Education

What's so dangerous about a "free education"? We have it for our formative years, and a continuation of that shouldn't be bad. It makes no sense that people attack the idea of providing for a free college education. I understand it's "not free", but neither is our military. We spend an absurd amount of money on it, and much of it is superfluous. Here's a list of countries that provide education for Americans...for free. We, as a nation, have been failing our children and ourselves. We fight, and threaten to kill for our guns, but are silent about helping our children learn. We cannot continue to claim to be pro-family, if we continue to be against anything beneficial to them.

Quoting Croesus

"No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace- in peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons." He immediately followed: "It must have been heaven's will that this [his attack against Cyrus the Great] should happen." Sadly, it is our nation's god that wills us to war: money. War profits are milk from Satan's teet.
NOTE: This was quoted from Herodotus' Histories.

From the Jesus Blog

Here is the whole post, penned by Anthony Le Donne, from the Jesus Blog.

Jesus is a Socialist Loser

The gospel according to Donald Trump is pretty clear: the world is full of lots of losers and a few winners and the the winners deserve the glory. This is not a quotation from Trump. This is not a paraphrase. This is the persona that Trump has created for himself over the past 30 years of public life. This is the gist of what Trump is all about and I doubt he'd try to nuance my summary because nuance is for losers.

There has been a rumor circulating that Donald Trump called Jesus a "socialist loser." This too is not a quotation from Trump. He didn't say it and (now that America has hit rock bottom) now that he is a viable nominee for the GOP he won't say it. In America, nobody campaigns against Jesus.

But let's be clear: in Trump's America Jesus certainly looks like a socialist loser. If we're talking about the historical Jesus who disavows wealth and is crushed by Roman execution, Jesus is a loser. If we're talking about the Pauline Jesus who empties himself to the lowest possible status (cf. Phil 2), Jesus is a loser. If we're talking about Luke's Jesus who founds a community of common wealth, Jesus is a loser. The Jesus of John's Apocalypse is a "winner" of sorts, but still probably a bit too lambish within Trump's economy. Most importantly, Jesus in various ways and in various portraits identifies with the disenfranchised. Jesus clearly resides on the wrong side of Trump's wall.

-anthony

From Larry Hurtado's Blog: "Early Christianity on Sexual Abuse of Children"

This is a good, quick read on the history of perceptions of Christianity and sexual abuse of children. 

The sexual abuse of children has now become a major and publicly recognized concern (and high time too!).  A recent study by John W. Martens shows that for early Christians, too, it was a major concern, and that this is reflected in what appears to be a distinctive early Christian vocabulary to refer to the practice:  John W. Martens, “‘Do Not Sexually Abuse Children’: The Language of Early Christian Sexual Ethics,” in Children in Late Ancient Christianity, eds. Cornelia B. Horn and Robert R. Phenix (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 227-54.

As Martens notes, there was a whole Greek vocabulary for the practice of having sex with children:  “pederastia” (“child-love”), “pederastes” (“child-lover”), etc.  Indeed, Roman-era poets and others celebrate the practice, and it seems to have been tolerated widely.  It was particularly slave-children who likely suffered the most.  But (and this is Martens’ contribution) in early Christian texts we see what appears to be a rejection of these benign and condoning terms in favour of terms to express forthrightly that the practice is evil and destructive.

In Christian texts from the second century onward, the person who engages in sex with children is called a “paidophthoros” (“child-corrupter/abuser”), and there is the prohibition, “do not corrupt/abuse children” (“me paidophthoreseis“).  Our earliest instances are in Epistle of Barnabas (10:6; 19:4) and Didache (2:2).  These terms seem to have been coined by early Christians to re-label and condemn the practice and those who engage in it:  Not “child-love,” but “child-corruption.” https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/early-christianity-on-sexual-abuse-of-children/

Read this rest with the above link. 

-Steven C 

From the Jesus Blog

This is from the Jesus Blog.

"Rick Perry cites Jesus' Profit-ic Libertarianism

Today I received (via FB) this word of wisdom from New Testament scholar and Fortress Press editor, Neil Elliott:

One man who would be president cites Mark 14 to dismiss concern for the poor (who "will always be with you"). That's not just insensitive and callous: it's bad Bible reading. Deuteronomy 15 was the likely background for Jesus' words: "SINCE there will never cease to be some poor and needy on the earth, I [GOD] therefore command you, 'Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.'" Better Fortress Press resources make the point -- Emerson B. Powery, for example, in TRUE TO OUR NATIVE LAND: AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY (2007); Raquel Lettsome in FORTRESS COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT (2014); etc.

Thank you, Neil. " 

A Great Post from Another Blog for my Ministerial Friends

From Meagre Powers: "

‘Why should I study Hebrew?’

Posted on April 17, 2015

I’m often asked by people going to theological college or seminary, “Why should I study Hebrew?’ Less often, they ask, “Why should I study Greek?”

They’re good questions. Vital questions.

To answer, I want you to imagine this scenario.

You’ve just arrived at university, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. You’re there to study French literature. In fact, it’s been your dream for a few years now to study French literature. You love French culture. You’ve travelled to Paris and fallen in love with the place. You adore French cuisine. Now you want to sink your teeth into the masterpieces that French authors have produced. So you’ve enrolled in the course, bought all the books, and checked your timetable. You’re ready to begin.

And so the day finally arrives. You find the classroom. You walk in, find a seat, and try to get comfortable. But you find yourself shuffling in your seat with nervous anticipation.

Then the Professor walks in.

Your excitement piques even more. At last, you’re actually fulfilling that long-held desire to immerse yourself in French literature.

