In the Old Testament, one of the most common imageries for a leader or king is that of a shepherd. Kings and their people are viewed like shepherds and their flock; defenseless nations are like sheep without a shepherd. Jeremiah uses this imagery frequently, more so than any other of the prophets. Jeremiah’s use of the shepherd king is an easy way to come to understand the Old Testament concept of the shepherd king.
Continue reading “Good Shepherds and Bad Shepherds: Jeremiah and John 10”Author: thebeardedone
PhD student, Hebrew Bible. Baseball, Coffee, League of Legends.
Revisiting the Story of Agassiz and the Fish
From early in my childhood, one of the often repeated stories I’ve heard about how to study the Bible is that of Agassiz and the fish. Summary: Professor Agassiz gives a new student a fish and makes him stare at it for like 4 days straight, and this teaches us the importance of observation when we study a passage in the Bible. The lesson seems to be to invest long, patient time into observing a single text of Scripture without external assistance. I basically agree with this, but I think that as told the story is more likely to discourage us from doing Bible study than to encourage us to do so. After all, who has whole working days to pore over a few verses or a few chapters of the Bible? I know I don’t. So let me instead propose a few easy lessons to practically apply the lessons of the Agassiz story.
Continue reading “Revisiting the Story of Agassiz and the Fish”Why Young Christians Should Read Isaiah
Since the very beginning of this blog, I’ve advocated that perhaps the common emphasis I see on having new believers read the New Testament is less than ideal. The argument I’ve heard is that the New Testament explains the basic theology that new Christians need. My response has always been two-fold. First, the New Testament is incredibly dependent on the Old Testament. Since the same God wrote both, the requisite theology for understanding the God of the New Testament is developed in the Old Testament. As a pastor recently tweeted:
Continue reading “Why Young Christians Should Read Isaiah”The Body of Christ, Election, and Disability
As an employee of Joni and Friends and a Sunday School teacher for my church’s disability ministry, I’m regularly around Christian disability ministry and people affected by disability. One of the most encouraging things about disability ministry is that the people I’m around who believe in disability ministry believe in the importance of the church. In particular, we cling to the truth that the church is the body of Christ, and as the analogy Paul lays out in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 shows, the body of Christ is composed of members–each needed by the others. Or in other words, the church needs people with disabilities!
Continue reading “The Body of Christ, Election, and Disability”The Trinity, Personhood, and Identity
What is a person? Could you actually give a definition of “person?” Is this just a simple idea that I’m about to make complicated for you with some philosophical follow up questions, or is there something more? The dictionary may define a person as something like “a human being as regarded as an individual.” But if you think about it, this doesn’t tell you much about the nature of personhood, and as a result this definition leaves you unable to explain basic truths that Christians believe.
Continue reading “The Trinity, Personhood, and Identity”Bloodless Atonement?
One of the doctrines of the gospel that will be familiar to readers of this blog is that of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement by his blood. In the protestant doctrine of the Reformation, blood propitiates God’s wrath toward sin. Indeed, the author of Hebrews tells us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb 9:22). However, Leviticus 5:11–13 seems to contradict this rule.
Continue reading “Bloodless Atonement?”No One Snatches from My Hand: Jesus’ Reference to Isaiah 43:13
From the very beginning of this blog, I have stressed the importance of Christian’s knowing their Old Testament well. The Old Testament, after all, forms 78% of the Bible by word count. Indeed, many Bible scholars have estimated that somewhere around 10% of the New Testament is quotations or allusions to the Old Testament.1 Because of this, many of the confusing or mysterious points in the New Testament can actually be understood (or when clear, understood more fully) in the context of the Old Testament. One example that many Christians would probably never expect is Jesus’ statement that no one can snatch from his Father’s hand in John 10:29.
Continue reading “No One Snatches from My Hand: Jesus’ Reference to Isaiah 43:13”You Should Witness to Yourself
Normally when Christians think of the idea of witnessing, they think of the version of the Great Commission in Acts 1:8.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
The idea here is that Christians serve as witnesses to others of the person and work of Jesus Christ, his gospel, and the implied call to respond in personal faith and repentance. And this is of course biblical and good and the primary idea of evangelistic witnessing in the New Testament.
Continue reading “You Should Witness to Yourself”What to Do When Your Pastor Says Stupid Stuff
Pastors, while themselves a gift from God for the shepherding of the souls in their respective churches, are human. And as humans, they err frequently, occasionally even saying mind-numbingly dumb things from their pulpits. Indeed it is even possible, on rare occasions, that you may think you have heard your pastor, in his public platform, say something that breaches all standards of common sense and social propriety, or something so deeply offensive that no one could ever hear the words of God mediated through his lips without the pollutant of his personal positions poisoning them to his hearers. Now for this case, I here propose a solution for dealing with this pesky problem. I order the process in terms of how out of hand you think the situation has gotten.
Continue reading “What to Do When Your Pastor Says Stupid Stuff”The Right Hand of Our Firm Foundation
I’m pretty sure the imagery of the hymn How Firm a Foundation primarily draws from Isaiah 40–48. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the second verse, which is a paraphrase of Isaiah 41:10. Since the hymn was written in 1787, perhaps the best way to see this parallel is to compare the second verse to the King James Version of Isaiah 41:10.
Continue reading “The Right Hand of Our Firm Foundation”
Citizens & Sons 