Here's a link to a short article I originally wrote for Bible Study Magazine on this passage. Its meaning is a common question from Bible readers: "Does God Always Give Second Chances?"
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The Bible’s Big Story, Part 8
This is Part 8 of the guest blog series by Dr. Ronn Johnson. The archive of previous installments is located here. I ended my last post by painting myself into a theological corner. In wondering what to do with the brick which says Jesus’ priestly work (atonement,...
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 3
Guest blogger, Stephen Huebscher This is the third of five posts in this series. B. CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVENLY WORSHIP IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Early Christian conceptions of heavenly worship drew heavily on the OT and, not surprisingly, show a similarity, though with some...
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 2
By guest blogger Stephen L. Huebscher STEP THREE: LOOKING AT THE THREE GROUPS INDIVIDUALLY CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVENLY WORSHIP IN SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM The variety of groups and beliefs at this time was reflected in the variety of sacred texts used. It was common to...
Did Yahweh Demand Blood for a True Relationship with Him? Part 3: Bloodless Atonement and New Testament Justification
[MSH: When readers finish this essay, they will recognize its internal consistency with my argument in The Unseen Realm that salvation was the same across the board in both testaments. The issue was believing loyalty to Yahweh. Dr. Johnson raises the question of how...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 4
[Note: This post continues where Part 3 left off. It includes the rest of the main biblical as well as non-biblical ancient Jewish texts.-- MSH] Psalm 97:7–9. “All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you...
Free Book (PDF) on Temples and Temple Cosmology in Antiquity
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago recently posted a new volume in the Oriental Institute Seminars series: Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World (Edited by Deena Ragavan). You can download the book as a PDF for...
ETS-SBL Musings: Imprecatory Prayer
Just got back from the week of conferences. A tough trip getting there (15 hours due to flight delays and three flight legs . . . I have a history of hard travel experiences). But easy coming back, thankfully. One of the papers I attended was on the theology of...
Hallowing God's Name
That's a take on the title of a recent post by John Hobbins over on Ancient Hebrew Poetry. The context is a discussion about what constitutes a good Bible translation. I have to agree with John. The parts must be contextualized to produce a contextualized whole....
Election, Salvation, Unbelief, and Eternal Security
Here we go. You'll note by the end that I really don't care for (or feel the need) to frame these issues they way they are typically framed. Election and Salvation The major point of my previous post on election was that it was not to be understood as synonymous with...
Review of Nick Redfern’s Final Events
Nick Redfern, Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife (Anomalist Books, 2010) Well, I finally carved out some time to review Nick Redfern's latest book. I'm hoping you all went ahead and bought it and read it during the wait (and...
Checking Your Brain in at the Church Door
This post is laced with sarcasm, but it's (apparently) backed up by research. Brain Shuts Off in Response to Faith Healer's Prayer.The first paragraph: WHEN we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance...
Can Non-Christians Appeal to Jesus for Deliverance from Alien Abductions?
Dave Ruffino posted a good comment to the recent thread on "Stopping Abductions with Prayer." For those who haven't been following the comments, here's the part of Dave's post I want to focus on: The one thing that I really wanted to touch upon though is what some of...
The Naked Bible’s Thoughts on Inspiration, Part 3 – The Myth of the Holy Stapler
In the previous two posts I've laid out my thoughts on the relationship of the human writers to God's role in producing the Scriptures. I have argued that it is flawed thinking to deny that Scripture originated with humans in ANY sense; that is, anthropopneustos is...
Conservative Christian Ufology and Other Views: How Can a Joint Dialogue Be Advanced?
The comments to my post about stopping abductions through prayer has me asking myself where the dialogue goes from here (or, from Roswell 2008). It's not an easy question. I think there is a willingness on both sides to dialogue, but the issues (obstacles?) are...