In two previous entries I’ve discussed young earth creationism and old earth creationism. Continuing with this series on how various groups of Christians understand origins, I will now discuss the ruin and restoration theory. I have previously mentioned this theory in the pmaphlet God the Creator and in my review of the book The Invisible…
Wayne Leman, on the Better Bibles blog, has posted a note about Ben Witherington’s apology for his remarks about the ESV (Ben Witherington apologizes for ESV comments). I’ve been pretty busy the latter half of this week, so I missed part of the action and had to review it through several blogs. I admire someone…
Ben Witherington seems to have started quite a stir yesterday with his post about the ESV entitled The Problem with the ESV. I like Ben Witherington’s work quite a lot, and respect him, but most of this post has to do with who translated the ESV and why, rather than with the quality of the…
I want to call attention to a couple of excellent posts on Bible translation. The first is an analysis of Hebrews 1:7 by Iver Larsen, a translation consultant, posted by Wayne Leman on the Better Bibles Blog. This translation also leaves open the question of whether a translation of the Old Testament in the New…
Note: I’m going to be running two series here in parallel over the next few weeks, one on the methods of Biblical criticism and how a layperson can apply them, and the other on views of God as the creator. I’m pretty well known to be a theistic evolutionist, but at the same time, I…
One great divide in Christian Bible study is between those who accept and use the methods of Biblical criticism and those who don’t. Generally, those who don’t regard Biblical criticism as a means to destroy the authority of the Bible and certainly as something that a believer can’t use. Since I am a believer, and…
I’ve been working on a new pamphlet for the Participatory Study Series entitled 7 Barriers to Prayer in Your Church. I came up with these seven barriers while leading a prayer conference at my home church (Gonzalez United Methodist). The following expands on just one of these points. 1Now Peter and John went up to…
I’ve updated my Bible Translation Selection Tool to include some additional, older versions. As I add these versions I want to note a couple of things about this tool. The ratings should be regarded as subjective. I make an effort to use objective standards, but especially on the fine points, it can be difficult to…
This passage is from the lectionary selection for February 5, 2006, Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany. 29And immediately as he came out of the synagogue he went into Simon’s house. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31And coming near he raised her up, taking her…
In some recent discussions, mostly related to my Seventh-day Adventist background (for those who may not know, I’m now a member of a United Methodist congregation but was raised SDA), I have encountered quite a number of questions regarding who various elements of scripture are for. For example, many Christians will say that the law…