It is my great pleasure to announce some really fun news in the Credenda department. We just got the latest issue back from the printers (which means that your copy should be in the mail), and the first thing you will notice when you get it is that the layout and look has been completely …
Sin in Luke
The word hamartano is found in two sections of Luke, used twice in each place. The first is where it is rendered as sin (Luke 15:18,21), and in the second as trespass. The first place is where the prodigal son confesses to his father that he has sinned. In the second passage, Jesus says that …
And With a Jutted Jaw
“It is not pleasant to watch brethren preaching the gospel of peace in that pugnacious style: yet it is by no means rare to hear of an evangelist preaching a free Christ with a clinched fist. It is amusing to see them putting themselves into an attitude and saying, ‘Come unto me,’ and then, with …
A Floating Poverty Line
“Sentimentality, as we have seen, finds expression in autonomous, pragmatically based decisions on right and wrong, and in the refusal to declare absolute standards on all matters, including poverty. What sometimes seems to be an intellectual vacuity in humanitarian polemics is associated with this trait, which we may think of as the propensity to define …
Heavier Than Wet Sand
INTRODUCTION: In this series, we are considering the temptations presented to us by desire, envy, competition, and ambition. Last week we looked at desire—the quarry from which many sins are hewn—and is a word which, thankfully for the writers of rock ballads, rhymes with fire. We now turn to the thing that our spirits’ desires …
A Socialist Tricycle
Schneider’s seventh chapter concentrates on four “parables of affluence,” taken from the gospel of Luke. In doing this he is tackling the central challenge to his thesis, and he is taking it head on. “All the Gospels agree that a great deal of Jesus’ teaching was on the subject of wealth, and that most of …
Look at the Warts Right
I need to explain the background of this one first. Other than the news and an occasional football game, our family has not really been a big teevee watching family. As a result, my ignorance of the world of sitcoms is nearly perfect, which led to the obvious conclusion — I need to blog about …
Tangible Blessing
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 136 “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life” (Prov. 22:4). Because we have all learned our Gnostic catechism responses, our tendency is to immediately spiritualize the lesson. By humility and the fear of …
Only God
Mark does not use the word hamartano, but he does use hamartia six times. He tells us that John the Baptist came and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (1:4). In the next verse, all of Judea came out to be baptized, confessing their sins (1:5). In the next chapter, Jesus …
In Other Words, Cool Your Baby Jets
“Violent gesture, even when commended by some, will be sure to strike others from its comic side . . . Therefore, do not carry action too far, and if you feel that you are naturally very energetic in your delivery, repress your energies a little. Wave your hands a little less, smite the Bible somewhat …