Lee Harmon's Blog, page 27

1 Peter 1:13, How To Gird Your Loins

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

//Ever wonder how to gird your loins? The phrase makes much more sense in a Biblical setting, where many men wore long robes. They would tuck the robes into their belt, thus “girding up their loins” so they could move freely.

The way the phrase is used here by 1 Peter probably is meant to bring Passover to mind. On the first Passover, God’s peop...

Book review: STABLE: The Keys to Heaven on Earth

by April Michelle Lewis

★★★★

April Lewis’s book is a pluralistic Christian approach to happiness. She notes that it is God’s will that we be happy, experiencing heaven on earth, and that virtually all religions promote common goals of love, forgiveness, altruism and healthy relationships … the very things which contribute to our happiness on earth. Lewis has apparently been through the wringer in life and learned some hard lessons (which she doesn’t discuss), but she eventually overcame them, w...

Luke 12:6, God Cares About Sparrows

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

//When I read verses like this, I begin to wonder if Christians properly revere all that God cares about. The point of verses like today’s is to affirm that God cares about us just like he does the rest of creation. The same point is made a few verses later, about how God carefully tends to the wild flowers:

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all h...

Luke 7:39, The Omniscience of the Gospels

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

//It’s interesting to me that all four authors of the Gospels assume an air of omniscience. They know things that a mere eyewitness observer would have no way of knowing. In today’s verse, how could Luke possibly know what this Pharisee was thinking?

There are many examples of this sort of thing in the Gospels. He...

Book Excerpt: Revelation: The Way It Happened

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“Jesus sits on the throne?” Matthew queried. “I thought God sat on the throne.”

Samuel grimaced. “I don’t know. John’s vision sometimes confuses me,” he admitted before quickly continuing. “Around the throne, the elders and living creatures each hold a lyre and a bowl of incense.”

Matthew laughed. “How can anybody play the lyre while holding a bowl? Do they have three arms?”

Samuel frowned again. “I don’t think that’s the point, Matthew. It’s not only Jews who use a harp in temple worship to acc...

Book review: Judas of Nazareth

by Daniel T. Unterbrink

★★★★

Yes, Jesus lived, he’s no myth … but he’s not who you think. Daniel Unterbrink is a retired forensic auditor who “turned his analytical prowess” to uncovering the real Jesus.

In this fascinating, controversial study, Daniel equates Jesus with Judas the Galilean (not Judas the betrayer of Jesus), and he equates Paul with Saul the Herodian, both from the writings of Josephus. The Fourth Philosophy that Josephus writes about is what we scholars refer to as the Jesus Mov...

Exodus 29:7, Anointing in the Bible

Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.

//Today’s verse describes how the temple priests were to be anointed. Kings were also anointed. Jesus was anointed. Indeed, the title Christ is the Greek version of the Hebrew Messiah, and both merely mean anointed.

Have you ever noticed how often anointing happens in the Bible? Why is this such a big deal, and who wants oil poured over them?

Answer: It is a gesture of purification, with a practical, sanitary valu...

Jeremiah 18:4, Marred in the Potter’s Hands

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

//Today’s verse is a little parable presented by God as a lesson to Jeremiah. While we often think of the clay as being us as individuals, flawed and in need of remaking by God, this isn’t really what God was saying. God compared the clay vessel to the nation of Israel, not to individuals.

God was saying he would ball up the clay and start over,...

Book review: Things That Must Take Place: A Commentary on Revelation Chapters 4-22

by Tony Kessinger

★★★★★

This is a verse-by-verse commentary on everything in Revelation outside the letters to the churches. As a writer about Revelation myself, I must begin by pointing out how differently Kessinger and I read the Book of Revelation. Please pardon my upcoming rant–anyone who submits a book about Revelation to The Dubious Disciple can expect some critical analysis, ha–because Kessinger really does provide solid research, and I don’t want to leave the impression that it’s unscho...

1 John 17:14, Paul Contradicts Jesus, part III of III

I have given them Your word;

//In today’s verse, Jesus seems to imply that he reliably passed on to us all we need to know. Yet Paul considerably enhanced the “word,” adding instruction that he obtained in one or more visions of Jesus. Doctrines such as Original Sin, Total Depravity and Unconditional Election stem primarily from Paul’s writings. But would Jesus have thought this way?

For your consideration, here is one last collection of “superficial differences” between Jesus and Paul:

Paul: As...