NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

Is Christmas Love Different To Old Testament Love

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"Visiting Sins" fits somehwere between judgment and doing nothing.

Love Takes On Many
Shapes And Sizes

This is the Christmas season.

It’s a happy time. It’s bright, cheery, fun, energetic and the spirit of Christmas-Love pervades.

I don’t know if it’s the decorations or the family time or the idea of peace and good will toward all men but Christmas breeds hope.

And it takes over.

Every TV series has a Christmas episode. New Christmas movies are produced annually and old ones are shown again.

Retail sales go crazy. One fourth of all personal sales are made during the Christmas season. That means that one single day, out of 365, accounts for 25% of all personal expenditures.

Before your jaded, non-commercial side screams foul, please remember that all or most of that spending is done for other people. That is, one person is thinking about another person and attempting to buy them just the right gift. One that says, “You’re special to me.”

Personally, l love it. [Read more…]

Top Ten Biblical Discoveries In Archaeology: Not Recommended

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Top Ten Biblical Discoveries In Archaeology

More A Pamphlet
Than A Book

Disclaimer: Credo House is a great organization. Nothing said here is intended to reflect badly on them. But . . .

I recently purchased Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology, published under the banner of Credo House, and returned it in less than a day.

Why? Several reasons.

One, I paid over $7 for the Kindle version. Seven dollars isn’t huge but the price does come with expectations.

The book is listed as having 88 pages. That’s long enough to be considered a book but in this case it misrepresents the reality.

There was lots of white space and I do mean lots.

Don’t misunderstand. White space isn’t a bad thing. It helps with reading but in this case it seemed like it was used to inflate the size. Reduce the white space, which could easily be done, and the book is now much shorter.

Making it worse was the fact that there were many illustrations, which weren’t very clear (didn’t add much value), and the text didn’t wrap. Adjacent to each illustration, none of which were very large, was – you guessed it – white space.

There was a lot of white space that seemed to be added for no reason at all, and then each illustration introduced even more white space.

From a volume point of view the book was worth maybe a dollar, not seven.

Two, the discoveries, though significant, aren’t recent. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late 1940’s. Hezekiah’s conduit was discovered in 1867. One of the more recent discoveries was the “House of David” inscription found at the Dan site in 1993. By archaeological standards that’s not recent.

The point is the book catalogs some of the more significant finds but it doesn’t add anything new. It’s very basic. If you are looking for up-to-date, this book won’t satisfy.

Three, you can find all the material scattered throughout the web for free. Because this information is relatively old, you can find it recorded in many places on the web. Just Google the “Top Ten Biblical Archaeological Discoveries” and you’ll easily find the listings and the information.

In fact, all the material in the book can be found in a series of posts on the Credo House blog, Reclaiming The Mind. The blog posts don’t just whet your appetite for the book. They are the book. The first post in the series can be found here.

BiblicalArchaeology.Org offers their version of the Top Ten finds as a free download for signing up. It seems to cover mostly different material but the fact that it offers 155 pages and is free gives some perspective on why the Credo House publication is not a great deal.

I’ve enjoyed reading the thoughtful and forward thinking posts on the Credo House Blog and recommend it. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book.

THINK!AboutIt

6 Lessons From The Life Of Moses

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Read Moses' story and you'll think differently about faith.

Moses Breaks
All The Molds

Moses is the guy that intrigues us all but I don’t know of anyone who wants to trade places with him. King David, yes, but not Moses.

Moses accomplished more in his life than any other Bible figure and he wore many pairs of shoes in the process: statesman, historian, judge, commander, prophet, author, teacher and intercessor, but that doesn’t make him appealing. Interesting, maybe, but not appealing.

I’ve never aspired to lead a nation, and can’t understand why anyone would, but Moses didn’t just lead a nation. He did something much more complicated. He built one.

People who read Moses respond in two ways. They love God or accuse Him. Let’s talk about it.

Three Stages In Moses Life Each Lasting 40 Years

The life of Moses is divided into three stages that make it easy to analyze.

