The Good Book Blog, a resource from the faculty of Talbot School of Theology, features articles that explore contemporary ideas from the perspective of the Bible 鈥 the 鈥淕ood Book鈥 鈥 including topics such as apologetics, biblical studies, theology, philosophy, spiritual formation, ministry and leadership. Find out more about what sets Talbot apart and how it prepares Christian leaders through its degree programs.
By Thomas Finley and Kenneth Way From October 2 to December 8 of this year the Cyrus Cylinder will make a visit to The Getty Villa (in Malibu, CA) as part of a tour of the United States. This will be an amazing opportunity to see in person this artifact that gives significant background information for the Bible.
鈥淎 mind is a terrible thing to waste.鈥 This slogan, first broadcast by the United Negro College Fund in 1972, has become something of a John 3:16 for educators seeking to evangelistically rouse students out of intellectual slumber. If I could tailor this slogan for our Biola community as we embark on a new semester, it would become: 鈥淭he mind of Christ is far too precious to not cultivate.鈥 While lacking the elegant phrasing and bumper sticker quote-ability of the original, it does express something I hope we can pause to ponder as we enter our classrooms.
Reza Aslan鈥檚 new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Random House, 2013), is in most ways a typical attempt to paint a new picture of Jesus. Because so many hundreds of books of this type have been published, Aslan鈥檚 book would most likely not have received significant attention at all, except for two factors. First, a botched interview of the author on Fox News caused a huge surge of interest, making his book an overnight best seller. And second, Aslan is a very good writer. His primary teaching role, after all, is as a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside. Aslan is able to take a lot of important historical background and present it in a riveting manner, accessible to most readers.
The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary, edited by Tremper Longman III (with Peter Enns and Mark Strauss), is now available for purchase as an E-Book or in hardcover. This one-volume dictionary offers 1767 full-color pages and more than 5,000 articles by 124 Bible scholars. You might ask, 鈥淲hy should I care about this Bible dictionary?鈥 You should care because many of the contributors are Talbot faculty.
Hace ya varios a帽os escuch茅 una frase que me ha hecho pensar constantemente y que refleja uno de los mayores peligros que enfrentan los l铆deres cristianos. La frase dice as铆: 鈥渆s importante no estar tan ocupado en la obra de Dios que nos olvidemos del Dios de la obra鈥. El problema no es el servicio a Dios sino el enfoque y, en muchos casos, la motivaci贸n que nos mueve al servicio. Estoy convencido que uno de los pecados principales de muchos l铆deres es el 茅nfasis obsesivo por el trabajo y, por lo tanto, el descuido de lo esencial y verdaderamente importante como Dios, la familia y el cuidado personal.
In response to the ongoing revelations of widespread cheating in professional sports, my earlier blog explored the idea of cheating as compared to New Testament ethics. So much for why athletes should not cheat, and what they should pursue instead. The doping problems in sport raise another question: what is someone responsible to do when she becomes aware of others' cheating? This question extends beyond sport to daily life evils that are preventable if someone in our lives would just speak up once in a while.
Slowly, more top professional cyclists that were rivals of Lance Armstrong are mumbling confessions of the same carefully-worded sort that Lance released last January. Some have been coerced by teams or government inquiries (as with the handful of Americans who testified to their own doping as part of implicating Lance Armstrong). The latest is Jan Ullrich, the German cyclist who placed second to Lance three times in the Tour de France. Like many others, Ullrich used the same worn out excuse that 鈥渆verybody was doing it,鈥 and that his joining the 鈥渕edical program鈥 was just a way to play on a level field. What are we to think of these things?
A couple years ago I was asked to lead a discussion for the Talbot School of Theology faculty on 鈥淭he New Perspective on Paul.鈥 Now, you should know up-front that (for the most part) I am not very positive about the overall approach that New Perspectivists take when they interpret the letters of Paul (esp. Galatians and Romans) and when they try to set those letters in a reconstructed first century Jewish theological context. But I also do not believe that it is right or wise for people to be dogmatic about topics that they don鈥檛 know very much about. So, to help you interact responsibly with the New Perspective, I want to revisit the lecture I did for the Talbot faculty try to help you understand the New Perspective on Paul so that you can critically weigh for yourself its merits and demerits.
Following on my earlier post on the metaphorical language used for naming and describing the punishment of hell, this post explores the doctrine of degrees of punishment. The basic idea is that the Bible seems to say that all evildoers will suffer the same hell for their sins, but God's perfect justice means that worse criminals will suffer worse punishments for their crimes. This is not torture or exacting pain as somehow accompiishing something for God, as if God were a fiendish tormentor. But then what is it?
In my last post I shared about how to carry on a deeper, less confrontational discussion with your Muslim friend by asking a question about the topic of hypocrisy. Click HERE for my earlier post. In this post I will suggest a different question to ask your friend that might allow you to enter into yet another non-confrontational conversation with the goal of introducing your Muslim friend to Jesus Christ.
