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“God is interested in our willing participation in his plan for our lives, not in micro-managing helpless automatons.” — Tom
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Thursday, February 13, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
The Commentariat Speaks (16)
Done properly, Bible translation is really just the search
for truth. It attempts to represent the original text in another language to
the very best of expert ability to reconstruct it from the available manuscript
evidence.
Some English versions are painstakingly literal, attempting
as closely as possible to represent each original Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word
with an English equivalent (an impossible task, if you know anything about syntax and semantics). Others are more dynamic and literary,
attempting to convey the overall feel and sense of the original as the
translators understand it, rather than trying to force the receptor language to
awkwardly mimic the sentence structure of the original language. Some Bible
versions are based on a single, familiar text tradition. Others synthesize
multiple traditions in an attempt to get at the most precise possible reading.
Either way, truth is usually the governing standard. It is
rare that anyone deliberately sets out to produce a #fakebible.
Labels:
Bible Translations
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The Commentariat Speaks
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Courting Judgment
It is estimated the kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria in
722 BC. The kingdom of Judah came to its own rather ignominious end 126 years
later, in 586 BC — but it did not fall to Assyria. Rather, it was the
Babylonians who destroyed Jerusalem and carried its people into exile.
This was not for lack of trying on the part of the
Assyrians. The Assyrian Empire was a massive undertaking, lasting
300 years, spanning the Middle East and beyond. It has been referred to as
“the most powerful empire in the world”.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Anonymous Asks (79)
“Is being depressed a sin?”
One of our guest authors
dealt admirably with the question of the alleged “sinfulness” of grief back in
2014, and
much of what she said then applies to depression.
All other things being equal, experiencing depression is not a sin. Elijah, Jeremiah and other prophets
all described or experienced feelings that seem awfully familiar to a modern
depressive.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Depression
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Authority and Example
Those of you who have been reading here for a long time may
remember that I have struggled with the idea of Bible history being
authoritative. Many things were done by many people during the roughly 4,000-year
period during which the history of mankind is explored in scripture, some of
them good and some of them bad. We can learn from all of those stories, but
that doesn’t mean we ought to imitate the conduct of everyone we find in them.
Abraham makes a better role model than Ahab, but even Abraham was far from
perfect.
Accurate history simply records what happened.
Telling you what you should conclude about it — or, much more importantly, what you should do about it — generally requires some sort of
editorial comment or authorial aside. As Hume famously put it, you can’t get ‘ought’ from ‘is’.
Saturday, February 08, 2020
Time and Chance (22)
A significant number of baby
boomers are blowing their way through their kids’ inheritances, and they’re doing it guilt-free. Some do it with the blessing of well-off children who don’t need anything, but
the justification is usually something along the lines of “Hey, you only live
once” or “We worked hard for it! Why should someone else enjoy it?”
You can argue the morality of such a move both ways. On the one hand, giving certain children a
pile of unearned money is like throwing it into a black hole. Neither you nor
they are really benefiting long term.
On the other hand, there is a venerable tradition of putting something aside for
the coming generations. That time-honored custom did not develop for no reason.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Family
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Responsibility
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Time and Chance
Friday, February 07, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: I Have My Doubts
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
“That way
Over the mountain, which who stands upon
Is apt to doubt if it be meant for a road;
While, if he views it from the waste itself,
Up goes the line there, plain from base to brow,
Not vague, mistakeable! what’s a break or two
Seen from the unbroken desert either side?
And then (to bring in fresh philosophy)
What if the breaks themselves should prove at last
The most consummate of contrivances
To train a man’s eye, teach him what is faith?”
Over the mountain, which who stands upon
Is apt to doubt if it be meant for a road;
While, if he views it from the waste itself,
Up goes the line there, plain from base to brow,
Not vague, mistakeable! what’s a break or two
Seen from the unbroken desert either side?
And then (to bring in fresh philosophy)
What if the breaks themselves should prove at last
The most consummate of contrivances
To train a man’s eye, teach him what is faith?”
Tom: Wow, I can relate. Immanuel Can, are Christians supposed to admit
we ever have moments when we struggle with doubt?
Labels:
Doubt
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Recycling
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Do You Want to Go Out?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Christ
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Persecution
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Reproach
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Getting It Done
King Joash noticed God’s temple in Jerusalem was in
disrepair.
At the time Joash reigned over Judah, Solomon’s temple had only been
standing for a little over 150 years. So this wasn’t a signal to bring in
the wrecking ball and start from scratch; the temple was carefully,
durably and very expensively built. It didn’t need wholesale reconstruction. But
it had definitely seen better days.
Something needed to be done, and it was the king who
identified the problem and set about solving it.
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
The Best Rhetoric
“Treachery, O Ahaziah!”
“Treason! Treason!”
Twice in the space of three chapters in 2 Kings we find
very bad people complaining about the conduct of those around them. “Treachery!”
exclaims King Joram of Israel, as God’s anointed fulfills his destiny by
shooting him between the shoulderblades. “Treason!” shrieks Athaliah, as she
confronts a seven-year old boy she accidentally overlooked during her murderous
rampage through the king’s nursery.
