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Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

Although I have often read the story of Jesus’ identifying his mother and brothers as “Whoever does the will of God” (Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21), I have never noticed until now that Mark offers a unique preface to the story in his...

A Vow to “My People”

In Ezekiel 37:1-14, YHWH promises to raise his people from their graves, just as he miraculously raises the dry bones in the sight of Ezekiel. In v. 11-13, the words YHWH uses to vow his dedication to this task are touching: Then he said to me, “Son of man,...

Wives, Wells, and Jesus

Isaac, Jacob, and Moses all find their wives through interactions at a well. The parallels are fascinating: So that Isaac does not marry one of “the daughters of the Canaanites, (Gen. 24:3), Abraham sends out his servant to find Isaac a wife, and the servant...

More light on the Word and Spirit from Berkhof

This post is a continuation of On the Efficacy of the Sacraments and Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones, in which I have been trying to get my head around the differences between Lutheran and Reformed understandings of the relationship between the Holy Spirit, the Word of...

Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones

In a previous post, I quoted Charles Hodge’s argument that the Spirit of God alone gives efficacy to the Word and to the sacraments: There is, therefore, a strict analogy, according to the Reformed doctrine, between the Word and the sacraments as a means of...

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