Question of Origins What are the origins of Christian baptism? A quick perusal of the biblical texts might leave one perplexed as to the sudden appearance of baptism in the New Testament.1 Immediately and without explanation one is confronted with the appearance of John “the Baptist” and the practice of baptizing in water (Matt 3:1ff). Everyone except the reader (i.e., the author of the text itself, the people in the accounts, and perhaps even the...
I work for a major insurance company known nationwide and which can be found in all states… and no, it is not Nationwide or Allstate. I started working for this company just over eight years ago. I started out in a call center taking calls for our auto insurance policy holders. People called in for various requests or questions, but I spent most of my days amending policies. After about a year I was sought...
The early Church father Tertullian once asked a similar question to explore the connections between Christianity and Greek thought. This question is designed to explore a literary connection between how we watch movies and how we read the Bible. The issue here is how are we to interpret the Old Testament narratives? Are they history or a story? How we understand the genre of the historical books in the OT will determine how we read,...
“I don’t know,” said Gavin, feet on the dash, brow furrowed in thought, “college students just aren’t that hospitable.” Driving away from a youth theater performance of Singin’ in the Rain, we exchanged reflections on home-finding, transience, and living on a micro-budget. While hospitality may slip by the wayside, students do a lot of other important, hard work, looking forward to the day we’ll graduate, find work, and really make home. But I think hospitality...
“Because of you,” spoke the old friend of God, trembling, holding back heavy tears as he looked out over a sea of remorseless faces, “Because of you,” he spoke, perhaps with frank shock and bewildered grief, “Because of you the LORD became angry with me.” (Deut. 1:27) . Moses These words are among the first of the last sermon of the humblest man of his time: Moses. His text, biblical history to date. His congregation,...
What does it mean to participate in the Lord’s Supper faithfully? Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 10 highlight the central story of Numbers to teach a lesson. . That’s how the chapter opens: teaching us a lesson from Numbers. The lesson is negative: “They all ate the same spiritual food [as us] and drank the same spiritual drink… Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now...
One morning, my brother Googled “Bible verses for anxiety.” Many of the people closest to him were being affected with crippling anxiety and he wanted to know how to help. 18% of American adults suffer from diagnosable anxiety disorders, and many more of us regularly experience anxiety of differing degrees and types. I want to add to the long list of explanations and solutions this thesis: We can find hope knowing that anxiety is at...
I am currently in the midst of that delightfully anti-climatic state of liminality that comes with submitting a PhD thesis. Of course, once you’re done with the thesis, you’re not actually done at all because you still have to defend it. And so, that means that I basically still need to be working on my thesis in a sense—at least in terms of preparing for the viva. Thus, with Galatians on my mind, I’ve decided...
This fall I started rereading Calvin’s Institutes, which may be my favorite book. When I first seriously engaged with Calvin it was the most theologically formative book I had read (that may still be the case). Once while I was in a conversation with a Ladder Day Saint I quoted Calvin and was then asked “WAIT- you guys are Calvinists?” I thought it was kind of a funny question, but regardless of what you believe...
Jesus Mythicism—have you ever heard of it? It’s the idea that Jesus never existed. If it sounds like rubbish to you, that’s because it is. Until a few months ago I had never actually heard someone defend the position. I simply assumed that Jesus Mythicists were merely online trolls who lived under the fantastical bridges of the world wide web. However, I was able to hear one prominent Jesus Mythicist, Richard Carrier, articulate his views...
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