Book review: The Searchers

by Joseph Loconte

★★★★★

Well, I screwed up this time. I picked up The Searchers from Booksneeze, and let it sit on my shelf for two months while I took care of other promised reviews.

Stupid me. This is a fantastic book, intelligent and raw. Raw, not in the vulgar sense, but in the lead-you-to-the-edge-and-curl-your-lip sense. Then it will draw you back from the edge, like the scent of marsh mellow cocoa by a warm fire. Combine all that with a captivating writing style, and you have a winner.

Two men walked side-by-side one day twenty centuries ago, heads bowed, on the way to Emmaus. A stranger appeared asking why they were so downcast, and they marveled at the stranger's ignorance of what was happening in Israel. The rabbi Jesus, the hope of their nation, had been rejected by God's appointed leaders and then brutally killed by the Roman Empire.

Loconte draws us back to this first-century image of a pair of bewildered and beaten men over and over as he discusses the faith-shaking events within Christianity over the years. In so many ways, religion does seem like the poison that many believe it to be. Where is God in all this confusion? As Loconte walks us through the insanity of our world today, with its suffering and wars and occasional inhumanities, we’re tempted to ask the same question. The Searchers is a book about finding “faith in the valley of doubt.” It is a journey, not a book which can be surface-scanned, but one that requires walking in the shoes of others.

Note that this is not an apologetic book. The one little attempt to help us believe in the historicity of the resurrection seemed to me incognizant of the first-century Christian atmosphere, but I won’t dwell on it, because argument is not the focus of the book. Hope is. As we zero in on the close of the book, we’re once again reminded of those two men and their solemn journey home on the Emmaus road. The moment came when their eyes were opened to see the Lord, and for joy, they rushed back to Jerusalem. Hope lives!

Acts 23:2-3, Paul Prophesies the Death of Ananias

At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"

//Paul, before the Sanhedrin court in Jerusalem, drew the ire of the high priest Ananias by claiming to be doing the will of God. So Ananias gave him a whack across the chops, and Paul responded that God would strike Ananias down. Paul was right.

Ananias developed a reputation for greed, violence and coercion with the Romans. This association with the Romans did not enamor him to Jewish nationalists, the Zealots, when war broke out with Rome. According to Jewish historian Josephus, the Zealots burned Ananias’ house and he was forced to flee to Herod’s palace. He was trapped while hiding in an aqueduct there on the palace grounds and killed.

Impressive forecast! But lest we give Paul too much credit, it must be remembered that these words in the book of Acts were written twenty or more years after Ananias died.

2 Corinthians 7:8, The Lost Epistles of Paul

Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.

//Paul (or others writing in the name of Paul) contributed more than half of the books in our New Testament. It’s striking how many of our Christian beliefs we’ve founded on the writings of one man—even a man as influential as Paul of Tarsus.

Yet scripture gives evidence of its own incompleteness. Paul wrote more letters that we haven’t yet uncovered, and may never find. We know of at least four missing letters from Paul, as referenced in the following verses:

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people –1 Corinthians 5:9. Whatever this letter says, it’s evidence that 1 Corinthians wasn’t the first written to Corinth.

For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. –2 Corinthians 2:4. This is thought to be the same letter as referenced in today’s verse from verse 7:8, dubbed the “Letter of tears.”

[T]he mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. –Ephesians 3:3. Whatever earlier writing Paul is referring to, it appears to have gone missing.

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. –Colossians 4:16 Paul appears to be asking Colosse to share their letter with Laodicea, and to get a copy from Laodicea that Paul had written to them. We have found no such Laodicean letter.

Book review: Velvet Elvis

by Rob Bell

★★★★

Harper One appears to be doing a reprint of Rob Bell’s works, and sent me a nice little stack of books. So I’m beginning with Bell’s Cinderella work, Velvet Elvis, published back in 2005. I had actually never read it before. Had heard it talked about, but never turned the cover. It turns out to be a good book, but I really didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Bell’s latest, Love Wins. I’ll review that one shortly.

Velvet Elvis is written in a style exactly like I expect the young mega-church pastor to preach: friendly and colloquial, somewhat meandering, common-sensical. I don’t quite get the “Velvet Elvis” part, so let’s ignore the title and just say his is common-sense Christianity. It’s not terribly controversial (it’s actually more conservative than I expected), and it’s not theologically probing, but it’s clear Bell can think for himself … or rather, he can unthink some of the stray ideas that have led many Christians away from simply living a Christian life. I absolutely love this observation early in the book about what happens when you try to follow Jesus:

Over time when you purposefully try to live the way of Jesus, you start noticing something deeper going on. You begin realizing the reason this is the best way to live is that it is rooted in profound truths about how the world is. You find yourself living more and more in tune with ultimate reality. You are more and more in sync with how the universe is at its deepest levels.

