Archive for January, 2007
Real Myth
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up–for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was [...]
Keep Henry Thomas in your prayers
Henry Thomas (Hank) and his family have recently lost someone very dear to them. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Mangling the Text
Jeremy, at ParableMan looks at the NRSV’s reordering of verses in Exodus 22:1-4.
His claim is that the translators intentionally adjusted the text to remedy what they thought were deficiencies in text itself as well as in the culture itself. Some have claimed that the reordering was merely an adjustment from a formal structure that [...]
Recomended Reading for the Day
Today’s recommended reading comes from the Bible. If you are like Hank and I and want to read the whole Bible this year, the ESV makes it easy for you to meet your goal.
Simply subscribe to their Daily Reading Bible RSS feed. They have a variety of reading plans available at their ESV [...]
Title of the day
A Careful and Strict Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of That Freedom of the Will, Which is Supposed to Be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame by Johnathan Edwards
I guess that he was trying to give Irenaeus a run for his money.
The Emerging Church
In today’s online Christianity Today, there was an article adapted from a lecture by Scot McKnight about the Emerging church. I must say I did not like how it lowered theological issues in favor of works. Having a correct theology is having a correct knowledge of God. How can one hope to enter into heaven [...]
Augustine and his changes
The Quick Change Artist: Was Augustine”s transition from a libertarian to a determinist?
This post is taken from a paper submitted for my class on the life and works of Augustine. It posits a forum where three people are invited to give their interpretations of Augustine”s works. The papers are then followed up by a discussion [...]
Bible, Authority, and Death
[Writers note: This is a post that I wrote over at my blog last year - sorry it is so long]
Smiles asked the following question on a post below:
First off, lets establish that the government has the Biblical and God ordained right to punish evil men(Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2). So the government does [...]
A follower of Paul, or Christ?
Here is an interesting question, which will more than likely be posed to some of my students this semester: Is Christianity a religion of Paul, or a religion of Jesus?
Who do you follow, Paul or Christ?
You can answer this in a variety of ways. I assume that most of you will respond that there [...]
What is the sword?
Paul says in Romans 13:1-7,
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror [...]
Packer, Puritans, and Evangelicals
Here is a quote I stumbled on by J. I. Packer about the difference between the Puritans and modern Evangelicals.
[To the Puritans] communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure [...]
Puritan Wisdom and Sin
Here are two quotes from the great Puritan preacher and teacher, John Owen.
The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh is the constant duty of believers.
The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life [...]
Word of Faith Movement
Apparently my idea on utilizing Sunday School as a means to expose the common church goer to the biblical languages is making its way through the blogosphere. As I was reading the blog “The Real Faith“–who feels that people wouldn’t be interested in my idea–I learned this author is a charismatic who follows in the [...]
How to understand Flesh
How do you understand a human being? Is it as enfleshed spirit, self-conscious flesh, a monistic interaction that can be distinguished but not separated? Or is it spirit against flesh, spirit over flesh, a dualistic separation with flesh at best a distraction and at worst an imprisonment? (Crossan, The Birth of Christianity p.xxxi)
Umm…This doesn’t make sense
So I was reading an online conversation that is a joint venture by Newsweek and the Washington Post called “On Faith.” Several voices in America discuss different issues dealing with faith. Dr. R. Albert Mohler is one voice of the conservative evangelical position. In Mohler’s article dealing with Christ being the Son of God, [...]