Protest to your heart’s content, kids.
But when you call for harm to be done to others you’ve stopped being protestors and started being terrorists.
And terrorists are evil regardless of which end of the political spectrum they perch on.
Ideological visciousness is not the ‘own’ you think it is.
Most Americans will tell you what they think the Bible means, but only 11% have read the entire thing (and that’s probably an overly optimistic percentage) and only 9% say they’ve read it more than once. And more than half of Americans have either read none of it, a few sentences, or a few stories. Biblical illiteracy is rampant in America. Christians, of all people, should be students of Scripture.
Breaking News: You don’t know anything about the Bible if you’ve only read it once. Anything.
Georges de La Tour 1593 – 1652
Job Ridiculed by his Wife
oil on canvas (145 × 97 cm) — ca. 1650
We’ve all been there, Job…. we’ve all been there….
Bold claims on the outside, but empty on the inside.
We ought therefore not to be surprised that there is much in God which we cannot understand, and that very many truths of the faith we cannot yet prove since we do not yet know everything. The great God in His rich mercy saw our poor knowledge and came into our flesh and assumed it that He might work for us, die, and rise again from the dead; until after a life full of love He raised Himself above the world of sense into His eternity.- GIROLAMO SAVANAROLA
Yahweh said to me, ‘Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded before me, I could not sympathise with this people! Drive them out of my sight; away with them!
And if they ask you, “Where shall we go?” tell them this, “Yahweh says this: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity! “I shall consign them to four kinds of thing, Yahweh declares: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of heaven and wild animals of earth to devour and to destroy. I shall make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem.” ‘ Who is there to pity you, Jerusalem, who to grieve for you, who to go out of his way and ask how you are?
‘You yourself have rejected me, Yahweh declares, you have turned your back on me; so I have stretched my hand over you and destroyed you. Tired of relenting, I have winnowed them with a winnow at the country’s gates. They have been bereft, I have destroyed my people, but they refuse to leave their ways. I have made their widows outnumber the sand of the sea. On the mother of young warriors I bring the destroyer in broad daylight. Suddenly I bring anguish and terror down on her. The mother of seven sons grows faint and gasps for breath. It is still day, but already her sun has set, she is dismayed and distracted; and the rest of them I shall consign to the sword, to their enemies, Yahweh declares.’ (Jer. 15:1-9)
Micah spoke powerfully to the people of Judah millennia ago. His prophecy has the same power to change the minds and hearts of Christians today. As a volume of the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, James D. Nogalski’s fresh commentary on Micah is academically serious and pastorally relevant.
Based on Nogalski’s original translation of the Hebrew text, this commentary takes seriously the historical and theological contexts of the book of Micah. The thorough introduction considers the book’s literary form, its composition, and its function in the canon, especially within the Book of the Twelve. Ample notes point readers to the most relevant, up-to-date critical scholarship. Nogalski explicates Micah’s major themes, including fidelity to Yahweh, abuses of power, and the intriguing juxtaposition of judgment and hope for God’s people.
Combining scholarly rigor with an evangelical point of view, The Book of Micah serves as the perfect companion for scholars, students, and pastors seeking to understand this essential prophet.
The New International Commentary on the Old Testament series is the Evangelical (in the old, good sense of the word) answer to the esteemed International Critical Commentary series. The ICC, as is probably well known, features volumes written by what can only rightly be called, in most instances, scholars of anything but a Fundamentalist mindset. That is, they could never be accused of Fundamentalism.
The NICOT is not Fundamentalist in outlook either and it fairly examines the important issues of authorship and historical circumstances, etc. The tools of Historical Criticism are brought to bear. As they should be.
But the authors of the NICOT also have a faith commitment and that commitment is obvious on every page. Those, then, wanting dispassionate disconnected detached analysis of the biblical text apart from a faith perspective will need to look elsewhere (and they won’t find it there either. Even the most radical critic is ideologically informed).
Nogalski’s work does what most commentaries do. It introduces the Book of Micah (in this instance), discussing the historical background, the composition of the book, the authorship of the work, textual issues, its place in the canon, and its message for today. It also offers a fresh translation of the Hebrew text.
