One of the most influential Reformed and Puritan exegetes of the late 16th and early 17th century was William Perkins, whose works for the longest time were out of print until the 20th century. Andrew Ballitch has now done us all a good service (and thanks to Lexham Press as well) by providing a detailed exposition of Perkin’s hermeneutical method of interpreting Scripture, which involved the analogy of faith, context, and collation (the latter referring to the comparing of Scripture... Read more

Chris Armitage was my English Lit teacher in 1971-74, who open the treasury of the metaphysical poets, Donne and Herbert, for example (and later Gerard Manley Hopkins), as well as Shakespeare. I owe him a great debt, and now after the longest tenure ever at UNC as a teacher (over 50 years), he is becoming emeritus in status at the university. This is my tribute to him. —– Hommage The merit in emeritus Is that you are esteemed, While your... Read more

BEN: You state that Satan and the evil spirits cannot be redeemed, that God’s whole salvation plan focuses on humans. But aren’t the angels also created in God’s image? Why could they not be saved if they fall like humans? MICHAEL: I outline this in Chapter 12 of the book. Basically, Hebrews 2 connects the plan of salvation with the incarnation. Jesus became man, indicating the focus of the redemptive plan was humanity. This is consistent with the original Fall.... Read more

BEN: Helpful are the following sentences: “The kingdom of darkness will lose what is essentially a spiritual war of attrition, for the gates of hell will not be able to withstand the church. This is why believers are never commanded to rebuke spirits and demand their flight in the name of Jesus. It is unnecessary. Their authority has been withdrawn by the Most High. Believers in turn are commanded to reclaim their territory by recruiting the citizens in those territories... Read more

If you want a review of recent important analysis of Paul by the major players, this is the book for you! Now available on Amazon and everywhere else too. Kudos to Dr. Myers who did a good job on his contributions to this study. Read more

BEN: You take the position that ‘possession’ is the wrong word for what the NT describes for instance in the case of Mary Magdalene. You prefer the term demonized. At the same time you argue that while genuine Christians can’t be owned by Satan (they are the Lord’s), nevertheless they can be demonized, which can include persecution, harassment, succumbing to false teaching, and even enslavement to sin. You distinguish this, for example from the Gerasene demoniac where the control center... Read more

BEN: As a matter of clarification, some of your readers may be confused when you so stress the ANE and Intertestamental context of the ideas in this book about the devil, demons etc. while at the same time denying Zoroastrian notions about cosmic dualism in regard to Satan and the cosmic struggle with God. Can you help them to better understand the differences between filling in the picture with help from the outside sources, and claiming that the outside source... Read more

BEN: You make a good point about the story about deviled ham (i.e. the Gerasene demoniac). If the story is in its origins about political rejection of imperial Rome, this does not comport with the fact that Jews in Jesus’ era were not all worked up about Gentile rulers in pagan places. It was their own land that they had concerns about. On the other hand, if Mark is written to largely Gentile converts in Rome after the martyrdoms of... Read more

BEN: I think a more cogent explanation for no exorcisms in John has to do with the Judean and Samaritan focus or provenance of that Gospel. The only Galilean miracle in all four Gospels is the feeding of 5,000 and walking on water tandem. I don’t see evidence that Jesus performed exorcisms in or around Jerusalem. It is true Jesus himself is once accused of having a demon when he does and says what he does in John, but that... Read more

BEN: Your discussion of unclean spirits in Chapt. 10 is fascinating. But I wonder if any of the hearers or readers of the NT could have possibly known to associate that terminology with the spirits of the dead Nephilim? Or for that matter could Mark’s audience, even the Jewish Christian ones, in Rome really be expected to know all the ANE and 2nd temple speculations about evil spirits and demons? It seems unlikely. And we have to remember there was... Read more