Matthew Levering ( Scripture and Metaphysics ) argues that God’s self-knowledge and His knowledge of creation stand and fall together. If His knowledge of the latter is limited, so is His knowledge of Himself: “Could God perfectly comprehend himself if he did not comprehend to what his power extends? In other words, could sheer Act comprehend himself if he did not know all the finite modes in which he could, as cause, share his existence? Could a cause know himself... Read more
The folks over at First Things were kind enough to put my paroxysm of march madness on their group blog: http://www.firstthings.com/blog. Go Cougs! Read more
The four horns of Zechariah’s second night vision (1:18) are likely horns of an altar, an altar of false worship that scatters Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Four craftsmen, horns of power in their own right, appear on the scene to thrown down the threatening horns. The word for “craftsman” is variously translated as engraver, jeweler, carpenter, or more generically as “craftsman.” And in that sense, Zechariah is saying that the Lord will throw down Israel’s enemies through labor. In Zechariah’s... Read more
In the first of his night visions, Zechariah (1:8) sees myrtle trees “in the ravine” (NASB). Some commentators take the word translated as “bottom” or “ravine” as symbolic of the low and depressed condition of the Jewish community in Zechariah’s day. But the word is best translated not as “ravine,” but as “depths” of the sea (cf. Exodus 15:5; Nehemiah 9:11; Jonah 2:4). The myrtle grove is “in” the depths of the sea. This might suggest water coming from... Read more
Hillary Clinton claimed a few days ago in a speech at George Washington University that she remembered ” landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” Michael Dobbs has examined the evidence and found that the story is not credible: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/hillarys_balkan_adventures_par.html. Dobbs says there is even video footage of the greeting... Read more
INTRODUCTION Jesus comes healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, preaching the good news to the poor (Matthew 5-9), and He sends His apostles out to do the same (Matthew 10). How will Israel respond? That is the story of Matthew 11-12. THE TEXT “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of... Read more
It really happened. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem and was placed in a nearby tomb . On the third day after His death, women came to the tomb to dress the body and found the tomb empty, heard from angels that Jesus had risen from the dead, and shortly after encountered Jesus Himself. The Jesus appeared to His disciples, and to many others. It really happened. (more…) Read more
John 20:3-8: Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head,... Read more
The God of the Bible is Lord of history. He shows who He is in what He does for His people. In the Old Covenant, Yahweh was the God of the patriarchs, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and finally the God who brought Israel back from exile. Ask a Jew, Whom do you worship? and he would answer, The God promise, the God of Exodus and New Exodus. (more…) Read more
In their introduction to Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques (Apollos/IVP, 2008), editors David Gibson and Daniel Strange express their appreciation for Barth’s work in “awakening a new interest in the Bible” and sparking “a massive recovery of the Reformed tradition within academic theology.” Appreciative though they are, they worry that Barth’s theology is as uncritically accepted as it has been summarily dismissed and that “more cautionary voices” have been drowned out. Their volume aims at “courteous and critical engagement... Read more
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