  • Infant To Adulthood (Pharaoh’s house)
  • Exile in Midian
  • Exodus to Canaan

Significant events in the first two stages shaped Moses in ways that prepared him for God’s ultimate purpose. The high points are:

Stage One:

  • Spared from destruction as an infant.
  • Adopted into Pharaoh’s house and enjoyed the privileges of a family member.
  • Tradition (Josephus) says he successfully led military campaigns.

Stage Two:

  • At the age of 40 he makes an unsuccessful attempt at alleviating the suffering of his people, the Israelites.
  • Rejected by the Israelites and threatened by Pharaoh, he escapes to Midian.
  • In Midian, he meets Jethro and marries one of his daughters, Zipporah, with whom he has two sons.
  • Becomes a shepherd.
  • Called by God out of the burning bush.

Stage Three:

  • Returns to Egypt.
  • Meets with Israelite leaders.
  • Confronts Pharaoh.
  • Leads Israel out of Egypt, eventually arriving at Canaan.

Observations: [Read more…]

Book Review: Origins by Mark Henrikson

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Origins by Mark Henrikson

Alternative History, No
Alternative Interpretation, Yes

Origins by Mark Henrikson is Sci-Fi with a twist. It is written from an alien perspective but is based on historical record (the biblical account of the Exodus).

It comes in two formats: paperback and ebook. Both available through Amazon. I received my copy free through BookBub.

The story’s timeline spans some three thousand years (plus/minus) beginning with the period just before the Exodus and extending into the present. The narrative alternates between the two ends of that period and follows four plot lines: aliens in Egypt, an alien (Hastelloy) visiting a psychologist in the present, an NSA agent (Mark) attempting to interfere with NASA’s deployment of communication devices and archeologists researching Egypt’s pyramids.

The book also makes reference to thousands of years prior. The lead character, Hastelly, is 25,000 years old. [Read more…]

7 Thoughts On Preaching May Surprise You

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Preaching is proclaiming, not prancing, prattling or puffing.

Primitive Methods Don’t Suit
Today’s Technologically
Rich Enviroment

Today, reading and writing are common. Letter writing happens daily and book publishing isn’t far behind.

Even the blind and deaf have the means and skills to write out their thoughts, and technology makes it possible for them to communicate those ideas easily.

For most of human history that wasn’t true.

Writing has been around for a long time but the earliest format, engraving on stone, was restrictive to say the least. Just ten commandments required two stone tablets. Tom Clancy’s latest book would require a mountain of rock.

Even when lighter materials like papyrus became popular, copies could only be reproduced by hand making it very difficult to circulate documents widely.

If you are of the opinion that following the old paths means eschewing technology, you’ll need a truck to carry your Bible to church each Sunday. You’ll struggle to flip to the book of Psalms too.

Not to worry, though. Since reading wasn’t as widespread in the Old and New Testaments as it is now, reproduction and circulation weren’t issues.

But, these facts do raise an obvious question. If written documents couldn’t be shared easily, and many couldn’t read or write anyway, how were community-relevant ideas communicated.

The answer to that question is quite primitive. The most popular form of communication throughout most of human history was the spoken word and the best way to spread important news quickly and widely was through public proclamations.

These proclamations were made by specially designated people in high-traffic locations like the city gates or the courthouse steps. The people appointed for the task were known as the Town or Public Criers and they were clad in special clothing to single them out. It was all very official.

Even as far back as the time of Esther (5th century BC) the King’s official proclamations were communicated to 127 provinces by couriers and criers. It took several months to get the message out but considering the geographical constraints and the lack of technology, that’s not bad.

Criers were the interface between governments and the communities they governed. When information needed sharing, criers would ring a loud bell and cry “hear ye, hear ye” – or something similar. Once they had everyone’s attention the crier would then state or read the announcement.

Those who heard the announcement would pass it along mouth to ear, mouth to ear, mouth to ear and so on, but it all started with a public proclamation.

Education, democracy and technology have made criers obsolete. Education makes reading, writing and thinking skills common. Democracy encourages the sharing of ideas publicly. Technology makes it possible for those ideas to spread quickly.

There’s really no comparison between the media of the New Testament and the media of today. Resonant penetrating criers of yesteryear are easily drowned out by today’s most mild mannered tweets.

This brings me to the topic of this post: Preaching. [Read more…]