It’s always a bit of a lark when wicked people whinge about
being hard done by.
Monday, February 03, 2020
Anonymous Asks (78)
That’s a very binary question. There are a few other possibilities worth exploring.
Some people enter into a relationship looking for neither love nor lust. I know of several women
who, in their mid-thirties, settled for a man they neither loved nor lusted
after primarily because they wanted children and didn’t want to raise them
alone. Mostly, they felt out of time and out of other options.
Not ideal, but those are definitely real feelings. And there are lots more.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Love
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Lust
Sunday, February 02, 2020
Problems That Don’t Go Away By Themselves
Upon being anointed king of Israel, Jehu wasted no time
getting to work fulfilling the prophecies made about him. Not only did he kill the king of Israel, he threw in his unfortunate ally, the
king of neighboring Judah, for good measure. He then orchestrated the deaths of
the queen mother, the seventy sons of Ahab, all Ahab’s close friends and
priests, and even a group of visitors from Judah who had come to see them.
Finally, he called together the worshipers of Baal, had them executed to a man,
demolished the house of Baal and turned it into a latrine.
A pretty clean sweep, you might say. Bloody, but definitely
comprehensive.
Saturday, February 01, 2020
Time and Chance (21)
It is estimated Solomon
wrote 3,000 proverbs, so
it’s not surprising a few would show up even in the middle of the book of
Ecclesiastes, which is what we might fairly call an observational treatise. He
certainly had proverbs to spare.
Two of these next three
are the usual two-clause parallelisms, the last antithetical, but even then
they do not quite fit the standard proverbial template. The “this also is
vanity” clause in the first proverb throws off the expected rhythm. The second is a fairly rare proverbial form in which the final clause extrapolates rather than
reinforcing or contrasting.
It’s no surprise to see the Preacher making use of his favorite literary device, but forcing it to operate only in the interest of servicing the overall message of his book shows unusual restraint.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Money
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Time and Chance
Friday, January 31, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: The Discipline of Discipline
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Discipline
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Judgment
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Authentic Me
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Authenticity
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Christianity
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Flyover Country: 3 John
The most enthusiastic reception I’ve ever gotten at a local church was
the day I set foot in a small congregation of Christians whose nominal affiliation
with (reputed) sectarian purists turned out to be no predictor of the warm
welcome they uniformly showed to visitors from the “other side” of the
theological divide.
I broke bread with them after an introductory conversation
that took approximately thirty seconds, just long enough to discover what
I thought of Jesus Christ. I think very well of him indeed. That was sufficient cause for a hearty introduction, several good conversations and multiple invitations home for a bite of lunch.
Good for them, I say.
Labels:
3 John
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Fellowship
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Flyover Country
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Hospitality
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
More Than One Blessing
“Have you but one blessing, my father?”
Mature Christians will tell you the answer to every problem
in life is Christ. They are not wrong. The most complex interpersonal
disasters, the most dysfunctional families, the biggest crimes and misdemeanors
and all the fallout that comes from them — in one way or another, Jesus
Christ is the answer to all these things.
When you have smashed all the dishes, Christ is the answer.
But he will not mend them for you and put them back on the shelf. When you have
blown up your marriage, Christ is the answer. But he may not magically
transform your ex-husband into your best friend. When you have raised an
ungrateful, spoiled, crazy child, Christ is definitely the answer. The child
may still decide to go to hell.
Labels:
Consequences
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Esau
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Genesis
Monday, January 27, 2020
Anonymous Asks (77)
I cannot think of a single person in the New Testament who was ever baptized twice as a follower of
Jesus Christ.
Now, there were a few believers in Corinth who received a second water baptism, but
only because their first baptism had been a baptism of repentance preached by
John. This was insufficient; they needed to be baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus.
But baptized twice as Christians? Never.* That in itself should strongly suggest it is impossible to
invalidate one’s baptism.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Baptism
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Breaking Your Own Compass
By the oddest of coincidences, the standard of the Nineveh Protection Units looks like ... a compass. |
“I did it my way.”
— Paul Anka
“I’ve got my own way. I can find my own way.”
— Duran Duran
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
— Judges 21:25
Ah, the conscience.
The Function of Conscience
On one hand, each individual’s conscience must be the final
arbiter of his or her choices; a moral compass. While there is plenty of
direction out there in the word of God to provide sound guidance for life, in
the end, how that is applied and whether or not it is followed is down to each
one of us. It can be no other way.
Labels:
Conscience
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Luke
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Recycling
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Repentance
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Time and Chance (20)
One thing I have neglected to point out over the last two weeks of posts
in this series is that the first seven verses of chapter 5 of
Ecclesiastes are different from everything that has come before them. They are
the very first commands we have encountered in the Preacher’s writing.
Everything up to this point has been description;
the Preacher looking around at his world and telling us what he observes in the
absence of divine revelation, most of which he finds disappointing and
confusing. But chapter 5 commences with a short series of what we might call
prescriptions. The Preacher has actually
begun to issue the occasional instruction. “Guard your steps,” he says. “Be not
rash with your mouth. Let your words be few. Do not delay in fulfilling your
vows.”
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Government
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Time and Chance
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Work
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