If you interact with enough people, especially people who enjoy discussing the Bible online, you will eventually run into someone who claims to be Christian but advocates for polygamy. Most Christians have an intuitive sense that polygamy is wrong but don’t quite know how to articulate why. When they encounter people who actively promote it,…
James opens his epistle with a baffling statement: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (1:2-4). Of course every Christian yearns to be made perfect and entire—to…
With Christ’s help we must capture even the “little” sins in our life, so that our sanctification may be complete and the harvest may come to maturity. Go find your little foxes. Happy hunting!
It’s the Christmas season; during this time of year we typically hear about the Nativity story more than usual. All Christians know the story of Jesus’ birth, at least in broad strokes. The angel Gabriel comes to the virgin Mary to tell her that she will have a baby. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem…
I love it when I am reading the Bible and a detail jumps off the page at me; this happened to me the other day as I was reading 1 Samuel from my Septuagint (LXX). I was reading from 1 Samuel 13 where Israel was about to go to battle against their perennial enemy the…
Recently, some people on the internet have started to claim that medicine, vaccines, and pharmaceutical drugs are a satanic attack on Christianity. The logic goes something like this: such people direct our attention to verses like Revelation 18:23, "for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." These people then tell us, correctly, that the word…
As we read the gospel of Matthew, we notice that the atoning work of Jesus is bookended by providential dreams: five at the beginning of his life, and one at the end. The phrase κατ᾽ ὄναρ [in a dream] occurs in Matthew 1:20, 2:12, 2:13, 2:19, 2:22, and 27:19. In the first dream, the miracle…
Recently my friend Shaun asked me a question about the meaning of a couple of Greek words---and his question was such a good one that I decided to answer it with a blog post. Here's what Shaun texted me: μετανοέω [metanoeō] means, repent, or turn around. The same word used in Acts 2:38 is used…
This is a guest article by my good friend Josh Roman. We attended the same church for many years and he is a student of the word! Hopefully I can convince him to do more of these in the future. Thanks Josh! One of the scariest revelations I’ve ever come to understand is this: I can…
Recently my friend Peyton Gurley read my article There Is No Such Thing As A Music Minister. Apparently it didn’t set too well with my friend, because he wrote a review of it on his own blog. Even before I saw Peyton’s response I had been studying this issue in greater depth, and had come…
Lectionary 