Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) and her Sovereign God Whatever moved the Wheatleys to buy the little slave that had just arrived from Africa, it was not her physical strength. Small, frightened and skinny, she looked too frail to…
“Would You But Permit Me to Cast Myself at Your Feet?” – Marriage Proposal of 18th-Century Ministers This is a sequel to an article I wrote a few years ago about some marriage proposals by 16th-century Protestant Reformers.[1] Most of…
There is a certain view of church that regards it (especially as expressed in the local congregation) as a ‘voluntary association’. The idea has been notably prevalent among Christians in the United States, but has been embraced more widely in…
Roald Dahl provided for my wife and I, when we first got married, a proper philosophy of home with his memorable instruction, “Please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away. And in its place you…
Have you ever wondered why Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14? Perhaps the ready answer is that the quote substantiates the virgin conception and birth of Christ, which is true enough. However, the text raises a number of questions. For instance,…
In Anthony and Cleopatra (3:2) Shakespeare described it as the “green sickeness”. In Othello, he called it the “green eyed monster”. Immanuel Kant described it thus: “inherent in the nature of man, and only its manifestation makes of it an…
Hilary of Poitiers and the Wonder of the Triune God “He Who upholds the universe, within Whom and through Whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth; He at Whose voice Archangels and Angels tremble, and heaven…
At face value, the 9th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more. According to both the Westminster Shorter and the Baptist catechisms, “The ninth commandment…
…he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. John 12:6bNKJV We often consider stealing to be a minor sin. Especially if it is only shaving a few dollars off…
Anyone who might still hold to the classical liberal perspective that the God of the Old Testament was this angry, vengeful, “bad-hair-day” deity that frankly hated everyone and everything ,while the New Testament Jesus was a veritable hippie, spouting free…
