Great Expectations

“But reach out with Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will certainly curse You to Your face.”   Job 1:11  NASB Certainly – The story of Job is the story of expectations.  God expects Job to survive the test.  haśśāṭān expects him to fail.  Job, caught in the middle, expects God to treat…

The True Faith?

The True Faith? Yesterday I received an email advertisement.  It contained the following: So, of course, I was interested.  Not because I wanted to know the heroic stories of the apostles, but because I was fascinated by the idea that the apostles’ stories would provide me with the Jewish roots of Christianity.  I simply can’t…

Tract-time

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17  NASB Hearing – Just pause a minute and think about what Paul wrote.  He doesn’t say that faith (pístis) is a function of doctrine, or dogma, or creeds, or the Bible.  He writes that faith arrives by audible transmission.  No poster, no tract, no pocket Psalms…

Conformity (The End of the Empire 6)

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.  Ephesians 4:4-6  NASB One faith – Theological orthodoxy contributed to the collapse of Roman civilization.  In this respect,…

Clearly?

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.  Romans 1:20  NASB Without excuse – Consider an implication of Paul’s opening declaration.  No, not the usual one about how everyone should know…

Painful Days – A Reflection

Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am wretched.  Heal me, for my limbs are stricken.  Psalm 6:2  Robert Alter My limbs – On the 30th of April of this year, I wrote a piece about the excruciating pain I was experiencing in my left knee.  I asked for your prayers (thank you).  I wrote…

Creed or Conditions

“And it shall be, if you truly heed the voice of the LORD your God to keep to do all His commands that I charge you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”  Deuteronomy 28:1  Robert Alter All His commands – Keep them all!  That’s the…

A Heretic at Last?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.  Romans 1:16-17 NASB From faith to faith –…

Where It Started

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. 2 Timothy 1:5  NASB First dwelled – Where does the Bible start?  You’ll immediately respond, “Why, in Genesis, of course!” and that is textually true, but it…