Jun 23, 2012

The Vigin Birth: A Cautionary Tale

 
Ben Myers has an interesting post here about a post he had written seven years ago and his view now concerning the virgin birth. Here is one paragraph from the post that I think aspiring bloggers and budding theologians should read carefully.

"I guess all I'm trying to say is that I used to be a lot more cynical and sophisticated than I am today. As one of the saints has said, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." Nowadays, to be honest, I'm just very grateful to be a Christian at all. Three-legged tables are fine, as far as they go. But you can rely implicitly on the ones with four legs; that's the kind you want when you're sitting down in the comfort of your own home, day after day, a table just like the one your grandfather used, and just like the one your great-grandchildren will use too, long after you've left the world and gone to that big dinner table in the sky."


Make sure to read the rest of the post as well. 
 

Jun 22, 2012

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

  
The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Robert B. Coote and Keith W. Whitelam
The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8006
Reviewed by Aren M. Maeir
 
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Ruth
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8327
Reviewed by Peter H. W. Lau
 
Zev Garber, ed.
The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7963
Reviewed by Walter Brueggemann
 
Jason B. Hood
The Messiah, His Brothers, and the Nations: (Matthew 1.1-17)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8335
Reviewed by M. Eugene Boring
 
Kelly R. Iverson and Christopher W. Skinner, eds.
Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8165
Reviewed by Adam Winn
 
John Kampen
Wisdom Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7970
Reviewed by Devorah Dimant
 
Brent Landau
Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men's Journey to Bethlehem
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7944
Reviewed by Craig A. Evans
 
Cotton Mather; ed. Reiner Smolinski
Biblia Americana, Volume 1: Genesis
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8097
Reviewed by Mark Elliott
 
Roland Meynet
A New Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8151
Reviewed by Tobias Hägerland
 
Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall, eds.
Empire in the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8054
Reviewed by Torrey Seland
  

Jun 21, 2012

Currents in Biblical Research 10.3

  
The June 2012 issue Currents in Biblical Research contains the following main articles.

Continuing the Engagement: Psalms Research Since the Early 1990s
J. Kenneth Kuntz

Recent Challenges to the communis opinio on 1 Corinthians 15.29

Joel R. White

The Second-Century Reception of John: A Survey of Methodologies
Dan Batovici

Kerygma, Catechesis and Other Things We Used to Find: Twentieth-Century Research on Early Christian Teaching since Alfred
Benjamin Edsall

Current Trends in Targum Research
Simon Lasair
  
  

Jun 20, 2012

The Limits of General Revelation


I was recently teaching about the difference between general and special revelation and came upon this helpful statement from Robert Lightner.

“God’s revelation in the world does not possess power to alter man’s conduct. Also, it is very limited and restricted in its extent and purpose. God did not give it to correct man but to communicate to him his need for correction. Neither does the revelation of God in the world include the cure or the basis for cleansing man’s sin. Only God’s revelation in the Word provides these necessities. Furthermore, the revelation God gave of Himself in nature and in the conscience of man is limited. Man’s lost condition, his need of a substitute for his sin, and Jesus Christ as the only Saviour from sin are only revealed in Scripture. Neither does general revelation tell man how to live. Even to our first parents God had to speak before they knew what to do and how to live. The beauty and splendor of the garden did not communicate such knowledge to them.”

Robert P. Lightner,
The God of the Bible: An Introduction to the Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 53.
  

Jun 19, 2012

The Israel Collection Giveaway

  
Todd Bolen at BiblePlaces.com is giving away two copies of the Israel Collection (volumes 1-5) from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.You really should enter this contest and hope/pray that you win. You can read more about the contest here.

I have been having fun going through Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. I have been to Israel five times and I am still seeing things in these pictures that I have not seen or noticed before. If you teach the Bible you really need to get the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.
  

Jun 18, 2012

Hamilton on His First Pastorate

  
James Hamilton has a post worth reading on some lessons he learned from his first pastorate here.
  

Jun 17, 2012

Bulletin for Biblical Research 22:2

  
The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research is out. Here is a list of the articles.
 
Toward a Theory of the Poetry of the Hebrew Bible: The Poetry of the Psalms as a Test Case
Beat Weber

The Book as Specimen, Talisman, and Dragoman in Africa: A Look at Some African Uses of the Psalms and 1 Corinthians 12–14
Grant LeMarquand

Paul and Sedition: Pauline Apologetic in Acts

Craig S. Keener

Rewriting Prophets in the Corinthian Correspondence: A Window on Paul’s Hermeneutic

J. David Stark

The Spiritual Powers of Ephesians 6:10–18 in the Light of African Pentecostal Spirituality

J. Ayodeji Adewuya