Well, it's about time I got back to this. When I last left you, I had noted that I was writing about end times over on my Naked Bible blog and that you needed to check out that discussion to understand my hesitation on agreeing with the typical Christian...
Genesis
Serpent and Eve PaleoBabble FollowUp
Some of you may have noticed that there has been recent discussion on this thread on the PaleoBabble site. Apparently someone who desperately wants to say the serpent and Eve had sex to (not sure) defend Zecharia Sitchin or some sort of sexual activity between...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 7
I just posted another installment on eschatology (end times) over on my Naked Bible blog. Again, the goal in that series is to get people to understand that the typical "there's going to be a Great Tribulation, a rapture, and a millennial kingdom in Israel" view of...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 6
We've reached the point now where we can transition from explaining the four pillars of the "fundamentalist" view to offering some points of (friendly) critique. Here they are for sake of review: 1. Abductee testimony of the forcible trauma of their experience. 2....
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 5
In the last post, we moved into the fourth element to a Christian fundamentalist view of UFOs and aliens (i.e., that UFOs that are not man-made or other natural phenomena are demonic and alleged alien life forms are demonic). The four elements are: 1. Abductee...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 3
To review (again) the purpose of this thread, I suggested at the outset that there were four aspects to the Christian fundamentalist view of UFOs and aliens (i.e., that UFOs that are not man-made or other natural phenomena are demonic and alleged alien life forms are...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 1
For those who have not read the post that explains why I'm getting into this and what I mean, read that first. In that original post, I said there were four trajectories I'd have to track to help people understand the "fundamentalist" view (that this is all about...
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Those of you who know me will know that one of my least favorite subjects is end times (eschatology). That might surprise you, given that I'm a Bible scholar. I mean it, though. Over on my other blog, The Naked Bible, I once wrote a short post on how everyone cheats...
Walton and Van Wolde: Hebrew Bara’ Does Not Mean “To Create”
John Hobbins has a helpful post offering links to the critiques of the thesis of Ellen Van Wolde that Hebrew bara' does not mean "create". John Walton's recent book The Lost World of Genesis 1, positively reviewed by me here and (soon) in print, has popularized this...
The Cosmology of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament’s Pre-Scientific Worldview
Naked Bible readers will remember I got into this issue several times during the discussion on inerrancy. It's current again for me for two reasons. One is N.T. Wright has chimed in on the subject in this video, which I offer for the curious (I'm not inclined to care...
John Milor vs. Gary Bates
A few days ago Dr. Stephen Yulish was kind enough to forward this link to me. If you follow the link you'll find an article on the UFO Digest website by John MIlor entitled "Cosmic Salvation." Milor is a Christian and believes (in most general terms) that the Bible...
Where Did the NT Writers Get the Idea of Jesus as Co-Creator?
Last Sunday I gave a talk at church on Jesus as co-creator. Specifically, the discussion focused on the embodied "Word" idea and "Wisdom" in the Old Testament. Here it is: Editor's note: broken video removed. Michael Heiser December 6, 2009 from Grace Church...
ZIBBC Volume 1: Pentateuch, Part 1
When you think of background research for understanding the OT, it's natural to think of the books that cover Israel's early history and the worldview of Israel. As Bible students know, it's the Pentateuch that primarily covers that material. The Pentateuch is also...
Blogging with Dr. Barry, Part 3
Same procedure as the previous two posts. My response is blocked and marked by "MSH". -------------- You do not become a hermeneutical rapist overnight. I didn't just wake up one day and decide to write The Bible and Flying Saucers . Two important elements in my early...
Does Hebrew bara’ Mean “to Spatially Separate” Instead of “Create”?
That's the contention of Dr. Ellen van Wolde. The problems in translation and interpretation in Genesis 1:1-3 are well known to Hebraists, but it's rare for any of them to claim that the Bible teaches that God did *not* create matter, which Dr. van Wolde claims as a...