is to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," or something similar. Brief thoughts on what this means: Background: John the Baptist and Jesus both show up foretelling imminent judgment on Israel in connection with the comin… Read more…

Modern Bible readers (myself included) struggle with understanding the meaning of literary structure. Partially because our minds are controlled by chapter and verse divisions, isolated Sunday school stories, and other impediments, we have a hard time seeing how the narratives in Scripture actually flow and relate to e… Read more…

Men without Chests "The Green Book" It begins with an English textbook referred to as "the Green Book." The authors claim that, when someone says a waterfall is sublime, what he really means is, "I have feelings of sublimity about this waterfall." By saying this, they imply to the impressionable rea… Read more…