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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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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 Gods 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…
Testing Prophets
For the last few weeks I’ve been talking about inspiration, whether that relates to written scripture, or to someone claiming to be speaking for God. Today I’m going to start discussing the tests of a prophet, which might be equated to tests for inspiration, that are used in Christianity. These find their source somewhere in…
Community and Inspiration
I’m continuing a fairly long series of essays on inspiration. Some of this material will be included in my new book, When People Speak for God, though I haven’t scheduled a time yet when I’ll complete that manuscript. In my previous entry, The Heart of Inspiration, I said that inspiration starts from any experience of…
NBC: The Book of Daniel
Yesterday I received an e-mail from the American Family Association urging me to write my local NBC affiliate and asking them to refuse to air the program The Book of Daniel. I’m told that the program is anti-Christian, and must be stopped, even though it hasn’t aired yet. Somehow, I’m never supposed to watch this…
More on Military Chaplains
As a follow-up to my prior comments on military chaplains, I’d like to call attention to the following article. I want to note as well that I found this link on the American Family Association web site, and I want to thank them for providing this link to balancing information. In this article, Navy rebuts…
The Heart of Inspiration
I’ve been talking about inspiration and canonization in several posts, and I’m finally ready to get down to talking about inspiration. First, I’d like to remind you of my existing essays on inspiration, Inspiration, Biblical Authority, and Inerrancy, which goes into some detail on the topic of Biblical inspiration. But now I want to look…
REAL Christians and the Military
I’m going to make this a short note, because what I suggest is that you read the two stories (and even search for other sources) on this story and consider the issues for yourself. First, in the Washington Post: Military Wrestles With Disharmony Among Chaplains. According to this story there are definitely some issues to…
Inside and Outside
Note: I wrote the following for my wife’s devotional list, but I thought some might be interested on this blog as well. I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”
Redeeming Time
It’s a new year. Resolutions have been made. Best wishes have been passed on to friends and loved ones. We even added in a leap second into last year to even out time very precisely. We care quite a lot about time. We like to measure it carefully, divide it into various bits and pieces,…
Education and Funding in Escambia County
I apologize to any readers outside of this area, but the following blog entry deals with the politics of Escambia County, and to a lesser extent to Florida politics in a more general way. I know that others do have similar problems in their counties and states, so you might be interested in this just…