Romans 8:28 – Hope in times of suffering

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Christians take much comfort from Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 – ‘We know that all things work together for good.’

But, equally, they are frequently puzzled and perplexed by these same words.  So often, they do not seem to match our experience.  Thus, they become, not the application of a soothing balm, but a rubbing in of salt in the wounds.

As is so often the case, context is king.  J.D. Greear helps us to place this gem of truth in its proper setting, so that it can shine more truly and more brightly.…

Trimm: four views on Old Testament violence

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What are we to make of the command…

Deuteronomy 7:1f ‘When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!’

…and its fulfilment?…

Mark 1:41 – ‘Moved with anger’

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Mark 1:40f Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”  The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean.

Some ancient manuscripts have ὀργίζω, ‘angry or indignant’.  This may well be the correct reading.

In this case, we need to examine this ‘anger’. …

Acts 4:13 – Were the first disciples illiterate?

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Acts 4:13 ‘When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.’

Terms such as those translated ‘uneducated’ and ‘ordinary’ were sometimes used of illiterate persons, leading some sceptics to conclude that such men could not have written the letters ascribed to them.

Sceptics such as Bart Ehrman take agrammatoi to mean that Peter and John were illiterate, and that they could not therefore have penned the NT documents attributed to them. …

Slavery: the need for a redemptive-movement hermeneutic

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What are we to make of the Old Testament texts that speak of slavery?  They do not offer any outright condemnation of it.  So, are we to reject those texts out of hand?

One answer, favoured by many who wish to uphold the authority of Scripture, is to regard these texts as less-than-ultimate in themselves, and pointing towards (without themselves arriving at) the ultimate.

These texts, in other words, are on a trajectory, the end point of which is reached in ‘the law of Christ’, which is the ‘law of love’, and, eventually, to the abolition of slavery.…

Can we say, ‘Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away’?

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Job 1:21 – “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Not everyone thinks this famous confession, uttered by Job after all his sons and daughters had perished, is good theology.

Ben Witherington, whose daughter tragically died in 2012, wrote this:-

‘According to Job 1, it was not God but the Devil who took away Job’s children, health, and wealth. God allowed it to happen, but when Job said these words, as the rest of the story shows, he was not yet enlightened about the true nature of the source of his calamity and God’s actual will for his life.

…

Urban myths

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In an article in Evangelical Times entitled ‘Urban Myths (or should we call them lies?)’ Stephen Rees has no trouble in identifying a number of beliefs that are widely assumed to be true, and yet for which there is little or no supporting evidence:

  • ‘Dogs can only see in black and white.’
  • ‘It would be possible to see the Great Wall of China from the moon with the naked eye.’
  • ‘Only two people in the world are allowed to know the formula for Coca-Cola.’
…

“I’ll Walk Beside You”

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During the night of Saturday, 17th December 2022, my dear wife Sarah became seriously ill with what turned out to be ‘flu, pneumonia, and then general sepsis.  She was taken by ambulance to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.  Gravely ill, she was sedated and put on a ventilator.

A few days later, I began sending out regular updates to her, and our, many friends.

What follows is a lightly edited compilation of these short bulletins. …

Matthew 2:6 “Bethlehem…in no way least”

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Matthew 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, [Herod] asked them where the Christ was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:
2:6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

1. Some think that Matthew has deliberately reversed the meaning of the Micah text. …

“The Lost World of Genesis 1”

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Old Testament scholar John Walton has written extensively on the early chapters of Genesis.  These writings include a long article on ‘Creation’ in the IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, a commentary on Genesis in the NIVAC series, a scholarly book entitled Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology, and a more popular-level book carrying the title of this post.

In the last-mentioned work, Walton proposes a reading of Genesis 1 that takes account not only of the language it was written in, but also the culture. …