Category: Scripture
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On The Once And Ever Miracle
Isaac, The short answer to “Do you believe in miracles?” is “yes, of course”. But the answer goes deeper than how many think of “miracle”, as an occasional eruption into our space-time fabric from a far-off dimension, with oohs and aaahs. As usual, clearest reality is in the gospel accounts. At the Cana wedding, Jesus…
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John 18.37: Even The Earth Vomits God
John 18.37: “I entered the world to tell the truth. All who love the truth love my voice.” On that portentous night truth telling broke out all over following the example of Caiphus who had burped the truth then looked behind himself to see who was speaking. As Caiphus, so Pilate: in spite of the…
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Psalm 147: On The Cruelty of Nature
“He gives to the beasts their food,and to the young ravens who cry.” We see with natural eyes what we call natural law. We see animals eating, and then our logic finds no need to picture a god atop the food chain. And so we have to mentally edit texts like these and call them…
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Merry Christmas, Figure It Out
There are good Christmases, but none perfect, because Christmas, more than any other season, vibrates with the tension between the “already” and the “not yet”, those two polarities that make up the Kingdom. The “not yet” of Christmas never totally gives way to the “already”, because the first Christmas Day, for those who lived it, felt utterly…
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Why Not Rather Be Defrauded?
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know…
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The Main Point of John’s “Revelation”
2,000 years ago we were warned about the moment when 3 things come together: Tech, Finance, Politics. We were told that when these become intersectional the evil power behind the world system would capture them and slaughter dissent. This vision, written when commerce was still barter, and technology was the donkey, is the single most…
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Genesis 1: The Necessary Oomphalos
Apparent Age is a fringe thought. From the view of the typical secularist it is one of the craziest uncles in a crazy family of religious ideas. When the evidence of an old universe first put pressure on the literal reading of Genesis, some sincere creationist argued that Adam must have had a belly button,…
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Matthew 27: 24-31: That One: He’ll Do Just Fine.
“His blood be on us and our children.” They were passionate about something. These are not the words of people who are doing someone else’s bidding. They were rioting, and Pilate gave them Jesus and released Barabbas to satisfy them. All my life evangelical preachers have implied that the cry for Barabbas was just a…
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Luke 20:18: United or scattered by the cornerstone
“…everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (ESV) I’ve heard this exegeted a dozen ways, none of them convincing. What I haven’t heard are the two verbs contrasted. “Broken” and “crush” are two different words in the Greek. The…