First of all, I am on record as to my views on the inerrancy controversies in Evangelicalism. You may check out my article in the Spring issue of JETS of this year entitled ‘The Truth Will Out’. You may also read what I say about the doctrine of Scripture at length in my The Living Word of God. Here I will simply interact with Craig’s presentation. Sadly, a good deal of what he honestly chronicles is the story of Evangelicals… Read more

The chapter on translations is in some ways the most useful one for those lost in the sea of different versions, different editions, etc. Yet despite the many many different Protestant translations of the Bible available (and the vast majority of them are done by Protestants), really only four have been able to capture more than 10% of the market in the last decade or so— they are the NIV (despite all the unnecessary polemics against it), the New Living… Read more

The second major chapter of Craig Blomberg’s book deals with the issue of how we got the NT, or put another way, how the canon of the NT came about. Was the NT canon a product of the politics of Constantine and his cronies? Was it the product of the winners in the heresy wars? Or was it something else altogether? Craig begins this chapter by again quoting some of the misinformation one can derive from read Bart Ehrman on… Read more

This video was recorded about eight and a bit years ago at Asbury, back when my hair was still brown! The first five minutes deal with topics then current, but J.D. Walt and I go on to have a good conversation about the Word of God as a sacrament, and how it graces us. See what you think. BW3 Read more

It’s been a good while since I’ve both laughed and cried at a movie. But somehow, some way, St. Vincent did produce that effect. Bill Murray has not played any good comedic roles in many moons, but he really sinks his teeth into this one. Mind you, this is far from a perfect movie, and Vincent McKinley, Vietnam vet and erstwhile gambler, is far from a perfect person. But Bill Murray knows exactly how to play him, and for an… Read more

Mention the issue of textual criticism and some people think you’re actually talking about criticizing the text of the Bible. Nope. Text criticism is the attempt to reconstruct the earliest form of the Biblical text possible, based on the thousands and thousands of partial and whole manuscripts of various portions of the Bible. In other words, since what we want in our Bibles is the original inspired text plus nothing of what was added later, text criticism is crucial and… Read more

In the Introduction to Craig Blomberg’s new book on the trustworthiness of Scripture, he lays down some premises which let us know his orientation from the outset. Inerrancy will be a big topic in this book so he lets us know from the outset that “not a single supposed contradiction [in the Bible] has gone without someone proposing a reasonably plausible solution.” (p. 2). On the questions Doesn’t the Bible promote slavery, Blomberg’s brief answer is no but God allowed… Read more

In an age of uncertainty and extreme skepticism about the Bible and Christianity, it is inevitable that there would be books written like Craig Blomberg’s lucid and balanced recent offering— Can We Still Believe the Bible? Just for clarification the question that Craig is asking is not ‘Can we Still believe in the Bible?’ Sometimes Protestants talk that way, and frankly that borders on bibliolatry. The Bible itself does not ask that we believe ‘in’ it, rather it points beyond… Read more

“Here is no unanchored liberalism—freedom to think without commitment. Here is no encrusted dogmatism–commitment without freedom to think. Here is a vibrant Evangelicalism–commitment with freedom to think within the limits laid down in Scripture.” — Vernon Grounds, Statement on a Plaque at Denver Seminary. Read more

If ever there was going to be a text in the NT where one could talk about an anti-imperial rhetoric and coded language, Revelation is that text. And for the record, I think there is a critique of abusive rulers, and empire in this book. There is also a critique of rulers who insist on idolatry in this book. We may want to ask then, why the sea change from what we find in our earliest NT documents (Paul’s letters),… Read more