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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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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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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Review of The Language of God
No, not here, and not by me, but my Marc Wagner on the Spectrum Magazine web site. Spectrum Magazine is the journal of the Association of Adventist Forums. The reason I want to call special attention to this review is that it reflects some of my own background. I grew up as an SDA and…
Who Cares about the Present, We have the Future!
A few years ago I was discussing the behavior of a televangelist (who and the particular behavior is unimportant), when she said, “You know, if I believed in God, I’d be afraid to do that.” Now there are certain assumptions in that statement. The God in question must be one who rewards and punishes in…
MBWR #137 + My Highlights
MBWR #135 has been posted. As I’ve been trying to do more frequently, I’m giving a few highlights from each of the carnivals and roundups I read. There is so much good in these, and of course the person who does the complete roundup can’t really rank them all that much, so I think it’s…
PSA: An Unbalanced and Ineffective View of the Atonement
I want to warn those who expect a certain amount of conciliatory tone in my posts on doctrinal issues that I intend to speak more harshly in this post. If that offends you, try reading a different one. I don’t mean to dismiss you, but I feel the need to make some points very strongly…
Christian Carnival #198
has been posted at The Minor Prophet. In this week’s carnival Josiah Concept Ministries both tipped me off to, and responded to, an atheist, VJACK, who is reading the Bible through and commenting. Both posts make good reading. But the final comment in VJACK’s post is pretty interesting: Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad…
Christian Carnival #198
. . . has been posted at The Minor Prophet. A couple of posts are of particular interest in Biblical studies. First, from dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos we have Words of Amos, which is a response to comments on an earlier post on the possible Samaritan background of Stephen’s speech in Acts 7….
Keeping up with the Justification Debate
I am doing some reading before I respond to a couple of posts, but I did want to link to some interesting stuff. Both Mark Olson (Pseudo-polymath) and Anne (Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength) have written posts discussing justification from a perspective other than the judicial/penal substitution approach. Their posts simply confirm to me that…
Bringing Textual Variant Statistics Under Control
Dan Wallace has started a series (actually he did so last week), on textual variants in the New Testament. His first article The Number of Textual Variants: An Evangelical Miscalculation deals with the definition of a textual variant and then with an estimate of the total number of textual variants in the New Testament text….
A Taste of Teaching the Controversy
“Teach the controversy” is one of the well-worn slogans of the creationist movement, and has been well used in the controversy about intelligent design (ID). It’s power is in an appeal to fairness. There’s a dispute? Teach both sides. What could be fairer than that? As with most slogans the problems occur in practically every…
Creation-Evolution Links 11/13/2007
I think I’m at least in the right month this time, which is a good thing because there are some really interesting things to read on the creation-evolution controversy. Some time ago I wrote about a waste of $25 million represented by the creation museum in Kentucky. As it turns out it was a waste…
Genesis 11: Deterioration and Separation
Introduction This chapter contrasts to chapter 10 in many ways. First, the genealogies are in a completely different style. Genesis 10 lists a variety of children for each person. The emphasis is on all the nations coming into being and spreading out. In chapter 11, instead, we have a singular focus–the patriarchal line. The genealogy…
Reading 11/12/07
Update: Edited to correct the date in the header from 10/12/07 to 11/12/07. I truly have not invented a time machine! Here’s some things that caught my attention: Richard Rice Discusses Open Theism20 years ago I read his book The Openness of God when it was first released. I was intrigued by its ideas of…
Why I am Not a Pacifist
Recently there have been a number of articles on pacifism in the Methodist blogosphere, and not a few elsewhere. The most recent set started on Locusts and Honey with his recommendation of this article by Dave Kopel. Another of my blog favorites, Mark Warnock, has challenged the foundation of Kopel’s arguments in Pacifism Got Wrong….
A Nice Display of Sportsmanship
As a U. S. Air Force veteran, I’m always happy to see the Air Force Academy Falcons do well in football games, and this afternoon I was able to enjoy watching them beat Notre Dame. Now I’m no Notre Dame fan, but they’re part of this as well. Following the game, the Cadets face the…
PDF of The Future of Justification
I missed this earlier, but there is a PDF of the full book available on the Desiring God web site. I must admit that a couple of books by N. T. Wright still remain above it on my reading list. Administrative Note: I will be upgrading this blog to WordPress 2.3.1 in the next half…
Tool: Resurgence Greek
Via John Simons – Theology, Technology, and Stuff, I discovered the new location for Resurgence Greek (ReGreek.com). It’s now being maintained and further developed by Mars Hill Church. Resurgence Greek is not a general Bible study tool, but rather a specific tool for folks who know some Greek and want to be able to read…
New Perspectives on Paul – Shifting the Paradigm
I find myself commenting a bit on this topic before I really feel ready to do so, but there are certain things I’d like to insert into the conversation that is being generated from Adrian Warnock’s blog, through the discussion of John Piper’s book The Future of Justification. (Some preliminary notes on the new perspectives…
Friday Reading 11/9/2007
I’ve found a way to make short comments on some of the blog posts I read, but either don’t have time to comment on, or have only a very little bit to say. The result: these link posts. I think I’m supposed to leave more time between agreements with Joe Carter but even though he…
A Question of Ecumenism, Theology, or Exegesis
Over the last few days Adrian Warnock has been posting excerpts from John Piper’s new book on justification, The Future of Justification. His latest seems to represent an escalation, with its title John Piper: Is N. T. Wright Preaching Another Gospel?. Adrian has maintained throughout that Piper is being gracious to Wright and is accurately…
The Golden Compass – Two Views
I haven’t read the books or seen the movie, and thus far I really haven’t been attracted to them enough to go out of my way and do so. So why am I commenting on this at all? Well, I’ve been asked, and I have to say that I can’t really comment on something I…
My Highlights from Christian Carnival CXCVII
I like to highlight three or four posts from the Christian Carnival when I have the time. I usually do so in the post linking to it (if I remember to do so at all), but I forgot today, so here comes another “link” post. My first highlight is host Diane R’s Yes, We Can,…
Christian Carnival #CXCVII
. . . has been posted at Crossroads.
Christian Carnival #CXCVII
. . . has been posted at Crossroads. My contribution this time was from my Threads blog. Check out the many excellent posts in this carnival.
Legislating Morality
Have you ever heard a conversation like this? “You can’t legislate morality,” says one person. “Oh yes you can! We do it all the time. Murder is immoral and we legislate against it.” Interesting, no? For me, this gets combined with separation of church and state. I’m an advocate of separation. People will frequently ask…