The New Exodus
Holy week is already upon us since Easter comes relatively early this year. The method used to calculate Easter Sunday is quite confusing: it's the Sunday following the first full…
The Star in the East
Nativity scenes are one of the time-honored traditions of the Christmas season. Such displays vary widely in style but have a number of fixed elements. The central figure, of course, is the…
Will the Real Israel Please Stand Up?
Events in Israel continue apace. The Israeli Defense Forces have initiated ground operations in the Gaza Strip in order to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages. The war has transfixed…
Not Of This World
In 1961, archeologists were excavating an ancient theater in the city of Caesarea, along the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Caesarea became the capital of the Roman province of Judea in…
The Ultimate Power Struggle
We learned in last week's blog that Christmas is all about the confluence of religion and politics. Christmas is of course religious in that it's a part of the unfolding…
Why Does It Matter?
We began this series ten blogs ago by looking at the typical understanding of the gospel within the evangelical world: 1) Our sin has separated us from a holy and…
The Astonishing Triumph
For those who have been following this blog series, I hope you've learned that the gospel was above all else a kingdom announcement. It was a declaration that God was…
The Climax of Israel’s Story
So far in this blog series we've looked at key themes in the Old Testament which help us to understand what the gospel means. For Jews at the time of…