Joel Johnson | Biblical History & Theology

  When I was at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory a few years ago, I came across this newspaper clipping - a piece by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle promoting “reform” of the divorce laws that existed at the time (ca. 1914). This was actually a shock to me, as I only knew Doyle through the Sherlock Holmes series - and although single, Sherlock stays within the social norms of a classic English gentleman.  Although I couldn't find the exact date, this newspaper piece wasn't a one-off case for Doyle; he was president of the Divorce Law Reform Union. He called the Separation Act of 1895 “the most ingenious Bill for producing immorality that could ever have been devised” and said that police magistrates that the lower classes were rotten through and through owing to this law. Doyle claimed that divorce was a deplorable cure for a deplorable state of things. Chaining a woman to a lunatic, drunkard or criminal for life was not conducive to human flourishing. His proposed ...

What is the most dangerous place that you can imagine being? I have been looking at a passage recently in Num 16:41-48, which takes place directly after the rebellion of Korah. The Israelites were grumbling against Most and Aaron, claiming that they had been responsible for killing the families of Korah, Dathan and Abiram – who the Israelites described as “the people of the Lord” (Num 16:41). In response to these baseless accusations, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tent of meeting and God told Moses, “Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” (Num 16:45). God had promised judgement on the people, and this came almost instantaneously in the form of a plague. It’s not quite clear what this plague was exactly or what it looked like, but it seems that it started in one area and was spreading rapidly and visibly. And in the midst of it, one person was running – but he was running the wrong way. Aaron took a censer with fire from the alt...

Today I’m going into a topic which I don’t normally like to dwell on a great deal; and that is sin. However, in order to build up high, we first need to dig very low. We read in Psalm 25, verse 11, “For the sake of your name, LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” (NIV) The reason that God forgives our iniquity is because of his character; because of who he is. However, there’s even more to it. I really like the way that the ESV puts the second line of this verse. It has, “pardon my guilt, for it is great.” That is the reason our sins need forgiveness – because they are so great. It’s not something that we can fix up through some other actions, or set up a payment plan to pay off our crimes. It’s like we’re trying to pay off the $35 trillion national debt of the United States, and all we have is the savings in our piggy bank. J.C. Ryle describes this situation using the phrase “the exceeding sinfulness of sin.” Sometimes we fail to fully grasp how exceedingly sinful si...