Being a commentary it also spends the great bulk of its time commenting. The text is arranged into sections which are then further divided into subsections and each is carefully analyzed and, surprising no one, evaluated.
The work includes an index of authors, subjects, and ancient texts.
In terms of the content itself, it offers solid, stable, sound guidance for readers of the biblical text. There’s neither anything earth shattering or controversial in Nogalski’s reading. It’s simply sensible and sensibly presented. It, in short, is just downright good work.
Those looking for a useful commentary on the prophet Micah have found it when they open this volume. Nothing more can be asked of a commentary than that it be helpful. This is.
For many years I worked on the ‘Person in the Pew’ commentary series. You need it. You want it. You must have it.
Individual books can be obtained if you wish them. And the whole series is also available. The procedure is simple:
1- Drop me an email at jwest@highland.net telling me what you’d like.
2- Paypal the cost of the volumes. Or Paypal the cost of a single volume.
3- I will then send them to you without delay.
But do please note, the purchase entitles you to make use of the volumes for your personal use but they may not be shared or given or sold to second parties under any circumstances. Of course there’s no way to monitor your honesty in this matter, but you’ll know. And so will God.
Mind you, I’m not a marketer and I know nothing about business or the business of selling things. I’ve never been in biblical studies for the money and I’m not aiming to make a fortune with the complete series in pdf.
But, that said, all the hours put into these volumes are worth something, so I’m selling the lot for $75. That’s authentically inexpensive considering the thousands of pages written. And it’s a good commentary for layfolk.
“Let us, therefore, forsake the vanity of the crowd and their false teachings and turn back to the Word delivered to us from the beginning, let us therefore forsake the vanity of the crowd.” — Polycarp
Am 26. April 1518 war Martin Luther zu Gast in Heidelberg. In der dortigen Universität leitete der Reformator eine wissenschaftliche Disputation. Anlass war das Generalkapitel – die höchste beschlussfassende Instanz – der deutschen Augustiner-Eremiten strenger Observanz, das 1518 in Heidelberg stattfand. Zunächst waren also die Ordensangelegenheiten geklärt worden, bevor es zur Disputation kam.
Die Disputation selbst kann schon als Teil des Vorgehens der römischen Kirche gegen Luther im Streit um den Ablasshandel verstanden werden. Der Augustinerorden war von Rom beauftragt worden, eine Disputation durchzuführen, in der Luther seine Thesen zum Ablass erläutern sollte. Dies geschah jedoch nicht, denn Luther ging schlicht nicht auf die Problematik ein. Stattdessen befasste er sich – im Hörsaal der Artistenfakultät – mit den Themen der Werkgerechtigkeit und der theologia crucis.
Etc.
Luther writes
Peasants … seldom go so far as to despise God and religion, for they hardly think about such things.
True fact Martin, true fact.
Editors gone wild…
In and around Geneva in the 1530’s and following were a group of persons who were known as ‘infectionists’. They killed people, apparently simply for the pleasure of it (and of course, to rob them of their possessions).
A pestilential disorder had for many years prevailed in Geneva, and the surrounding districts, to such a degree, that the population was in fact decimated, two thousand inhabitants dying out of twenty thousand, the highest estimate of the population of this little city. All the relations of life were disturbed: the courts of justice were closed; and the evil would have become still worse, had not circumstances led to the discovery of a conspiracy, of rare iniquity even in those times, formed by a set of wretches who diffused the infection by means similar to those employed in 1530. Their practice was to mix up the virus drawn from those who were sick of the plague with salve, and then to place it upon the locks and bars of doors, and on the lines in the public streets. The disease was thus spread in the most awful manner. Even some of the inspectors of the hospital were in league with these wretches, whose only object it was to share among each other what belonged to the dead
After several of these ‘terrorists’ were captured they confessed the names of their co-conspirators under the rack. On 25 April,1545 Calvin wrote to Farel
Why should I relate to you what has taken place in regard to the infection? Weber (Textor) is with you, and he can explain to you all the circumstances much more clearly than I could in a letter. Renat has filled us with surprise: it is perfectly wonderful that a man who remained firm under torture should be overcome by a supposed promise; that is, by its being told him that I had obtained the promise of a pardon for him from the council.
