Monthly Archives: January 2018

Are “these” days “those” days?

No! Grammar matters!

“Whenever you hear of wars and reports of wars, do not fear. This must be, but it is not yet the end” (Mark 13:7, my trans.)

Christians should avoid apocalyptic speculation altogether. I hear and read “end times” talk more lately than I have heard it since the late 1960’s and mid-1970’s. In those days of national (think 1968) and international (think 1968 again) turbulence, the MADD doctrine was still the cornerstone of US strategic planning, no one foresaw the possibility that the Iron Curtain would fall, the United States was awkwardly Continue reading Are “these” days “those” days?

Words that Cut

“Some speak rashly like thrusting with the sword, but the tongue of the wise heals”      (Prov 12:18, my trans.)

Words can cut and wound. Words are groupings of sounds that represent ideas, actions, things, relationships. The aggregate sounds, themselves, have no essential “meaning.” They are conventions whose representations are tacitly agreed upon by native speakers of a given language. A given aggregation of sounds may, therefore, represent entirely different concepts in two distinct Continue reading Words that Cut

Israel’s United Monarchy V

Israel’s United Monarchy 5 – FPC Richmond 10/17