In Matthew 19.13-15 we see that Jesus welcomes little children to come to Him: Then the little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them; and the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”And … Continue reading Metaphorical Children

The best way, I believe, to examine Jesus’ teaching in the Olivet Discourse is to have the three Synoptic accounts open at the relative sections. This is easy to do digitally but may also be read with three hard copy bibles. I personally never achieved clarity of the account until doing this very technique. No, I am not speaking about the specific timing of the … Continue reading Understanding the Olivet Discourse

I went to schools for my theological training where marginalization of blacks, though outwardly condemned, was justified at least on a personal level. Several students believed  in and justified their racism by appealing to the bible’s account of the sin of Ham and his son Canaan. They identified Ham with the African Continent and said that blacks were cursed to be slaves somehow and they … Continue reading America’s Sin

The well known story of Jesus turning water into wine is found in the second chapter of John. In the account is what I always thought a curious feature: stone water pots for cleansing-Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washing, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. (John 2.6) The rationale of strictly observant Jews (Pharisees and others) is a parenthetical … Continue reading Stone Jars

Meredith Kline, the late professor of Assyriology at Westminster Seminary, held that Har Magedon referred to Jerusalem since Tel Migiddo is hardly a mountain. I still believe it is a reference to this valley (Jezreel, which Mt. Megiddo overlooks) because, in part, it provides a generally level place for camps and staging of campaigns. The valley is also accessible from many directions. To call Megiddo … Continue reading The significance of Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley

Originally posted on Larry Hurtado's Blog:
In an essay from 1979 I floated the idea that Paul’s collection-project for Jerusalem may have been used against him by his critics in the Galatian churches:  “The Book of Galatians and the Jerusalem Collection,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 5(1979), pp. 46-62.  In recent weeks, I’ve returned to that essay while reading Bruce Longenecker’s… Continue reading Galatians and Paul’s Jerusalem-Collection Re-visited

During my training for an M.Div (now 40 years ago), my Systematics Professor sought to describe the meaning of “holy” as “otherness” or “out of the ordinary” which conformed with the then-current scholarship. The Hebrew of the biblical text is only consonants and the vowels need to be supplied. The form of the term “holy” is qds or its root: qd. My professor illustrated this … Continue reading The Meaning of “Holy”

By Steffen Mueller The Church in Europe Europe was the birthplace of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Schlosskirche—the Castle Church—in Wittenberg, Germany. In God’s providence, this became a catalyst for the Reformation that God had been preparing, the Reformation that changed the world. For a long time, Europe was the center of Christian strength … Continue reading The Church in Europe

The ultimate sower of the word was Jesus. Before He embarked on His ministry, all Four Gospels record the Spirit descending on Him in the figure of a dove (Mt.3.16, Mk. 1.10, Lk. 3.22, Jn.1.32). John the Baptist indicated that the Spirit remained on Jesus: Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him … Continue reading Some Thirty, Some Sixty, and Some a Hundredfold