Twenty-four year old,Texan, superstar, professional golfer Jordan Spieth just pulled off a sensational victory minutes ago. He won the Travelers Championship golf tournament on the PGA Tour at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut by defeating twenty-four year old Daniel Berger in the first playoff hole, on #18, with a hole-out from a sand bunker in front of the green for a birdie three. Berger then putted from just off the green about sixty feet away and came close, but… Read more
“And the Putter Went PING”
June 24, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
It’s not every day I receive a beautiful, eight-pound book in the mail, especially when I didn’t order it and didn’t even know about it. But such was the case yesterday when I discovered at my front door a packaged book entitled And the Putter Went . . . PING. I’ve got some pretty big books in my library, a collection that now numbers about 2,500 volumes. But this one will definitely be the biggest. (I don’t know how I… Read more
Who Is the Son of Man?
June 24, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
The expression ben adam appears in the Hebrew Bible 107 times. It means “son of man.” In almost every instance, it is a Semitic idiom used as a circumlocution to avoid the personal pronoun “I” or “me.” It may be due to the author’s modesty or to intentionally convey a lowly, humble attitude. But there is one instance in which this concept in another language in the Bible is not so used. The apocalyptic book of Daniel uses the Aramaic language… Read more
Does Calling Jesus “Immanuel” Mean He is God?
June 23, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Matthew says Jesus’ birth fulfilled Isaiah 7.14. He quotes it and explains as follows: “‘BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,’ which translated means, ‘GOD WITH US’” (Matthew 1.23). Due to Jesus’ virgin birth, Isaiah 7.14 and Matthew 1.23 have received considerable attention throughout church history. The main reason is that Isaiah’s Hebrew word almah has aroused much scholarly debate as to whether it means “virgin” or “young… Read more
Is the Holy Spirit a Person?
June 23, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Most Christians believe in the Trinity since that’s what their church teaches. It says God is one essence consisting of three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit is deemed a full-fledged Person. The church didn’t always believe this. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there was no consensus among writing church fathers, called “apologists,” about the constitution of the Holy Spirit. Most Christians didn’t think it was important. In fact,… Read more
Is the Holy Spirit a Person?
June 23, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Most Christians have believed in the Trinity because that is what their church taught them. The official doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one essence consisting of three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit is deemed to be a full-fledged Person. The church didn’t always believe all of this. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there was no consensus among writing church fathers, called “apologists,” about the constitution… Read more
Who Is “the True God” in 1 John 5.20?
June 22, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Later church fathers unanimously cited 1 John 5.20 as a primary text supporting their belief that Jesus Christ is God. It and the preceding verse reads as follows: “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true,… Read more
Is Jesus God in 2 Peter 1.1?
June 21, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
The New Testament (NT) has two epistles whose authorship is accredited to the Apostle Peter. Titles of books and letters of the Bible were often penned after they were written and probably by a different hand. The early church unanimously accepted that Peter wrote 1 Peter; but for centuries the church disputed whether he wrote 2 Peter. Most modern, historical-critical, NT scholars have rejected that he did so. Since its salutation attests to Peter’s authorship, and for other reasons, I… Read more
Is Jesus God in Hebrews 1.8?
June 21, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Traditionalist Bible scholars cite Hebrew 1.8-9 as one of their major texts to support their view that Jesus is God. It reads in the NASB, “But of the Son He says, ‘YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM. YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.’” Full capitals the New Testament (NT) in the NASB signifies… Read more
Is Jesus God in Titus 2.13?
June 20, 2017 By Kermit Zarley 0 Comments
Some traditionalist New Testament (NT) scholars cite 2 Thessalonians 1.12, Titus 2.13, and 2 Peter 1.1 to support their belief that Jesus is God. All three of these texts have a similar syntax (word order) that makes them somewhat ambiguous. Thus, the dispute between traditionalists and non-traditionalists over these three passages concerns only a phrase and its grammar. Yet many traditionalists who cite Titus 2.13 to support their view that Jesus is God also deny that 2 Thessalonians 1.12 and… Read more
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