by admin | Dec 8, 2013 | Condemnation or Judgment?, Section Three
Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants…The earth will be completely devastated and thoroughly ransacked. For the Lord has decreed this judgment.[1] As I understand the words this would...
by admin | Dec 2, 2013 | Section Three, Torture
Since I faulted Jonathan Edwards for making a bad argument to support the assertion in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” that “the great and almighty creator and king of heaven and earth” is the superlative torturer, I think it best that I look again...
by admin | Nov 29, 2013 | Exodus, Section Three, The Fear of the Lord
Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand – when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of...
by admin | Nov 24, 2013 | Chapter 12, Gifts of the Spirit, Romans, Section Three
I want to continue with the next item in Paul’s list of the different gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) we have according to the grace given to us.[2] If [the gift] is leadership (προϊστάμενος, a form of προΐστημι), he must do so with diligence (σπουδῇ)…[4] I want...
by admin | Nov 23, 2013 | Section Three
A Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to dinner. A woman of that town, who was a sinner, learned that Jesus was dining at the Pharisee’s house, and she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil.[1] The men reclined on cushions on the floor at a low table. As she...
by admin | Nov 22, 2013 | Exodus, Section Three, The Fear of the Lord
Yahweh told Moses (Exodus 34:10 NET): See, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful...
by admin | Oct 31, 2013 | Section Three
After the incident with the golden calf, after Yahweh relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people[1] honoring the covenant they violated, after He spoke his long name to Moses, He revealed a revised covenant. It was similar to the original...
by admin | Oct 30, 2013 | Section Three
While studying the gift of contributing I came across something in 1 Thessalonians that troubled me. I had to look into it further. The translation—although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became little children among you[1]—seemed...
by admin | Oct 27, 2013 | Condemnation or Judgment?, Section Three
I am no more accustomed to taking Jesus’ criteria of judgment between the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 literally than anyone else socialized into my religion. My first doubt appeared in the form of a “rational” conclusion: “Then it would make more sense to...
by admin | Oct 11, 2013 | Chapter 12, Gifts of the Spirit, Romans, Section Three
If [the gift] is contributing (μεταδιδοὺς, a form of μεταδίδωμι),[1] Paul continued to list the different gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) we have according to the grace given to us,[2] he must do so with sincerity (ἁπλότητι, a form of ἁπλότης).[3] In the...