Church as we know it

I have a great deal of sympathy for Guy Muse. He is back in the states and is being forced to sit through "church" in North America. He has posted twice on it. Here is an excerpt from his first post, where he discusses the sermon, offering, Sunday School, singing and praise, and prayer:

Prayer. Probably the most striking thing I have noticed after years of being away from legacy churches is the almost non-existent place of prayer in the gatherings of believers. Prayer is used more as a way to begin and close meetings, but I have seen little real praying when believers gather. Singing praise and worship songs is certainly a way of addressing our Lord, but there are so many other aspects of our communion with God that are going unaddressed in our gatherings: prayers of repentance/confession, prayers of united intercession and supplication, prayers for laborers (Lk. 10:2), prayers for wisdom/guidance/discernment, spiritual warfare, prayers for healing and for the sick, prayers for those who do not know the Lord, etc. Prayer takes time. I see little time in our gatherings being spent in prayer. Maybe the problem is we have to cram everything in between 11am-12noon. There simply isn't time for prayer when we gather if we are going to sing for 20-minutes and listen to a 30-minute message. But then, is it any wonder we have such little spiritual power in our midst? Maybe we should reschedule church on Sundays from, say, 5-8pm to give us adequate time to deal with truly being the Body of Christ and all that implies.

So, what are some of your thoughts? How can we be the church, be God's people; instead of going to church and doing church?

In a second post, he shares an approach that he has used in North American churches—and it worked!

I asked the congregation to rearrange the plastic chairs into a circle. Then with a few words of encouragement to literally "stimulate one another to love and good deeds" and "each one has..." for the edification of the saints, we began...

At first there was little understanding of what was expected, and the "how to" do what the Scriptures exhort us in these two passages. With a little prompting and some awkward silences, people slowly began to open up. We sang several songs of their choice, a couple of testimonies were shared of how God had been working in their lives. A sister shared a passage of Scripture that had spoken to her during the week. Someone asked for prayer. We gathered around that person laying hands on them and prayed. One brother confessed he had long harbored in his spirit something against another brother who was present. The two asked forgiveness of each other, hugged, cried, and prayed for one another.

By then we had gone well over the "30 minutes" allotted sermon time, but nobody was eager to break up and go home. After TWO HOURS of open sharing and Spirit-led interaction, I turned the "service" back over to the pastor of the church. He stood, thanked me (didn't he mean the Holy Spirit?) for leading them in a most "interesting" evening...

<idle musing>
Ah yes! Real church! Once you have experienced it, it is very difficult to sit in a "normal" church service...

Do read both the posts in full; they are good food for thought—dare I say it?—maybe even implementation?
</idle musing>

By the way, Alan Knox linked to the second post on Monday. I'm just a bit behind...

Quote for the day

"As a pastor your job is not to prepare a sermon, but to prepare a people."—Francis Frangipane

Performance or response?

The other day Debbie pulled a book off the bookshelf and just “happened” to open it to this page:

What we call failure, God doesn't necessarily call failure. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is that we come to the end of ourselves. The end of self is the beginning of God! Sometimes it takes us years to admit we can't do omething, but when we admit our helplessness, God immediately takes us to the other side.

In the power of our flesh, we cannot please God (see Romans 8:8). Only through the power of the Spirit can we truly overcome. “for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

Pride says, “If I just try a little harder,” but humility says, “I can only do it through the power of the Spirit.” Sometimes it takes us years to recognize that the New Covenant has nothing to do with performance, but rather with responding to God. This is where most people have a problem. Our flesh wants to perform. Many Christians are still tied to performance. They are trying to get God to accept them for their good works. But the New Covenant isn't works; rather it is faith in his finished work. “It is finished” (John 19:30). We want part of the credit. It frustrates our flesh to have to depend totally on God. He requires no performance, only obedience and response.—Steve Sampson in Confronting Jezebel, page 151.

<idle musing>
Only too true. We want to say we did it our way, on our own strength. But we can't! Only the indwelling Holy Spirit can live the life that God demands.
</idle musing>

Azusa Street, what have we lost?

There was a short 3 section biography of William Seymour, of the Azusa Street Revival, back in the middle of August. Here is a brief snippet from part 3:

Seymour was known for his less-than-glamorous style. Blind in one eye, sparsely educated, he was not a particularly charismatic preacher. He rarely took an offering and simply placed a collection box by the door, choosing to leave it up to the people to settle with God as they felt fit. As for putting on a good show, he spent much of his time during the numerous daily services with his head in a packing crate – his makeshift pulpit. He even played down what were to some the most exciting elements of the meetings, telling people "don't go out of here talking about tongues, talk about Jesus."

<idle musing>
Would that the current Pentecostal/Charismatic movement retained the same values
</idle musing>
But he continues:

Today we are missing one central element which was at the core of William Seymour's work: mission. The distinctive of the Azusa Street revival was not so much the chaos caused by the Holy Spirit in the meetings, but the great force with which people were sent out. Much of the spread of the Pentecostal church was due simply to the fact that believers left their homes, put aside their careers and headed off to where they were needed, whether that was the other side of the world, the state or the street. Sacrifice and obedience were high on the list of desirables, and coupled with a desire to take the gospel out to those without prior knowledge, the army of inspired Spiritual footmen was a formidable force.

Today it can be hard to find much talk of 'going' – harder, at least, than it is to hear exhortations for people to gravitate to us. It seems like the preferred flavour is of staying, of pursuing spiritual answers to physical problems. That being said, members of the conference were invited to take part in a mass distribution of food and hygiene products to the city's homeless – a glorious and bold act that the church has the potential to do so well. Yet any tour of the retail zone that tried to hook in as many willing consumers as possible, and it was immediately clear that poverty and justice are poorly represented among Pentecostal publishers.

<idle musing>
Too bad. The church—not just the pentecostal/charismatic wing of it—seems more intent on getting people to “come to church” than on being church.

Lord, fill us with a fresh vision of what you want your church to look like! May we respond in obedience to that vision as you fill us with your presence and power to make it happen!
</idle musing>

Transformation

Another great post over at Grace Roots:

Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.

<idle musing>
Yes! What good is forgiveness if you still have to live in sin? We sell the grace of God short when we preach a decapitated gospel that doesn't include deliverance from sin.

There is a marvelous little book that came out of the 19th century entitled The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life. No, not a self-help book, and not a Your Best Life Now kind of happy life. What she talks about is the freedom we have from sin in Christ. The first chapter is worth your time, if you can't read the whole thing. It is freely available on the Internet, search for the title and author—Hannah Whitehall Smith.

