False Friends Video Series
JICYMI, I'm putting up a series of vides on YouTube talking through "False Friends in the KJV." Here's a link to the whole playlist. In my estimation, "False Friends" is the unanswerable argument in the KJV-Only debate. It's one thing to say, "Anyone with a bit of elbow grease and a dictionary can read the KJV." But what if, because of language change, people don't and can't know every time they're misunderstanding a given Elizabethan English word? Defenses of the KJV rarely get specific, and...
Inherited Sin and COVID-19 Epistemology
One of my walking buddies at work is a statistician who does data analysis for our company. Of statistics, I guess. I always enjoy talking to him; I like the way his mind works. I’ve long been interested in epistemology, the question of how we know—how we justify our knowledge, especially as Christians. COVID-19 has raised the issue again in very personal and insistent ways. I had this conversation with my buddy, and I asked if he’d mind if I posted it on my blog. Mark Marshall, I could use...
When Will the KJV Be Sufficiently Unintelligible to the “Plow Boy” That Change Will Become Necessary?
The following was written as an appendix to the audio version of Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible. But there's a longer story: I sent Dr. Jeff Riddle a review copy of my book, and he submitted a review to a theological journal but kindly sent it to me as well (or first—I do not now recall). I suggested a back-and-forth, a review and response in the journal. Brother Riddle liked the idea, and so did the journal's book review editor. I spent many hours on my...
The Truth about Marijuana
Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence by Alex BerensonMy rating: 5 of 5 starsFor every book there is an equal and opposite book. I read Smoke Signals by Martin Lee in preparation for my own small coauthored book, Can I Smoke Pot? Marijuana in Light of Scripture (Cruciform, 2016). I wish Berenson's excellent book, Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, had been available then. It was, like Smoke Signals, journalistic in...
The New ESV Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible
A story in pictures. Because this new ESV Bible—the ESV Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible—needs only a one-word review: exquisite. Bloggers write words when none are needed, however, because the word-count of the internet is not yet full—so I will oblige with some more words. The slip case with velvet wrapping up the Bible is exquisite. The gilt embossing is exquisite. The goatskin is exquisite. Mmm. The gilt page edges are exquisite. The single-column, paragraphed layout is, um, you...