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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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Grudem and Church Leadership
In part 9 of Adrian Warnock’s interview with Dr. Wayne Grudem the subject turns to church leadership. While I disagree with much of what Dr. Grudem says about church leadership, I could wish he would show some similar sensitivity to different points of view on male-female authority issues that he does on church leadership. Certainly…
Grudem Interview #8 – Arguing from Numbers
I’ve had a day or so delay in responding to sections of Adrian Warnock’s interview with Wayne Grudem, so I’ll take on the last couple of sections and do my own reflections post today. This post takes a small sample from Part Eight – What Does the Future Hold for the Church? The main part…
Developments on the Plagiarism Front
There have been a couple of very interesting posts about the flap over Judge Jones’s alleged (falsely it turns out) plagiarism in the Kitzmiller decision. I pointed out previously that I saw this as essentially a broad scatter ad hominem attack that reflects no credit on those who perpretrated it. In the meantime, if there…
A Practical Application of Grace Before Law
In an earlier post on salvation I mentioned that I would try to expand on some of the points I had only briefly mentioned. I have followed up with an extract from my earlier essay A Fruitful Faith. I encountered an excellent example of the grace before law principle in my devotions the other day…
A Fruitful Faith
As I mentioned in a prior post on salvation, I plan to make a few more comments over the next few months filling out my views. In support of some future posts, I want to post an extract from a previous essay, A Fruitful Faith. You can read the remainder of that essay by following…
Inerrancy and Liberal-Conservative Dialogue
In a comment at , Adrian Warnock says the following: Dr Grudem has expressed regret for the use of the word “blasphemy”, and as far as the quote from his systematic theology goes you have to understand that his aim is explicitly to build a theology based on the assumption that the bible is inerrant…
Critical Thinking and the Attack on Judge Jones
In my Bible Translations FAQ, I respond to a common question about Bible translation and about the NIV in particular. Let me quote my basic response first, and then I’ll discuss why I’m bringing this up now. No, this is not a post about Bible translation, though I’m going to use a translation issue as…
NASB to NASB95 in Isaiah 27
In my materials for my Bible Translation Selection Tool, I only have one entry for the New American Standard Version even though that version was revised in 1995. The major change was the removal of archaic language in prayer–no more thee’s and thou’s. A few other changes were made. In preparing an entry on exegesis…
Idolatry and Male Representation
The new, young associate pastor was praying, and in her prayer she referred to God as “Father-Mother God.” Silence settled over the congregation as mental gasps replaced “Amens.” The associate pastor had transgressed the unofficial line. You can represent God as vengeful or loving, gentle or angry, gracious or demanding, present or distant, but don’t…
Agreeing with Wayne Grudem on Something
Well, I wasn’t sure it would happen, but it has. I agree with a portion of Dr. Wayne Grudem’s comments in the seventh part of Adrian Warnock’s interview with him, Things We Can Agree to Disagree About? Of course, he reaffirms the key points on which I disagree profoundly, namely that making penal substitutionary atonement…
ID = Intense Desperation?
Or perhaps it had set in a long time ago. I hadn’t really meant to comment on the current uproar about the Discovery Institute’s apparent “discovery” that part of Judge Jones’s ruling in the Dover case came “almost verbatim” from the propose findings of fact from the plaintiff’s attorneys. I’m not an attorney, and I…
Christianity vs Paulianity
Dave Warnock has made an interesting discovery while looking at the interview with Wayne Grudem that Adrian Warnock is publishing on his blog (#6 entry). Jesus has been almost totally left out of the argument. I commented on the type of view of scripture that seems to lead to this previously, and in my recent…
Response on United Methodist Apportionments
Some time ago I posted an entry that dealt broadly with apportionments and accountability in churches. A very good friend of mine, Dr. Bob McKibben, author of Holy Smoke! Unholy Fire!, which I publish, wrote me an impassioned and information filled e-mail in response. Some of the contents of that e-mail were not appropriate to…
Christian Carnival CLII Posted
It’s at Buzz Blog and looks like some good stuff. Go read and stir up the blogosphere!
Pleading Guilty to Blasphemy
. . . at least as defined by Dr. Wayne Grudem, a point he makes in the current (6th) installment of Adrian’s interview. Again, he’s not talking about me. I’m just going ahead and pleading guilty under an “if the shoe fits” standard.
Something Weird
Jim Rutz of WorldNetDaily has an article here that is so far over the top that it’s classically funny. If Jim Rutz is right I should probably be gay, considering I’m a fourth generation vegetarian and was raised on a diet including a much higher portion of soy bean products than that of the average…
Adjusting my Attitude about Wallace and Burer on Romans 16:7
I’ve watched the discussions on Romans 16:7 for some time, and had read Wallace and Burer’s article in the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Fall 2001). My conclusion at the time of reading was that while Wallace and Burer had shown some additional possibilities for this translation, I did not think that they had…
Two Posts on Translation
Since I divided my blog into three, I have tried to make “just link” posts rare, but I did want to call attention to two posts that I have just written. First, on the Participatory Bible Study Blog I have put some comments about the Clear Word Bible, which is finally a Bible translation that…
The Clear Word Bible: Reversing the Meaning
Update (12/28/06): There’s a good review of the Clear Word Bible on Thinking Christian titled Book Review: “The Clear Word”. This review goes into much greater breadth and depth on this book that is not even truly a paraphrase of the Bible. Since I regularly come to the defense of various Bible translations some folks…
1 Timothy 2:12 – Assume Authority
The following quote is taken from the fifth part of Adrian Warnock’s interview with Dr. Wayne Grudem. I want to note some principles related to the translation and interpretation of this verse. In the following I identify sections by numbers in parentheses, as in (1), following an emphasized phrase. This is to prevent breaking the…
I’m the Guy Wayne Grudem Warned You About
Well, not really. He warned you about some other, much more important guy. But I agree with the guy Wayne Grudem warned you about! Hey! Come on down to the bottom of the slippery slope! The water’s fine! Adrian Warnock’s interview with Wayne Grudem continues with its fifth part, Must a Woman Always Remain Silent…
Inclusivism and the Heathen
I was getting geared up to write about salvation, because of various comments on my views that I’ve received here and in real life, but as I was doing so, John at Locusts and Honey weighed in on the issue, giving preliminary assent to exclusivism. He does outline the three major positions quite well, even…
Deciding who is Saved
A few short comments on salvation resulted in some comments that indicate to me that I haven’t been entirely clear on this issue. I have heard such comments in real life from readers of my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic. In general people wonder whether I believe that people…
The Concept of Trajectories
I like to talk about trajectories in scripture. This may sound odd to some. A trajectory, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a path, progression, or line of development resembling a physical trajectory.” When I talk about scriptural trajectories, I’m referring in particular to the last part of that definition–a line of development. (Compare also the use…