The basic theme of this interesting book is that, in asking why there are differences in the four accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus that we find in the Gospels, one ought to consider, not how biographies are written now, but how biographies were written then — and that, if one does that, … [Read more…]
I’m a Lee Strobel fan, and would put his trilogy of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator near the top of my apologetics list. The book that is the subject of this post follows the same template as his others: The author makes an intelligent division of … [Read more…]
I’m a Lee Strobel fan, and would put his trilogy of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator near the top of my apologetics list. His book that is the subject of this post follows the same template as his others: The author makes an intelligent division of … [Read more…]
So, on this first day of September, consider this challenge, gentle reader: As you sit there, pick up any object near to hand, and see if it does not contain in it something to strike wonder in you. A wooden pencil? Consider then a tree. Consider also how complicated the manufacture of a pencil is. … [Read more…]
The Lord’s Prayer begins, “Our Father, who art in Heaven: Thy name be hallowed, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” and ends, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” How do Thy name/hallowed, Thy kingdom/come, and Thy will/be done fit together? Next, how do kingdom, power, and glory … [Read more…]
I read once — maybe in a biography of T.E. Lawrence — that it’s no accident that the three great monotheistic religions were born in or near deserts, since that landscape’s sky-filled starkness underscores human limitations and draws one’s thoughts to the eternal, or something like that. A beach does that even more, since the … [Read more…]
In reading this book I was arrested almost at once by this passage (xvi, emphasis added, footnote omitted): … With the aim of restoring the Word of God to the life of the church, Luther used every legitimate means to make known the truths of Scripture. His strategies included writing books, tracts, pamphlets, and letters, … [Read more…]
I just finished reading this book, about which I had mixed (though mostly favorable) feelings, and wanted to highlight just two points. First, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is generally praised these days by all Christians, liberal and conservative, so it’s worth noting that he was pro-life (92-93; note that Eric Metaxas also recently wrote a biography of … [Read more…]
The Gospels read like unembellished eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life (per C.S. Lewis and Richard Bauckham, among others), and I’ve devoted other posts to the historicity of, and Luke’s reason for writing, Acts (see here and here). But what about the various New Testament epistles? [Footnote: The remaining New Testament book, Revelation, is also an … [Read more…]
I will say at the outset that, in answering this question, I’m defining “holy” not as we colloquially do now as basically “without sin” but in its earlier sense of “set apart.” That is, the question I’m asking is, To what extent does God want us to separate ourselves from the world? And by that … [Read more…]