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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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No Place Like Home for the Troops
I’m a fairly regular reader of the evangelical outpost, and often disagree, even though I respond here infrequently.; Today Joe Carter has a post, The Ruby Slipper Option: Why We Can’t Win in Iraq, that is really exceptionally good, though I detect that Carter is less happy with his conclusion than I am. I have…
Role of Women
I thought I was just about done with this topic after commenting on <a href="textual issues, but there have been some additional comments that called attention to some additional information. Molly commented and through her comment I found her very thoughtful entry Jesus/Women: Equal Worth, Unequal Role (?), and her link to another thoughtful article,…
Updating the Grudem Interview and Discussion
Since I previously posted on the interview that Adrian Warnock is conducting with Wayne Grudem, I thought it would be a good idea to update. There are two more entries of interest: Part Four – Ethical Trajectories, Feminism, and HomosexualityI’m afraid the argument here that stands out is that feminism, and the arguments used by…
Medical Personnel Used as Scapegoats in Lybia
I really have nothing to add to this, but I do want to make sure it gets maximum publicity: Libya vs. Evolutionary Science: Will the Tripoli Six be sentenced to death by firing squad? There are five nurses and a doctor on trial in Lybia for spreading AIDS, and it’s clear that they have done…
Does Gordon Fee Discard Part of the Bible?
In the third part of his interview series, Adrian Warnock makes the following comment in asking a question of Dr. Wayne Grudem: I was impressed by your compassion and fairness in the introduction of your new book expressed towards your egalitarian colleagues who you mention by name. At a later point, talking about Dr. Gordon…
Christian Carnival #CLI Posted
I almost forgot my link to the Christian Carnival #CLI, so that’s it. Thanks to Nerd Family for hosting an excellent carnival.
The Most Annoying Theologian I’ve Never Read
. . . is Wayne Grudem. Well, not quite true. The most annoying theologian is Peter Ruckman of the Pensacola Bible Institute, and I have read some of his stuff. I’ve also read articles by Grudem, and I wouldn’t come close to excluding him from Christianity, so I guess I have read him and he’s…
Textual Critism on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35
I’ve posted something on this over on my Threads blog, titled Does Gordon Fee Discard Part of the Bible?. That post is a response to part of a interview with Wayne Grudem by Adrian Warnock. I think it will be of interest to readers of this blog for the textual criticism aspects, though less so…
Truth, Pluralism, and Absolutism
There has been a rather interesting, if somewhat confused, discussion over on Locusts and Honey about pluralism and truth. The reason I’m not commenting there is that most points have already been made in that thread and I want to go off on a tangent. I believe there’s a substantial problem with many discussions of…
And I’m not . . .
. . . an evangelical, that is. Jason Woolever posted an interesting entry several days ago about what it means to be an evangelical and I’m finally getting around to commenting. It’s not that I have a problem with Jason’s post. It’s more that I have had some problem finding a good, current definition of…
Australia Moving on Stem Cells
Australia is reversing a previous stand and allowing therapeutic stem cell cloning. Read the full story on Yahoo! News.
Can a Translation be Completely Accurate
There’s an interesting thread in the Religion Forum right now, What is a Biblical Translation?, which goes into the issue of whether one can create a 100% accurate Bible translation. Of course, the answer is “no.” If you want 100% accuracy, you need to go to the source language. But even there you bring yourself…
Hiding the Evidence about Human Evolution
This one has been going on for some time now, but it is still an active fight of which we should remain aware. Kenyan Pentecostals are trying to prevent the display of Kenya’s famous humanoid fossils in the national museum along with their evolutionary explanation. (See the ABC News story here.) The major complaint is…
Excavators in West Bank find Early Christian Church
According to a story in the Washington Times credited to the London Daily Telegraph, excavators in Israel have found a very early Christian church. They are now presented with the standard conundrum of preservation vs. digging. Hopefully a compromise can be found. This would be a site of great interest for settling some issues about…
Politicians Working Together
Do we really want our politicians to work together? I caught a few minutes of an interview with former Senator Danforth of Missouri, who commented that “the people” want their government to work, they don’t think it is working, and that they would like their politicians to work together. Now I like Senator Danforth, which…
Prayers for Bible Study
One of the key elements of participatory Bible study that I advocate is prayer with Bible study. Brian at RealMinistries.org has posted a number of prayers for Bible study from church fathers. I recommend reading this post.
Polar Moon Camp
NASA has announced plans for a polar moon camp which would be a start to full time living on the moon. I got this story a number of different ways, but I want to provide a special hat tip to The Evangelical Ecologist, who has commented on the potential value of this plan and technology…
The Problem with the Drug War
This story about Afghanistan and the opium harvest, which has reached a record high this year reminded me of one of the problems with reporting the drug war. We tend to report on the huge amounts of drugs that are stopped. What we don’t comment on so much is how many drugs are getting through….
Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup #94
It has been posted aby Allan R. Bevere. Check it out!
Reflecting on the Flood
In a previous post I commented on the two flood stories, so instead of covering each and every point of the flood story again here, I’d like to reflect just a bit on the story of the flood. I’ll resume my verse by verse commentary toward the end of Genesis 8. The flood story is…
The Danger of Unchanging Truth
Recently, I’ve written a bit about the difference between science and theology. One of the key differences is that science expects to change, whereas if theology is not assuming it is founded on bedrock, it is usually looking for some bedrock. Religious people often criticize science on the basis that it changes too often. Its…
Ignorance and Opinion Polls
Well, I’ve written about a couple of posts by Joe Carter over on the evangelical outpost when I disagreed with him, so I ought to write once in a while when I agree! This morning he posted a truly wonderful write-up on opinion polls. It has been said that “figures lie and liars figure,” but…
Objecting to Obama
It appears that some evangelicals don’t like the idea of Barack Obama speaking at a church. He’s been invited by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to speak at a conference on AIDS. The reason? He supports abortion rights. (See the story on MSNBC.com.) I wanted to call attention to this on two levels. First is…
The Camp and the Cloud
Yesterday and today I wrote devotionals for my wife’s devotional list that drew lessons from the movement of the cloud and fire over the tabernacle in the wilderness. These devotionals are not truly exegetical exercises, but rather draw on the approach I call “listening to the conversation.” The command here is clearly directed to Israel…