Maybe I'll post some excerpts from the book, but I don't have an electronic version available to me at the moment...
</idle musing>

Hebrew stuff on sale

Yep. It's Hebrew's turn to be featured on our back-to-school sale. I think it's a pretty good sale—the large BHS for almost the same price as the small one. Now you don't have to break the bank to save the eyes :)

I wish I could offer a better deal on HALOT, but I don't control the retail price on it. Of course, with the dollar climbing maybe the price will drop??? OK, I know I'm dreaming now! Anyway, here are the details:

"The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches"
Edited by Cynthia L. Miller
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 1
Eisenbrauns, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060361
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $29.70

"Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting:
Typological and Historical Perspectives"
Edited by Steven E. Fassberg and Avi Hurvitz
Eisenbrauns, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575061163
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $34.65

"Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 BCE"
by W. Randall Garr
Eisenbrauns, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060914
List Price: $47.50 Your Price: $28.50

"Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon Old Testament: Study Edition, 2 Volume Set"
Edited by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament - HALOT
Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9004124454
List Price: $249.00 Your Price: $161.85

"A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament"
by William L. Holladay
Eerdmans, 1971. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0802834132
List Price: $38.00 Your Price: $22.80

"The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon with an appendix
containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the numbering system
from "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible""
by Francis Brown, et al.
Hendrickson Publishers, 1995. Cloth. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 1565632060
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $20.97

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Small format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052199
List Price: $69.95 Your Price: $41.97

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Large Format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052180
List Price: $79.99 Your Price: $43.99

"Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: Edited and enlarged
by E. Kautzsch; Second edition"
Edited by E. Kautzsch
by William Gesenius
Clarendon Press, 1910. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0198154062
List Price: $62.95 Your Price: $51.96

"Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics"
Edited by Robert D. Bergen
SIL International, 1994. Paper. English.
ISBN: 1556710070
List Price: $42.00 Your Price: $33.60

You can see all the graphics by going here

Now that's refreshing

As the marketing guy at Eisenbrauns, I receive a good bit of stuff—that's a nice way of saying junk!—but once in a while there is a refreshing breeze that comes in. I was just reading the latest edition of Christian Retailing and came across a review of a book called Surrender. I have no idea who the author is, apparently she is well known, but here is the part that was a breath of fresh air:

Lamb contrasted her book with the bestsellers Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen and The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, saying that her book is "almost a reverse."

"It's not what God can do for me, it's what happens when I surrender to Him," she said.

<idle musing>
Amen! God-centered theology instead of man-centered, how refreshing.
</idle musing>

Good works

A nice little summary of good works in the life of a Christian at Grace Roots

Good works are a fruit of our life in Christ. They are most certainly not the root by which our righteousness is established or maintained! Christ is the Vine. We are the branches of the vine. The LIFE is in the Vine, and the fruit grows not as the branches struggle and strive to produce fruit for the Vine, but as the LIFE of the vine flows into the branches as the branches abide - rest - in the Vine. The branches have no life in and of themselves to produce anything anyway! "Abide in Me," Jesus says, "and you will bear fruit."

<idle musing>
Yep! All Christ, all the time! And only Christ all the time!
</idle musing>

September sale

I don't think we can top last month's sale, but at least those of you with Assyriological and Sumerian interests can save a bunch of cash. Here's the BookNews lead in:

Eisenbrauns continues the tradition of back-to-school sales in the month of September by featuring Akkadian and Sumerian reference works. Enjoy savings from 10-30% off on those essential tools for serious scholarly work that you expect to find at Eisenbrauns.

You can see all 39 titles here

After that is the nice list of AHw, CAD, GAG, etc. If you don't understand those abbreviations, you won't want anything that's on sale :)

Mouse, the final chapter

I know you are on the edge of your seats on this one! After all, it has been since Friday...

Yep, we got the mouse, resquiescat in pace. But, since this is a family friendly™ blog, I can't post the pictures. Besides, I don't want PETA down my throat. Actually, Cindy disposed of it before I could take any, but I'm sure it was starting to decompose after 3 days. We turn the air conditioning to energy save mode and it got hot over the weekend, so you probably wouldn't want to see the pictures, even if I had them.

Results

I spent some of this weekend catching up on blog reading. I hope to point to some good posts that are a bit older this week. The first one is from Out of Ur, about ministry results:

Consider a chapter titled “Bigger is Better” from a popular ministry book. The authors write, “A church should always be bigger than it was. It should be constantly growing.” Talk about pressure. The problem is this standard doesn’t hold water when applied to Jesus himself. John 6 describes the scene where “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” After teaching some weird stuff about drinking his blood and eating his flesh, the crowds who were drawn by Jesus’ miracles decided they had had enough. Did Jesus’ shrinking ministry mean he was an ineffective leader? Why do we hold ourselves to a standard that Jesus’ doesn’t apply to himself?
Or consider one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. In Numbers 20, Moses performs a miracle by drawing water from a rock to nourish the Israelites. By any human measure Moses’ ministry was a success. It was God-empowered (he performed a miracle), and it was relevant (the people were thirsty). If Moses lived today, we’d all be reading his ministry book titled, “How to Draw Water from Rocks: Effective Strategies to Refresh Arid Churches.” There was just one problem—Moses’ effective ministry was rejected by God. Moses had disobeyed the Lord’s command by striking the rock rather than speaking to it. For this sin he was forbidden from entering the Promised Land. It turns out God performed a miracle in spite of Moses, not because of him.
Might God be doing the same thing today? Is God allowing some powerful, effective, and relevant ministries to grow in spite of leaders rather than because of them? If Scripture shows that faithful and godly leaders can have shrinking ministries (Jesus in John 6), and sinful leaders can have successful ministries (Moses in Numbers 20), then why do we persist in measuring our success simply on the measurable outcomes of our work?

<idle musing>
He is pointing out a very valuable lesson: God gives the increase. We can go through all the motions, but God gives the increase; we can follow all the “tried and true” techniques, but God gives the increase.

We need to realize that we are totally dependent on God for the results. That can be scary, but freeing, too. Bonhoeffer, in his Ethics talked about releasing the results of our actions into the hands of God, because we don't know whether the results will be good or bad. I have found that to be a freeing insight; I don't have to strive or struggle to make things right. I just obey God and let him work the results.
</idle musing>

What happened in Iron Age I?

I've been reading Hess's Israelite Religions lately. Most of it is pretty straight forward interpretaion of the archaeology and comparison with Ugarit, Mari, Ebla, etc. This little paragraph jumped out at me, though:

"With rare exceptions, there are no shrines or temples in the village culture of the Iron Age I highlands in contrast to the proliferation of such in the fortified cities of the Late Bronze Age. This suggests a change from the traditional religious worship of the preceding period to a 'simple, aniconic, noninstitutionalized cult' [Dever]. In addition, the absence of pig bones suggests an ethnic marker for people for whom eating pork is taboo."—Hess, Israelite Religions, page 234

<idle musing>
Something happened! Connect the dots; I happen to believe the dots are best connected by the Hebrew bible :)

Of course, you can choose otherwise, but you still have to explain the change. No, it is not seeking proof to bolster faith; rather, it is faith seeing the evidence and knowing why it is the way it is.
</idle musing>

Get that mouse!

Last night Cindy set a pair of traps:


I'm not sure you can see it, but this trap has a rice cake and peanut butter


This one is just peanut butter

When she came in this morning, the traps were still set, but the rice cake was gone...I told you they were erudite mice! We'll try again tonight.

Mice

We have a mouse or mice in the warehouse! Cindy and Jessica walked into the warehouse the other morning and saw this evidence:



Obviously chocolate lovers! They ate Jessica's rice cakes, too, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Now, they might well be very erudite mice, in fact I suspect they must be, living in Eisenbrauns book shipping warehouse. But! we don't want them chewing up our books as they digest all that knowledge :) So, tonight we will try to get them; here are the tools of the trade:


Peanut butter and mouse traps; can't think of a better way.

Stay tuned for the results—hopefully tomorrow. Of course, I could always bring in our cat instead...

