…for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. //Said by Jacob to Esau at their meeting. A few days ago, in a review of Karen Armstrong’s book, In The Beginning, I discussed the day Jacob fought with God….
Book Reviews
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Book review: Jesus Christ: The Jesus of History, the Christ of Faith
by J. R. Porter ★★★★★ I have no idea how this book slipped through the cracks. I never heard of it until one day it appeared on the discount rack at Borders. With lots of colorful pictures and insightful sidebars, does it not look scholarly enough? Would that explain its…
Genesis 22:10, 15-16, Did Abraham Kill Isaac?
Then [Abraham] reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your…
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Book review: The Unworthy Servant
by Bob Williston ★★★★ The Unworthy Servant is a fictional narrative of a young man who joins an obscure Christian “cultic” group. Bob Williston was raised in such a sect (sometimes called the 2x2s or the “Friends and Workers,” hereafter abbreviated F&Ws), and anyone who knows the author knows precisely the…
Song of Songs 8:8, Premarital Sex
“We have a little sister too young for breasts. What will we do if someone asks to marry her? If she is chaste, we will strengthen and encourage her. But if she is promiscuous, we will shut her off from men.” Hey, wasn’t that quite an inspiring love story in…
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Book review: The Irresistible Revolution
by Shane Claiborne ★★★★ Welcome to the world of radical Christian Shane Claiborne, where compassion and brotherly love trump all else. It’s a world of protest rallies, sleeping alongside the homeless, frequent jail time, caring for others alongside Mother Teresa at Calcutta, and visits to leper colonies and wartime Iraq. Shane…
Song of Solomon, chapter 4
Young man: “How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats frisking down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are as white as sheep, newly shorn and washed. They are perfectly matched; not…
Matthew 10:18, Is Jesus God?
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” //In the great debate over whether Jesus is God, this verse is key. It takes some pretty creative manipulation to come to any conclusion other than that Jesus claims not to be God. Which is not…
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Book review: In the Beginning
by Karen Armstrong ★★★★★ This is not a new book, but it’s one I enjoyed and want to share. It’s short, especially so when half the book is a reprint of the text of Genesis, which, surely, no one reads. This is the story of the Bible’s first book, raw…
Ezekiel 1:16, Ezekiel’s Antics
This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.//Ezekiel? Who reads Ezekiel? Not me, at least not before I began researching for my book on Revelation, when it became a…