What is Bell talking about? He’s talking about what it means to be a disciple of a first-century Rabbi who sees potential in each of us, and calls us to live like him. He’s talking about what happens when you quit pushing your religion on your neighbors and dwell like Christians among them. He’s talking about what happens when you view God’s dream for mankind as one of him coming down to make his home with us, rather than us peering into the heavens with a forlorn hope of rapturous escape. He’s talking about compassion, goodness, simplicity, all the things that can make this world a better place for all of us.

Joshua 6:16-17 Rahab the Harlot, part II of II

The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.

//Joshua and his armies roll across the Jordan River, preparing to conquer the land of Canaan, and the first obstacle in their way is a fortress-town named Jericho. Recall from yesterday’s post that Jericho’s famous harlot, Rahab, is no small force to be reckoned with. Her beauty is beyond compare; her will is unbendable; her name likens her to the dragon ruling over the primordial chaos before God brought order to the universe. She is no outcast in Jericho; rather, she epitomizes the city. She is its very essence. And she waits for Joshua. Waits to be rescued … or perhaps to swallow him up and spew him forth like the mythical beast she’s named after.

Jericho’s walls are high, an impenetrable circle, A Freudian image if ever I’ve heard one. Round and round goes Joshua with his armies, seven days, and seven times on the seventh day, until finally the time comes to act. Israel breaks down the walls and plunges into the Promised Land. Rahab is rescued.

Tradition holds that after the conquest, Joshua and Rahab were married.

Joshua 2:1, Rahab the Harlot, part I of II

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

//Could Rahab be the most famous prostitute in the Bible? Let’s be clear about one thing: Rahab is no back-alley whore. She dwells in a high tower atop the fortifications of the city and has access to a private roof. When the men of the city come to her asking about Joshua’s spies, she admits to harboring Israelites and points out the direction they left. There is no distrust by the men, no insistence upon searching her home. She is treated with respect, more like a queen than a peasant.

Secretly, as we know, Rahab hid the Israelite spies on the rooftop until she could lower them down to safety outside the walls. Rahab knows that their mighty military leader, Joshua, will be coming for battle soon, and she asks to be spared. The spies tell her to hang a scarlet cord in the window to identify her home.

What was Rahab like? Some legends claim she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Her very name, Rahab (which means “proud, arrogant,”) evokes images of bewildering, untamed chaos. Recall that Rahab is also the name of the beast God destroys to overcome the primordial chaos in the beginning of the world:

The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke. By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent. –Job 26:11-13

Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? –Isaiah 51:9-10

Into the lair of Rahab came Joshua. Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, Joshua! Tomorrow, the rest of the story.

Book review: Speaking Christian

by Marcus J. Borg

★★★★★

What is meant by our Christian language? How do we understand words like “redemption”? Borg reflects on the difference in meaning between liberal and conservative Christian thinking, even though the language is identical. Borg is quite liberal, and he refuses to turn the meaning of words that are special and meaningful to him over to a Christianity that he feels has strayed from the original, radical, this-worldly message of the first Christians.

Early Christianity was not focused on heaven or hell. An emphasis on the afterlife has turned Christianity away from its roots, and consequently, many of the concepts of the Bible have been modernized. A lot of the meanings of words we use as Christians differ so severely from person to person that it renders some of us speechless. We simply don’t know how to say what we mean. At least in America, when liberal Christians speak of faith, resurrection, even God, the conservative interpretation is so popular that we often can’t be understood. 

The problem words are numerous. Saved. Born again. Mercy. Sin. Belief. (Borg suggests that a proper synonym for "believing" is “beloving.”) I've struggled mightily with this problem on various online forums, to the point where it's tempting to simply give up on "speaking Christian." This makes Borg’s book especially timely for me. So serious is the problem that some have concluded that Christian language is beyond redemption and needs to be replaced by language that actually communicates what we want to communicate. But Borg encourages us to hang in there. If we avoid the language of our faith because of uncertainty about what it means, we grant a monopoly on it to those who are most certain about its meaning. That would be unfortunate, for the language is extraordinarily rich, wise, and transformative. Moreover, if we neglect or reject biblical and Christian language because of its common current-day meanings, a serious question arises: Can we be Christian without using the language of Christianity? 

Borg says no. To abandon the language of Christianity would mean leaving behind something that has been profoundly nourishing. Religions are like language. Ceasing to speak French would mean no longer being French. Being Christian means "speaking Christian."

Matthew 16:26, Do We Have a Soul?