Recently, while reading through the minor prophet Haggai in the LXX (the Greek Old Testament), I noticed a phrase that looked familiar: 鈥渂efore a stone was laid on a stone (位峤肺肝课 峒愊峤 位峤肺肝课) in the Temple of the Lord鈥︹ (Hag 2:15). Hmm鈥 where had I seen 位峤肺肝课 峒愊峤 位峤肺肝课 before? Yes: in Jesus鈥 Olivet Discourse, when he describes the coming destruction of the Temple buildings: 鈥淒o you see all these things? I tell you the truth: there will not be a stone left on a stone (位峤肺肝肯 峒愊峤 位峤肺肝课) here; all will be torn down鈥 (Matt 24:2; see parallels in Mk 13:2, Lk 19:44).
After being unresponsive for two days, my dad was escorted into the presence of his Savior on Saturday May 4, 2013 at 2 AM. Family and friends gathered to celebrate his life last Friday. I shared these words:
驴Por qu茅 las cosas son como son? 驴D贸nde est谩 Dios cuando el mundo lo ignora a 脡l y a sus principios? Cuando Dios act煤a, 驴por qu茅 hace 脡l lo que hace? Todos nos hemos hecho alguna vez preguntas dif铆ciles respecto a Dios y a nuestra fe. En muchas ocasiones, lo que vemos aparentemente no concuerda con lo que creemos acerca de Dios. 驴Qu茅 hacer en estas circunstancias? En Habacuc encontramos un libro b铆blico que nos muestra un modelo para enfrentar estos momentos y acrecentar nuestra fe en el Dios que sostiene el universo con su poder.
One of the hardest things Christians face when they step out to share their faith with Muslims is that the conversation almost inevitably veers toward a competitive discussion about which religion is better: 鈥淵ou think this, but I think this.鈥 鈥淚鈥檓 right and you鈥檙e wrong.鈥 Often you鈥檒l find yourself on the defensive: 鈥淵es, Jesus did die on the cross鈥︹ 鈥淵es, Jesus is the Son of God鈥︹ 鈥淣o, the Bible hasn鈥檛 been changed鈥︹ Is there any way to keep your conversation from degrading into an 鈥淚鈥檓 right and you鈥檙e wrong鈥 discussion?
There is a pressure that is constantly battling around us to give people whatever they want. When you are younger it was labeled peer pressure. However, as we grow older the peer pressures continues throughout life, we just call them 鈥淓xpectations鈥濃
Dr. John Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, will present 鈥淥rigins Today: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes鈥 at 色中色论坛. John Walton鈥檚 work on Genesis 1-3 offers a fresh perspective on the complex issue of faith and science by seeking to understand the message of Scripture within its ancient context.
A search of the Internet will reveal several different kite parables, including one in support of the (un-Christian) idea that by holding tight to the string of God鈥檚 commandments people can fly themselves up into the heavens. I鈥檇 like to suggest a different kite parable, one that is more in keeping with Christian orthodoxy. My parable focuses on the kite itself (not the string) as the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ alone, but not a faith that is alone.
Often times it seems that harder the church tries to be relevant, the more irrelevant we become. The Bible is full of this kind of upside down logic. The self-clingers lose themselves, the prideful end up humbled, those jostling to be first end last, and, now it seems, those trying the hardest to be relevant end up most irrelevant. Thaddeus Williams explores what happens when the church puts relevance to culture ahead of reverence to Christ.
Dyothelitism means that Jesus possesses two wills, one divine and one human. God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons, but they share the same divine will. The difference of Jesus鈥 will from his Father鈥檚 will in Gethsemane is his human will. By incarnation, God the Son took up a second way of living as a man. He now possesses two natures. Each nature is complete, including a will for each. I define will as the spiritual capacity for desires and choice in the exercise of personal agency. A caution to remember is that these are mysterious operations (desiring, choosing) of mysterious realities (persons, wills, Trinity) that may leave us continuing to wonder even after thinking it all through as best we can. We will consider briefly Jesus鈥 divine will, his human will, the situation of Gethsemane, and how this affects our thinking about the Trinity.
Esta semana se conmemoran los d铆as m谩s importantes para el cristianismo y, por consiguiente, para todo el mundo. La muerte y resurrecci贸n de Jesucristo marcan el eje central de nuestra fe. Durante la semana santa recordamos la muerte de Jes煤s en la cruz por nuestros pecados y su victoria sobre la muerte a trav茅s de su gloriosa resurrecci贸n.
While Christians decry the secularization of Christmas, the spirit of that season (gift-giving, twinkling lights, warm cocoa) coalesces rather well with the celebration of God coming to earth in the birth of Jesus. Easter is more difficult. For the Christian, the meaning of Easter is directly connected to the brutal and unjust execution of the one born in Bethlehem. Easter is the exuberance of the empty tomb, and yet it stands in solidarity with the alienation of a blood stained cross.
Can anything good come out of Kansas City? Absolutely! A global event is taking place there now at the International House of Prayer. You are invited to participate in what God is doing.
Which is the best Greek text to use when translating the New Testament? Some people argue for a 鈥渕ajority text鈥 (a text like the one that lies behind the KVJ or the NKJV but none of the other major translations). What are the arguments that have been put forth in favor of the superiority of the Byzantine (majority) text of the Greek New Testament? How would you respond to someone who insisted that the majority text approach is correct?
色中色论坛
