One of the lesser known doctrinal themes in Scripture is the idea of ethical reversals. Sometimes the reversals are connected to classes of people, and other times to ethnic groups or nations. Whenever ...
Pharaohs and Herods
Deuteronomy and Harvest Weight
Introduction: One of the reasons that Christians get into a muddle about how their sanctification should look is that they don't know how to fit the blessings of the material world into it. Not only ...
Affection for Israel as Biblical Requirement
Introduction: This could be regarded as one of my periodic forays into the tangled thicket of "what gives with Israel?" You are to imagine it as me putting on a gray coat and blue trousers in order ...
Audio Reading of Post
Antisemitism as a False Flag Operation
Introduction: One of more distressing things that has happened over the last couple of years is that our old equilibrium has been knocked cock-eyed. This is certainly unsettling, but Christians ...
Audio Reading of Post
A Diem That Needs Some Carping
The current conflict between Israel and the United States is a really odd one. For the Israelis, the whole thing is a matter of life and death, a serious conflict. On the Obama/Kerry side of things, their behavior more closely resembles a one-sided junior high girls’ slap fight. But before getting into all that, a …
Preliminary Thoughts on Envy and the Jews
As many of you know, I am currently engaged in preaching through the book of Romans. After an Advent hiatus, I will resume my place in chapter 11, and so I am coming up on the Pauline doctrine of the conversion of the Jews. The driving engine of that conversion — jealousy — has been …
Laugh Like a Developmentally-Challenged Hyena
One of the things a lot of people need to learn how to do is make political determinations, whenever possible, based on the undisputed out-in-the-open facts. This is possible a lot more than is pretended otherwise. The alternative is to try to make determinations based on the contested behind-the-scenes-facts, and this is an invitation to …
A Topping Suitable
The discussion horses for my Israel and Hamas post are galloping down the road, reins dragging on the road behind them. So let me get a few band aids on my fingers and then say just a few more things here. Might calm everybody right down, or we might get to see another set of …
Israel and Hamas
Before I say what I am going to say about Israel and Hamas, let me start with a few preliminaries. First, I am a Christian and this means that I believe that Jesus Christ is the only hope of every nation, and this includes Israel. This means that Muslims and Israelis both are summoned by …
Armchair Globo-Politicians
As I write, Israeli troops are massed on the border of Gaza, and they are about to go in to topple Hamas. They are doing this in response to a steady stream of rocket/mortar attacks from Gaza. Hamas is trying to provoke just such an invasion, in an attempt at a rope-a-dope strategy. Israel has …