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

//Help! Science has stolen my soul, and I can't get it back!

For at least a couple hundred years before Christ, many Jews believed in an afterlife. They understood there would be a physical resurrection, and they would live again in the flesh, on the earth. It may have been around the time of Christ that the Greek concept of a soul made inroads into branches of Judaism, and lodged firmly in the branch we know today as Christianity.

But if I have a soul, can it really be me? My feelings, my mental skills, my memories reside within a piece of meat housed in my skull. Likewise, so is everything I've learned to say and do and enjoy, everything that makes me "me." My love for music, my competitive spirit, my unappreciated wry sense of humor, my weakness for cute noses. That’s what’s me.

So maybe I do have a soul, a living parasite housed somewhere within my body. Maybe this soul has some sort of otherworldly link to God, perhaps God pulls the strings on this parasite, and perhaps it can even somehow stir the electrical impulses that fire between the neurons of my brain to make me think and act differently. Maybe it lives on after I die, and maybe it then goes to heaven or hell. The question I struggle with is, Why do I care about it? Or, more to the point, why would I care any differently about my parasite than yours? I hope they all go to heaven, and I hope they dance happily there while the personalities they leave behind fade into oblivion.

Comments welcome.

Revelation 1:9, Who Wrote the Book of Revelation?

I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

//Many readers of my book conclude that I believe John the Apostle wrote the book of Revelation, and that this John was also John of Gischala from Josephus’s writings.

No. I should set the record straight. I do not believe this, nor should you. In fact, I’m horrible at believing stuff. Which works out just fine for this line of work, because in writing as a Bible scholar, it’s important for me to be able to suspend any beliefs I do have, and report as objectively as possible.

What I believe is that I have highlighted and presented a reasonable answer to the question of Revelation’s authorship. Nothing more.

So who do I think wrote the book? Well, I’m a numbers guy, and as for John of Gischala’s chances, it’s mostly a matter of measuring the possibility of coincidence, given the clues. After this study, I’d guess there’s a 50% chance John of Gischala wrote or dictated it. I’d guess there’s a 40% chance John the Apostle did. Perhaps there’s a 40% chance neither wrote it. I’d estimate a 25% chance it was written as or about John the Apostle, or perhaps hoped that authorship by this John would be assumed, though not truly written by him. I’d give it a similar 25% chance that it was in many ways inspired by the real-life experiences of John of Gischala, though not written by him. Put them all together, and you get a reasonable chance that authorship has been determined, and a decent chance the two Johns are the same.

Tomorrow, I will surely change my mind slightly. Such is the nature of ongoing scholarship.

Book Review: The Bible Experience

by Zondervan

★★★★★

I don’t really review audio-only books, but I should make an exception to tell you about The Bible Experience, just in case you’ve never heard of it. This is a reading of Today’s New International Version of the Bible. If you’ve got a road trip planned, this should be your companion.

It employs a cast of a couple hundred actors in the star-studded cast—Samuel Jackson, Angela Bassett, and Cuba Gooding Jr. to name a few—and sound effects that bring ancient times alive. This is just a reading of the Bible, nothing more, yet the written Word is somehow elevated into an absolutely stunning audio experience. No book of any genre that I’ve listened to compares to this, and certainly no audio Bible version compares. This is the one you want.

Pick up the Gospel of John, lie down in a meadow, and put on your ear buds for a couple hours. Or tune in to Revelation and listen to the angels sing. If you’re looking for meaningful Christmas presents, then after you buy my books, buy this! :)

 

Genesis 18:1-2, Abraham's Kindness

The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

//In today's verse, Abraham, newly-circumcised, sees three men and rushes to provide hospitality. It is said that the third day after circumcision is the most painful, and this was the third day. Despite his groin pain, he jumps up and runs to them, begging them to let him serve them.

According to Jewish tradition, service is simply in Abraham's nature. He cannot help but show kindness. Kabbalah tradition tells us that Abraham was so motivated by desire to provide hospitality that on this day he sent a servant out into the desert hoping to find some weary passers-by whom he could aid. Finding no one, he dejectedly returned to his tent, when the three strangers appeared. He immediately and joyfully rushed to greet them.

In pain from circumcision, he nevertheless "runs to the herd and selects a tender calf" and has a feast prepared. Abraham's reward? A child born to Sarah, his wife, and the fulfillment of God's promise of an uncountable nation. 

Micah 5:2 and 5:6, the Bethlehemite

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

He will deliver us from the Assyrian when he invades our land and marches into our borders.

//Micah prophesied the arrival of a military savior who would rescue Israel from the Assyrians. When no such savior appeared, this prophecy was retained in the minds of later readers as a general reference to the anticipated Jewish Messiah. 

