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Dr TK Dunn on the Importance of the Old Testament
This is an extract from a longer interview, which I will also embed. I think Dr. Dunn has some valuable comments on the relationship of scripture and what it means for our study. And here’s the full interview from which that was extracted.
Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Healing and Restoration from Jeremiah 32
Thomas Durst has a nice, short, devotional post drawn from Jeremiah 32:36-44, which he quotes from The Message. It’s titled Healing and Restoration.
Church Politics Good and Bad
Not too long ago I posted about the necessity for church politics. Today I was reading Frederick W. Danker’s commentary on 2 Corinthians, and I ran across a similar argument, based on 2 Corinthians. Let me quote it: Much of Paul’s success lay in his political acumen, with a flair for recognition of the potential…
Ralph Nader Running for President
. . . according to this MSNBC.com story. He had an exploratory campaign for about a month. Normally an exploratory campaign is designed to see if you ought to run. Now here’s what I want to know. What would he have had to discover to persuade him not to run?
From YEC to Theistic Evolutionist
Since I’ve made this journey myself, I’m always on the alert for other stories of similar journeys. It’s interesting that I’ve found many more such stories amongst those studying science. On the religion side, it’s generally those who studies nuts and bolts material (textual criticism, history, archeology, and so forth) who start to see holes…
Augsburg NT Commentary on 2 Corinthians
I took a detour from working through 2 Corinthians with the Anchor Bible commentary and read Frederick W. Danker’s volume II Corinthians in the Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament series. This is a 214 page commentary, but has more content than you might expect because it doesn’t include the Biblical text along with the…
Regeneration and Baptism of the Holy Spirit
OK, readers, this is a strictly Christian type of argument. Is regeneration and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit the same thing? Since I haven’t link to him in so long, some may think I no longer read Adrian Warnock’s blog, but that is quite incorrect. I still subscribe to his RSS feed, but he’s…
Fordham Institute Criticizes Science Standards Compromise
According to the Bradenton Herald, Paul Gross used the word “dishonest” in reference to the compromise language. Personally I prefer “silly” or “inane.” The changes didn’t change the meaning.
Life of a Rumor
One of the nastiest sins you can have break out in your church is gossip. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most common–more common than the common cold. I have seen church congregations broken apart by gossip, and nobody involved thought they were doing anyone any harm. Excuses for spreading rumor and innuendo vary. Sometimes…
Search for the Historical Simon Peter II
This post continues from this one and is part of my series blogging through Ben Witherington’s book What Have They Done with Jesus? This chapter continues the theme of the previous chapter. Witherington is creating profiles of the various claimed eyewitnesses in the New Testament and then using them to tell us about Jesus. With…
KJV Only and Pisseth Against the Wall
I found these two videos after reading this post. I post these because they are so humorous in the way they proudly and piously display extreme ignorance. First, 7 common sense reasons why we should never leave the KJV BIBLE. What is even more humorous about this is that it is listed under the category…
More Positive Note on New Bible Project
Peter Kirk has a more positive view of the new Bible translation project I blogged about yesterday, though he also hedges that positive view a bit. I think he makes some good points, and if things go in that positive direction, I believe I would alter my own attitude. I would suggest also reading the…
Testimony – John 4:39-42
There’s a short sequence of thoughts here at the end of the story of the Samaritan woman (Woman at the Well) that makes an important point about testimony. Many Christians are hesitant to share their testimony. One of the reasons is that they’re afraid they don’t know enough. But you don’t have to know very…
Threads Post on KJV Only
I have posted a couple of YouTube embeds and some short comments on the KJV-Only preaching on my Threads blog.
New Life Version: Simplified Vocabulary
One way to get my checkbook or bank card out nearly every time is to present me with a substantially new edition, or a new translation of the Bible. A substantial part of my bookshelves is occupied with these various versions and editions. The majority of them even get read on a reasonably frequent basis….
The Search for the Historical Simon Peter
I’m continuing reading and blogging through Ben Witherington’s book What Have They Done with Jesus?, and have just finished chapter 3. This chapter discusses the person of Jesus. I would like to remind readers again that I’m blogging the experience of reading the book and not reviewing it. Thus my impressions result from where I…
A United Methodist Bible?
A friend e-mailed me notice of a new Bible translation project which is being sponsored by a subsidiary of Cokesbury, which in turn is associated with the United Methodist Church. (He also passed me a link to this post at Metacatholic.) There is a basic outline of the purposes and intentions of this translation at…
10 Psalms Not Heard (much) in Modern Worship
Don has a post titles 10 Tough Psalms for Worship Songs that deserves some serious thinking. I relate it to my recent post Psalm 95 and 81: Interrupting Praise with Prophecy?. Do we tend to censor the more challenging material in our worship?
Of Rules and Fairness
When I was in my early teens I remember playing a game (I can’t remember what) with a younger cousin. I was old enough that my idea of fairness was that you followed the rules and that was fair. It didn’t matter how many wins each person had. My younger cousin, after losing a few…
On the Processes of Science
Dr. Tony has an excellent post on the processes of science, discussing some words like “theory” and “fact” and also talking about how one goes about doing science. This is from a general perspective, not just from biology or evolutionary theory. One of my favorite books on Evolution, What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr, seems…
Tension Between Tradition and Innovation in John 4
I have used John 4 in many ways, especially in discussing various methods of teaching. But something struck me more forcefully this morning than it has before–the tension between tradition and innovation. It is not that Jesus denies all tradition and favors innovation, which one could conclude based on the living water vs. well water…
Florida Adopts Compromise Science Standards
The Florida Board of Education voted 4-3 today to add the words “scientific theory of” before the word evolution in the standards. It was my understanding that the phrase would be added also before every scientific theory in the standards if this was done, but I don’t yet know if that is the case. The…
Christian Carnival #212 Posted
. . . at The Evangelical Ecologist. Thanks to Don for hosting a fine carnival.
Another Reason to be Involved with your Children
MSNBC.com reports on a study showing that internet predators aren’t behaving the way people assumed they behaved. Instead in many cases they’re picking up teens by openly looking for sex, and there are some teens who are willing to go along. How can you actually protect your children? Even though I came into the parenting…
Florida Citizens for Science Blog on Standards
Brandon Haught has blogged much of the discussion on the Florida Citizens for Science Blog. My previous post is here. I doubt the standards opponents would have gone to such trouble over the word “theory” if they didn’t intend some underhanded tactics based on the popular definition as curriculum is developed and textbooks are chosen.