A Question about the New King James Version
A friend wrote me (and I have his permission to post this): I have a serious interest in using the NKJV as the ministry Bible of choice for our congregation. It corresponds to my textual preference for TR/MT/Byzantine tradition (though I appreciate good CT translations on a scale). And it provides a more relevant form of English expression, which motivates me greatly (which gains your empathy, I am sure!). Furthermore, the vast majority of our congregation would support such a change (a major...
Christian’s Dangerous Book
Reading can be dangerous because a good book never leaves you unchanged. That was certainly Christian’s experience in the famous story of his Progress away from his hometown, the City of Destruction, to the City of God, the Celestial City. Christian’s book was dangerous because it predicted the uncomfortable truth that his city would live up to its name. And Christian was certainly changed by his reading; he was terrified. “O, my dear wife,” said he, “and you the children of my bowels, I, your...
Scientific By-ends
“Scientists will often portray the Big Bang as if it were known fact, but it isn’t,” says Brian Clegg, a Cambridge-educated science writer. “It’s a theory within a very speculative field of science, cosmology, which is about as speculative as it gets. I’m not saying the Big Bang theory isn’t true, but it’s a work in progress.”[1] Time magazine asked Clegg, “What are some of the theory’s major flaws?” Clegg answered, “There’s an expectation that the Big Bang should have produced a rippling...
Review: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg My rating: 2 of 5 stars [Please note that some of the varnish has been removed from the following opinion, and I think I got down into the wood grain.] Since people are just complicated evolutionary machines, their behaviors can be altered by the laws of cause and effect. Thanks to neurological science, advertisers can now guarantee sales of fruit juice to preconditioned monkeys. Give any primate (or suitable...
Introduction to the New Testament for Bibles International
I wrote the following introduction to the New Testament for Bibles International; it is being translated and placed into Bibles all around the world. The Bible tells one story, because God has one plan for all of history (Isa. 46:9–10; Gal. 4:4–6). The 27 books of the New Testament bring that story to a climax and then explain its significance. The Story The Old Testament was the story of how God created a good world, man plunged it into sin, and God worked through the family of Abraham to...