Be a loser

I just was (finally) reading the July issue of Christianity Today yesterday—I know, that was over a month ago now. But at least that means that the articles are online now :) One of the articles was just a page long, actually more of an op-ed or column. I found it very good and forwarded the link to a friend who was going through a tough time at work. I thought others might benefit too, so here it is:

It's amazing—and sobering—to realize that Jacob has the strength to resist God. It isn't until the angel of the Lord dislocates Jacob's hip that Jacob surrenders and requests what he's really been fighting for—a blessing. My husband, a wrestling coach, tells me the hip is the wrestler's pivot point, the core of his strength. God can't give Jacob the blessing he desperately needs until he incapacitates him at the center of his human power...

I don't know that it ever feels good to have our own strength overcome. But if we want to be blessed, if we want to relocate from living in our own resources to resting in the middle of God's goodness, power, and provision, sometimes a little dislocation is necessary.

<idle musing>
Please read the whole article for the full impact.

Of course, my question is always, "Why are you depending on your own strength in the first place?" One of the basic tenets of Christianity is we can't do it, we need God to do it for us, so why do we continue to struggle and strive and generally exhaust ourselves for nothing? Why not just surrender and let God have his way with us from the start?

I know; pride is usually the block, although unbelief runs a close second. Just an
</idle musing>
on a Wednesday morning

Yes, your comments count

A little over a month ago, I asked for some help on pricing a book from Carta. At the time, the price of the book as $150. Based on feedback, they lowered the price to $124. But, today, I just heard from them again. Based on your feedback, they lowered the price one more time to $98.00. That is a 33% reduction from the original price!

The book is on its way, but still about a month off; it is coming via ship. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here are the details, once again:

Echoes from the Past
Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period
Carta Handbook
by Shmuel Ahituv
Carta, Jerusalem, Forthcoming September 2008
528 pages + illustrations, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9789652207081
List Price: $98.00
Your Price: $88.20
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~AHIECHOES

Harvest time

Our garden has been a bit slow this year, but over the weekend it decided to explode! Sunday afternoon and evening were full of freezing beans, canning tomatoes, and making bread and butter pickles.

Saturday we made a trip to an orchard and bought a bushel of peaches. Guess what I did last night? No, I didn't eat them all! I canned them. I had forgotten that peaches don't "skin" as easily as tomatoes, and I sure do praise God for freestone peaches! The last canner load finished around 2:15 this morning, but it will be worth it this winter :)

Sleep? Who needs sleep when you can harvest and preserve all night! ZZZZZZZZZ

Quote for the day

Actually, this is so good, I think it could be the quote for the week:

I naturally incline towards viewing Dispensationalism as a breeding ground for freaky and over-zealous biblical interpretation!—Robin Parry, Editor for Paternoster on his blog

By the way, that series is very good.

Educashun

Well, last night I learned about the herbs and the bees. Yep, you read that right.

We have an herb garden that is 8 feet by 8 feet. It contains mint, chives, parsley, sweet basil, and oregano. It has been very dry here lately, so I was watering it last night. Little did I know that a nest of yellow jackets had been created under one of the oregano plants! As I started watering the oregano, the bees decided I was attacking their home and they attacked me.

I dropped the hose very quickly and started swatting and ran toward the house. They followed :( I managed to get inside the house with only two inside my shirt—one stung me, the other one didn't get a chance. I ended up with 4 stings, one on each hand, one on my cheek and one under the arm pit. I got my wedding ring off quickly before the swelling made it impossible to get off.

My right hand puffed up significantly, and my left hand by the ring finger and pinky got pretty large, too. The other two stings weren't bad. Today the swelling is down, but still quite noticeable—and they itch! At least I'm not allergic to them.

So, now you understand why I say that I learned about the herbs and the bees...

Legalism?

Yesterday I mentioned that orthopraxy is more important than orthodoxy. Does that mean I am going down the path of legalism and works righteousness? μὴ γένοιτο! If you read on, you will see that I said it has to be all grace all the time.

We can no more live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit than we can change the course of the planets. All we can do on our own is what we do best—rebel against our creator. Does that mean I am now saying that Calvin was right and we are consigned to hell except for the "elect"? μὴ γένοιτο! I believe in free grace for all. Everyone is repeatedly offered the chance to repent and believe—daily, even every second. How we choose to respond to that offered grace is the deciding factor.

A life of holiness and righteousness is all the result of dying to self and allowing the true life of Jesus Christ, via the Holy Spirit, to flow in us and through us. Of course, if you take Paul seriously in Romans and Colossians, he will tell you that we died with Christ and so it is a matter of believing what God says is true, i.e., you aredead. It is now the life of Christ that is to empower you. Anything else is dead works and a lie...

They will know you are my disciples...

by your correct doctrine and heresy hunting abilities. You will put the Pharisees to shame with your self-righteousness. NOT!!

<idle musing>
But, that is how many Christians act, most recently in the Todd Bentley situation. I am not going to defend his actions; he stands before God and his board is holding him accountable. What I am talking about is the lack of love in many people's actions. Back in June I posted a link to a friend of mine's theological defense. What I didn't post subsequently is the backlash against Gary by the heresy hunters—supposed Christians... Somehow they discovered his private e-mail address, his personal cell phone number, his home number, in addition to his work e-mail and phone number. They called all the numbers repeatedly, at times reducing his wife to tears. The Pharisees would be proud of them! But, they were doing it for God, therefore they could do whatever they wanted, right? Wrong!

Listen up, folks! Orthodoxy (correct doctrine) is important, but orthopraxy (correct practice) is far more important. Yesterday I took to task the people who wear their spiritual gifts as badges, today I am talking about those who wear their correct doctrine as a badge. Both are in danger of judgment. Both need Jesus—we all need Jesus! There is no way anybody can live the Christian life. It has to be God, via the Holy Spirit, living through them; all grace, all the time!

By the way, the correct quote is "by our love for one another." I am a firm believer in speaking the truth in love; you can't serve God via a lie. But, you have to get both halves right: the truth—and love. Either one without the other is a problem.
</idle musing>

Banana chips!

No, not those horrendous things that they sell in the store that are tasteless! But, home dried ones. Oops, nothing like jumping in medias res...

About 25 or so years ago, we received a gift of a food dehydrator. It served us well for many years. One of the things we loved the most was dehydrated bananas. Take a banana, cut it into about 18-22 slices and dry it for about 20 hours at 120 F. Then, peal them off the trays and enjoy a burst of banana flavor. Delicious.

Sadly, the dehydrator died about 10 years ago. We couldn't justify replacing it; at the time the only ones we could find ran about $200! But, this summer we bought a new one for about $60. It is modular, allowing you to add trays as needed (you can see it here). Well, we finally got around to using it Sunday night to dry a few bananas. Last night we pealed them off and tasted them. Yep! Still good. So, now I can buy those over-ripe bananas at a fraction of the full cost and dry them. You really should try one sometime...

De spiritalibus

<idle musing>
Poor Paul! About 1950 years ago he penned a letter that contained the sentence "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed." (RSV) From there he launches into a 3 chapter exposition on "Charismata" which has been misunderstood, misapplied and generally caused all kinds of chaos..