The Christian claim, of course, is that Jesus was (and is) this very Messiah. Micah 5:2 is quoted by Matthew as evidence that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, so Matthew clearly recognized Micah's prophecy as relating to Jesus.

But why didn't Matthew read the entire chapter before referencing verse two? Did he really think Jesus would fight a military battle against the Assyrians? If Matthew expected a military victory from his Messiah, did he think the defunct Assyrian dynasty would be restored after 600 years? Do those who expect Jesus to return and fight at Armageddon expect the Assyrian dynasty be restored after 2,600 years?

These sorts of questions highlight the problem with taking Old Testament Bible prophecies of Jesus literally. Matthew was no idiot; he surely knew he was reinterpreting the Bible as he quoted Micah. If the authors of the Gospels, thought by many to be the very disciples sitting at the feet of Jesus, knew the prophecies were being fulfilled in a symbolic or other non-literal way, why should we read the Bible literally today? Why do we imagine, for example, that Revelation's horrors are to be interpreted literally?

Book review: Messiahs, Volume 1

by Christian Nseka

★★★

This is the first of a three-volume series about messiahs: Christ, the Messiah of 2000 years ago; Reverend Moon, the appointed Messiah of this age; and the many messiahs around us. In fact, everyone is a messiah. The book is well-written and easy to read, apologetic in nature, but it didn’t seem convincing enough to me to expect Bible-readers to embrace the ideas within. Thus, a three-star rating.

Nseka is a member of the Unification Church, and writes from that perspective. He believes literally in the Bible story; in particular, the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of mankind. This theme—the restoration of mankind from the Fall—pervades this entire volume. Adam and his wife Eve sinned, and history up to this point has been a redemption from sin.

Here’s how it works: Jesus is the Messiah, capital M, but the mission of the Messiah is to bring harmony. To establish the Kingdom of Heaven. Given that this has not yet happened—indeed, Satan has only grown stronger than ever—we may conclude that Jesus didn’t entirely fulfill the role of Messiah. For one thing, both Adam and Even sinned, and Jesus could only absolve Adam’s portion of the original sin;  both a male and female messiah are required to cover them both. Jesus represents only the second Adam. Had Jesus married, thus anointing a wife to serve as the female Messiah, perhaps he could have completed the messianic requirements. He didn’t, so we need a Second Coming.

Luckily, Reverend Moon is married. His first marriage didn’t work, but thankfully he found another wife, so the two of them can finish the job begun by Jesus. Jesus himself passed the torch to Rev. Moon, who serves as the Second Coming of Jesus. Rev. and Mrs. Moon are the True Parents, establishing a family and lineage under God in the Second Advent. Salvation comes through the marriage ceremonies for which Rev. Moon has become famous. Through the Blessing of a Moon-endorsed wedding (he plays matchmaker, selecting the wife for each man), humanity is able to conceive children within the lineage of God—children born without original sin, like Jesus.

And there you have it. Today, the Unification Church and the newly-inaugurated Kingdom of Heaven has grown considerably, and the providence of restoration has reached a point where Rev. Moon no longer needs to match people. So great has the movement grown, that in 2010 he retired from that service and instructed candidates on how to pick their own spouses.

No one has outperformed Jesus save for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon (p. 163).

1 Corinthians 10:4, The Rock That Followed

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

//This is Paul talking, comparing Jesus to a rock. Remember this story? Israel, traveling through the desert, grew thirsty and God told Moses to strike a rock to produce water. Moses whacks it with a staff, and it bleeds water (Exodus 17:6).

Sometime later, the Israelites thirst again, and again God tells Moses to bring forth water from the Rock. Tradition says this is the same Rock as the first time, which had been following the Israelites around providing water, but now it had apparently quit producing.

This time, however, God commands Moses to merely speak to the Rock. It doesn't need further physical inducement. But Moses doubts, and whacks the poor Rock. It doesn't respond, so he whacks it again. This time, the Rock gives up its water (Numbers 20:11). God is displeased over Moses' inhumane treatment of the Rock, and decides Moses will be denied entrance to the Promised Land.

This is the traveling Rock that Paul writes about in today’s verse. John's Gospel further explains the analogy, describing the death of Christ: “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” This act of piercing Jesus’ side, like that of Moses striking the rock, produced water but was unnecessary. Accordingly, as Moses was denied entrance into the Promised Land, so will these men be punished, while those redeemed by the blood/water of Christ are welcomed into the new age:

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7)

Genesis 29:25, What Did Jacob Steal From Esau?

When morning came, there was Leah! 

