Lee Harmon's Blog, page 22
June 27, 2014
Book review: We Make the Road by Walking
by Brian D. McLaren
★★★★★
With 52 chapters–one for each week of the year–McLaren takes us on a year-long quest toward “aliveness,” as taught by Jesus through words and example. Each chapter lists a few suggested Bible readings, gives a few pages of inspiration, and lists suggested discussion topics. His idea is that we would use this book for Bible study, with family or close friends in Christ.
“Aliveness” is a wonderful description for the type of existence Jesus wishes to share. Where the Syno...
June 26, 2014
Matthew 4:15, Where was the book of Matthew written?
And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum … beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
//Many scholars locate the origin of the book of Matthew to be Syria, modern day Jordan. Why do they think this?
Today’s verse provides a subtle clue. When Matthew writes of Capernaum, he refers to it as “beyond Jordan.” Capernaum was on the west side of the Jordan river, implying that the author was on the east side of the river.
Of course, there’s much more to the research than this. Matthew, though...
June 25, 2014
Romans 1:18, The “Intelligent Design” Verse
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
//I quoted this verse from the New Living Translation in order to make it read clearly. (Hint: when studying a passage, you can start with the NLT for its simplicity of language, and then work your way backward to more scholar-approved translations, discerning whether...
June 24, 2014
Matthew 10:30, Jesus Came To Bring Division?
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
//Yesterday, I brought up this verse in a discussion of whether Jesus came to bring peace or tribulation. I lean toward peace, and promised to present my own interpretation of this verse.
To me, the awkward reference to “a sword” can only refer to this Old Testame...
June 23, 2014
Acts 10:36, The Peace of Jesus Christ
The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all).
//I got into a discussion the other day about whether or not Jesus meant for his disciples to spread peace. We were talking about whether doctrinal differences–even major differences–should be allowed to draw lines between Christians. The discussion centered on this saying by Jesus: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
Now, I don’t know...
June 22, 2014
Book review: Lincoln’s Bishop
by Gustav Niebuhr
★★★★★
In 1862, war broke out between the Dakota Sioux Indians and the white settlers in Minnesota, where I currently live. Niebuhr’s new book digs below the surface to tell the story, from a 19th-century Christian bishop’s perspective.
Niebuhr writes like a journalist, and he spent nearly the first half of the book setting the stage and introducing the major players (President Lincoln, Chief Little Crow, and Bishop Whipple). There were times I struggled to maintain interest, ev...
June 21, 2014
Book Excerpt: John’s Gospel: The Way It Happened
A mysterious figure threads his way through the Gospel of John, from its beginning (see John 1:35, the unidentified partner of Andrew) to its end. This person, one of the few who had “been with [Jesus] from the beginning” (the requirement listed in verse 15:27 for a legitimate witness) appears to be finally obeying Jesus’ request to “testify,” by writing this Gospel.
John’s Gospel usually calls this person “the disciple whom Jesus loves,” though sometimes he appears as merely a silent witness....
June 20, 2014
Acts 15:29, Eating Meat Sacrificed to Idols
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
//So ends the council in Jerusalem. As the story goes, the apostle Paul (who preached to the Gentiles) held some fundamental differences with the Jerusalem church–the Jewish Christians–and attended a council there to help straighten things out. One of the things they discussed was this matter of eating food which was uncl...
June 19, 2014
Revelation 20:4, The Difference Between Pre- and Postmillennialism
… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
//The millennium, from a Christian framework, refers to a period of one thousand years during which Christ will reign on earth. The technical difference between pre- and postmillennialists is simply this: One group thinks Jesus will return before the 1000 years begin, and the other thinks Jesus will return after the 1000 years are over. Also, 1000 isn’t always understood literally; it may mean simply “a long time.”
Note the word “will”...
June 18, 2014
Mark 7:18-19, Are All Foods Clean?
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
//Most scholars today agree that the gospels of Matthew and Luke were written with Mark in hand. It’s fascinating, therefore, to note subtle differences in how the text was copied. Sometimes what is left out is as revealing as what is written.
Matthew...