I am only going to make a few observations here, not a general exegesis—you can consult the commentaries and find out all the disagreement you want :(

First: They are gifts, not badges, not signs of spiritual maturity, not licenses to do what you want and brow-beat people into submitting to you. A gift is not earned, deserved, or otherwise given with a stipulation. Just because someone has the gift of healing does not mean they are spiritually mature! Please, understand this point! I have seen gifts used as spiritual badges too many times over the years. They are given for the edification of the body of Christ, not the glorification of an individual.

Second (and this follows from the preceding): Just because someone has a gift that is highly regarded doesn't mean they won't come into judgment! Look at Jesus warnings in the gospels. How many times does he warn that many doing mightly works, such as healings, exorcisms, etc., will be told "I never knew you." Holiness is taken seriously by God. Revivals are wonderful, and I praise God for them. But, if a revival does not result in a deeper understanding of the holiness of God, then it was a failure, no matter how many people were wowed, "saved," or healed. But, mind you, that is not God's fault! It is the fault of our sensationalistic mindset that wants just enough of God to get a high. I became a Christian during the Jesus Movement of the 1970's; more than a few people "came to Jesus" for the spiritual high that it gave them. When the high wore off, they were gone.

Finally: Why is it that people love to accept a "word from the Lord" when it is positive, but when that same person who was so readily embraced offers a word of correction... Well, obviously they are being judgmental or critical. Wake up folks! Prophecy is given to the body of Christ for the edification of the body of Christ. Sometimes edification can only happen by pulling down the bad structure so the Holy Spirit can rebuild with good material. Look at the prophets in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. How often did they upbraid the Israelites as opposed to giving them prophecies of prosperity? It is interesting that the only ones who prophesied food and drink were the false prophets!

Am I down on Charismata? Absolutely not! I have never been a cessationist, but I have been disillusioned by what fallen humanity does with the gifts. I believe they are valid gifts given by God to the church. They are used by God to show fallen humanity that there is a creator, he is alive, active, and he cares for this fallen world.
</idle musing>

Twinkies taste test, the movie

As you know, at Eisenbrauns, we are always interested in archaeology and history. We've expanded that a bit. Three years ago Marti, our customer service manager, set aside 5 Twinkies to test the unlimited shelf life urban legend. Here's the promised video of year 3...



Remember, this was started long before Wall-E hit the theaters...

Barn

So, my project off and on this summer has been painting the barn. It has been more off than on most of the summer :) But, this last weekend I finally finished it. I thought I had a picture from before, but all I could find was this one with snow:


Here is what it looks like now:



What do you think?

Twinkie time again

Last year and in 2006 we taste-tested Twinkies™ that had expired. It's that time again!

Here is a picture of the poor thing:



This Twinkie™ is now 3 years past its expiration date. I think it is safe to say that Twinkies™ do not have an indefinite shelf life! It looks ok, but it is hard and, well, almost inedible. I hope to upload a video of the taste test to You Tube—I'll let you know. But, in the meantime, I do think I have an idea for a new Veggie Tales™ episode:



Scissors in the Twinkie (instead of Sword in the Stone...)

A present God?

Alan Knox asks a good question, which has been a concern of mine for many years.

<idle musing>
Do we live as if God is close, or far away from us? We say we believe in a present God, but our actions frequently betray us... Sure, we believe God can heal—somebody else, somewhere else. Sure, we believe that God answers prayer—just someone else's somewhere else, probably in the two-thirds world.
</idle musing>

The sky is falling!

<idle musing>
Yes, it really is! At least, it was last night when we went for a walk. I know the annual Perseid meteor shower isn't "officially" here until tomorrow night, but last night we saw about 10 meteorites in 15 minutes on our walk. The sky was clear, the temperature was about 59 F, and the meteors decided to grace our walk with a light show. I wonder if that means the "official" shower will be better than usual this year?
</idle musing>

War in the Bible...

<idle musing>
As you probably guessed by the lack of quotes from the book War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, I finished it. It was stimulating and thought-provoking, as it should be. I still am convinced that the pacifist stance is the most compelling; all the caveats and conditions necessary for a just war position just don't seem right. But, the church has been arguing about war and pacifism for about 1800 years now, so I don't expect everyone to agree with me.

I have been a pacifist ever since I became a Christian, over 34 years ago now. But, the one thing this book presented to me was the necessity of working for just peace. Just peace is something that both just war advocates and pacifists can get behind. There is not true peace without justice, because true peace is more than the absence of war.

If you only read one chapter in this book, it should be the one on just peace making. Fittingly, it is the final chapter of the book. Eisenbrauns offers it at a 10% discount everyday. Or, if you want, wait until AAR or SBL in November and get it for 30% off.

Interestingly, we gave away a copy at the ATLA meeting in Ottawa. The book is edited by Rick Hess, of Denver Seminary. Guess which seminary library won the book? Yep, Denver Seminary. They already have a few copies in their library. I guess this is a case of the rich get richer...
</idle musing>

The cat's a mouser

<idle musing>
Sunday night, as I was cutting the tops off the onions, the kitty was sitting on the driveway. We have a bug zapper on the front of the garage, and she seemed to be watching the bugs fry. All of a sudden, she gets up and runs toward the garage. I figured she was going to play with the June bugs; she does that a lot. But, then she came running toward the porch and I saw a fuzzy thing in her mouth. It was a mouse! The tail was hanging out of her mouth as she ran past me under her favorite bush.

A short time later, she reappeared and sat back down on the driveway as if nothing had happened. About a half hour later, she got up, ran to the garage, and came running back toward the porch. Another mouse! This time, all I could see was the tail hanging out of her mouth. She disappeared under her favorite bush again, only to re-emerge about 5 minutes later. Nice meal, I guess!

I knew we had mice, they had gotten into some stuff in the garage over the winter. I don't think we will have a problem like that this winter :)
</idle musing>

Onions!

<idle musing>
We planted a garden this year for the first time in a while. It's nice having fresh produce just outside the door. One of the things we planted was red onions—about 2 pounds of onion sets. We like onions :)

I harvested about a third of them in July, but Sunday night I pulled most of the rest of them. About 20 pounds worth! That's a lot of onions. We cut them up and freeze them for use on pizza or in stuff. So, Sunday night I sat on the porch and cut the tops off and peeled the outer layer off of them.

While I was doing that, Debbie made onions and potatoes. Most people have potatoes and onions, but we have onions with some potatoes added. Did I mention that we like onions?

It took a while to cut the tops off and peel the onions, so it got too late to cut them up. Instead we put them in a crisper drawer in our refrigerator. It filled up the entire drawer—even after using about 10 of them for onions and potatoes.

Monday night, after dark, I started cutting them up. While the thunderstorm rattled the windows, I cut up onions. While the power flashed on and off, I cut up onions. Did I mention that there are a lot of onions? I managed to get about ½ to 2/3 of them cut up before I quit for the night. I bagged them in snack sized bags, put those bags inside a freezer bag, about 12-15 to a bag. Then I put that freezer bag inside another freezer bag. We don't want our beans, blueberries, and strawberries to taste like onions.

I think I will be able to finish them tonight. Did I mention that there are a lot of onions?
</idle musing>

August sale response

Wow! All the research says never send a sale e-mail on Friday. The research says the results will be terrible and you will regret it. Guess what. The research is wrong!