//If you said Jacob stole Esau's birthright, you're right.

If you said Jacob stole Esau's blessing, you're right.

If you said Jacob stole Esau's wife, you're right.

According to oral tradition in the Kabbalah, the story goes that Laban's two daughters had been betrothed to Isaac's two sons all along. Rachel to Jacob, the older Leah to the older Esau. Jacob falls in love with Rachel and agrees to work seven years for her, while Esau wanders off and ignores his bride. So, after the seven years are over, Leah remains unmarried, and according to custom, the older must marry first, so in the morning Jacob wakes up to find not Rachel in bed with him, but Leah! He has married the one betrothed to his brother! 

He works another seven years for Rachel, and Esau seems unperturbed about losing Leah (she had "weak eyes"), so all's well that ends well.

Book review: Elijah, the Last Prophet

by Mickey Mullen

★★

I met Mickey, this book’s author, on a public forum at Goodreads.com, where he insisted on spouting the most insane, impossible story of his Christian conversion. God gave him a new heart. No, I mean it, a real one. God sucked the old one out and replaced it with a new blood pump.

Mickey doesn’t know it, but I watched him for months, telling his story and enduring the ridicule. I can’t believe his story … I’m just not wired to swallow that kinda thing … but whatever the heck happened to Mickey that day, it left an impression. He may have been a hell raiser before his conversion, but today he’s an absolute saint for what he puts up with on Goodreads.com, and never loses his cool. My curiosity sparked, and I offered to review a book he had written.

Turns out he’s more than a saint. He’s the prophet Elijah, and he’s got a message for us. For one thing, we shouldn’t bother reading most of the New Testament. Stick to the Gospels and stay away from the Satanic influence of Paul. Mickey's writing style is a bit unorthodox, and the punctuation questionable, but I’m not sure I’d have it any other way … somehow it sets just the right tone.

I was captivated for about 40 pages, while Mickey recounted stories of his childhood. Setting the stage, I assumed, for what was to come: a miraculous conversion experience. Reading the book is a bit like sitting on a log around a campfire, listening to grandpa reminisce. But the storytelling grew old, and I began to wish he’d get on with the supernatural stuff, so I was more than ready when the book turned preachy. Finally, we must be getting to the point! Okay, Mickey, I’ll swear off Paul, if you’ll tell me what happened to you! But the preachy stage came to an end, and the reminiscing began again. Along the way I learned how to drive safely, how to roast hot dogs, I learned just about everything except what I hoped. Mickey’s miraculous baptism by the Holy Ghost blew by in a couple sentences without fanfare, and the storytelling began to meander again without direction until it simply petered out on the final page as if he ran out of breath and decided to call it a night.

Mickey, you seem like a fascinating guy, it would be fun to stoke the campfire together, but your book doesn’t go anywhere.

Revelation 6:14, The Heavens Roll Up

The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

//This verse may be difficult to picture from today's understanding of the cosmos, but in the day it was written, it actually made perfect sense. The sky was pictured as a dome overhead, enclosing the flat earth, and when the day came for the earth to be destroyed, the dome was rolled up and discarded. Whether or not Jews truly expected a cataclysmic end to the universe or were merely playing with metaphors, at least the idea made sense back in the day.

The image of the universe as a big scroll holds me spellbound. Revelation alludes to another mysterious scroll, with all of the mysteries of God written therein. In Islamic thought, God provides two great tools for our understanding: The Qur'an and the physical universe are twin manifestations of God Himself. The universe can be pictured like a written scroll, perhaps slowly unrolling to teach us about God's glory and the meaning of his creation. It invites us to explore and learn. One day, of course, it'll come to an end ... “The Day when we shall roll up the heavens as a recorder rolleth up a written scroll.” (Qur'an 21:104). 

Genesis 23:1-2, How Did Abraham's Wife Die?

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba. 

//Do you picture Isaac as a young boy when Abraham took him up the mountain to sacrifice him? Most people do. But one wonders how he is able to carry the wood for the sacrifice on his back if he's a child.

Instead, according to both the Talmud and the Kabbalah, Isaac was a fully-grown man of 37 years old. Now, if we do the math, Isaac was born to Sarah when she was 90, and Sarah died when she was 127 years old, so that would make Isaac 37 years old. Thus Sarah died in the year God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son.

We can probably pin the time of her death down even further. After Abraham (and presumably Isaac) trudge back down the mountain after the aborted sacrifice, they head off to Beersheba. The very next thing we read is that Sarah died at Kiriath Arba (Hebron), and Abraham "went" to mourn for her. So Abraham never saw his wife again alive after he left to sacrifice Isaac. Batteries hadn’t been invented yet, so Abraham’s cell phone would have been no help. We are left with the assumption that Sarah died of heartache from Abraham travelling off to murder her only son.

