From the Shepherd’s Nook – The Glory of Jesus

Last updated on: December 26, 2013 at 8:31 am By RJS

By John Frye Suppose theology started here: “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28). John’s Gospel offers this: crucifixion wounds + resurrection wonder = glory. A thoroughly Jewish man, Thomas, is confessing to the resurrected man, Jesus of Nazareth, acclamations of adoration and surrender reserved only for Israel’s one true God, Yahweh. The context is Thomas’s touching Jesus’ crucifixion wounds. While the awe of resurrection stuns Thomas, the death marks of the cross are visibly and inescapably evident. Thomas crumbles in worship before the man,... Read more

Correction: An Even More Neglected Element of the Gospel

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 4:44 pm By Scot McKnight

Not that long ago I wrote a post, based on Mike Bird’s Evangelical Theology, in which he had said the resurrection was neglected and perhaps the most neglected, but that’s not quite right: the most neglected element of the gospel, and in the life of Jesus, is the ascension. He calls it the “poor cousin” (449), and today’s post is from Bird’s discussion of the ascension. It’s in the NT, there’s no doubt about that: John 20:17; Luke 24:49-53; Acts 1:9-11;... Read more

Employee Theft: An Infographic

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 4:34 pm By Scot McKnight

Source: BestAccountingDegrees.net Read more

You Telling Stories?

Last updated on: December 9, 2013 at 6:38 pm By Scot McKnight

Are you gathering with families and hearing (priceless) stories? What about this? Who’s telling stories with you? Elizabeth Lanning, like many members of her family, got to know her grandfather on the flight deck of a rebuilt 1965 Cessna as he taught her how to fly. She heard about his travels across six continents, including the time he flew to Hawaii in a single-engine plane using cloud formations to guide him and the time he crashed in the Amazon and... Read more

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged (RJS)

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 4:47 pm By RJS

On Christmas Eve (day) I posted a reflection from one of Dorothy Sayers’ essays in Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World also available under the title The Whimsical Christian: 18 Essays. This is a volume well worth coming back to – and I will. Sayers deserves a far broader readership than she receives. She was much more than just a writer of detective stories. Her insights (not to mention her incredible power with the pen) still speak today, in fact... Read more

Justification Re-Imagined (NT Wright)

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 4:40 pm By Scot McKnight

For NT Wright the whole “Paul project” is to learn to see Paul as carrying Israel’s Story but seeing that Story being reworked, revised and reimagined in Christ and in the Spirit … and hence, too, what is meant by justification. There are some debates amongst evangelicals today — like is justification before union or union with Christ first, and what does that mean for either doctrine, and how central double imputation is to justification, and if “transformation” is at... Read more

Birth Order: Does it matter? An Infographic

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 4:06 pm By Scot McKnight

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Story and History (RJS)

Last updated on: December 24, 2013 at 9:56 am By RJS

The book of essays by Dorothy Sayers Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World reprinted as The Whimsical Christian contains an essay entitled “A Vote of Thanks to Cyrus.” In this essay Sayers reflects on the way we classify different kinds of literature – in particular the implicit, even unconscious, distinctions we make between the bible, classics, and history. I owe a certain debt to Cyrus the Persian. I made his acquaintance fairly early, for he lived between the pages of... Read more

God Getting Human on Him

Last updated on: December 15, 2013 at 10:09 am By Scot McKnight

From Allan Bevere: The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” –Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion “Jesus is Santa Claus for Adults” –Christopher Hitchens, God Is NotGreat The sentiments above have gained much traction with people and it is understandable why more than a few, and not exclusive to atheists, have... Read more

Common Core Concerns?

Last updated on: December 9, 2013 at 7:08 am By Scot McKnight

Source: Millions of parents across the country are starting to become concerned, as they see test scores in states on the leading edge of Common Core implementation plummet. Officials have greeted this failure with strange satisfaction, clearlyhaving known that this would be the result of the new system they put in place. Parents start out puzzled by this behavior, but when they investigate, here is what they are discovering: There is a powerful engine of “reform” at work in the “venture... Read more