I’m sure people who claim the verbal inspiration of Scripture have an answer, but I’m puzzled. Jesus says in Mat 19 and Mark 10 that “Moses”1 gave permission for divorce “because of your hardness of heart”. Does this mean that Jesus considered Deut 24 to be Moses’ own teaching? Please do not answer on behalf [...]
Browsing Posts in Biblical
Many discussions around the Bible founder on the shoals of factual accuracy. The “facts of the matter”, and claims that they are either accurately or inaccurately reported, generate much heat (and for those who like good knock down arguments1 delight). This should not surprise us, for since the Enlightenment, we have worshiped “facts”. Indeed respect [...]
Gavin (at Otagosh) posted a fairly long response to my piece Biblical marriages. Since he took the trouble to reply at some length as a post, I’ll do the same. His critique starts Then Tim makes an amazing statement: “In terms of the teaching of Scripture it is clear that Gen 2 is a privileged [...]
I’ve seen several peopl, including Rowland Crowcher, post this ”infographic” on Facebook. Since I’ve spoken quite a bit on “Family in the Bible”, and am due to speak to a leaders group from the NZ Christian Network on the “Theology of Marriage” really soon it makes me hopping mad! In one sense the graphic is “true”. [...]
Yesterday I was asked: If Noah lived before the law was revealed to Moses, how did he know how to distinguish “clean” and “unclean” animals? It is still holiday time (it’s the summer in NZ, though with all the rain and cold in recent weeks you wouldn’t believe it) so my answer was less full [...]
I have read the Bible professionally, and encouraged and taught others to read it, in three continents. The situations differed, including an African and a Western University, a Baptist theological college and a Bible School in a refugee camp. I have also supervised some exciting theses that develop interesting perspectives on understanding the Bible. So [...]
My ex-boss has been reading John Piper & DA Carson’s The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor. These two are among the most prominent poster-boys for Conservative Evangelical (with very big Cs and Es) views. I have more sympathy for what I’ve read of Carson, but neither really connects with the things that [...]
David Lamb has a fine rant: I hate Study Bibles. Here’s the heart of it: Study Bible comments are kind of like stuff on the internet. Sometimes the information is good, sometimes it’s junk. But at least when you go to the internet, you know you’re going to find some junk. You don’t expect to [...]
The Southern Baptist Convention is apparently considering a name change. Jim West is upset (about this, as he is about so many other things). He’s thinking himself that he’d “like to follow suit and consider a name-change for myself “. I have a great suggestion: How about changing your name to “Southern Baptist Convention” the [...]
Jonathan’s doing again what he does best. Stirring! This time he tackles the myth that preaching in NZ is bad. Suggesting sensibly that Kiwi preachers are probably on average no worse that any other nationality. Which is doubtless a huge comfort to all you Kiwi preachers, but must be a real worry to the rest [...]
