Author: Skip Moen, Ph.D.

  • Go Straight to Hell

    Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;  Isaiah 5:14a Without measure – Why do people go to Hell?  No, it’s not a theological trick question.  Why do you think God would send people to Hell?  Is it because they were wicked and deserved long-lasting punishment?  Is it because true justice demands that…

  • Endless Imagination

    May our God come and not keep silence; fire devours before Him, and it is very tempestuous around Him.  Psalm 50:3 NASB “For He bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.”  Job 9:17 NASB Very tempestuous/ tempest – If we’ve learned anything at all about rabbinic exegesis of the Tanakh, we’ve learned that chronological and…

  • I’m Not Sure

    “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts.”  Proverbs 8:34  NASB Blessed – Chapter 8 of Proverbs is the personification of Wisdom as feminine divinity.  It does not mean that there is a divine female.  We’ll leave that to the invention of the Virgin Mary some…

  • Yom Kippur

    On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord.  You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf…

  • Paradise Lost

    “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites?”  Job 38:31-32  NASB Constellation – One of the great tragedies of the world is electricity.  “Wait a minute,” you’ll reply.  “Electricity has provided so many benefits in life. …

  • Doing God a Favor

    Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.  Leviticus 20:26 NASB Holy to Me – We’re familiar with the citation of this Levitical command in the gospel of Matthew (5:48) where the Greek text translation changes the meaning from “holy”…

  • The Land of Nod – Rewind

    you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth Genesis 4:12  Berean Study Bible Fugitive and wanderer – (This study was first published on my birthday eleven years ago.  With some corrections, it is essentially the same.  My recent dreams during sleep reminded me to take another look at the Hebrew nōd.) Aimless….

  • Confronting the Dark

    Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.  Mark 1:12  NASB Impelled – Why was Yeshua “impelled” to go into the wilderness?  The Greek term is quite strong.  ekbállō isn’t just personal compulsion.  It is literally, “throw out.”  Yeshua was thrown out into the wilderness, the sort of thing that happens without choice.  Mark…

  • The Wonderful Plan (2)

    See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8  NASB Tradition – “It is tragically true that we are often wrong about God, believing in that which is not God, in…