James B. Jordan

Through New Eyes

Notes toward the reformation of worship

Theses on worship

Jordan James

Crisis, Opportunity and the Christian Future

Dr. James B. Jordan is an expert in Biblical symbolism, and this short reader's guide is the fruit of a five-year study in the book of Revelation.

A Brief Reader's Guide to Revelation

The Vindication of Jesus Christ

Essays in Reconstruction

The Sociology of the Church

We hear all to often that someone has decided to leave the Evangelical Christian faith and to join the Church of Rome, or Eastern Orthodoxy, or High Anglicanism. The lure is liturgy and tradition, and since the Evangelical and Reformed churches so often have such poor worship, it is not hard to understand the pull exercised by those churches that have a heritage of formality, sobriety and beauty. This cure, however, is far worse than the disease. The answer to the weaknesses of Evangelicalism is not a turn toward the fallacies and errors of Rome, Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism, but a return to Biblical patterns of worship. Just as there is true and false doctrine, so there are true and false worship patterns. In this book, James B. Jordan sorts out the true and the false in the area of worship practice, discussing the cult of the saints, the veneration of icons, apostolic succession, virginity and celibacy, the presence of Christ at His Supper, and the doctrine of tradition.

The Bible Versus Mere Tradition in Worship

The Liturgy Trap

In From Bread to Wine: Creation, Worship, and Christian Maturity, James B. Jordan explores how sin disrupts the rhythms of human life and how biblical rituals restore us to our place in God's historical plan with special emphasis on the motifs of bread and wine throughout the Scriptures.

From Bread to Wine: Creation, Worship, and Christian Maturity

James Jordan reveals the fascinating weave of lives that bind together the heroes and villains of Genesis. Progressively, these lives image and reverse one another in an ascending narrative of action, a narrative all too commonly broken apart and missed. These heroes of the city of God -- Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and others -- come to flesh and blood in ways that undo our normal assumptions. In stark contrast to the selfish heroism of pagan literature, the heroism of Genesis triumphs by breaking all the standard rules. Jordan inverts so many of the traditional negative judgments against these patriarchs' alleged weaknesses and "sins" of deception, struggle, and tyranny that they stand forth as heroes rather than scoundrels. And yet this book is not just about the heroes of Genesis. Throughout, Jordan draws a picture of how Christian culture should be imagined and lived in our own day, from creativity and work to tyranny and freedom. You will never be able to read Genesis the same way again.

Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis

Primeval Saints

Gary North

Gordon Geddes

Greg L. Bahnsen

Allen C. Guelzo

David H. Chilton

Richard Flinn

Rita Mancha

Edmuch S. Morgan

This volume is devoted to a study of the Puritans, the contributors survey the impact of Puritan sermons, thought, and law on society in general. There is little doubt today that the Puritan movement in England and the New World helped to reshape the basic institutions of the Anglo-Saxon world. In previous issues, we have surveyed the Puritan views concerning civil law, economics, science, and other kingdom institutions. Now we focus on those aspects of Puritan life that concerned the family, the institutional church, music, death, and Cromwell's Protectorate. Whatever politics you adopt, he says, should be liberal; whatever economics you adopt, of course, should be interventionist. Not impressed by biblical law. Dr. Lloyd-Jones falls back upon the conventional "unconventionality" of late-twentieth-century British politics—all in the name of liberal innovation. He ignores the fact that the dominion covenant was reestablished, after the Fall, with Noah. The Fall has now become an excuse for not doing anything to cure its effects. However, he said in his 1975 essay, "Looking at history it seems to me that one of the greatest dangers confronting the Christian is to become a political conservative, and an opponent of legitimate reform, and the legitimate rights of people" (p. 103). But if explicitly Christian reform is doomed, what kind of "legitimate reform" does he have in mind? Why, "Calvinist reform," meaning economic interventionism, since Arminianism supposedly leads to laissez-faire: "Arminianism over-stresses liberty. It produced the laissez-faire view of economics, and it always introduces inequalities—some people becoming enormously wealthy, and others languishing in poverty and destitution" (p. 106). Free enterprise creates inequality! If these conclusions seem preposterous to you, you will want to order the latest Journal of Christian Reconstruction, which contains my article showing how free enterprise economics came to the Puritan colonies iii the final years of the 17th century. You will want to read Gordon Geddes' essay on the Puritan view of death, Greg Bahnsen's defense of biblical law against Merideth Kline's attack, Rita Mancha's study of women in Calvinist thought, Richard Flinn's essay on the Puritan concept of the family, James Jordan's essay on Puritanism and music, and David Chilton's defense of Oliver Cromwell. "Puritanism and Society" will provide you with information which will enable you to decide whether Dr. Lloyd-Jones' assessment is correct, whether his view on 17th-century Puritanism's outlook is truly heretical. These three issues of The Journal have created considerable controversy. The idea that Puritanism was essentially a "package deal"—a comprehensive world-and-life outlook that affected all spheres of social life—has alienated numerous self-proclaimed neo-Puritans. This series has also driven another group to abandon the Puritan tradition, and to adopt a kind of neo-anabaptism to replace the older "theonomic" Puritan tradition. The "reprinting neo-Puritans" have faced a dual challenge: either adopt the theonomic tradition which was fundamental to the Puritan movement, or else abandon Puritanism's tradition in favor of new-anabaptism. Predictably, they wish to do neither. Yet to remain "betwixt and between" is to remain caught in a crossfire. The interesting product of this immobility has been a narrowing of focus: endless articles on the ("beneficial") emotionalism of Puritanism, and a stream of biographical articles, primarily dealing with the less well-known later preachers who have defended predestination, but who had little or no lasting influence on Western culture, and who were not explicitly Puritan in their outlook.

Symposium on Puritanism and Society (JCR Vol. 06 No. 02)

In this study, James Jordan argues why the Persian kings named Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are one and the same. This is not a new understanding. Many recent commentators are so certain that Ahasuerus is the king the Greeks called Xerxes and that Artaxerxes is Artaxerxes Longimanus. James Jordan, however, demonstrates that the common identifications of these kings is problematic and that understanding their common identity sheds considerable light on our understanding of redemptive history. Excerpt from Darius, Artaxerxes, and Ahasuerus in the Bible "If my thesis is correct, then several things emerge. First, it becomes clear that there was no 'decree to rebuild Jerusalem' issued by Artaxerxes Longimanus, because that later Artaxerxes is not the Artaxerxes (Darius) of Nehemiah. Thus, the 'word' spoken of in Daniel 9:25 must be the decree of Cyrus. Second, it becomes clear that, just as Cyrus was a new David, so Darius is a new Solomon. It is Darius who builds the Temple, Darius-Artaxerxes who builds Jerusalem, and Darius-Ahasuerus who marries a Jewish bride and protects the Jewish people, which creates a broad analogy between the books of Esther and Song of Solomon. Third, assuming for a moment that Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah were designed as one book with one story, then the plan of that large book becomes clear: the progression from David to Solomon to his wayward successors is rehearsed as a typological foundation for the new historical progression from Cyrus to Darius to their wayward successors in both empire and land."

Darius, Artaxerxes, and Ahasuerus in the Bible

Experience shows that churches that are open and transparent engender a greater feeling of trust and willingness on the part of donors. Financial Management for Episcopal Parishes defines the roles of the clergy, staff, vestry, and congregation in the establishment of a transparent and functioning set of checks and balances that can be implemented by any size church. The book is laced with real-life examples of processes and procedures that did and did not work, helping readers to identify with their own church experience and apply the information to their own setting.

Financial Management for Episcopal Parishes

Bruce Bartlett

R. J. Rushdoony

John Sparks

Douglas Kelly

Simon Kistemaker

Tommy W. Rogers

Norman Shepherd

The belief that modern Israel fulfills biblical prophecy is a theological aberration. Traditional postmillennialists, amillen-nialists, and premillennialists have never believed that national or geographical Israel is relevant this side of the rapture.

Symposium on the Millennium (JCR Vol. 3 No. 2)

James B. Jordan

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