C.M. Alvarez's Blog, page 12

When It Seems Like Your Efforts are Falling on Dry Ground

Reason vs Revelation: How God Speaks

“Can’t they just look it up?”This is was the response to my comment on a contributor’s essay that they include a footnote explaining the word “liminal” in their essay for the upcoming issue of An Unexpected Journal on Joy. I will readily own that maybe at times I ask for over explanation on the essays where I edit. I ask writers to include footnotes to explain theological concepts, the backstory of events, context of what the source they are citing is referring to, and yes, sometimes I ask f...

Called by God: The Call is Not the Qualifying

The call is not the qualifying. What does that mean? At times you may hear someone say, “I’ve been called by God to …” or “God told me to …” Then the outcome of what they told you God “called” them to do ends up being a complete and total mess, a very wrong and bad outcome. It is situations like that where you might think that the person is a kook or a charlatan, that they mistook God’s call, or maybe that God doesn’t speak or “call” at all.Sometimes a person actually is a charlatan. Sometim...

Job and His Dragon at An Unexpected Journal

Does the Bible say “judge not lest ye be judged?”

What does “where there is no vision, people perish” mean?

5 Books You Should Read Before You Die

What does the Bible say about as a man thinketh?

The Insanity of God Review

Is Easter Pagan?

Is Easter pagan? You will see that claim come up. Sometimes it is made by skeptics. Sometimes it is made by people focusing on what they consider “Hebraisms” rather than the fulfillment that Jesus is of the promises represented by the Jewish feasts. Sometimes, like what I am going to discuss in this post, it is made by people who have a very poor understanding of church history.One such example of this is an article from One for Israel titled “Why are Passover and Easter Celebrated at Differen...