‘Bonjour!’ says the Professor.

‘Bonjour!’ you respond, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

The Professor proceeds to hand out a schedule for the semester. As you scan down the list, you see that each class is a feast of French classics: Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Gaston Leroux, Paul Verlaine… C’est formidable!

The wide smile on your face grows even wider. This is going to be such a treat!

Once all the schedules have been handed out, the Professor gathers everyone’s attention. He clears his throat, and begins to address you all.

“Everybody,” he says, “I want you to know that I actually don’t know any French. I do know bonjour, of course, and how to say escargot properly,” he chuckles, “as well as a handful of other words I’ve picked up here and there. But I don’t actually know the language. Nevertheless, we’re going to have a great time together studying French literature.”

The smile that had beamed across your face now flees.

“This is the ‘Professor?'” you ask yourself. “How is he going to teach us French literature if he doesn’t even know French? He’s not an expert! How are we supposed to trust him if he can’t even read the French for himself? Is this what I signed up for?”

The moral of the story?

If you’re going to be teaching people from a pulpit, interpreting the word of God for them, unpacking its meaning, its significance, and ensuring its positive impact on them, then do the responsible thing and learn the word of God in its original languages. Congregations will be looking to you as their expert who is not just willing but also able to read rightly and teach tightly the Scriptures. Do not sell them short!

For some reason seminary students often don’t need convincing about the value of learning Greek for New Testament study, and yet they do need substantial persuasion to learn Hebrew for the benefit of Old Testament study, not to mention Aramaic for the small portions of it in the Old Testament. 

A friend of mine who pastors a congregation told me of a young man in his church who was heading off to study at a theological college. This young man approached my friend for advice on making a choice: should he study Greek when he got to college, or should he study Hebrew? My friend’s response was legendary: “Well,” he said, “when you finish college and get up into your pulpit, do you want to be wearing only your shirt, or only your pants?”

It is incumbent on those who would be teachers to give their best efforts to the task, so as to honour the God whose Scriptures they are handling, as well as the congregations they are serving. Yes, we have the Bible translated into English and other languages, but there is always some loss in translation. If there weren’t, we might not ever need to hear another sermon again: we could just read our English translations all by ourselves, and never have to meet up regularly. But God has appointed some to be teachers in his Church as a means of blessing his Church with the full measure of the knowledge of the Son of God. This is why not all people are encouraged to be teachers, but also why we go on meeting together with teachers to lead us.

No one who reads from a translation of the Bible is somehow less faithful for doing so than someone who reads from the original languages. The suggestion is preposterous! I want to say, “Thank God for our Bible translators!” But the fact that we need translators tells us just how important it is to have people who do know the original languages. Without them, people are missing out.

I’ve heard some ministers who took Hebrew at seminary say they no longer use it, see no ongoing value for it in their ministry, or in hindsight think that learning Hebrew was too much effort for too little return—that it was time they could have spent better studying other things. But that makes me wonder whether they’re continuing to give the Scriptures their all. The Scriptures are the basis of all theological endeavour. Not everyone has the opportunity to learn Hebrew or Greek, but knowing them allows the teacher to weigh up the decisions made by others about the meaning of Scripture—be they other Bible translators, theologians, other ministers, the leaders of their Bible study groups, the TV documentary host, or the person on the street. And this is an ongoing task that is never finished. While the Scriptures don’t change, the situations we find ourselves in do. And so we need to continue understanding and interpreting the Scriptures for these new situations. One of the mottos of the Reformation captures this need nicely: semper reformanda (‘always reforming’). If a teacher is not actively examining and weighing up the Scriptures against ever changing situations, relying instead on what others say or translate, then they have fallen into a false sense of security. They have actually begun to congeal in a tradition. Teachers should be capable of continual, close examination of the Scriptures. Knowing ‘Shalom’, ‘Hallelujah!’, and the meaning of ‘Yom Kippur’ doesn’t cut it.

“I can still have a fruitful ministry without the original languages,” you might say. True. But which doctor would you go to: the one who has a full waiting room, a soothing voice, and gives you a jellybean at the end of the consultation, or the one who has all the paraphernalia to diagnose you and write you a correct prescription?

For the sake of your future congregations and the God whose Scriptures you will authoritatively interpret for them, give the original languages your best shot and don’t give them up once you’ve graduated. That’s when you’ll use them the most! Knowing the original languages won’t guarantee you’ll be a better speaker, but it will mean you know the Scriptures better. By all means, polish up your speaking skills, but for God’s sake make sure you know what you’re talking about. Know it well! God demands much of his teachers, so you should demand much of yourself, too.

So if you’re heading to theological college and have the opportunity to study Hebrew and Greek, please have a very good reason for not doing so. “It’s not for everybody,” or “It’s not really necessary,” just aren’t really good enough for would-be teachers. Both God and his flock, whom you will shepherd, deserve your best efforts.

"

I put the whole post because I think it's a modest proposal to those who plan on being in the ministry. I have no plans for it, but I still can't get away from the siren call of Biblical studies. I've spent a few years in Greek, and will be heading toward Hebrew later this year, and I'm not joining the ministry. (I would be too unpleasant for so many reasons.) So, it should be more pertinent to those who are going to join the ministry to study the languages. 

-Steven C. 

Quote of the Day

Today's Quote is from Jim West.
"

The Idol This Age Adores… by Jim

The god whose altar this age worships at is called 'license' but it also goes by 'freedom'.  Greater idols have yet to be seen.

Even Christians have, in large numbers, come to this false god's altar and bowed to it with the massa perditionis. 

They need to be reminded of something:  there is one God, and his name is not 'freedom'." 

Amen.