Young Earth and the Bible
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…
Biblical Criticism Overview – 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…
Praying Now
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…
John Webb Winter Golf Tournament 2006
The 2006 John Webb Winter Golf Tournament is now history. Previously I commented on this tournament because of its small beginnings, and what it has become today. Today I will make just a few comments and post a more detailed report with pictures on the golf tournament web site. What I saw yesterday was a…
Deciding in your Heart
8But Daniel made a firm decision that he would not pollute himself with the king’s best food or wine, so he asked the chief of the eunuchs for permission not to pollute himself. — Daniel 1:8 (from my TFBV project) Literally, the words about Daniel’s decision read, “Daniel set in on his heart that ….
Involvement
“Look at how large a fire can be kindled by just a small flame.” — James 3:5. James is talking about the bad things that can be done by our tongues, and indeed he is right to do so. We normally regard physical damage as the more dangerous issue. We use the saying, “Sticks and…
New Translations in Selection Tool
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…
Marks of the Jesus Message
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…
Wesley Elsberry Profile
There’s an excellent profile on Wesley Elsberry on the Daily Kos who is both a Christian (United Methodist) and a scientist who accepts the theory of evolution. He works for the National Center for Science Education. This article makes a number of excellent points regarding the need for quality science education. I recommend this excellent…
Was the Bible Written to Me?
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…
Choosing a Pew Bible
Sometimes choosing a pew Bible is a kind of afterthought. I grew up in churches that didn’t even have pew Bibles. It was expected that all the church members would have their own and would bring them to church. But for many churches the pew Bible can have a major impact both on worship and…
Divine Wisdom and Discernment
I’m back to my discussion of inspiration, dealing with the issue of how one determines whether someone can speak for God. In this entry I’m going to look at the last two items on my list, divine widom, and the gift of discernment, which are closely related. As a preliminary, let me comment that I…
Attitude of Repentance
Note: I wrote the following two days ago for my wife’s devotional list. I thought it might be of interest to the blog. 10And God saw their actions, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it. –…
Finding an Authoritative Translation – Supplement A
In my entry Finding an Authoritative Translation I talked about ways in which a person who is not familiar with the source languages can nonetheless check for translation problems and at least be forewarned as to where translation may become an issue in Bible study. I indicated I was going to go back to talking…
Revision and Translation
In my book What’s in a Version? and in my Bible Translation Selection Tool I do not deal much with the question of whether a translation is a revision or not, except when the translation is not taken from the original languages. In this entry, I’m going to look at a couple of revision histories,…
Finding an Authoritative Translation
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm things eventually boil down to “all the animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” I think I can apply this to Bible translations as well as to animals, especially when one is looking for an authoritative translation. The fact is that no translation perfectly reflects the…
Martin Luther King Day: Man, Nation, and Myth
I missed posting yesterday because I was suffering from the flu. In fact, I’m not all that energetic today either, but I did want to post something about Martin Luther King day. Many people seem not to have become comfortable with Martin Luther King day as a holiday. This was brought home to me as…
Suffering Little Children
Wayne Leman on his Better Bibles blog, created an exceptional entry on the need for having translations that put the Bible into comprehensible, current English. Too often in the church we assume that people know things. We assume they know how to find the church, when services are, what is appropriate for them or for…
Widespread Vision!
I wrote this from my wife’s devotional list today and thought I’d share it with the blog as well. Now the young man Samuel was serving the LORD under Eli’s supervision. The Word of the LORD was rare in those days, vision was not widespread. 1 Samuel 3:1 This passage of scripture is both wonderful…
Structure and the (Actual) Book of Daniel
Oddly enough, while I’ve been commenting on The Book of Daniel on NBC, I’ve also been studying the Biblical book of Daniel for a discussion I’m having on the Compuserve Religion Forum. So if you were interested in the TV show, this is definitely not the entry for you. I grew up as a Seventh-day…
AFA Continues Campaign against The Book of Daniel (NBC)
The American Family Association is continuing its campaign against The Book of Daniel on NBC. I just received another e-mail calling on me not to watch the show, of course, but also to ask my local affiliate to stop airing it, and also to ask the advertisers not to sponsor it. In support of this,…
In the Divine Council and Conclave
In my initial entry on testing prophets I listed five approaches to determining whether a word someone claims comes from God is actually from God. The third of those items was “Access to inside information, or is in GodÂ’s councils.” You may be wondering, and rightfully so, how I distinguish this from other approaches. Surely…
Testing Prophets – Godliness
In my previous entry on this topic I listed several proposed method of testing prophets, specifically how does one respond when someone claims to speak for God? This assumes, of course, that one believes anyone can speak for God in any way. The second test I listed as “godliness,” but this is just a shorthand…
Watching The Book of Daniel (NBC)
A couple of days ago I wrote a blog entry about the campaign to get NBC affiliate stations to refuse to air the new NBC program, The Book of Daniel. At the time, I said that stations should air the program, and that I would decide whether I like the program after I had seen…