I sent out the BookNews for August's sale last Friday afternoon. It didn't take long for the word to spread in the biblioblog community either; so far I counted four posts mentioning it (I still lead the referring sites—clear proof that mine is the most popular biblioblog! Take that, Nick). I can't believe the response. I just looked at the Google Analytics figures, and the only things that have generated more interest than the August sale are our Valentine's Day contest, and our traditional April first post.

So far the record for the most books is 28. Can you imagine? 28 books out of 60. I wonder why they quit at 28 :)

Thanks to all of you who have visited our sale.

Latest BHQ volume

The latest BHQ volume has just been announced:

Proverbs
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 17
Edited by J. de Waard
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, Forthcoming November 2008
ca. 160 pages, Hebrew
Paper, 6 x 9
ISBN: 9783438052773
List Price: $98.00
Your Price: $73.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~BHQPROVER

I just found out about it yesterday; nobody else seems to have it listed yet...guess that's what happens when you love the books you sell. It isn't just a job :)

August sale

Hey, everybody, the August sale is up at Eisenbrauns!

You are going to love this sale. Here is the official blurb:

For the month of August, we are offering 60 titles at discounts ranging from 60-80% off retail. Put another way, the books are on sale from $6.89 to $29.85, with most being between $8.00-$15.00. At these prices you won't have to choose between books and gas!

Ok, the last sentence is my poor attempt at an allusion to Erasmus' famous line, "When I have money, I buy books. If I have any left, I buy food." Did anybody catch it? I didn't think so. Now you know why I am a bookseller and not a comedian. Anyway, check out all 60 titles here. Only two are actually at 60%, the rest are at 70-80%, but it wouldn't have the same ring to it to say, "60 titles, most at 70-80% off." "60 at 60% or better" just sounds better, at least I think so.

Just Peacemaking

“My subtheme is that the call for Just Peacemaking practices and Jesus’ teaching of peacemaking practices are not merely about ideals; they are about the real world. Hence, I point out the obvious: the prophets’ warnings and Jesus’ warnings were about real destruction in real history. Today, Israel, which is only the size of New Jersey, is surrounded by Arab nations. If Israel does not offer justice to the Palestinians, it faces the serious threat of its own destruction (perhaps by weapons of mass destruction) and of exile yet again. Some object to this notion on the basis that God has made a covenant with Israel, and God’s covenants are eternal. I hope I have demonstrated above that, if this is true, the prophets were wrong. They knew full well of God’s covenants with Israel and warned repeatedly that, if Israel did not practice justice and if Israel did not stop placing its trust in military weapons instead of God, it would experience the destruction of war and be sent into exile. Their warnings were based precisely on the covenants and the consequences of disobeying the covenants, which demanded justice.

“Unfortunately, Christian Zionist organizations and the religious right are opposed to the prophets’ call for peacemaking by practicing justice.”—Stassen, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 139

Peace for Israel

“It is not Christian to block a process that can provide peace for Israel. It is not Christian to teach that Israel will possess the land regardless of whether it offers justice to the poor, the widows, and the orphans of Palestine and engages in the practices that bring peace. It is not Christian to place trust for security in military weapons and expansion of land ( Jer 2:18, 5:17; Isa 31:1). True and effective support for Israel is to join the prophets’ call for repentance, justice, and peacemaking. This is what will provide more security for the people of Israel and Palestine. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. We must pray earnestly that this hope will come to pass.”—Stassen, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 139

<idle musing>
This is indeed the problem with Christian Zionism.
</idle musing>

Quotation for Tuesday

“People in power must return to just cause and recognize that, however unreasonable the cause may seem, there is often a valid underlying grievance that must be addressed. Besides perceived oppression of their religions, the poverty of the two-thirds world is a cause for much discontent that religious extremists can use to foment sympathy for their causes. Such poverty is a shame and a disgrace to the powerful nations who could surely ameliorate it by an active policy of equipping and helping the countries who are on the outside to become owners of their own futures.”—Durie, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 122

It's officially summer

Yes, I know that it was a month ago according to the calendar, but my official method is when I can pick a ripe tomato from the garden. And that happened last night. We had been getting cherry tomatoes for about a week, 6-12 a day, but last night was the first full sized tomato. So, summer is here!

Guess what I did with it? Yep, I made a sandwich out of it. Today in my lunch I had a sandwich with homemade wheat bread, homemade mayonnaise, homegrown tomato, and extra sharp cheddar cheese. A sandwich doesn't get better than that.

Are we breeding more terrorists?

Maybe, no probably:

“History shows that it is rare that increasingly repressive measures by the regime in power have the desired effect of addressing the underlying sense of grievance. Instead, the issues must be confronted and the criminals arrested (or killed in the attempt—I also note that declaring “war on terrorism” may legitimize the nonjudicial killing of terrorist suspects as enemies engaged in combat). Israel is suffering from a predictable bloody backlash against its increasingly oppressive reaction to terrorist outrages within its borders as it seeks to target Al Fatah and other resistance or terrorist groups in Palestine. This repression often raises more extremists who are willing, even eager, to become martyrs in the perceived cause of their religion, country, or community. All repression must be avoided in the conduct of the 'war on terrorism.'”—Durie, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 120

Terrorism and War

“It is important to recognize that it [terrorism] is not an ideology (such as communism); it is an instrument, not a movement. Questions arise whether it can ever be justified and how it may be defeated. Because a state cannot declare war on an instrument, it may be helpful to redefine “declaring war on terrorism” as a declaration of war on individuals or groups who resort to or threaten to use terrorism.”—Durie, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 114

War in the Bible, continued

“A state cannot rationally fight evil by committing it. Thus when political and military leaders ask themselves the question, “What should we do?” they must consider the moral, not only the pragmatic, aspects of this question.”—Pfaff, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 112

Making disciples by war?

“How should the ethics of Jesus and our being in Christ shape our view of war? I suggest that they lead to a stance of nonviolence and love for our enemies. Can participating in war contribute to the mission to make disciples of every nation? I think not. To achieve these goals requires envisioning an uncommon sociopolitical presence, a unique (and very different!) set of “responsible” actions committed to a distinct mode of being in the world and for the world that can point the world beyond itself and its self-destructive ways.”—Carroll, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pages 76-77
<idle musing>
I think that about sums up the pacifist position. We are called to imitate Jesus and to make known to all his love for them. I just don't see how the barrel of a gun can do that...
</idle musing>

War in the Bible, resumed quotations

“Whenever violence was perpetrated in the name of the cross, the cross was depleted of its “thick” meaning within the larger story of Jesus Christ and “thinned” down to a symbol of religious belonging and power—and the blood of those who did not belong flowed as Christians transmuted themselves from would-be followers of the Crucified to imitators of the people who crucified him.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 13

Felt-needs

OK, it's over a week old now, but I finally had a chance to read it over the weekend...
There is a good post over at Out of Ur about “felt needs” church growth. Very good critique of the supposed biblical foundation for it. Here is the penultimate paragraph:

Contradicting the gospel message is another danger of a hyper-felt-needs based approach to outreach. The gospel calls us to surrender our desires, take up our cross, and follow Christ. How can a church effectively invite people to “die to self” while constantly appealing to their self-interests? Whereas Jesus’ miracles of restoration were completely in sync with his message, our acts of service—particularly in an affluent, consumer culture—run the risk of undermining our message of personal sacrifice by promoting the satifaction of felt-needs/wants.

