Scot McKnight shared this Barna infographic: The survey seems to assume rather than demonstrate that those who take anything other than an inerrantist view of the Bible do not read the Bible as often as inerrantists do, if they read it at all. That seems to me to be inherently problematic. But even if correct, it is still misleading. The people who read the Bible without the constraint of a dogma about inerrancy are reading the actual Bible, while those... Read more
I previously mentioned the possibility of doing a cheesy Christian version of Rosanna by Toto. Here is my attempt to do something which I think could be taken seriously (although it might still end up being amusing simply because it is a reworking of a Toto song for Palm Sunday or thereabouts). What do you think? Hosanna I remember Sunday morning when we found you that donkey for you to ride Hosanna, Hosanna I thought that maybe this would be... Read more
I have heard countless poorly-informed Christians say that they reject evolution because it posits things happening through “randomness.” The objection is bogus. Randomness is less a feature of biological evolution than it is of casting lots and other things which, in the Bible, are said to be indicative of the divine will. If evolution is a problem from the perspective of your worldview because of randomness, then so are lots of things, including some mentioned in the Bible. Clearly the... Read more
I was struck today, rereading George Orwell’s 1984, at how easily one can substitute Christian terminology into a particular passage, which is from the book within the book, Emmanuel Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Let me show you what I mean: Christian society rests ultimately on the belief that God is omnipotent and that the Bible is infallible. But since in reality God is not omnipotent and the Bible is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment... Read more
There is an interesting book by Bellarmino Bagatti, Ancient Christian Villages of Galilee (a translation from the Italian original), which I had the chance to consult recently. Much of it focuses on Christian presence in later times, but in a few instances it is able to trace evidence back to a very early period. Bagatti focuses particular attention on small communities with two synagogues, which suggests to him that there were groups that eventually refused to worship together. Sometimes this... Read more
My Sunday school class yesterday started with me suggesting that we could either carry on in Hebrews or do something more Eastery. Someone in the class asked, “Hebrews isn’t Eastery?” And that’s how it all started. We took a close look and saw that, on the one hand, the author mentions resurrection a couple of times (mainly referring to the general resurrection). And so the author did not neglect or reject the idea of bodily resurrection, it would seem. Yet... Read more
At the blog Reading Acts you can find the latest Biblical Studies Carnival. Despite the date, there is a lot there that can be taken extremely seriously! Thank you to Phillip Long for putting the carnival together! Read more
I’ve mentioned before that I think it would be fun to make a Christian version of the Toto song “Rosanna.” But I’ve allowed another Easter season to go by without making one. Maybe the reason is that it is so easy to do a really cheesy and theologically objectionable version by making as few changes to the original lyrics as possible – something like this: HOSANNA All I wanna do when I wake up Easter morning is see you rise... Read more
The main reason there are so many nicknames in the New Testament is because there were no family names, and so it made it easier to refer to specific people when “Judah” or “Simeon” would have been vague. But that refers more to “Thomas” (a nickname meaning “twin”) than to his reputation as “doubting” (a label placed on him by the later Christian tradition). HT to Michael Patton for the cartoon. Read more
Via Sundries on Facebook Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In