David P. BarshingerThe world with its flashing screens, its promises of pleasure, its offerings of wealth, its promotion of power and fame, screams for our attention. It is like Lady Folly in Proverbs, luring us to fix our gaze on things below. Much of what we see in...
In 1521 Martin Luther stood before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms and made his famous statement refusing to renounce his writings. Shortly thereafter, he was stolen away to the Wartburg Castle, and while in hiding as a marked man, he...
Sometimes readers of Scripture are encouraged to “read the Bible like any other book.” This suggestion can arise from a desire to read the Bible as literature—that is, to read books of the Bible according to the rules of their respective genres. For...
We are familiar with God’s calls in Scripture to be marked by a tender heart. Paul commands Christians, “Be … tenderhearted” (Eph 4:32), and Peter tells believers to “have … a tender heart” (1 Pet 3:8). These teachings clearly show what God expects...
Though an unlikely recipient of God’s grace, Naaman the Syrian experienced the mercy and power of God in his healing from leprosy. Naaman’s response to Elisha’s healing is both remarkable and puzzling. It is remarkable that this worshiper of the god...
With the church under attack and the safety of believers and the furtherance of the gospel at stake, what would a professor say to his students? Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562) turned to the Psalms—as Christians have long done—as a source of...
Origen (ca. 185–ca. 254) is often remembered today as the great biblical allegorist. In my seminary years, I was told to avoid him because he was loose with the Bible. And yet Origen remains one of the most influential theologians on the question of...
We are familiar with God’s calls in Scripture to be marked by a tender heart. Paul commands Christians, “Be … tenderhearted” (Eph 4:32), and Peter tells believers to “have … a tender heart” (1 Pet 3:8). These teachings clearly show what God expects...
It is not uncommon when reading the Bible to run into language or imagery that we don’t readily understand. Just spend some time in the Prophets or Revelation. We may view the difficulties in Scripture as deterrents to engaging it (even if we don’t...
In Psalm 19, David celebrates God’s revelation first in creation and then in Scripture. He describes in poetic language the nature of God’s word as perfect, right, and pure, and the function of God’s word as reviving, rejoicing, and enlightening the...
Ephesians 5 is both celebrated as a beautiful picture of the husband-wife relationship and debated for its calls of submission. John Chrysostom (347–407)—the “golden-mouthed” preacher, as he came to be known—sought to illuminate the teachings of...
Freedom means different things to different people. To a man like John Knox, it meant being released from the harsh labor of serving on a French galley ship so he could preach the gospel. To the American Sons of Liberty, it meant taxation with...