Two Thousand Eight! It is coming to a close. It has been one heck of a year. What can I say about it...Well, first, it began in the pits of hell. An 18 year relationship ended like a supernova in the night sky. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the year. With many apologies to many folks 2008 when I learned to cry and cuss. I learned that many folks, preachers in particular, have no clue what divorce is like. To say it any plainer (more accurately) would require a stronger word that some would find offensive. There is no kinder way to...
Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
In our last post we noted the emergence of Campbell's Living Oracles. Though at the time it was reviled by fundamentalist preachers, especially among the Baptists, it has been viewed by scholars since in a positive light. Marion Simms classic, The Bible in America: Versions That Have Played Their Part in the Making of the Republic, makes this statement about the Living Oracles,"Campbell was a man of scholarly attainments, and it was the unsatisfactory...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
One of the bright gems in the crown of the Stone-Campbell Movement has, historically, been dedication to a Bible based on the best manuscripts available and in the best vernacular of the day. "Opposition to modern translations" has usually been more a fundamentalist trait than ours (see here). A vocal minority has produced some literature with some outlandish claims too. Foy E. Wallace, Jr., for instance, produced a huge tome titled A Review of...
Friday, December 19, 2008
What do you think of around Christmas? What do you normally see at a Nativity ... even one at a church? There are usually animals. Mary, Joseph, Wise men all have there place. There is usually a star of some sort. And of course there are angels. Most Nativity's are a whole lot of Luke with a little bit of Matthew thrown in for good measure. The opening of Matthew's Gospel is considerably different than Luke's. He opens with that seemingly irrelevant genealogy (its not by any means!). We are then confronted with a scene that is horrific in...
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Churches of Christ were, seemingly, birthed in hermeneutical controversy. Alexander Campbell expended considerable effort on pointing to proper methods of interpretation of Scripture. As years went by more and more focus was placed upon some sort of "pattern" within the Bible and especially the New Testament. "Patternism" has been incredibly divisive throughout our history and continues to be with one group of Patternists contending that the other group of Patternists have invented patterns where there are none. What is interesting with...
Sunday, December 7, 2008
What a dangerous title! I am after all a "preacher." Here it is Lord's Day afternoon and I got home a little while ago. Here sitting on my couch lamenting BAMA's loss (but hey it was a great football game. Florida over Sooners!) reflecting for a brief moment upon what I have done on this day. I gathered with God's People in the Presence of his Majesty. We opened the "book divine" to hear afresh the empowering, liberating and convicting Word...
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
We often hear today that our world is undergoing, or has undergone, a worldview shift, that is from Modernism to Postmodernism. Some wail and bemoan that Postmodernism has caused the church to forsake sound doctrine for some cream puff political correctness. But could it be that the Postmodern shift is actually forcing the People of the Cross to recover sound doctrine that was sacrificed on the altar of Modernism as we became such a "cultural church"...
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Well it is that time of year again. The mountains are brown. The saguaros are thinner. The coyotes and mountain lions are prowling. And the palm tree in lights has reappeared in Corona commercials. Yep, it can only be Christmas time in the desert. Every year people ask about a couple good books for the minister, elders, or just the reading disciple ... and for themselves. It stands to reason that most books are simply junk. Millions of titles...
Monday, December 1, 2008
What a holiday weekend! I have had Rachael and Talya all weekend long. We cooked Big Bird together (an 18lbs Turkey!!). We made home made stuffing (inside Big Bird). We made home made mashed potatoes. We had rolls (not home made) and pie ... we had fun peeling, chopping, cooking and finally eating. Thanksgiving was very different this year but it was still very good. I have never cooked any of those things before but now we have. The girls...
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