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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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Priesthood, Sacrifice, and Christian Theology
I want to call the attention of the readers of this blog to some posts I’m starting in the Participatory Bible Study blog. I’m looking at the nature of priesthood and sacrifice in connection with views of the atonement. This portion of my blogging through the book of Hebrews will take me a number of…
Isaiah 24-27 – Textual Issues
I’m approaching the textual issues for these four chapters from the point of view of English translations. I want to look for those textual issues that actually have an impact on major English translations. This is a procedure you can follow any time you study a Bible passage, assuming you don’t know Greek or Hebrew…
What is a Priest?
If you read through the book of Hebrews as a whole, you cannot help but notice the central place that the concept of priesthood has for the author of the book. His metaphors come strongly from the tabernacle or sanctuary service, and especially the wilderness version. Where he refers to these things he doesn’t reference…
High School Bible Classes Again
In a previous post, The Best Place to Teach the Bible, I discussed my view that home and church or other private organizations were the best way to teach the Bible. I’ve had a couple of comments to that post that I think deserve some comment, and since I don’t like to make post-length comments…
Is Theistic Evolution a Bad Term?
I have a serious problem with the term “theistic evolution.” I’m a theist. I accept the theory of evolution as the best explanation for how life diversified on earth. I also accept the theory of gravity. I’m not a theistic gravitationist. Now I do understand the difference here. Evolution has become the center of a…
Wal-Mart Advertising Anyone?
Shane Raynor takes a brave approach to issues about Wal-Mart over on Wesley Daily, by putting his post Wal-Mart Observations right next to a Wal-Mart add. I guess we know where he stands! I wanted to call attention to this, because while I’m not running any Wal-Mart ads, I agree with Shane’s comments, and I…
Speaking Out on Darfur
In his regular column in Newsweek, Rabbi Marc Gellman comments on the need to speak out about the situation in Darfur. I want to call attention to his column, Responding to Evil, and suggest you read it, if nothing else so that you will see this: The most important thing I have taken from WieselÂ’s…
Hebrews 10:19-25: Why Meet for Worship?
19Now then, brethren, we have boldness to go into the holiest place through the blood of Jesus, 20which he placed as a living way through the curtain, not previously available, which is his flesh. 21Jesus is also a great priest over the household of God. 22So let’s come with true hearts and full assurance of…
Hebrews 4:12-13: God’s Word is Alive and Active
Yes, but what does it do? I sometimes think that this passage should be our key passage for the inspiration of the Bible rather than 2 Timothy 3:16. After opening with the wonderful passage in Hebrews 1:1-4, and telling us how God has communicated in so many ways, he begins to close the circle on…
The Best Place to Teach the Bible
See You in Bible Class says the MSNBC/Newsweek headline on a story that informs us that the state of Georgia has decided that having a Bible class is a critical part of the public school curriculum for their state. They’re going to mandate that it be added. The story is headed by the picture of…
Isaiah 24-27 – Overview
Many of the issues of Biblical criticism are illustrated in these four chapters from the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah as a whole is fertile ground for such study, but one has to take a reasonable sized bite for an illustration. What I want to do with these chapters is discuss how various…
Gleason Archer on Daniel
I’ve just run through another commentary on Daniel, in this case the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 7, section on Daniel, by Gleason Archer. (See my notes on this commentary.) You can review my more detailed view in those notes, but I would simply state that this is one of two carefully conservative, scholarly commentaries on…
Believing Stuff is not Enough
My early morning reading brought two things together that led me to this post. The first was a blog entry by Shane Raynor on The Wesley Blog, titled What’s Missing from Our Christianity?. In it Shane makes a very important point: Many of us intellectually believe all the right stuff. Or at least most of…
Creation by Command
In my earlier post on the Biblical Doctrine of Creation, my second element of a Biblical doctrine of creation was that God creates by simple command, in other words, God’s word and will is reality. This is commonly used as an argument against theistic evolution, and even in some cases against old earth creationism. Duane…
Creationist Boilerplate
I was reading the entry The Ignorant Credulity of Creationists on Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where Ed Brayton quotes the following from a creationist response to Tiktaalic roseae, and then comments: . . . or those who are more of a six-day creationist stripe, the finding poses no threat either. Discovery Institute scientists have…
Belshazzar Plays Pretend
Read the story of Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5. The stories of the book of Daniel all have something to do with worship. Often we read them as unconnected stories about Daniel and his friends, but they have a common theme. Daniel 1 shows us the faithfulness of Daniel and his friends to their God,…
Appeal to Numbers and Supposed Authority
When I was in the U. S. Air Force, I had to attend a human relations training program. The instructor was enlisted, but very proudly informed us of his two master’s level degrees. During the course of his presentation he brought up a particular bumper sticker, which happened to be one I had on my…
God’s Nature in the Natural World – Take 1
Study Guide Q2: How much of God’s nature and will can be determined from nature? How do the natural and moral laws of God differ? This question spans this less and the next, which is about God as creator. I suggest doing it as I’m doing it here and taking a look first from the…
Do you know these things?
From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: Why is the sky blue? Facts you should know. The quiz doesn’t provide scoring, but the answers are at the end. Bar that I must say I mentally fudged the amount of water (thinking “about 3/4” instead of the precise 71%), and the “sky is blue question” when I just…
Cute Bunny Rabbits, Eggs, and Resurrection
Is there a resurrection in your future? In your near future? Often concerned Christians complain about the pagan background of Easter, and such practices as Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, and all the signs of spring. Pagan religions in many countries have celebrated spring and the new life that it represents. Fall and spring festivals celebrate…
Hebrews 2:1-4: Such a Great Salvation
[Note: The reason I am jumping from 1:1-4 to 2:1-4 is that my study guide is thematic rather than verse by verse. Hebrews 1:5-14 is part of the reading for lesson 5. I am not including a post on textual issues in this passage, because there are no substantial textual issues.] Because this passage is…
Transforming the Cross
[The following Good Friday meditation is extracted and slightly adapted from my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, pp. 17-22. This post was truncated at some point in the history of this blog. This is a restoration of the content on January 6, 2018.] There might be many reasons why…
Ernest Lucas on Daniel
In an earlier post, Dating the Book of Daniel, I mentioned that I had ordered Ernest Lucas’s volume on Daniel in the Apollos Old Testament Commentary series. I now have received, read, and returned that volume, and I thought I would post a few notes. I have to admit that I continue to be puzzled…
What’s So Good About Democracy?
Is democracy the right thing for every country in the world? Is America the best example of this? Should we make it one of our policy goals to implement democracy in other countries? Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey doesn’t like America’s example of democracy, and he says so at length at The Mechanics of Democracy (Newsweek on…