Mark 13 Buckle up, it’s a long one Abomination unto Desolation The last time I wrote or spoke about this passage, my words were largely misunderstood. That being the case, though, I do not think that I should somehow avoid talking about such a passage. With that in mind, I’m going to dive right into…
Tag: difficult passages
Everybody needs to calm down about the Blood Moon (especially Christians)
I didn’t really believe it at first, but there it was, right on my Facebook feed. Someone talking about how the lunar eclipse that happened on Tuesday. Or, in their terms, the “blood moon.” I don’t really blame them, there are people who like to stir up hysteria and they make very convincing arguments with…
Confusion, Nearness, and beginning to look at the text of Revelation
Review: So over the past few weeks, I’ve done a lot of background for studying the book of Revelation as part of my Difficult Passages series. Below I’ll briefly list out what I’ve covered before looking at the actual text this week. First, I gave a brief introductory note, where I described the overarching views…
4 (or 5) Different Views of the Revelation’s message regarding history
Ok, so let’s jump right in with the different views of where the message of Revelation belongs. What do I mean by that, first of all? Well, no one disputes, really, that the first three chapters comprise letters to genuine, historical churches. Where the disagreement begins is with how to treat chapters 4 through 21.…
Difficult Passages 1 Samuel 28
This past week the people over at The Gospel Coalition asked Dale Ralph Martin some hard questions about 1 Samuel 28 the episode involving the witch of Endor (the non-George Lucas one), Saul, and Samuel. As I would expect, Martin does an excellent job with the three questions and you can read his response here.…
Difficult Passages: 2 Samuel 24 vs 1 Chronicles 21
And we’re back to looking at difficult passages in the bible. This week, I’d like to look at the instance of David taking the census as recorded in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. Right of the bat, we have a bit of a discrepancy in these parallel passages that are otherwise in agreement…
Difficult Passages: 1 Corinthians 11 (Part 1 of 3)
It has been requested that I include a discussion of 1 Corinthians 11 in the hard passages series. Now, I’m not going to be able to cover it all in one week, so I’ve broken it into two dealing with the two major issues. In verses 1-16 there is the issue of head covering and…
Difficult Passages: Judah and Tamar
Today’s post is rated PG-13 due to some dialogue about sex (it’s unavoidable). Be advised. The Passage and the Difficulties In Genesis 38 we have what seems like an interruption to the Joseph narrative that surrounds it. Moving away from Joseph, the focus shifts to Judah, before returning to Joseph. The reasons for this shift…
Difficult Passages: Jephthah’s Faithless Vow
Last Week, I talked about an episode at the end of Judges. This week I’m going right into the middle of it. Someone from Facebook suggested I look at Jephthah. This passage, along with last week’s and a few others I’m going to attempt to tackle, was first brought to my attention as a problematic…
Difficult Passages: The Levite’s Concubine
At the suggestion of a few people, today I’m beginning a long running series. Every Monday I’m going to try to tackle a different difficult passage of the bible. If you have come across a difficult passage in the bible and didn’t know how to handle it, maybe we can tackle it together (leave it…
