Did Jesus implicitly use an argument similar to Pascal’s Wager in his parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl (Matthew 13:44-46)? Here are the parables: 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he … [Read more…]
I had the idea one time for a post on “Most Difficult Bible Passages” or maybe “Most Disturbing Bible Passages.” I might still do that, and in any event my Exhibit A would be the topic of this post, namely when God in Exodus deliberately “hardens the heart” of Pharaoh so he won’t do the … [Read more…]
In the Genesis account of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, I think most of us picture Isaac as a child: not a toddler, but not a teenager either, maybe around 10, give or take a couple of years. But what if he were older than that? Remember that Abraham was well over 100 years old, so … [Read more…]
Introduction Elsewhere on this blogsite, I have a post on “What Does Jesus Want?” that has, as one item on the list, that we are to follow the rules laid out in the Old Testament unless they are superseded by something in the New Testament. And, I then continue, it’s not enough just to follow … [Read more…]
Here are the rules that Jesus wants us to follow. Good news you can use, and please forgive the presumption! I’m not saying, of course, that you have to follow these rules all perfectly to go to Heaven. But I think it makes a lot of sense for Christians to think about what Jesus wants … [Read more…]
Introduction. In this post, I’m going to rely on the list of “The Parables of Jesus” in my NIV study Bible; that list can be found here (page 12). There are thirty-two parables from the Gospels in this list. There are no parables listed from John. There are three that appear in all the synoptic … [Read more…]
I’m also doing posts on Jesus’ theology in the other two of the synoptic Gospels, Mark and Luke (as well as John). There’s overlap — much of Mark is found in both Matthew and Luke — and I summarized the Luke post this way: Jesus’ theology in Luke can, I think, be succinctly stated by … [Read more…]
The Gospel according to John has, of course, a different perspective than the synoptic Gospels, and is theologically rich. But much of the theology in John is often found in the synoptic Gospels as well. What I’ve done in this post is categorize Jesus’s theology in John, starting with what is unique (or more unique, … [Read more…]
I’ve listed below and grouped by topic all in Luke that I think can be fairly described as Jesus’ theological statements and actions. After that I have a short discussion that summarizes Jesus’ theology in Luke. *** Jesus is God, and He knew the future, performed miracles, and forgave sins: Jesus’ awareness of His own … [Read more…]
It seems intuitively obvious that what Jesus Himself said and did ought to be of surpassing interest to Christians. The red-letter Bibles make sense to me. And I would add that this is true not only of how we are to act but also of what we are to believe, and by the latter I’m … [Read more…]