Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Totally Dependent

    I’m the guest blogger at Grace Through the Desert today with a post entitled You are Totally Dependent based on Ephesians 2:8-10 and a few others scriptures, especially my favorite Psalm 104.

  • Christian Carnival CCXCIX Posted

    … at The Minority Thinker.

  • Ed Brayton on Fox News Bashing

    … here, and for the most part I agree with him. I think there is a certain justification for media bashing, simply because journalists keep expecting us to regard them as unbiased when they are not. But the bashing isn’t unbiased either … and so on ad infinitum.

    One of the key skills required today, I think is distinguishing the data points from the opinion and the framing, and then trying to reframe the issue for yourself from the data points. Of course, learning how to fact check is also quite useful.

    But Ed is quite correct–there is no such thing as purely objective reporting.

  • Welcome 32 New Planets to the Known Universe

    They were obviously there before, but they’re more important because we know about them. I do love this sort of discovery. (See Greg Laden’s Blog for more.)

  • Facing Detours

    Having made plenty of detours in both my physical and spiritual life, I really appreciated this post from Pen of the Wayfarer.

  • If You Don’t Know Greek and Hebrew

    … you don’t know Greek and Hebrew, and there are certain things you cannot do, like, well, reading Greek and Hebrew.  I don’t think this means you can’t read the Bible, or that your opinions don’t matter, but it’s a simple fact.

    When people pretend to know the Biblical languages, as they often do using tools such as Strong’s Concordance and associated tools coded to Strong’s numbers, they tend to introduce many more errors than they would if they stuck to English, or whatever language it is that they actually do read.

    If they don’t know the languages, that doesn’t mean they are stupid or even ignorant.  There are simply some things they can’t do.  No big deal, right?

    Well, Douglas Mangum wrote a perfectly reasonable post on the topic, deploring some tools such as I’ve described, which are advertised in a way that is at least questionable, and it appears that he has been called an elitist.

    The only reason I jumped in here is that I’m a strong advocate of lay Bible study.  I don’t believe my knowledge of Biblical languages gives me an exclusive on Biblical interpretation.  I believe that anyone can get involved, and anyone can have valid opinions.  But that doesn’t make everyone’s opinion valid.  Use of Biblical languages tools without the proper training is one of the best ways to get nearly everything wrong.

    Let each use what knowledge and skill he or she has, and depend on the proper experts where such skill is lacking.

  • Halloween Book Burning and Barbecue

    OK, I’m very late on this one and you can find much more information at The Church of Jesus Christ where Polycarp has been following it.

    Here’s the video:

    I should, but can’t, resist posting my own YouTube video beside this one: Why I Hate the KJV:

    I guess you can tell what I think.

  • Of Church Signs and Breaking Legs

    I’m currently working on the final stages in the release process on two books, one of which is titled Megabelt (the other is Christian Archy by David Alan Black, but it doesn’t feature in this post), and is a fictional account of life in the Bible belt.  The lead character, Gil,  doesn’t much like the sayings on church signs:

    Gil was going to find the church marquee guy one day and break his legs so he could never make the trip to the top of the ladder ever again.

    I was driving home from buying groceries yesterday and encountered a church sign.  It annoyed me so much that I turned around and used my cell phone to take a picture of it.  When I turned around, however, I discovered that the other side of the sign had an equally annoying saying.

    Here’s the front:

    Church Sign - First Side
    Church Sign – First Side

    Now while there is a certain amount of truth here–faith without works is dead–I really don’t think any amount of faith will get me into heaven.  In fact, I’m not sure it’s faith that gets me to church.

    So here’s the second side:

    Church Sign Second Side
    Church Sign Second Side

    Sorry that I didn’t do too good a job getting the pictures.  It looks like the lens was dirty.  What bugs me about this side is the idea that getting to heaven is based on getting your facts right.  I call this “salvation by correct theology,” and I think it’s just a species of salvation by works.

    OK, have fun.  I’m sure there are some readers out there who will find something good about these signs.  Personally, I’m with Gil.

  • Is 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 an Interpolation?

    Well, somehow this post came out blank.  There really was something there.  Really!

    Here it is, rewritten:

    Philip Payne has written a post on the Koinonia blog defending the idea that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is an interpolation (HT: Evangelical Textual Criticism).  I have discussed this issue before (Does Gordon Fee Discard Part of the Bible), based on Gordon Fee’s comments in his commentary on 1 Corinthians.  Payne uses a different starting point–strictly manuscript evidence–than does Fee, but they come to the same conclusion.

    I confess that I am a fan of Gordon Fee.  I regard his commentary on 1 Corinthians (NICOT) to be the best single volume commentary on a New Testament book I have ever read.

  • A Devotional on Grace

    My wife chose to use an old devotional on grace that I wrote for today’s devotional on her list.  I don’t usually do this, but the devotional touched my heart again, as it did when I wrote it.  The devotionals I write always hit me first!