So, God saves Abraham's son from sacrifice but the ordeal kills his wife?

Book review: What is the Bible?

by Rev. Anne Robertson

★★★★

This little booklet serves as a basic textbook to introduce the Bible in the Dickinsen Series Program of the Massachusetts Bible Society. It’s intended for class session, recognizing that there may be two levels of learners in each class: some may be taking the course out of general interest only, while others may wish to pursue a Certificate of Biblical Literacy, requiring more in-depth exercises, and earning Continuing Education Units. The four books in the course include:

[1] What is the Bible?

[2] Introducing the Old Testament

[3] Introducing the New Testament

[4] The Bible in Context (a look at the culture and surrounding events of the various times in the biblical narrative)

Book one (today’s topic) is sort of a “What’s the big deal?” treatment, introducing the two Testaments, what’s hidden in the Bible, how it was put together, why there are so many translations, and why people argue so vehemently over words like “inerrant” and “inspired.” Above all, this introduction stresses tolerance and understanding for the different ways of reading scripture. It encourages you to examine your own beliefs objectively so that other opinions about the Bible can be appreciated (remember, it’s written to be used in class discussion), and it serves as a great lead-in to the coming volumes.  Robertson’s writing is engaging, written with humor and lots of little anecdotes. It reminds me a little of the “Dummy” instruction series. But as friendly as it is, it’s like any textbook: If ya don’t do the exercises, ya don’t get the benefit.

Psalm 90:4, How Old is the Universe?

For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.

//Here’s one for you guys who think the universe is really thirteen or fourteen billion years old. Hogwash, right? My Bible says the world began in the year 4,004 BC. That’s just 6,016 years ago, folks.

Of course, the book of Psalms indicates that for God, a thousand years goes by like a watch in the night. A few hours.

Lamentations 2:19 describes the first watch, presumably from sunset to 10 pm. Judges 7:19 describes the second, from 10 pm to 2 am. Exodus 14:24 gives us the third, the “morning watch,” from 2 am to morning light. So there are roughly four hours in each watch.

Now, let’s do a little math. Apparently, 1,000 years for God goes by in four hours, and the number of four-hour periods in 1,000 years is 2,190,000. God’s time runs 2,190,000 times faster than our time.

So the universe began 6,016 years ago, from God’s perspective? How long is that in “human years?” 6,016 X 2,190,000 = 13.2 billion years.

Hey, maybe our scientists got it right!

(Corollary: Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. That means he died at the ripe old age of three hours and fifty two minutes. Well, every theory has its problems.)

Genesis 7:7, Noah's Studly Sons

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

//According to the Bible, all humans share two common ancestral sets of parents: Adam and Eve, and Noah and his wife. When the flood came, it wiped out all life except Noah’s family, so we all descend from Noah as well. (Note that we descend from other genealogical lines as well, through the wives of Noah’s sons, who accompanied him onto the ark.)

The most recent research in human evolution uses mitochondrial DNA (mitDNA) to trace human origins through mother-to-daughter inheritance, and nuclear DNA to trace through father-to-son inheritance. It turns out all males share a common father, a sort of Y-chromosomal Adam, projected to have lived about 80,000 years ago. Curiously, however, when we trace the matrilineal line to find a common mother, we have to go clear back to 150,000 years ago. Researchers call her Eve.

So, does that mean Adam lived 70,000 years after Eve? How can that be? Should we instead figure the discovered common father to be Noah, not Adam? This leads to a couple conclusions:

[1] The flood happened about the year 80,000 BC, and the creation about 150,000 BC.

[2] It takes 70,000 years for the ancestors of all the wives of Noah’s sons to converge back through time into a single Eve. Wow, just how many wives accompanied these three sons on board the ark? Is that why the ark had to be so big?

Book review: Living The Questions, the Wisdom of Progressive Christianity

by David M. Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy

★★★★★

Latin re-ligio: To relink, to reconnect.

Buy this book! If I do a “best of 2012” summary this January, I guarantee this one will be near the top. Heart and head both feel satisfied as I turn the last page.

This is what progressive Christianity is all about. It will toy with your emotions, lift you to the heights of compassion, and fill your soul with awe for the beauty and mystery of life we share. God is in this book, until you set the book down and discover He has wiggled out of its pages and into your soul. Perhaps God was inside you all along, waiting to be reawakened?

