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Showing posts from September 8, 2013

Download a Great Book for Free

I read this book years ago, and it was extremely insightful. So I am delighted to find that it is now online and free to download. It deals with the way the church has been co-opted by feminizing trends over the centuries, going back at least a millennium. Leon Podles, " The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity ". Mike

Book Review: "Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament" by John D. Currid

Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament John D. Currid Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, IL 60187 www.crossway.org Copyright: 2013 ISBN: 978-1-4335-3183-5; $17.99 Reviewed for Deus Misereatur by: Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber Reading Polemically – 4 stars out of 5 There are several parallels between the Old Testament stories and the mythical tales from the cultures and societies that surrounded ancient Israel. Many biblical scholars, skeptics and supporters alike, have accepted the view that the Hebrew writers were simply bootlegging those tales, cleaning them up, and inserting them into Israel’s history. Dr. John D. Currid’s new 192 page paperback, “Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament”, addresses this trend, and seeks to offer a different set of plausibilities for seeing these parallels. This book is mildly technical, but not burdensomely so. Dr. Currid was a seminary professor of mine in the 1990s, and I was d

Brief Reflection: Luke 6.37-38

 " Judge not , and you will not be judged; condemn not , and you will not be condemned; forgive , and you will be forgiven; give , and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you " (Luke 6.37-38). This was part of my morning devotional reading today as I read through the Gospel according to Luke. These verses always make me skip a beat, and momentarily pause. I've highlighted the four main verbs, and then italicized and underlined the punchline. First, it doesn't appear to me that Jesus is saying anything here about how God acts toward his children. This is not a divine-human quid pro quo , this-for-that  kind of program. Instead, the context is one dealing with people, living daily with others. Jesus is almost sitting in the seat of Solomon here, handing out proverbial wisdom. Second, the point of the statement: be as charitable and g