Christians have memes. At least American evangelical and fundamentalist Christians do, and I imagine we’re not alone. A meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” (Don’t hold it against the poor little word, but...
ChurchLife
Updated NIV Goes Live Nov 1
News Flash: The new NIV update will be available for online reading Nov 1. Anecdote: I learned a lesson a few years ago from one of my teachers. The ESV Study Bible had just come out, and I was as excited as the rest of the miniscule portion of the blogosphere that I...
Another KJV Verse You Probably Memorized without Understanding It
Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23) This is a very common memory verse, as well it should be, but how many people know what issues means here? It doesn't mean what we would usually expect that word to mean in a...
American Evangelical Protestants are Blissful People
I guess my BJU Bible education and my stints as religious newsletter editor, religion researcher, Bible textbook author, and blogger have all been worthwhile, because I’m not ashamed to say that I aced the Pew Research Center’s 15-question Religious Knowledge Quiz....
Balancing Edwards
It is appropriate and necessary for preachers to judge the needs of their congregation when they teach Scripture. I do it every time I preach, because my goal is to help the people use the Bible. As someone has pointed out, people don’t really understand a portion of...
Beckwith Back With Rome
Frances Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has converted back to the Roman Catholicism of his youth. That’s old news as the blogosphere counts slackness. It’s becoming old news, too, that Dinesh D’Souza, who a lot of people thought was...
Marsden on Darwin and Evangelicalism
Prominent historian George Marsden put it insightfully in Fundamentalism and American Culture : When Darwinism brought about the second scientific revolution, evangelicals who had adopted this method of reconciling science and religion were faced with a dilemma. … Religion would no longer be seen as dependent on historical or scientific fact susceptible of objective inquiry; religion had to do with the spiritual, with the heart, with religious experience, and with moral sense or moral action-areas not open to scientific investigation.
Spiritual Health
Why ever disagree with anyone—much less battle him or her—over theology? Does it really matter so much whether or not people believe in God’s sovereignty as long as they’re saved? Do they really have to understand and uphold the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity? Is it...
Dissertation Progress
I have added two tickers to my widgets. Don’t we all? Check them out beneath my Feedburner count widget on the right side of the home page, and pray for me if you would. I want my dissertation to be a benefit, however small, to the church. At least my own.
Why I Chose the ESV over the NASB
The ESV and the NASB are very similar translations. When the ESV first came out in 2001 I started an Excel spreadsheet to record passages where I believed one to be superior to the other. I evaluated them based on accuracy, mainly. In the end, they came out neck and...
TNIV and NLT vs. Pretty Much Everybody Else On Something Kind of Important
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/? q=gen%201:26-28
Ἀγαπάω (Agapao) Is Commanded While Φιλέω (Phileo) Is Not, So the Former Is More Volitional Than the Latter
Have you ever heard someone argue that ἀγαπάω is commanded in the New Testament while φιλέω is not, so the former is more volitional than the latter? Immediately, anyone familiar with the work of linguist and biblical scholar James Barr should be suspicious. He warned...