“Train up a child” and your good? Proverbs 22:6
Where 2 or 3 have gathered, someone is going to start a service off with this verse. Should we?
Jesus’ Parables: Why Matters
If you ever find yourself confused by Jesus’ parables, don’t feel too bad. Jesus’ parables befuddled His own disciples. When they ask for clarification, Jesus reveals that an important part of understanding His parables is understanding why He’s using them in the first place. So, why does Jesus...
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One Man’s Reception of the Reception History Conference of the Society of Pentecostal Studies’ 2019 Annual Meeting
I have just returned from my first SPS annual meeting. As a newbie, I was less than impressed. Rats! There goes the tension spring in another understatement meter; I should buy those by the dozen. The diatribe comes below, but first, let me briefly explain “Reception History,” which...
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Mao + Stalin + Hitler + Modern Technology = X. Solve for X.
The struggle for power is as natural to human nature as love and hate. On a sociological scale it is as fundamental to the patterns of history and culture as the struggle for survival. If world history has taught me anything, it is that there is, and always...
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Is The Bible Anti-Science?
One of the many things that I do that annoys the easily-annoyed is that I complicate supposedly simple things. When people denounce the Bible as “anti-science,” I annoy them with questions about the definition and limits of science. Then I challenge their perception of Scripture as merely a...
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The Weird and Wild World of Genesis 3
Genesis 3 has some interesting challenges for the average modern reader. We have a special garden in the midst of an uninhabited world, two seemingly magical trees… one a source of life the other a source of death. We have two fully developed baby-adults, a talking serpent, and...
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What the Woman Caught in Adultery Shouldn’t Teach Us: Law, Grace & Bad Hermeneutics
John 8:7 is especially popular with non-Christians who resent any suggestion within Christianity that they are sinners in need of salvation. It is usually paraphrased, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”[1] Sounds good doesn’t it?— Don’t judge me! John 8:7 is a “Get-out-of-Jail-free card” for...
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Three Great Prophetic Truths that Transformed the World Part 4: True Worship Springs from the Heart Not From Ritual
There was once a man with a great prayer life and a bothersome cat. Wishing to be left alone while he prayed, he leashed the cat to the post of his bed where it couldn’t reach him. That man had a daughter who wanted a great prayer...
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Three Great Prophetic Truths that Transformed the World Part 3: Justice in Society is a Must
If one reads the prophets, he or she will notice rather quickly that one of the great themes of the prophets is a call for justice in society. The wealthy and powerful have a way of getting what they want in life and protecting what they get. Those...
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Three Great Prophetic Truths that Transformed the World Part 2: Idolatry is an Abomination
One can hardly keep from noticing that the writing prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) seem a tad preoccupied with combating the societal inclination in Israel (and the nations) to Idolatry. We can speculate as to the exact process by which men became idol worshippers—many speculate based on Scriptural passages...
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Three Great Prophetic Truths that Transformed the World, Part 1: Did Judaism & Christianity Improve the World?
An atheist close to me was raised as a conservative Christian. The gospel never penetrated his heart, but he was, on the whole, a well behaved kid who absorbed a strong sense of morality, obedience to authority, concern for his neighbor’s well-being, work ethic, sobriety and self-restraint. He...
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The Three Amigos: Biblical, Systematic & Historical Theology… the radio spot, take a listen
This is another one of my audience-less lectures. Tame, steady, devoid of my shrieking “pay attention! This is important” moments. I discuss the vital role that all three major methods of theological thought have in establishing a healthy church. While I love systematic theology and consider it a...
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The Three Amigos: Biblical, Systematic & Historical Theology
As a constant advocate for Biblical Theology, some imagine that I want Biblical Theology instead of Systematic Theology. I don’t. Systematic Theology does not hold as much interest for me as for others who are more naturally inclined to that type of theological conversation, but Systematic Theology is...
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Wherever Two or Three are Gathered in His Name, They are Almost Certain to Misinterpret Matthew 18:20
Mat 18:20 ” For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” We may as well get this out of the way right up front. Matthew 18:20 has NOTHING to do with prayer, corporate or otherwise. Now, don’t get me wrong. Prayer...
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Woe the Implacable Heart
One of the transforming insights I’ve gained over the last few years regards the blindness, deafness, insensibility of the human heart. I sit stupefied at the depth of human evil in many who are so untouched by divine light as to perpetrate and defend the vilest acts against...
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Natural Rights are Boring, I Want Something for Nothing
The first Law, planted in Genesis 9:6 like a seed in the human race, sprouting into all just law as the ages have passed, is rooted in that one all important notion about the nature of man. All natural law, thus all natural rights, stem from the idea that...
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Depends What the Meaning of “OF” Is
Grammar stinks…. just kidding; I love grammar, but I’m hoping that by pretending not to that you will suck it up and actually read all the way to the bottom of my 800 or so words on “OF” in Mark 1:1. Prepositions are those funny little words that...
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Jesus as Gospel: Is there Emperor Typology in Mark 1:1?
Some have suggested that the “OF” case in Mark 1:1 in the phrase “Gospel of Jesus” is objective… meaning that Jesus is the gospel and not merely the preacher of a Gospel, though Mark 1:14-15 will show that he does preach a gospel as well. Here, in Mark...
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