Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, comments on the withered fig tree incident like this: The curse/exorcism of the fig tree/temple is more than a political protest; Mark means for it to be a “proleptic” sign within his own narrative. When Jesus later speaks of the end of the temple state in his second sermon, [...]
As I’ve caught various whiffs of Glenn Beck’s calls to America to turn back to God, I’ve simultaneously felt the biblical currents that enliven such a dream. Thought it is sometimes hard to see, and requires a little bit of reconstruction, Beck’s vision of a Christian nation is a thoroughly biblical idea. We catch sight [...]
A couple of questions for my Christian readers: Have you ever taken comfort in the fact that you are justified in Christ, and therefore assured of your standing before God? Have you ever prayed for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth? Have you ever pointed to someone spiritual growth [...]
It has come to my attention that Michael Pahl has started blogging through his excellent book, From Resurrection to New Creation. The book is an excellent entry point into not only the significance of the resurrection per se but also the importance of narrative theology and knowing how the end of the story transforms the [...]
Sometimes, people who make no profession of allegiance to Jesus shame me through their telling or enactment of the gospel story. I’ve commented about the Mountain Goats here several times over the past few weeks. Monday I was looking for some copyright information for the song Love, Love, Love and stumbled across the liner notes [...]
On Jesus clearing the temple and cursing the fig tree, William Telford says this: The Lord whom they sought had suddenly come to his Temple (cf. Mal. 3.1 and Mk. 1.2) but had condemned rather than restored it! Elijah the prophet had been sent before the great and terrible day of the Lord (Mal. 4.5; [...]
Over on the post, “After Inerrancy,” Dan Wallace has jumped in to offer some dialogue and push-back on some of my meanderings. He is pressing some good points, so I thought it worth starting a new post to respond to some of those and to invite you all to join the conversation as well. One [...]
A friend pointed me to this from Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses by Daṿid Weiss Halivni. It is interesting not only for its content but also as a Jewish voice speaking into the question of what the implications might be of scripture being the word of God. That doesn’t make it right, but [...]
I’ve posted on issues of homosexuality several times in the past few weeks. It’s not one of my hobby-horses, but with Prop 8 being overturned and drafting a chapter in a book on the subject I’ve had cause to ponder the issue and the blog is the overflow of my musings. In essence, this is [...]
My engagements over the past couple of days (one here, another here) with issues raised by Brett McCracken’s Hipster Christianity work has raised a complex of issues that dovetail nicely with the course I’m teaching this summer on the cross in the New Testament. Recently, my students have been responsible for engaging with the atonement [...]
