Since 1854, the Roman Catholic Church has adopted the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the idea that Mary was sinless from her conception to her death. It reads, “The doctrine which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the…
The Parables of Jesus are some of the most delightful passages to read in Scripture. Within them, Jesus, the God-man, weaves together powerful stories filled with symbols, metaphors, and illustrations that only the greatest Story-Teller would be able to tell.…
I would imagine that most if not all of those reading this article have read or at least heard of the book The Pilgrim’s Progress, the allegorical story about a man named Christian and his journey from the City of…
“Context is king.” This is the paramount hermeneutic for all Bible texts, each having one exegetical point.[1] The Bible’s entire text, including the parables, has one ultimate homiletical point: Bow before Jesus the King of Kings! Steven McCarthy points out…
Among the many genres of Scripture, the parables of Jesus hold a unique power. They are simple and profound, familiar and unsettling, inviting and confrontational. They draw hearers into a story before they realize the story has drawn them before…
A parable is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” There you go—end of article. That is a familiar and accurate understanding of the parable genre, but it is inadequate for the expositor who desires to preach from this packed…
When one thinks of the parables of Jesus, one thinks perhaps of pithy sayings, punchy stories, and moral points. The parables of Jesus are probably most often used by people to moralize. Be like the Good Samaritan. Humble yourself like…
Douglas Adams opened his second book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Restaurant at the End of the Universe, with that famous line, “”In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very…
In the first article of this “Christ in the Pentateuch” series, Keith Kauffman instructs: “ … it is helpful to think of two broad categories of Christology in the Pentateuch (and the rest of the Old Testament as well): prophecy…
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15). Genesis 3:15 is a key verse of the whole Bible. The…
