Weirdo Fixations and the Heart of True Religion
During my recent convalescence after surgery I received a disturbing letter from an earnest young man who was understandably distraught over his shunning from a congregation for whom he felt…
101 Most Misunderstood Verses
Biblical Studies
HAGALAH
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Old Testament Studies
Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me as Quote NOT Statement: Psalm 22:1 in the New Testament
Matthew 27:46 reads, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken…
Forensics, Not Just for CSI Anymore: Atonement & The Cross
You can question in faith. You can doubt in faith. You can also question and doubt in unbelief, in a heart deep challenge to the truths of God and His…
101 Most Misunderstood Verses
Biblical Studies
Biblical Theology
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Systematic & Historical Theology
A Quote is Not a Direct Statement: Psalm 22 & The Forensics of the Cross
One of the most popular quotes by Christians about Jesus on the Cross is a quote by Jesus on the Cross. In Matthew 27:46 it says, āAbout the ninth hour…
Biblical Language Issues
Biblical Studies
HAGALAH
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
NT's Use of the OT
Text Criticism Issues
Fun with Hebrew Poetry: Isaiah 40:3 in the New Testament
I’ve been teaching an Isaiah class of late and we had an amusing time last night considering the way the New Testament Scholars have handled the quote from Isaiah 40:3…
Godās Will by Godās Means: Did Jacob NEED to Trick Isaac to Fulfill Godās Plan?
I had the pleasure of attending the Presidentās Chapel recently at Northpoint Bible College. I co-authored the book 40 Days With the Savior with Jonathan Cashman and have been traveling…
The Obliterating Folly of Single Text Christians
Thereās been a lot of chatter on social media of late about torture. Now, torture is a powerful weasel word… i.e. a term that comes pre-loaded with good or bad…
Escaping the Tyranny of Certainty: Text Criticism in Isaiah 40:3
A few posts back, I began a discussion on the contrast between the scholarly handling of Isaiah 40:3 in the Hebrew and its appearance in both the Greek versions and…
How to Think Like a Text Critic
I launched a few posts back into a discussion of the scholarly handling of Isaiah 40:3 in both the Hebrew texts and the Greek texts. In the Hebrew, a voice…
The Tyranny of Certainty: In Defense of Text Criticism
Iāve mentioned previously that I tend to be rather open to discussions about theology and the meanings of Biblical texts, but that I also have two groups running around the…
Confessions of a Middle Aged Professor, Part 2
In my last post, I took an honest look at my early years as a biblical studies professor. I considered a handful of things I could have done better as…
Confessions of a Middle Aged Professor, Part 1
In studies of cross-cultural communication, I have never ceased to be amazed at the potential for a disconnect even between those raised together. The unique struggles between nature & nurture,…
Why You Must Watch the Documentary Poverty, Inc.
When I first saw the advertisement of the documentary advertised above, POVERTY, INC. I thought, āGreat, another conspiracy piece about how nobody should ever make a profit, how all profit…
Itās Not MY Fault: Denying Our Humanity In Denying Our Culpability
A lot of people have terrible things happen to them. Some children are beaten, sexually assaulted, feast on a steady diet of verbally demeaning rhetoric. There is war and oppressive…
Using Scripture Like Satan: The Word Faith Heresy vs. Jesus
I have of late, been addressing the popularity of Word Faith teachers whose central focus in ministry (other than collecting your offerings) is to tell you that God has promised…
The Power of āBut If Notā in Daniel 3:18: True Faith Amid Word Faith Heresies
In my last post, I mentioned that Rev. Mike Caparrelli, pastor of Sacred Exchange Fellowship in East Greenwich RI, an old student of mine, recently gave a rousing example of…
Some Lessons Can Only Be Learned IN the Fiery Furnace
In a recent set of posts on Hebrews 11:3, I was pretty brutal on Word Faith teachersā¦ what some call Hyper-faith teachers, or the Name-it-Claim-it bunch. They teach that God…
The Day I Beat Kleptomania and Became an Honest Man: What Does Choice Really Look Like?
We live in a day of heartfelt excuse making for human sin. On one side, everything is your āparentāsā faultā¦ of course, their faults are their āparentāsā fault, and so…
The LORD God Walking in the Cool of the Judgment Scene: Genesis 3:8 in Light of Storm Theophany
In my last blog I began discussing issues of grammar and word meaning in Genesis 3:8. The text is typically translated with something akin to āAnd they heard the sound…
The LORD God Walking in the Cool of the Judgment Scene: Genesis 3:8
In my series, 101 Most Misunderstood Passages, there are different sorts of texts that I tackle. Some I am adamant about. Others are reasonable curiosities. The rest fill out the…