faith

The Argument of James

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This is a paper written for my seminary class BE107 Hebrews-Revelation. The Assignment was to write an introduction and argument to the book of James, addressing things such as date, author, audience, and then walking through the book to see what his argument was.  Introductory Issues Authorship The book of James is self-identified in verse one as being from ᾽Ιακαβος, Jacob, or as it is often translated, James. This prompts the question, “Which James?” as there are four prominent characters in the New Testament who go by the name. There is James the half-brother of Jesus, James the son of … [Read more]

A Dinosaur at Twenty-four

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A Class this Summer This summer I took a class at Seminary called “Cultural Dynamics in Ministry.” Essentially, it was a cross-cultural missions class. It was a one-week intensive, which means you go 5 days in a row from 8-5 and do all the lectures for the three-credit-hour course in one week. To top it off, we had a first-time visiting professor from Asbury Seminary. He is a fairly well-known Christian Anthropologist (emphasis on the anthropologist part) who has quite a bit of experience in foreign missions. However, he’s very much NOT a theologian, which created conflict in class. He … [Read more]

A Christian response to ISIS

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The question I received prompting this post: “I would be curious to hear what your thoughts are on how we should respond to ISIS? I’m fully aware of what an American response looks like… But what should a Christian response look like – how should our faith dictate our response, especially with what just happened in Brussels (although there is a long list of atrocities that have been committed).”   I’ve been asked to write a post about how Christians should respond to ISIS. To be honest, this prospect terrifies me. It terrifies me because I fear that I might … [Read more]

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

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The following is an exposition of Habakkuk and the quotation of Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 3. It was written for my advanced hermeneutics class, thus the confusing big words here and there. Don’t worry if you find it boring. It’s not supposed to be particularly interesting, just jam-packed full of interpretive considerations. enjoy!  Theological Themes There are a few theological themes I glean from this text, and they all revolve around salvation, or to be more specific, sparing one from judgment. From Habakkuk’s point of view, he is pleading to God to be spared, with the other righteous people in … [Read more]

The Bible’s Not Essential to Christianity

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I have recently written an update, clarification, and retraction of many of the statements in this blog post, but I felt it wrong to remove the original words. Instead, if you do read this post I STRONGLY INSIST that you read the post “Retraction and Reaction: My Words and Andy Stanley’s” The statements in this post are in some cases erroneous and in some cases simply poorly written, so please refer to the adjustments.   The Bible’s not essential to Christianity. Yes, the title is click bait, I know. But it’s also one-hundred percent true. Let me say now that … [Read more]