The author of Hebrews presents us with vivid imagery of Old Covenant worship in the tabernacle and temple, its priests, and the sacrifices they offered. But what, if anything, does this have to do with my worship as a Christian? Do we still worship...
I offer a controversial claim: Baptizing babies by sprinkling or pouring does not comport with the typological function of the floodwaters of God’s judgment in the Old Testament. Rather, I contend that, by understanding typology and this...
What do we see when we read the book of Job? Several things, no doubt. We see a man undergoing terrible emotional and physical suffering. We find the surprise of a spouse who tells him to turn from God. We encounter friends who counsel him with...
I vividly remember the days of my youth living in Mississippi. On bright summers days, my friends and I spent a lot of time outside. We’d compare our shadows as the blazing sun hit our backs. We’d run, jump, and flail our arms, watching our shadows...
Chekov's gun is a rule of stage drama named after the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. The rule states that if a gun appears in the first act, it must be fired by the end of the final act.
To read any book well, we need a “read” upon the sort of text that the book is. For example, while both could be purchased in the typical bookstore, a recipe book must be “read” very differently from a Shakespearean play. The recipe book invites its...
If we are to learn to read the Bible well, we must learn the language in which it speaks. I don’t specifically mean Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—though those may be helpful, to be sure. I mean that we must familiarize ourselves with the...
One of the privileges I have as a pastor is getting to meet new people almost weekly. When we meet someone new, like when folks visit my church, there’s a set of questions we typically ask: What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you do? These...
Peter J. Leithart explores the meaning of baptism and how those baptized form a beautiful picture of Jesus and a “present-tense” sign of the gospel.