Many of us do need reawakening; religion has become a turn-off for many. In no other area of life is the denial of progress held up as a virtue. But according to Felten and Procter-Murphy, stagnation, not change, is Christianity’s deadliest enemy. Vital faith is dynamic, flowing, and moving. Progressive Christianity, by its very name, is about progress. Rethinking the meaning of Christology, atonement, and the Incarnation is part of the journey. Losing interest in the Rapture is a necessary side effect.

“Living the Questions” is an enigmatic title, and the book begins with this insight: “To not ask questions is tantamount to forfeiting one’s own spiritual birthright and allowing other people’s experience of the Divine to define your experience.” It ends with the reminder that “those who embrace mystery are free to interpret the Divine in new and fresh ways.” In the pages between, however, we travel back in time to the Jesus of history, a man of vision and compassion, and a this-worldly concern largely ignored by the creeds of the religion that sprouted in his name. The essence of Jesus’ ministry might be distilled down into one word: compassion.

Then we’re reintroduced to God who, through the scriptures, is Mother, Father, the Wind, a Rock, and finally just Love. God, says John Shelby Spong (who along with Fox and Crossan is quoted liberally in these pages) is the life power itself, the power of love itself, the “Ground of Being.”

One final note: I’m not a poetry reader, but the occasional sprinkling of poetry by Cynthia Langston Kirk was mesmerizing … I suspect in part because the atmosphere of the book primed me to appreciate the poetic. 

Daniel 9:25, Counting down to the Messiah, III of III

Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. --Daniel 9:25

//I introduced today's verse in yesterday's post, and it holds the key to Daniel's puzzle. We continue our discussion about Daniel's 490-year prediction until the Messiah's arrival.

To recap:  If we count 490 years from the date the Jews returned from exile and began rebuilding the temple according to the decree of Artaxerxes (457 BCE) we arrive at the year 33 CE ... the year many believe Jesus died. That makes Jesus the Messiah. This solution to the puzzle satisfies Christians but not historians, who are required to work within the constraints of the non-supernatural. If, however, we begin counting the 490 years from the date Jeremiah prophesied of a new temple, we get an even worse answer: around 107 BC. No messiah that year, for certain. So what did Daniel mean?

Note that Daniel breaks his prediction period down into two chunks, and then afterward he introduces a final "week" (seven years) of tribulation. So that's how the 490 years are broken down: 62x7 (434 years) plus 7x7 (49) plus 7. Most people add these figures up and reach 490 years. However, it may be that we are not supposed to count these periods consecutively, but concurrently. A 49-year period and a 434-year period, leading to a final 7-year period. If we do it this way, we get something like this:

Seven sevens from the destruction of Jerusalem (586 BC) we reach year 537. Within a year of this date, Cyrus releases the Jews to return to Jerusalem. So set the 49-year prophecy aside; it's a done deal, a completed prophecy.

Yesterday, we concluded that Jeremiah's prophecy would have been assumed sometime before the year of deportation, 597 BC. Figure just a few years before that date. Adding 434 years to roughly this period, we come to about 167 BC.

You know the rest. Seven years of bloody war ensued as Judas Maccabeus, acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors of Jewish history, leads a revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Halfway through this 7-year war, Antiochus IV desecrates the temple as Daniel predicts. (see Daniel 9:27).

Pretty amazing again, huh? How Daniel predicts this victory hundreds of years earlier, and selects Judas Maccabeus as the coming savior? Well, with this interpretation Daniel's prophecy is no longer quite that amazing. Scholars date the actual writing of the book of Daniel to precisely this time in history. Daniel's biographer was not writing prophecy, but history.

Daniel 9:2-3, Counting down to the Messiah, II of III

I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

//We continue our discussion from yesterday, and Daniel's prediction of 490 years until the Messiah's arrival.

Note the reference to Jeremiah in today's verse. God told Jeremiah that Babylon would rule for 70 years (see Jeremiah 25:11-12), but Daniel asks again about the 70 years and is given a different answer. Does this mean Daniel's 490-year prediction should also date from Jeremiah's time? Yesterday, we assumed Daniel was counting the years from Xerxes' command to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but Jeremiah, too, predicted the rebuilding of Jerusalem:

I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. --Jeremiah 33:7

So, did Daniel’s 490 years begin with Xerxes or Jeremiah? Let's switch from Xerxes to Jeremiah and see where that takes us. Judah's captivity began in the year 586 BC, and 70 years later in the year 516 BC, the temple was rebuilt as Jeremiah prophesied. But if we instead add 490 years to 586 BC, we reach the year 96 BC. Unfortunately, this doesn't help us at all; nothing spectacular happened that year. No Messiah then.

