Old Testament

“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 1

It’s been awhile since we’ve dealt with, you know, the actual Bible on here.  As a remedy, I’m starting a 5 part series on one of the most beautiful, if overlooked, portions of the Old Testament.  I once had a professor (the brilliant Dr. John Sailhamer) who referred to the Old Testament as the “Same […]

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A Native in the Land: Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 6

After examining the fate of those who attempt to destroy God’s covenant people, it’s now time to look at those from outside the family of Jacob who responded positively to them. What we find is that while God specially blesses and protects the genetic descendants of Abraham, they are in turn intended to bless the […]

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A Native of the Land: Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 5

Having dealt with God and the Egyptians, the focus now must shift to the lesser known cast off characters quietly populating the pages of Exodus. There are a number of other tribes and nations scattered throughout the book whose relationship to God is on the surface level at least troubling. On several occasions God either orders […]

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A Native of the Land: Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 4

In summary thus far, it has been demonstrated that contrary to much modern scholarship Israel was in fact a unified ethnic group also identified as Hebrews. This fact is confirmed by the text of Exodus, which describes unique Hebrew physical and sociological traits, by the familial language used to discuss Israel, and by God’s affirmation […]

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A Native of the Land: Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 3

Having dealt satisfactorily with preliminary issues here and here, it is now time to scour the text for signs of Israel’s ethnic self-identity. A thorough reading of Exodus makes explicit that Israel does indeed view itself as a distinct, ethnic group. The textual evidence can be summarized with three points. First, Israel’s unique physical and […]

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A Native of the Land? Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 2

We’re going to look at a few more preliminary matters before jumping into the heart of the argument.  Here’s Part 1 if you missed it. The thrust of this essay is to carefully engage the Exodus text to examine Israel’s interactions with and laws concerning non-Israelites to determine if any guiding principles exist. These texts […]

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Native of the Land? Deriving an Ethic of Intercultural Relations from Exodus, Part 1

I thought I might share a research project I put together during my seminary days.  It will take a quite a few parts.  Enjoy. Racism lingers more subtly than perhaps any of humanity’s stubborn pathologies. It is certainly true vicious racial hatred is a hallmark of American and Southern Baptist history. However, the sin of […]

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Spanking Is Not Biblical

We have a very lively daughter (our son is on his way as well).  She keeps us constantly on our toes mostly in good but in sometimes trying ways.  As such we have and continue to think long and hard about issues of discipline.  This of course inevitably  leads to the spanking question. What we […]

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