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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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Why Doesn’t God Speak Directly?
Note: I strongly recommend that if you are taking my class in Hebrews, or who are following my study guide through the book answer the study guide questions before reading this entry. The purpose of the thought questions is to provide an opportunity to think. These are just some of my own thoughts on the…
Evolution, Theology, and Respect
Not Ashamedof the Gospel:Confessionsof aLiberal Charismatic In my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel, I comment that God respects us: God Respects You Some of my more theologically inclined friends may be questioning this one, but God created humanity a little bit less than God (Psalm 8:4), and he allows human beings to make their…
Resistance to Evolutionary Theory Confirmed!
Just two posts ago I commented on the resistance to evolutionary theory and what I think are the actual reasons for it. Today I came across a blog that truly confirms everything I said from the other side. The blog is called The Sheep’s Crib. In a post titled EVOLUTION: Croco-fish can’t crack Chritian commitment!….
Literary Criticism
To conclude the content part of my series on Biblical criticism, I want to discuss literary criticism. Much of the practice of literary criticism is similar to genre and to a lesser extent canonical criticism. Essentially, literary criticism involves forgetting about the historical and theological aspects and simply reading the Bible as literature. One can…
Resistance to Evolutionary Theory
Why is it that some people resist evolutionary theory so stubbornly? Many times I have used the argument that evolutionary theory is more complex than creationism, and that we are asking people to go against their intuition in favor of the evidence. But the more I think about it, the less I think that is…
Witness without being a Pest
Over on Philosoraptor, Carol Roper has an open letter to theists entitled Sick and Tired of God Talk. Carol talks about how tired she is of various standard questions from theists, general theists who want to convert her, and in this country one would assume mostly Christian theists. Carol is an adamant atheist, and she…
Hebrews 1:1-4: Jesus and the Word
We now start on the meat of Hebrews 1:1-4. I will refer back to this verse a number of times and expand on comments I make in this entry, but I want to provide a fairly clear, point by point summary of what we can learn from these verses. Introductory Notes Let me display the…
Does Integrity make you a Wuss?
DaveScot over on Uncommon Descent thinks that having integrity and good judgment makes one a wuss. Of course, unless he also has the guts and integrity already displayed by the folks over on Telic Thoughts, he’ll have to come up with something to say, and I suppose this is as good, or as bad as…
Kudos to Telic Thoughts
Telic Thoughts has issued a very forthright statement and retraction regarding certain comments they made about Dr. Eric Pianka. Since I had linked to them as one of my sources in my entry Christians and Defamation, I think it is important that I take note of this retraction and the very good intentions (and may…
Hebrews 1:1-4: Translation Issues
In some passages, I may divide discussing translation issues into one section on how a passage is rendered into English, and another on the textual issues, but this passage has only one textual issue of any consequence. Textual Issues In verse three we have the following general options: “when He had by Himself purged our…
New Bible Study Blog
I’m creating a separate blog as I start to post Bible studies online. Threads from Henry’s Web is a place for me to post general commentary and background information on religion functioning in the world. As I got ready to start blogging through the book of Hebrews, I started to believe that it would be…
Introduction to Hebrews
Many introductions to Hebrews spend a great deal of time on the date, authorship, and audience of the book. I’m not so sure that these questions can be answered with any degree of certainty, so I tend to focus on what we can come to understand from the structure and content, and the theology we…
Welcome!
I’m Henry Neufeld, and I have been blogging on Threads from Henry’s Web since September, 19952005. This new blog is specifically for me to follow my heart which is in critical and exegetical Bible study that leads to exposition and application. I’m the author of two study guides, To the Hebrews: A Participatory Study Guide,…
Escambia County Wins in Court
In an article titled Park could face extinction, the Pensacola News Journal says that Escambia County officials have closed Kent Hovind’s Dinosaur Adventure Land because of their failure to follow county ordinances. County commission chairman Mike Whitehead was justifiably unsympathetic. The argument being used by Hovind and his ministry is one that is completely invalid,…
Home and Church Education
As intelligent design (ID) propnents complain about censorship and freedom of speech, one thing is being ignored: They are getting their message out to the public, and any scientist who wishes to examine their data, should they care to provide some, can acquire the material should they desire to do so. In addition, high school…
Another Note on Deuteronomy 32:43
In my previous post on this passage I stated that I was ignoring one textual issue that was really quite minor, but on thinking about it, it seems to me that it will illustrate one of the points that makes textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible different. We have relatively few Hebrew manuscripts, and most…
Textual Issue: Deuteronomy 32:43
Previously I listed a couple of doubtful translation choices in the Hebrew Bible and gave my preferences on them. Here are a couple more that I regard as much more certain. I also gave an extremely brief introduction to textual criticism in Textual Criticism – Briefly. Praise, oh heavens, his people*, Worship him, all you…
The Danger of False Assumptions
Every so often it’s fun to look through an ICR document or so. It’s so nostalgic, considering that this was the sort of stuff that I found very convincing when I was young. I would like to emphasize that this is not by any means the definition of Christianity. It’s just some of the noisiest….
Consider the Alternatives
Is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition some kind of exploitation? This seems to be the best thing some in the media could think of to ask of this positive reality show. I don’t like reality shows in general, but I do like this one. Joe Scarborough interviews Melissa Caldwell of the Parent’s Television Council on his…
Christians and Defamation
One who covers up hatred by lying, And one who spreads defamation is stupid. — Proverbs 10:18 (my translation, but try any version you like) I’m often interested in the portions of the Bible that some Christians think they must follow, and what portions many Christians think they can avoid. For example, right now many…
Zimmer: The Sixty-Million-Year Virus
I only do this every few weeks, but I wanted to make sure that “Threads” readers noticed this wonderful article on The Loom. (Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where I saw it first.) I really don’t have anything to add on this one, but I do challenge young earth/old earth creationists to…
Some of my Best Friends are Atheists
. . . but I wouldn’t want my daughter to marry one. You can replace “atheists” with any of a number of groups, and that’s a saying that underlines a manipulative approach to human relationships. There’s exploitation on the one hand because such friendships are often solely for the purpose of getting something out of…
Genre and Canonical Criticism
Continuing my discussion of Biblical criticism and the tools that make up that method, let’s look at genre and canonical criticism together. I do that, because they look generally at the same point in the production of the text as we have it, but look in different ways at that point in time. We have…
God is Creator of Everything
In a previous post in my series on Christian view on origins, Biblical Doctrine of Creation, I listed six elements of a Biblical doctrine of creation. I need to specify this more precisely as a Biblical doctrine of creation based on the Christian Bible and on one or another Christian approach to Biblical interpretation. Excursus…