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 [...]
Browsing Posts in Bible: NT
At present I’m thinking and talking a lot about Jesus’ talk of God as father, and whether this naming of God means that Christians cannot think of God as (also) motherly. The Old Testament used both father and mother-language to speak about God, but it used both seldom. Language such as shepherd, kinsman-redeemer, king, rock, [...]
Previous posts about biblical teaching on family ( What is a family? and Does the Bible present a preferred pattern of family) led to lively discussion. How do we use the Bible rightly to establish teaching on family? This post addresses two aspects. The Bible uses different sorts of text to teach different ways. We [...]
This is a follow-up to the article “What is a Family?” This follow-up asks whether the Bible presents a preferred pattern of family. Discussing Mat 19:3ff; Mk 10:2ff; Gen 1:27,28; 2:18-24; Colossians 3:18-21; Ephesians 5:21-6:4 and 1 Timothy 3:1-4 (cf Titus 1:6) as possible biblical bases for a model of “family”. Part of the discussion [...]
Family in the Bible Social change (high rates of separation and divorce, legislation like the Civil Unions Act last year, some impacts of the much older Privacy Act…) together with the strong Christian tradition of “defending family values” combine to make it really important that as Christians we think through what we mean by “family”. [...]
Five years ago I posted Family: towards a biblical view. It was really just a link to a short article I wrote for the Vision Network site. The article’s URL there has changed, and the two even shorter follow-up pieces I wrote are even more difficult to find, so since I am still (and even [...]
In response to my post Fairtrade: Coffee, Chocolate & Bananas Heather commented: …it will do nothing to convince the group that I most often encounter: those who don’t believe that what they do could possibly change ‘the system’. That’s the main point I find myself trying to argue with people. Oh, you silly people! I’ve [...]
Some of you, I hope many, do not need to read this post. Sadly those who flick past will probably be mainly those who DO need to read it :( When I posted a recipe for some nice Chocolate Muffins (which are actually a sort of moist and juicy cross between muffins and brownies, but [...]
I have just put two simple “facts” together. If both are correct then 97.5% of the readers of this blog are in for a severe disappointment. The first “fact” is the claim by some interpreters (notably the Jehovah’s Witnesses) that there are, according to Rev 14:1ff., only 144,000 places in heaven. The second “fact” is [...]
I’m marking assignments on Luke 9:1-6. (See the post below: Good news for the rich.) As well as spiritualising the passage into safety another common approach to taming it is common. It reminds me of the story of the boy whose Sunday School teacher asked: “What is a small furry animal with a fluffy white [...]
