This weekend in Washington, D.C., NASA and Carnegie Science are celebrating a centennial discovery at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. It is Edwin Hubble’s discovery with his telescope in 1923 of a star outside of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is home to our Earth. Previously, most astronomers had thought our galaxy was the only one in our universe so the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy was the edge of the universe. Instead, Hubble’s discovery of... Read more
President Joe Biden will exit the White House in one week with his legacy severely tarnished by his response to the ongoing fifteen-month Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Israel had responded to the Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 Israeli Jews in one day, on October 7, 2023, by invading the Gaza Strip and so far killing over 45,000 Palestinians, with the large majority of them being civilian casualties. This disproportionate killing has angered much of the world. But... Read more
Nearly all scientists who study global warming/climate change have been warning that most of it is due to humans burning fossil fuels since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, 150 years ago. One of its destructive results is that it is causing oceans to rise as a threat to flooding coastal areas. In the U.S. insurance companies are now beginning to withdraw their offerings of flood insurance in some coastal areas of Florida and other states. Yet president-elect Donald Trump... Read more
The word “Gog” appears only in two places in biblical prophecies, in Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20.8. Some interpreters think these texts refer to the same prophetic event, whereas others, like me, do not. It often depends on your millennial position. Post-millennialists and a-millennialists usually equate these texts, whereas premillennialists, like me, do not. These viewpoints hinge mostly on “a thousand years” mentioned six times in Revelation 20. It says the deceased people of God “came to life and reigned... Read more
Archaeological Find of a Cross-shaped Amulet A Popular Mechanics online article today reports that a Christian amulet recently was discovered in 2018 in an archaeological dig of an ancient gravesite in Germany that may change some history about Christianity. This amulet is a silver cross about 1.4 inches tall with 18 lines of inscription in Latin. It dates back to between 240 and 270 AD. It was found in a gravesite on a human, male skeleton just below the bony remains... Read more
I wrote days ago about The Quest for the Historical Jesus at the Society of Biblical Literature’s Annual Meeting I attended late last month. I said this 250-year academic study has in the past few years entered into its fourth stage. Some call it the Fourth Quest for the Historical Jesus. It is by far the most extensive investigation ever undertaken by scholars of some famous person in history. This fourth stage or quest concerns only the accounts of Jesus... Read more
Many times, Jesus would heal someone and then tell that person and others not to spread the news about it. Yet occasionally, he healed someone and told that person to go tell others about it. Why this seeming contradiction? Jesus Told People Not to Tell about His Healings For example, at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, all three synoptists record that a leper came to Jesus and asked him to heal him. Mark records, “A leper came to him... Read more
Scottie Scheffler—the #1 pro golfer in Official World Golf Ranking for the past 82 consecutive weeks (he has been #1 for a total of 117 weeks)—has this evening been awarded Player of the Year by the PGA Tour. Only Tour players vote for this award, and 91% of them voted for Scheffler. Scottie solidified this position two days ago by winning the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas for his ninth win in this 2024 calendar year. That tied the... Read more
There is a striking parallel in ancient history in which the prophets Jesus and Jeremiah similarly prophesied two separate attacks on their own nation of Israel that occurred forty years later, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem. It shows God operates by the numbers. God Calls Jeremiah God called Jeremiah in about 627 B.C. at the young age of about twenty years. and he said to him, “I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1.5 NRSV). Jeremiah relates,... Read more
Annual Meeting of Society of Biblical Literature I’ve been a member of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) since 1999. During this time, I’ve attended all of its Annual Meetings except one. They are always held the weekend before Thanksgiving. Last weekend, I attended it at the large San Diego Convention Center in downtown San Diego, which is located near the Pacific Ocean. Every year, this gathering of thousands of Bible scholars takes place in about eight different cities in... Read more
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