Andrew Abernethy on “What Makes a Good Biblical Scholar?” — theLAB

What makes a good scholar? One’s tendency in answering this question is to describe a scholar in her/his own image, with her/his own particular interests. In my opinion, what makes a good scholar is an acute awareness of oneself. What are the ways God has particularly gifted me? What areas are of most interest to…

via Andrew Abernethy on “What Makes a Good Biblical Scholar?” — theLAB

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Comfort with truth not lies

Enough Light

Perhaps an abrupt post title?? This is a bit of a vent. I am mystified and bothered by practicing Christians, who should be familiar with basic Christians beliefs, but say inaccurate things. For example, someone dies and they refer to the person as being an angel now or getting their wings! What in the world? This is not Christian teaching. Humans don’t become angels when they die. I have a factual (biblical) 3-part series on angels here, and another post that is more passionate: Is your dead loved one an angel now, or able to guide you?

By the way, I am clearly not the only one concerned about such, as from time to time on twitter I’ll see a tweet something like: “One more time! People do NOT become angels when they die!”

Let me clarify that this does not apply to nominal Christians or secular folks, meaning that…

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Fortress Press – Giant Sale on Theology Ebooks!!! — The Englewood Review of Books

Fortress Press has just launched a major ebook sale. Most of their ebook catalog (800+ titles) is on sale for $4.99 or less! Featuring books by Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, and MORE [ BROWSE THE FULL SALE ] Below you will find a few recommended deals from the sale. Given the size of…

via Fortress Press – Giant Sale on Theology Ebooks!!! — The Englewood Review of Books

Pickpockets of Words

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

Quintilian, 8.3 (29-31)

“Sallust is assailed by an epigram of no less repute: “Crispus, pickpocket of the words of Ancient Cato / and architect of Jugurtha’s history”. This is a pitifully minor concern—for it is easy for anyone and really poor because the composer will not fit words to facts but will introduce unrelated facts when the words are easier to use.

Neologism, as I said in the first book, is more a custom of the Greeks who are not reluctant to change words for certain sounds and feelings with a liberty little different from when early human beings first gave names to things. Our rare attempts in compounding or deriving new words have rarely been welcomed as sufficient.”

Nec minus noto Sallustius epigrammate incessitur et verba antiqui multum furate Catonis,: Crispe, Iugurthinae conditor historiae.

Odiosa cura: nam et cuilibet facilis et hoc pessima, quod eius studiosus non verba rebus…

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Power of God

Unashamed of Jesus

so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:5 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/1co.2.5.nasb

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Online Bible Reference Taggers Comparison — Biblical Studies and Technological Tools

ESV.org recently announced the availability of their free ESV CrossReference Tool. It gives me an opportunity to compare the three options that are now available. All are free. All work by adding a simple javascript either to a web page, or, if you want to make it available site wide, to a site template. They…

via Online Bible Reference Taggers Comparison — Biblical Studies and Technological Tools

Prayer & Fasting

Jesus our deliverer

Hi Friends,

I know I haven’t posted in over six months, we have been busy and gone through a lot, but I’m back so let’s get started…

Prayer & Fasting:

I’d like to share a teaching I have was very convicted by recently (I was in the auditorium during this message.

As you go into this message on Matthew 6, ask these questions

• Why do we pray
• How do we pray
• Why do we fast
• How do we fast

For a lot of us we know we need to pray and rely on God more, but what about fasting, for a lot of us fasting is not a part of our lives or not very important but take a look at Matthew 6 Jesus put’s three things…

1. Giving
2. Prayer
3. Fasting

we don’t say why do we give, of course we give, we don’t say why do we pray, of course…

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The Prophesied Millennial Kingdom

Fresh Ground Theology

The prophets spoke a lot about that future kingdom, but we focused our attention on what the Old Testament says about the Millennial Kingdom. First, God promises to restore the nation Israel, that is, he promised to rebuild the old, and not give them something new. If God promises torestore the old kingdom, then he must restore it. Therefore, these passages cannot refer to the new earth because with everything new, it cannot be said that God restored the Old Kingdom. Also, there is no debate about where God plans to restore Israel. God states clearly where he will place Israel in the Millennium: it be in their own land, the land promised to their fathers. Therefore, it has to be this side of the new earth because that land will no longer exist in the new earth. Further, we know that there will be the chance of rebellion…

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Humility, Hope and Holiness: A Christian psychologist explores character strengths

Science and Belief

Pixabay

When Roger Bretherton worked as a clinical psychologist he would ask the question, “What skill is missing here?” What does this patient need to develop so they can, for example, be kinder to themselves – or to other people? These character strengths and virtues are now his chosen field now that he is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln.

Roger is interested in three main areas. He spends time exploring the methodologies and measurements that help a psychologist understand people at a human level. He is also engaged at a theological level, and trained as an existential psychotherapist. This combination of theology and psychology is a growing trend, especially in the US, where a number of educational institutions will encourage students to pursue studies in both and teach them how to integrate the two (for example, at Fuller Theological Seminary where the…

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Christianity and Relics. Part Four: The Public Cult

On The Ruin Of Britain

Introduction

In my previous entries I outlined the initial early church practice to bury its dead in a mode similar to the culture around it. In my second I looked at the growing prestige of the martyr, in life and death, in the church who came to be seen as a type of individual set aside as a spiritual athlete who had great intercessory power in life. In my third entry I outlined the association of the martyrs, and those like them, with the pagan daimon or guardian angels. I also looked at the prestige progressively associate with their remains via the bleeding into the church of platonic notions of forms as expressed via individuals like Basil the Great. In this penultimate entry I hope to look at how the growth of the public cult of the relics became mainstream and how this shaped the life of the church going…

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