<idle musing>
Yes! I've said it before, but it bears mentioning again, the most overlooked passages in the Bible are the ones that talk about death to self. It doesn't preach well in our self-absorbed society, but it is the essence of the gospel. Christ came to set us free from self; why, then, do we preach a self-indulgent “gospel?”
</idle musing>

Quote from a new book

From a book that arrived yesterday;

In more sentimental books on music from the past, one sometimes encounters the romantic claim that a certain era or people ‘loved to sing,’ ‘filled their waking hours with song,’ ‘had melody in their souls,’ and so on. The modern musicologist or ethnomusicologist ardently avoids writing anything redolent of such happy platitudes. But perhaps our predecessors were onto something. For the more we explore early modern English thought, the more it appears to indicate a society intrigued by singing to a remarkable degree, both in theory and in practice. Singing played a vital role in England’s devotional life during this era; and it would not be too much to assert that the nation’s devotional life, in turn, ultimately affected its social, moral, and political spheres as well. —Brown, Singing and the Imagination of Devotion, page 1

<idle musing>
There is a lot to commend this thought. I have found over the years that people who sing tend to be happier people. I don't know which engenders which, but it is just an observation.
<idle musing>

Help!

OK, I need the help of all of you here. Carta has changed the name of the Ahituv volume and they are asking for help on where to price it. Here are the new details:

Echoes from the Past
Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period
Carta Handbook
Carta, Jerusalem, Forthcoming, August 2008
528 pages + illustrations, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9789652207081
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~AHIECHOES

It is about twice the size of Cogan's The Raging Torrent, which is priced at $64.00, minus the 10% for buying it from Eisenbrauns' website.

What do you think would be a fair price? It was originally priced at $150.00, then reduced to $124.00. Is that fair for a 538 page technical book?

How old is my house?

<idle musing>
In a post yesterday, I mentioned that we removed the overhang from the north side of the house. It changed the appearance of the house quite a bit. Does that mean my house is only a week old? Hardly!

How about the flower boxes I added in June? Or the electrical work I did in January? No? Well then the major plumbing work that I did in November with Joel and Ryan's help? What? Still not enough to make the house new?

OK, surely the wood floor that Ryan and I laid in Octber qualifies! No? Well, how about the remodeling of the kitchen 4 years ago? Or the bathroom remodel at the same time? Or the new roof? No? Boy, you sure are hard to please!

OK, surely this will qualify to make the house new. in the mid-1970's the upper story was expanded. A new stairway was put in to get upstairs and downstairs. New windows were put in and vinyl siding was used on that part of the house. The size of the house was increased by about 35%. Surely this make the house new!

If I were to claim any of these dates for the building of the house, the bank would laugh at me. Everyone knows that the date of a house is from the initial building, in my case 1942.

Well, then why is it that on the biblical studies list, the date of the biblical text is dated by the date of the oldest complete manuscript that we have? So, the biblical text has to be no earlier than the Dead Sea Scrolls! The snippets that were uncovered on the amulets don't count; they simply show that there were ideas floating around that might eventually become the biblical text. By that reasoning, my house was built last week! And, the Septuagint and Peshitta would have to be considered the oldest versions of the Hebrew bible outside of the Dead Sea Scrolls—after all, our oldest codex is only 1000 years old this year—the Leningrad Codex

Just a thought...

Another question: How old is the Gilgamesh epic? Do we date it by the last and final version? Or, do we date it by the various translations? Or, do we date it by the earliest version we find? Of course, it could well be that it is all just a bunch of forgeries and the real version is in English—King James English, of course! :)
</idle musing>

Absolute Hospitality?

“'Absolute hospitality' seems generous and peaceful, until one remembers that unrepentant perpetrators and their unhealed victims would then have to sit around the same table and share a common home without adequate attention to the violation that has taken place. The idea ends up too close for comfort to the Nietzschean affirmation of life, in which a sacred “yes” is pronounced to all that is and “but thus I willed it” is said of all that was, including all the small and large horrors of history. Absolute hospitality would in no way amount to absence of violence. To the contrary, it would enthrone violence precisely under the guise of nonviolence because it would leave the violators unchanged and the consequences of violence unremedied. Hospitality can be absolute only once the world has been transformed into a world of love in which each person is hospitable to all. In the world of injustice, deception, and violence, hospitality can only be conditional—even if the will to hospitality and the offer of hospitality remain unconditional.

“Transformation of the world of violence into a world of love cannot take place by means of absolute hospitality. It would require radical change and not simply an act of indiscriminate acceptance for the world to be transformed into a world of love. The Christian tradition has tied this change to the coming of the Messiah, the crucified and the resurrected One, whose appearance in glory is still awaited. Is this messianic intervention violent? Does it sanction human violence? The answer is simple regarding the Messiah’s first coming. Jesus Christ did not come into the world in order to conquer evildoers through an act of violence but to die for them in self-giving love and thereby reconcile them to God. The outstretched arms of the suffering body on the cross define the whole of Christ’s mission. He condemned the sin of humanity by taking it upon himself; and by bearing it, he freed human beings from its power and restored their communion with God.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 12

Is Christianity violent by nature?

OK, let's go back to the first chapter and pick up the quotes from there that I missed...

“As applied to Christianity, the victory of the transcendental over the here and now is violent only if the notion of the transcendental is stripped of its particular content and infused with the values of the here and now around which the conflicts rage. This often happens when the Christian faith is employed to legitimize violence. We declare God to be on our side and we see ourselves as soldiers of God, so that the earthly goals acquire a “transcendent” aura and the struggle for them becomes a religious duty. One may describe this as inverse projection—not the projection of what humans deem supremely valuable onto a heavenly screen, a practice that 19th-century critics of religion deplored, but the projection of heavenly values onto earthly goods. The second projection is more dangerous because the first generates religiously sanctioned passivity in the context of oppression and suffering, whereas the second generates religiously sanctioned violence in the context of struggle for scarce goods. This sort of projection of transcendent values onto earthly goods can only succeed, however, if Christian faith is illegitimately stripped of its “thick” content in order to support an engagement in a struggle that was already under way and carried out for other-than-religious reasons and by means not sanctioned by the religion.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 7

Timberrr!!

OK, not really, but a loud crash would do.

Last Monday, Debbie and I noticed that the overhang above the north side door was a bit more crooked that it had been. We both knew that one of the supports was rotting and that I would need to take it down soon, but it looked like soon was becoming now.

Tuesday night I put a couple of 2 x 4s in place to hold it. Sure enough, the support on the right side fell down and dangled loosely. Not much support there! In the interest of safety, we stopped using the door :)

Wednesday night, Jon came over to help me. Together, we started ripping off shingles. Pretty soon we hear a buzzing sound, sort of like bees. Not a good thing! Get the bee spray; ready, aim, fire. No effect! Hmmm, now what? I saw a pile of wood shavings and grass under the roof; that must be where they are. After telling Jon to get out of the way, I shoved it to the ground. Sure enough, the buzzing was coming from inside the ball of grass. We left them alone, and they left us alone. Back to tearing the roof off...

I had the roof off my side and was starting to work on the front, and Jon had most of the roof off his side, when all of a sudden the thing let go! In a heroic display of acrobatics, Jon pushed off the roof and as the ladder started falling he jumped down, safely avoiding the falling ladder, the falling overhang, and landing on his feet! No injuries, no damage to the porch, just a nice pile of lumber on the driveway. Of course, we had to finish tearing it apart, but praise God, no one was hurt.

