Featured Posts
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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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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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On Praying for My Country
Some time ago I was teaching a Sunday School class and the topic of prayer at public events came up. Now I would have a serious problem offering prayer at a public event. Though I support the idea of separation of church and state, my major objection is not based on the constitutional principle. After…
On Putting God Before Country
When my wife and I decided to get married we also made another decision: God would be first in our married life. That means that for me, God comes before my wife, and for her God comes before me. Some people hear that as a sort of sacrifice. We have less because we give more…
Yet Again on the Meaning of Inerrancy
John Hobbins is again correcting the rest of us regarding the meaning of the word inerrancy. The interesting thing here is that I can affirm everything he says about inspiration in his post. He writes in opposition to the approach taken by by Michael Heiser and C. Michael Patton, each of whom have written posts…
July Biblical Studies Carnival
. . . posted at Targuman.
The Biblioblog Top 50 for June
. . . finds me at #27, which is actually surprisingly good considering that I only wrote one blog post during June. My excuse is that I was working on half a dozen book releases for my company, two of which will actually take place in July. As for the great controversy about the library,…
Early Internet (or not) Experiences
Ed Brayton brought back memories talking about how he first got online. I first encountered Ed on the Compuserve Religion Forum, and since then I have enjoyed reading his blog, Dispatches from the Culture Wars and The Panda’s Thumb, of which he was a founder. We have another connection, in that he is co-founder and…
Losing the War on Drugs
There’s a stereotype of opponents of our current drug laws that suggests such people just want to light up a joint – legally. That’s not very accurate. I personally don’t even use alcohol, and I rarely use over-the-counter, completely non-addictive pain killers. I’m leery about legalization, but I certainly think we need substantial reforms in…
Addicted to Arguing?
Yes, that might be me! Peter Laarman at RD Magazine says many in American protestantism are addicted to arguing, and need to learn that arguments don’t win people over–contact with people and sharing of stories does it. He titles his piece Why Liberal Religious Arguments Fail, but while I’m well aware of many liberal examples,…
Error Overload
Ken Schenck has published another find the errors audio. This is really an amazing piece of interpretation and is well worth listening to, just because you might not believe anyone would do it if you don’t hear it for yourself. It needs no comment beyond what Ken already posted. Note that errors can be committed…
On Camping: Do Errors Result from Lack of Theological Education?
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Seminary California, says that it does, according to the Christian Post. Dr. Godfrey, who was in the youth group taught by Camping at Alameda Christian Reformed Church, says that Camping reads the Bible like an engineer, lacks knowledge of the original languages, and doesn’t know how to read…
Search Syriac Resources (Link)
With hat tip to Bible Studies and Technological Tools, I link to a site that allows you to search online Syriac resources. Good stuff!
Stay Away, but If You Come Anyway
… you’d better hire a certain percentage of local employees (HT: The Agitator). Oh, and buy land. Yes, and keep it cheap.
Repeating Adventist Mistakes
Harold Camping seems to be repeating the mistakes made by the early Adventist movement. While I disagree profoundly with Seventh-day Adventist eschatology, I don’t hold that history against the church. Good and interesting movements can result from mistakes, but only if you correct those mistakes. Now consider Camping. He predicted the rapture in 1994, and…
Might It Be Significant
…that a post I wrote Oct 31, 2008, titled The Advantages of Stoning False Prophets, is tied with one other as the most read post this week?
An End-Timely Dilemma
A couple of months ago my company, Energion Publications, began distributing two previously published books by Edward W. H. Vick. As I normally do, I planned to publish my reflections on these books here. Time has been in short supply recently, and I haven’t gotten to them. But fortuitously, one of the books is The…
The Way That Seems Right
(This post is written for the One Word at a Time Blog Carnival [Road].) The mission trip was off to a bad start. I had unwisely followed some “money saving” advice from a travel agent, which landed me in Atlanta with less than an hour to change planes, and the flights had been booked separately,…
Philippians: Two Groups That Threaten Community
I haven’t blogged much, recently and I may go back and look at some earlier, lessons, but I wanted to quote something we’ll be looking at in class this morning. This comes from the forthcoming study guide to Philippians by Bruce Epperly. He has just described two groups, the first those identified in 1 Corinthians…
Dave Black Has a Question on Ministry
You can find the full context at The Jesus Paradigm (extracted from Dave Black Online). But here’s just the question itself: When will appeals for vocations to the ministry end? And when, in their place, will the church encourage all of its members to seek God’s will for the area of ministry in which they…
Book Notes – Revelation: The Way It Happened
When I encountered Lee Harmon in cyberspace, or more precisely he encountered me, and I learned that he’d written a book about Revelation, I was immediately hooked. Besides, Revelation – The Way it Happened is such an interesting and suggestive title. Let me warn you that, as usual, this will be less a review and…
Link: Five Reasons to Study Barth
I’m linking to this in honor of my friend and pastor, Geoffrey Lentz, who can’t complete a sermon without a Barth quote. (HT: Dave Black Online).
John Wesley on Biblical Languages
Do I understand Greek and Hebrew? Otherwise, how can I undertake, as every Minister does, not only to explain books which are written therein but to defend them against all opponents? Am I not at the mercy of everyone who does understand, or even pretends to understand, the original? For which way can I confute…
Theme Updates
The WP Framework theme has been upgraded and broke my child theme, which included a few hacks. The new one looks like I can do even better things with it, but it will take me some time to code. In the meantime, I’ve put most of my normal widgets back, though all in the right…
Helps and Keeping Up Your Greek
Dave Black has another good paragraph on keeping up your Greek: I will not go into the mechanics of keeping up with your Greek this summer. For this, you can refer to my book Using New Testament Greek in Ministry, published by Baker Book House. Con Campbell and a host of other Greek teachers will…
Monumental Hodge-Podge Biblical Studies Carnival
It has been concocted and posted at Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop. It is monumental. And a hodge-podge. Like I said.