His wife confessed that she had destroyed eighteen men by witchcraft or poisoning, and that he had killed four or five. The power of the Lord was wonderfully shown at the death of this culprit, so perfect was the conversion of his soul. In the morning he evinced no sign of repentance, but still, as it seemed, hurried on by his fanaticism, he complained that he was about to be punished, though the Lord had pardoned him. But the Lord, as I have said, has wrought marvellously and beyond my hope. Both met their death joyfully, with the greatest firmness, with the strongest faith, and with the surest indications of repentance.”
Calvin was willing to accept the repentance of these murderers. That’s the softer and gentler Calvin Servetus could have known had he too shown a turning to God.
I hope this isn’t real but it’s just pentebabbleist ‘evangelical’ craziness enough to be. What a collective of imbecilic pagans some self professed ‘Christians’ have become. This isn’t Christian faith, it’s the worship of Baal and Asherah.
Indeed…
Who will find me a wayfarer’s shelter in the desert, for me to quit my people, and leave them far behind? For all of them are adulterers, a conspiracy of traitors. They bend their tongues like a bow; not truth but falsehood holds sway in the land; yes, they go from crime to crime, but me they do not know, Yahweh declares.
Let each be on his guard against his friend; do not trust a brother, for every brother aims but to supplant, and every friend is a peddler of slander. Each one cheats his friend, never telling the truth; they have trained their tongues to lie and devote all their energies to doing wrong. You live in a world of bad faith! Out of bad faith, they refuse to know me, Yahweh declares.
And, so, Yahweh Sabaoth declares, now I shall purge them and test them, no other way to treat the daughter of my people! Their tongue is a deadly arrow, their words are in bad faith; with his mouth each wishes his neighbour peace, while in his heart plotting a trap for him. Shall I fail to punish them for this, Yahweh demands, or on such a nation fail to exact vengeance? I raise the wail and lament for the mountains, the dirge for the desert pastures, for they have been burnt: no one passes there, the sound of flocks is heard no more. Birds of the sky and animals, all have fled, all are gone. I shall make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals, and the towns of Judah an uninhabited wasteland.
Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has Yahweh’s mouth spoken to explain it? Why is the country annihilated, burnt like the desert where no one passes? Yahweh says, ‘This is because they have forsaken my Law which I gave them and have not listened to my voice or followed it, but have followed their own stubborn hearts, have followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.’ So Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, ‘Now I shall give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink. I shall scatter them among nations unknown to their ancestors or to them; and I shall pursue them with the sword until I have annihilated them.‘ (Jer. 9:1-15)
Emser didn’t like Zwingli’s ‘Commentary on True and False Religion‘ (a work of true genius) so when he reviewed it (i.e., responded to it), said review provoked Zwingli to respond – in part –
You are so shallow, not to say foolish, that I am convinced you absolutely failed to understand what I wrote.
Few do read with the aim of understanding anything really.
That’s the date. Give Niels Peter Lemche’s latest essay in Bible and Interpretation a read to find out what it’s the date of.
Everyone will know the work of the great Calvin scholar. Refo 500 had the sad news on 29 April, 2016.
Dr T.H.L. Parker, the outstanding British Calvin scholar of the twentieth century, died on Monday 25 April 2016. He was in his hundredth year, and had lived independently until the final weeks of his life.
His last publication was a new preface to an edition of his 1961 book Portrait of Calvin celebrating the 2009 anniversary of the reformer’s birth. In 2015 he considered but declined a request to oversee a revised edition of his study Karl Barth. He continued intellectually sharp until the final days of his life. His wife died in 2003 and he bore both the grief and loneliness of her loss and increasing physical infirmity with courage, determination and faith.
He was an incredible scholar and a really delightful discussion partner at the Annual meeting of the CBA. He will be missed.
Zwinglius Redivivus 