Lee Harmon's Blog, page 61

Book review: Jesus Wants To Save Christians

by Rob Bell and Don Golden

★★★★★

Ouch. Several months ago, Harper One sent me a short collection of Rob Bell reprints to review. I slowly worked my way through them, enjoying each one, and somehow left this one sitting on the shelves. Too many other obligations. I just now picked it up, and read it in one sitting.

I couldn’t put it down. Forget Velvet Elvis. Forget Love Wins. This 180-page sermon, this little obscure work, is for Bible groupies Bell’s real masterpiece. It’s definitely my new fav...

Book giveaway: John’s Gospel or Revelation

We have in the past received requests from authors to provide book giveaways, but never really felt ready to do so. This is sort of a trial run, using my own books, to see if giveaways draw any interest. If they do, then we’ll continue offering giveaways on a periodic basis, direct from the authors of books we review.

Help us make this a fun thing! Even if you own my books, I’d appreciate a “share.” We’ve tried to make it really easy to enter, avoiding forms and privacy issues. Just click on t...

2 Kings 22:8, Where did the book of Deuteronomy come from?

Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.”

//The name Deuteronomy comes from combining two Greek words: deutero, which means “second,” and nomas, meaning “law.” Deuteronomy means “second coming of the law,” and therein lies today’s story.

In 621 B.C., king Josiah of the kingdom of Judah ordered a reconstruction of the Temple, and as they began its repair, a startling discovery was made. They found a book claiming to have...

Psalm 105:27, The Seven Plagues of Egypt

They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

//Seven plagues? Um … weren’t there ten plagues in Egypt?

Not according to this Psalm. But let’s jump topics for a moment.

In my book about Revelation, I point out how closely the seven bowls of wrath mimic the plagues of Egypt. Seven; not ten. These seven bowls precede the rescue of God’s chosen, after the inhabitants of the world continue to reject God, in the same way the plagues of Egypt set up Israel’s escape from that land.

S...

Book review: The Essence of Religions

by Christopher Coppes

★★★★

Here’s an interesting claim. The core of all the major religions, Coppes seems to posit, can be discovered hiding in the commonality of Near Death Experiences (NDE’s). Sometimes, when a person recovers from death (or near death), he or she recalls an ineffable experience of an afterlife. Some see a breathtaking light, some participate in a sort of life-review, most are irrevocably changed. Familiar themes of this afterlife include:

No judgment.
Interconnectedness with a...

Genesis 26:7, Sarah the Sex Slave, part III of III

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

//Today’s topic is not about Abraham and Sarah, but about their son Isaac and his wife Rebekah. “Son, if you happen to go down to Gerar after I die,” I can imagine Abraham saying to Isaac, “Take your wife Rebekah with you, and give her a little vacation. Here’s a trick...

Genesis 20:1-2, Sarah the Sex Slave, part II of III

Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar,and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.

//Recall from yesterday’s post that the last time Abraham journeyed outside of Canaan, he played a trick on the Pharaoh, passing his wife off as his sister. It appears to have worked to the satisfaction of Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah agrees to accomp...

Genesis 12:11-13, Sarah the Sex Slave, Part I of III

As [Abraham] was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

//Here are the first recorded words spoken by Abraham to his wife. Complimentary, to be sure, but rather self-serving. It seems to be an unspoken assumption that if Sarah ac...

Book review: Navigating Revelation

by Eugene E. Lemcio

★★★★

Filled not with answers but with questions, Lemcio’s “charts for the voyage” do little to illuminate. I therefore found its promise of a “pedagogical aid” to fall a little short.

What the book does provide, however, is page after page of interesting study foundations, that can lead to some interesting research topics. If you are a serious student of Revelation and wish to work from a concise, visual picture of a few of the Apocalypse’s interrelations and derivations from...

Isaiah 58:10, The Cure For Depression

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

//Every translation of the Bible is a little different, emphasizing its messages in slightly different ways. I don’t believe I have ever read this verse before in the English Standard Version, the one version which goes right to the heart of the matter for me. I take medication for my “gloom.”

The trick to overcoming gloom, says Isaiah, is...