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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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Leo the Great on Melchizedek Priesthood and Anointing
I found this in my reading of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Volume X, Hebrews, this morning. Since the translation used there is under copyright, and this is an extended quote, I’m getting the material from sacredtexts.com: As often as God’s mercy deigns to bring round the day of His gifts to us, there…
Dan Wallace has a Complaint about Liberals
… and I think he’s right, at least about some of us. He writes in reference to graduates of Dallas Theological Seminary. After my own difficulties, though rather minor ones, with my more conservative graduate school, it annoys me that liberal schools might look down on graduates of conservative institutions.
Seals Prosecuted for Capturing Terrorist
… at least according to the Fox News headline: Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist. But there’s a problem with the headline. There are, of course, no charges for capturing the terrorists, but rather for his treatment after the capture. Now I don’t know the facts of the case beyond what is…
The Return of Threads
My company, Energion Publications, had difficulties with our hosting company, and it was traced to an apparent load created by this blog. Since it seemed top hard to convince the hosting company that a moderately successful (at best) blog such as this one would hardly be causing the difficulties they claimed, I simply chose to…
Mistakes Leading to Death
This article certainly raises some troubling issues, though I have yet to understand why one should equate ceasing to artificially sustain life with euthanasia or assisted suicide. What I wonder, however, is if the same people who are so concerned about erroneously identifying someone as in a vegetative state are similarly concerned about the possibility…
Civilian Trials for Terrorists = Good Idea
I think Ed Brayton makes the case.
You Want Me to Take WHAT Literally?
Check out this cartoon at Exploring Our Matrix. I suspect it’s much easier to take things literally if you don’t actually have to do anything about them!
Xiphos – formerly GnomeSword
I’m quite late on this one, for which I apply the preselected excuse that I have been very busy. I first noticed the change in name and the upgrade of the software when I upgraded my Ubuntu installation from 9.04 to 9.10. Then today I found a post on Xiphos at futurebible.org, and so I…
The Meaning of Christ the King Sunday
… an excellent short article by Geoffrey Lentz.
What the Bible and the U. S. Constitution Have in Common
Find out at A Pilgrim’s Progress. (HT: Dave Black Online.)
I Get Mail from UM Communications
I’m yielding to temptation and including an “I get quoted” story, because I’d like to call attention to the article in question. Today when I went to Bible study at my church, First UMC of Pensacola, my pastor handed me a large envelope. Since I wasn’t expecting anything I was a bit surprised. Inside there…
What About All the Spiders?
A commenter asks why I have all the spiders in my header and even suggests that there would be many other cool pictures I could use, thus avoiding the spiders. Let me tell you the story of this blog. Actually it started before I began using blogging software. I would just post essays. A friend…
Incentive Bonuses Equally Divided?
The idea of equally dividing incentive bonuses between all teachers, good, average, or bad apparently makes sense to the Boston Teachers’ Union. They want to block incentive bonuses given to teachers based on performance and instead divide the money between all teachers equally. Note also that the money is coming from private foundations. That’s at…
Christian Carnival CCCIII Posted
… at Crossroads.
Freaking Out About Ayn Rand
As someone who read Ayn Rand starting back in my college days, found her intellectually stimulating, yet disagreed in many ways, I loved this cartoon from Reason.com. (HT: The Agitator)
Progressive Orthodoxy
C. Michael Patton has an interesting post today taken from his introduction to theology students. I would particularly like any number of the folks in the various Sunday School classes I teach to absorb some of the material. This is not because I generally agree. I perceive myself to be both to the left and…
Paul not Lucid
I must confess that quite frequently when I read J. K. Gayle’s writing, I’m quite mystified. But today I was able to interact with what he wrote more effectively in his post Exactly what Paul Meant by “Sarx”. Somewhere around the middle of that post he quotes C. S. Lewis from Reflections on the Psalms…
On Translating to be Understood
One of the experiences that shaped my approach to Biblical languages and Biblical studies occurred late in my first year of Greek. The teacher was Lucille Knapp at Walla Walla College (now Walla Walla University), and she really enjoyed Greek and was quite expressive. She kept us on our toes. I was translating a verse…
The Age of the Earth – Not a Minor Difference
In the good old days when I used to have a seminar on this topic that I used in churches, I had an overhead transparency that showed the age of the earth (along with some of the various geological time periods). This was represented by a line that went the length of the slide. Beside…
NLT Interlinear Beta Available Online
Tyndale House has made the NLT interlinear available in beta form online. It looks interesting. One of the great values of this tool, I think, will be having a dynamic equivalence translation presented in interlinear form. I do want to remind folks of some of the notes I’ve made before on the use and misuse…
On Inerrancy
I respond to some discussion of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy on my Participatory Bible Study blog.
Why Democracy Fails
In Preserving Democracy, Elgin Hushbeck quotes Alexander Fraser Tytler: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public…
Review – The Second Confession
In this mystery, Nero Wolfe finds himself under attack through one of his dearest things–his orchids. He also finds himself working outside his home, another unusual situation for him. Since much of the action takes place outside of New York City, we don’t have staples such as Detective Cramer, but we do hear about him…
Review – Storm from the Shadows
Storm from the Shadows is a sequel to The Shadow of Saganami, and as such advances the general history in the Honorverse only a little bit beyond the end of At All Costs. I had read some reviews that said that this book ended on a cliffhanger, but I had generally dismissed those. David Weber…