Larry Hurtado’s new book, Destroyer of the Gods, which will emerge in a couple of weeks (Baylor, 2016 305 pages), is an important contribution to a goodly number of discussions about the formation of earliest Christianity, and whether or not it qualifies as a new or distinctive religion. In my view, its one of Larry’s best books. Accordingly, we will have a dialogue with Larry about the book on the eve of its release. BEN: On p. 2 you talk... Read more

I’m on record as saying I’d watch Meryl Streep play Kermit the Frog, she is such an amazing actress, and it’s nice to watch her grow older and continue to play important age appropriate roles for her, like Julia Childs and now Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), a very interesting music maven indeed. It will be worth your while to read the whole Wiki article on her, as the movie is a very faithful representation of both her personality and the... Read more

(The following is an excursus found in my Hebrew commentary in Letters and Homilies for Jewish Christians (IVP). THE EXEGETICAL ARM-WRESTLING OF PROTESTANTS OVER HEB. 6.1-6—A ‘TASTE’ OF THE DEBATE Theological systems, while not bad in themselves, can often lead to very strained interpretations of Biblical texts, especially when the ‘system’ is the primary intellectual grid through which the text is being read. This can easily be illustrated from a close reading of Protestant commentaries on Heb. 6.1-6 since the... Read more

Oh I remember the 1959 film Ben Hur. No child of eight who saw that film could ever forget that climactic chariot race, nor the scenes of slaves rowing a giant Roman galley, nor for that matter the story of a Jewish family that had members that became followers of Jesus of Nazareth, but struggled with the desire for revenge when they were betrayed. It was an epic film in 1959 (212 minutes, starring Charleton Heston in his Biblical epic... Read more

Having just returned from another archaeological trip to Turkey, and having seen clear evidence of pagan belief in angels (see the picture below), I found my colleague Larry Hurtado’s excellent summary worth reposting. — by Larry Hurtado Over the past few days, I’ve been slowly digesting a recent large article surveying Greek inscriptions referring to “angels” in Roman Asia Minor: G. H. R. Horsley and Jean M. Luxford, “Pagan Angels in Roman Asia Minor: Revisiting the Epigraphic Evidence,” Anatolian Studies... Read more

Check out this cartoon. It gets to the heart of the matter: http://adam4d.com/paul-haunts-creflo/   Read more

Writing historically accurate novels is a lot of work, a lot of research, a lot of painstaking attention to detail. Writing seven such novels in a period of a bit over a decade or so means you must not have another life. C.J. Sansom lives in Sussex and writes massive historical novels (beginning with Dissolution which came out in about 2004 in the U.S.) about a very interesting period in English history— the mid-16th century when Henry the VIII was... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPOamb6d_20 Some dragons just refuse to become extinct. One of those is that furry giant green dragon– Pete’s Dragon. If this story sounds rather familiar to you older readers, well you are right. This was already a Disney film in 1977,based on a Hollywood script. Originally set in the early 20th century in Maine (though filmed in California) this movie featured various pop songs by Helen Reddy and others. This version of the film is different in various respects, not... Read more

Samuel Terrien, reflecting on Ps. 95, shares some of his own wisdom on the problem of evil: “It has been said for a long time, and rightly, that the problem of evil is the creation of monotheism. A positivist humanist looks at natural or biological mysteries but does not try to find any transcendental cause. A polytheist will speak mythologically of a fight between gods or goddesses and let his inquiries end there. A pantheist will enter into the vast... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAoArleLZEk I dream of a better America that lives by faith not fear. I dream of a better America that becomes less polluted each year. I dream of better America that does not listen to lies. I dream of a better America that I can look right in the eyes. I dream of a better America that is not crude, or rude, or lewd. I dream of a better America from which honesty and integrity exude. I dream of a... Read more