Saturday or Sunday?
Just as my “medical vacation” has ended (I am “back in the saddle,” as it were, although the horse is old, slow, and docile – no galloping yet), a question has come to me from a former student that probably crosses the minds of many Christians. If God commanded the observance of the Sabbath (seventh) day of the week (Saturday) as a holy day of rest and worship, why do Christians, who presumably desire to obey God’s specific commands, worship on the first day of the week, Sunday? The question invites a practical answer, a “Pauline” answer, and a reaffirmation of the theological purpose of Sabbath observance. Continue reading The “Christian Sabbath”
“I will curse those who curse you…” (Gen 12:3)
I anticipated some negative reactions to the most recent blog entry and have gotten them. In it, I argued that the United States, driven largely by evangelical Christian misunderstandings of the Bible, effectively taking sides, treats Israel as though it were untouchable. Generally, objections center around Israel’s status as God’s chosen people and seem to reflect the idea derived from God’s promise of protection to Abraham that Israel enjoys almost untouchable status in God’s eyes. To be “on Israel’s side” is to be on God’s side; to Continue reading Is Election the Same as License?
Part II
In the most recent entry in this blog, I reacted to Brent Strawn’s, The Old Testament is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment by offering reflections concerning factors that may contribute to the phenomenon Strawn describes. This second entry on the subject will examine some of the dangers for believers and for the church inherent in Continue reading No Stream without a Source
Ezek 37:1-14
Many know the Old Testament lectionary reading for this coming Sunday, the fifth Sunday in Lent, through the familiar spiritual. Slaves in the American South clearly heard in Ezekiel and his visions of a wheel and a valley of dry bones a promise of God’s power to bring life out of death, freedom out of slavery. The passage finds its place in the common Continue reading Dry Bones
Luke 16:19-31
Several years ago now, when I had been teaching undergraduates for a few years, I said something (demonstrably true) in class about the text-critical problems with a particular passage of scripture that caused a minor disturbance among students. It soon reached the ears of the administration. Nothing came of it in the long run, I am happy to say, except for Continue reading By our Fruits
For Now
In a few weeks, I begin my twentieth-eighth year teaching, my twentieth at BTSR. The realization has given me occasion to reflect on a number of matters. How has my thinking changed? Has my faith deepened? Continue reading My Confession of Faith
Exod 2:24; Judg 2:16; Luke 17:12-19
Grace is not transactional.
This time of year means preparation for facing first year students. Most have never engaged in rigorous academic study of the Bible. They come to seminary as I came to my undergraduate religion major, innocently expecting that the Bible says what they have always thought it said and that serious study of it will only confirm what they Continue reading Grace: Transactional or Transformational?
Amnesia
“Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic…Now we languish; there is nothing in sight except manna.” (Num 11:4b-6)
Beginning in Exodus 19 and continuing through all of Leviticus and on to Numbers 10 (all or significant parts of three of the five books of the Torah), the Bible records the Continue reading Crossword Two Down – A Seven Letter Word for “Nostalgia”
Exod 20:5-6; Deut 5:9-10
A reader and long-time friend emailed me this week with a question concerning the statement in the Decalog that God “visits the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate [God]” (Exod 20:5; Deut 5:9; my translation; cf. also Exod 34:6-7; Deut 7:9-10; Jer 32:18; and Ps 105:8=1 Chron 16:15). On its face, this Continue reading Q&A: Intergenerational Guilt