After we tore the thing apart, we (actually Jon) put the wood on the woodpile for a fire later this summer. Time for fresh apple crisp! Debbie had been making it while we tore the overhang apart, after all, a worker is worthy of his hire!

Yahweh will save

“The question that needs to be asked is not “what should This country take from Isaiah?” but instead “what should Christians learn about faith in God in the context of war from these prophetic texts?” This second question returns to the two fundamental issues that were raised in the introduction:
Who are we (identity)? What are we to do (mission)? This leads me to two additional lessons that I feel the people of God must learn from the prophet. To begin with, we see that believers are called to trust in the absolute power of Yahweh to deliver. One may protest, “This is naïve. It will not work. All the prayers and calls to believe in God cannot save us from enemy attack! We have to be responsible, pragmatic, and prepare our defenses.” How much we sound like the Judah of Isaiah’s day! The prophet’s point was that Yahweh was able to save. To depend on horses and chariots and mortar and brick is to rely on human cunning and the weakness of flesh. These will fail us, sooner if not later.”—Carroll, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pages 75-76

The joys of reading

This wonderful little article flew through my inbox today.

The pile is waiting. The pile is getting higher. The pile looks impressive, probably isn't, still feels slightly overwhelming, vaguely threatening, even as it sighs, waits, drums its fingers on the inside of my skull, promising all manner of wonder and insight and syntactical bliss if I'd just, please, maybe, right now, even for just an hour or three, pay it some serious, focused attention. Please?

It's a bit of a problem. More than that, it's a moral, ethical, personal issue, a deep indignity of the soul, a painful twist to the nipple of my id.

See, I love books. Admire and appreciate and adore. Was a lit major at Berkeley, read voraciously, still love to read, still like to consider myself a big consumer of books and deep thinker about bookish issues and ideas and authoralia.

And yet, if I'm painfully honest, I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore...

About a year ago the most astounding thing happened: The hard drive on my MacBook suffered a rare and painful meltdown when I was away on vacation. I was, much to my initial horror, to be e-mail/Net-free for over a week. What was I missing? Who was e-mailing? What about all the blogs and the news and the Significant Global Happenings? What of all the salacious offerings of nubile flesh and social wonderment stroking my in-box as I sat there, entirely cut off and adrift?...

When I finally got my precious MacBook back, when all e-mail was restored and all Net access was re-granted and I was able to dive back into the perky digital maelstrom, when I spent a few hours and got all caught up, it finally hit me: I'd missed exactly nothing. The world was exactly the same. The beautiful churn continued, same as it ever was, with or without me. Isn't that fantastic? Someone should write a book about it.

<idle musing>
You really should read the whole thing, It is brutally honest about how we convince ourselves that we have to have the Internet to survive and that reading a real book is too difficult.
</idle musing>

Vengeance is whose?

“Based on these two images of God as king (sovereign) and warrior (victor over evil), several ethical conclusions follow, only one of which I will discuss. Christians need not—should not—engage in violence. The fact that Yahweh our God is a powerful warrior, whose passion for holiness and justice is intense and who will deal decisively with evil, means that his followers can afford to leave the righting of wrongs in God’s hand. Both testaments emphatically affirm this point. Moses asserts in the name of God, “Vengeance is mine” (Deut 32:35). Paul, in urging a peaceable lifestyle, tells his audience in Rome: “Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom 12:19). God is completely able to deal with the inequities and the violence in the world without our help.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 55

God as warrior

“Following God the warrior fully in faith does not have the effect of grooming warlike followers. That God is a warrior means the opposite—that his people need not be warlike.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 53

July sale at Eisenbrauns

Hey, its earlier than last month :)

For the month of July, Eisenbrauns is offering you the chance to build your library of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volumes from Intervarsity Press. Save 42% off list price on 20 different titles in the series. Order here.

"Genesis 1-11"
Edited by Andrew Louth
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 1
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2001. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 083081471X
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Genesis 12-50"
Edited by Mark Sheridan
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 2
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814728
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Job"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti and Marco Conti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 6
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814760
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Psalms 51-150"
Edited by Quentin F. Wesselschmidt
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 8
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814787
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon"
by J. Robert Wright
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814795
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Isaiah 1 -39"
by Steven A. McKinion
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814809
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Isaiah 40-66"
Edited by Mark W. Elliott
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814817
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Ezekiel, Daniel"
Edited by Michael Glerup and Kenneth Stevenson
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2008. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814831
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Matthew 1-13"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT NT 1A
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2001. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814868
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Matthew 14-28"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT NT 1B
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814698
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Mark"
Edited by Christopher A. Hall and Thomas C. Oden
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814183
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Luke"
Edited by Arthur A. Just
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 3
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814884
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Acts"
Edited by Francis Martin
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 5
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814906
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Romans"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1998. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814914
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"1-2 Corinthians"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814922
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians"
Edited by Mark J. Edwards
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814930
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon"
Edited by Peter Gorday
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814949
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Hebrews"
by Erik M. Heen and Philip D. W. Krey
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 10
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814957
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814965
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Revelation"
Edited by William C. Weinrich
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 12
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814973
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

War and justice

“In the context of war, the definition of faith is forged: faith is the casting of one’s destiny on God who spoke the word of promise. Faith is less a cerebral process than it is a life/death commitment based on an unshakable confidence in the veracity of Yahweh’s word (consider David’s words before approaching Goliath, 1 Sam 17:45) and purpose. Wars in the Bible address humans who are slow to hear and even slower to believe, to instruct them on the meaning of faith...

“The message of these God-directed wars for Israel is not that war is the divinely sanctioned means for setting matters right. The kerygma of the Yahweh wars expresses a different message: pithy, down-to-earth experiences to illustrate what we abstractly call “incarnation” or define as faith.

“Wars sanctioned by the Lord Yahweh, with the destruction they brought, must be appraised in light of who God is—namely, a God of holiness. This holiness is expressed by a justice that is both hard edged and compassionate. This means that evil is resisted and destroyed through hard justice; it also means that God enters the fray of violence as an overture to the incarnation and pedagogically makes clear what is meant by trusting him. Christians, remembering the asymmetry that exists between themselves and God, do well to leave the righting of wrongs to God. Believers do, however, have a mandate to work toward justice, understood as honorable relationships, but they may not establish it coercively. Their responsibility is quite the opposite. Believers cannot participate in precipitating violence. Their calling is to absorb violence.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 50

Sin equals violence?

“Though working as a theorist and not as theologian or exegete, Girard has put forth a hypothesis about the origin of violence that readily aligns with the biblical evidence. Cain desires what Abel has, namely, the assurance of God’s favor. Denied this favor, he turns his hostility on the model whom he is imitating. The two struggle. Cain kills Abel. A Christian theologian, interpreting this same material, can agree to some extent with Girard on the reason for the violence but concludes that the human predicament is the sins of selfishness and rebellion, one of the consequences of which is violence. The conclusion is inevitable: where sin reigns, violence is inevitable.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 42.

Peace now?

