Have you ever been angry enough with someone, or afraid enough of someone, that you would be willing to have them killed? Of course not. Oh, you might have said something silly once like, I …
Christian Origins #87 - James
Is true religion a matter of the heart, or does it have to somehow affect the way we live our lives? Is Christianity merely a philosophy, a world-view, a way of thinking about things? Or …
Christian Origins #86 - James
There is one simple principle in the Bible that explains nearly everything. It crops up in various places and is usually ignored because it seems so unreasonable and runs counter to what we would expect. …
Christian Origins #85 - 2 Timothy
I suppose when a man knows he is going to die, a lot of things come into focus. Things start taking on more realistic value. Money, possessions, and property all diminish sharply when you know …
Curse Not the Deaf
There’s a curious law in Leviticus; it seems like a very small thing—something unlikely to ever occur. And you wonder, in the economy of the Bible—since there isn’t space for that many words, why it …
The Book of Ecclesiastes #6
Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or …
Why Marriage Matters
I was driving by a church one day just as a wedding was ending. The bride and groom had emerged and the crowd was throwing rice (or birdseed) at the happy pair. I momentarily found …
Christian Origins #84 - Hebrews
When you get on an airplane to go somewhere, do you have faith that you are going to get where you are going? Sure you do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t get on the airplane. …
Christian Origins #83 - Hebrews
One of the most puzzling things about the Bible, at least to the modern mind, is animal sacrifice. Why kill an animal because you have done something wrong? I used to wonder why God couldn’t …
Christian Origins #82 - Hebrews
One of the strangest revelations in the Book of Hebrews is that the Tabernacle that Israel carried around the wilderness was a model of something that existed in Heaven. And not only that, but that …
Christian Origins #81 - Hebrews
It is tempting to think of religious ritual and ceremony as so much mumbo-jumbo that means next to nothing. Especially if it was done in a language you didn’t even understand. As a stranger who …
The Book of Ecclesiastes #5
There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: Now there was found in it a poor …
Understanding Deception
Consider a strange irony: Almost every religious deception known to man has been introduced by warning its audience against deception. I have seen many strange religious ideas; and most of them cite, somewhere in the …
Christian Origins #80 - Hebrews
I know this is going to sound crazy. And it is going to be hard to explain why it should be so. But the entire structure of the worship of God in the Old Testament …
Christian Origins #79 - Hebrews
Is it possible that sometime in your life you have encountered God and didn’t even know it? The writer of Hebrews tells us to [b]e not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained …
Christian Origins #78 - Hebrews
Of all the things we know about God, one of the most disconcerting is that there is no place to hide from him. But let me put your mind at rest on something. God is …
Christian Origins #77 - Hebrews
One of the greatest pieces of symbolism in all the Bible is the Jordan River. It has captured the imagination of hymn-writers and theologians, generation after generation. When I was growing up, my father sang …
Baptized with Fire
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall …
Preparing for Pentecost
View PostThe Book of Ecclesiastes #4
All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. For what has the wise more than the fool? what has the poor, who knows to walk before the …