Instead, we need to read Daniel's prophecy a little closer. Skipping ahead to verse 9:25, we read:

"Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. --Daniel 9:25

Aha! So the 490 years begin from the date Jeremiah makes his prophecy, not from the date Jerusalem is conquered! In other words, we need to date today's verse: Jeremiah 33:7. That will tell us when to begin counting.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know precisely when this was supposedly penned, because Jeremiah's warnings are not in chronological order, but the majority of his writings center around the first deportation of the Jews under Nebechednezzer (597 BC). Some prophecies appear to be after this date (see chapters 23-25), and some before (see chapter 35). If we add Daniel's 490 years to roughly this period, we come to about the year 107 BC.

Sigh. Another dead end. Nothing spectacular happened in 107 BC either. I'll give you time to contemplate, and we'll solve the puzzle tomorrow.

Daniel 9:24, Counting down to the Messiah, I of III

Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

//Today's topic stems from N. T. Wright's new book, How God Became King. Daniel actually says "Seventy weeks" in his prophecy, but most people (such as the NIV translation quoted above) recognize this to mean seventy times seven (490) years. That's how long it will take, according to Daniel, before the Messiah arrives and sets things right.

Today's readers may recognize seven as a sort of special number, but it meant far more to Bible readers in Daniel's day. The seventh day is the Sabbath. The seventh year is a sabbatical year. Every seven-times-seven years is declared a jubilee; slaves are freed, land sold off by the family is restored to its original owner, everything returns to the way it belongs.

Daniel's promise sounds very much like a jubilee of jubilees! Wait four hundred ninety years, says Daniel, and God will set things right once and for all!

Now, let's carry this topic a little further than Wright does. If we count 490 years from the date the Jews returned from exile and began rebuilding the temple according to the decree of Artaxerxes (457 BCE) we arrive at the year 33 CE ... the year many believe Jesus died. Pretty amazing, huh?

We'll look at this from another angle tomorrow, and see if it's really as amazing as it appears.

Book review: Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?

by J. R. Daniel Kirk

★★★★★

This one gets off to a bit of a slow start, but finishes strong. With an enigmatic subject like Paul, and a provocative title like this one, I expected a more pointed discussion. It's only when we reach the midpoint that the really controversial topics emerge: women's role in the church, slavery, homosexuality, marriage and divorce, etc. 

Kirk begins his book by confessing his early ambivalence toward Paul. Only after much study, and by recognizing that Paul's teachings and Jesus' teachings do steer toward one another, did he come to appreciate Paul's slant. This acceptance appears to have come at a cost: Kirk began to realize that not only did Paul tend toward Jesus in his teachings, but Jesus tended toward Paul! 

For example, Jesus says we should not judge one another. But is that the whole story? Worry about the log in your own eye, and ignore the speck of dust in your neighbor's? Hardly. Jesus says get the log out of your eye so that you can see to help your brother get rid of his problem. If we condemn Paul for encouraging what looks like strict judgment of others (1 Cor. 5:12-13), we should remember Jesus' admonition to recognize others by their fruits and beware.

Paul may best be understood under the lens of Storied Theology. By telling the story of mankind, from Adam and Eve through Paul's day, he fits the Gentiles into the cosmic plan of God. He brings non-Jews into the fold, makes them feel like they belong, and defines their role as full participants.

Kirk writes as a studied believer, meaning his perspective is most definitely that of a practicing Christian, yet he's been around the block long enough to realize that every question about the Bible has a dozen scholarly answers ... half of them legitimate. For example, Kirk acknowledges that many of the Pauline letters may be pseudonymous, and he focuses more intently on the universally recognized authentic letters, yet he doesn't press the issue.

Kirk doesn't sit on the fence when it comes to interpreting the words of the Bible, though. Paul doesn't pull punches, and neither does Kirk. Still, this is a respectful and thought-provoking book.

Luke 19:26-27, Killing the Unfaithful

"He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me.'"  

//Today's verses conclude Jesus' parable about the nobleman who went away into a far county, and left silver pieces to ten slaves. One of them was unfaithful, and didn't invest the money to earn more. From this unfaithful servant, the nobleman takes even the one silver piece that he has and gives it to another.

Then Jesus concludes the parable with this lesson: If you don't want me to be king over you, then come here and die in front of me.

Harsh, eh? What is Jesus talking about? The answer lies just a few verses later, when we realize this parable has been a lead-in to Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. As Jesus tops the Mount of Olives and looks down on Jerusalem, he weeps over what is to be their fate:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." --verses 41-44.

This, of course, happened 40 years later in the war of 67-70 CE when the Romans overran Jerusalem. In Luke's parable, Jesus is looking ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem and warning his listeners that if they cannot accept him as king, they will soon be slaughtered.