The vision [in Isaiah 2:2-4] is of a world without the violence of war. Reading the phrase wehayâ beªa˙årît hayyamîm [I'm afraid the diacritics dropped out in the transliteration] as ‘in the last days’, scholars customarily assert that only in the eschaton when the Messiah rules will this vision be fully realized. This reading shortchanges the exegesis. The expression wehayâ beªa˙årît hayyamîm is translated in the NRSV as ‘in days to come’ and should be understood as ‘whenever’. Hence, whenever and wherever (including here and now) the word of Yahweh’s instruction is embraced, the outcome will be eliminating weapons of destruction and instead forging implements of agricultural production. The oracle offers hope for the future, but it also addresses the immediate circumstance.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 37

<idle musing>
Wow; what a radical understanding. Maybe I have been living in a corner, but I have never heard this interpretation before. It certainly puts a different urgency on peacemaking!
</idle musing>

Vengeance is whose?

"The Psalms urge us to “seek peace, and pursue it” (34:14), an exhortation written by one who is teaching his family the fear of the Lord. The Psalms promise that “there is posterity for the peaceable” (37:37, NRSV; “there is a future for the man of peace,” NIV). Someone may retort that the imprecatory psalms strike a different note; the point is conceded: human emotions run high when people are provoked. But, strikingly, the imprecatory psalms call on God to take punitive action in accord with his promise/principle, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”—a major plank in the shalom position (Deut 32:35). The Writings segment of the canon advocates a strategy of desisting from personal vengeance when provoked.”— Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pp. 36-37

Shalom and monotheism

"The legacy of biblical monotheism is shalom, not violence.

“The intent of this essay is to sort out these two contradictory interpretations. I argue here that the cross along with the resurrection is the centerpiece of the Christian gospel, that its message is fundamentally reconciliation and peace, and that the method for achieving reconciliation and peace is absorbing the violence. Christians, followers of God’s way, share this message of reconciliation and peace and both advocate and practice nonviolence. Shalom is ultimately possible because of God’s intervention. An alternate title for this essay might be: “The Legacy of Biblical Monotheism: Shalom.”—Elmer Martens in War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 33.

111111 meme

OK, I've been tagged by Jim West and Nick Norelli for the BSC 111111 meme. I am not nearly as clever as those two, and have been struggling to come up with 5 imaginary posts by 5 bibliobloggers (per the instructions here), but am drawing a major blank. But, I don't want to hear Zwingli read to me by anyone—that would be worse than having Calvin read to me :)

First the rules:

a. Tag five Biblical studies bloggers.
b. Invent fictional posts that they might have written over the last month.
c. Link to this post.

Here are my lame attempts:
Charles Halton: "Why the University of Chicago is better than Hebrew Union College and why I wish I had gone there"

Kevin Edgecomb: "I just discovered that the filioque clause is right! Now what?"

Kevin Wilson: "Why I prefer the Anchor Bible Dictionary over the New Interpreter's Bible Dictionary"

Tyler Williams: "It's those 3 X's that are blocking it, really!"

Rick Brannan: "Greek accents don't really matter; one ALLA is as good as another!"

OK, I told you they were lame...now does anybody have a good idea for a July sale? That's what I should have been doing while I was straining my poor brain for this.

God and war

More from War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
“The evidence of Exodus 15 may be multiplied throughout the Bible; whenever war is associated with God’s activities, the majesty of God receives far more attention and praise than the war that he prosecutes.”—Hess, pages 31-32

War in the Bible

I have been reading War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. I have some good excerpts marked from chapter one, but forgot to bring it with me on this trip, so they will have to wait until next week.

Meanwhile, here's a good quote from chapter 2, by Rick Hess (page 25):

...no ancient war was entirely secular. Despite the horror of battle, the ancient world understood all its wars to be sacred, if not holy. That is, war involved the powers of heaven as well as earth. Therefore, every war that was prosecuted by an ancient people, whether great or small, was dependent on the favor of the gods for its success. The case was no different in Israel.

<idle musing>
I am always amazed by how difficult this concept is for people to grasp. For some reason the secular/sacred dichotomy of modern/post-modern life gets projected backwards onto texts and history. Of course, I would argue that the dichotomy is a false one even today :)
</idle musing>

Bang! Bang! Another one bites the dust

OK, bad title, but I have to agree with Scot McKnight on this one. The Supreme Court might be legally right, but they are wrong.

The Supreme Court decision is a classic example of being legal and right but dead wrong, in my opinion of course. Like the priest and levite who chose to avoid touching what they thought was a dead corpse but, in avoiding contracting impurity, missed the whole point of the law — to love God and to love others.

<idle musing>
"As long as their is sin in the world, there will be violence." I just read that yesterday in a book. But, do we have to make the tools of violence so readily available? Does anyone really need an automatic weapon? That is hardly a hunting weapon—at least not unless you are hunting humans!
</idle musing>

lost post

I ran across this yesterday, it was supposed to have been posted a week ago Wednesday, which explains why there was no post that day :)

Again, from Absolute Surrender:
All the feebleness in the Church is owing to the refusal to obey its God.

And why is that so? I know your answer. You say: “We are too feeble and too helpless, and we try to obey, and we vow to obey, but somehow we fail.”

Ah, yes; you fail because you do not accept the strength of God. God alone can work out His will in you. You cannot work out God's will, but His Holy Spirit can; and until the Church, until believers grasp this, and cease trying by human effort to do God's will, and wait upon the Holy Spirit to come with His omnipotent and enabling power, the Church will never be what God wants her to be, and what God is willing to make of her.

ATLA morning

Here are a couple of pictures. This is not a fancy display; I didn't even bring our pull-up banner because United would have charged me $25.00 to check it.

Death or death?

From My Utmost for His Highest:

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.

Moonlit walks

<idle musing>
Because I am away from home, I can't take my daily walk with Debbie. We usually take a walk around midnight or so, covering about 2 miles while we talk, sing, and pray together. I really like those times and miss them when we don't walk. There is something special about the outdoors after midnight.

This time of year is especially nice. Monday night the moon was about 1/2 full and it was clear. The fireflies have started coming out now, and they were flashing all over the woods. It was almost like a Christmas display. Tuesday night the sky was mostly cloudy, but that made the moon all the more interesting as it would try to peek through the clouds. Sometimes it almost looked like a fire burning a hole through them.
</idle musing>

Thoughts on travel

Well, I finally arrived at the hotel tonight. I arrived at the airport in South Bend (Indiana) around 3:00. I got a ride from Debbie's parents, since the hood still hasn't arrived for our car yet—although it is supposed to arrive on Thursday. I went to check in and the auto check-in wouldn't let me. It said something about overbooked flight or missing connecting flight. Immediately visions of staying the night at the airport flash to my mind :(

Well, turns out that the weather—lots of thunderstorms—had backed up South Bend and Chicago. My flight to Ottawa from Chicago would be gone by the time I left South Bend. But, they put me on a later flight. Problem solved. The flight, which was supposed to leave at 4:08, ended up leaving at 5:30. When I got to O'Hare, the flight I was originally booked on was still in the gate, so I could have made it. Instead I sat in the airport for an extra 2 hours. No problem though, I just caught up on some blog reading.

The flight to Ottawa was pretty uneventful, but the guy next to me was reading a Dan Brown type novel. He glanced over at what I was reading—the Greek New Testament. He went back to his novel. Too bad! It could have gotten interesting :)

Because I had shipped books ahead of me, they sent me to customs. I sat there for a long time while they grilled some people in front of me. I was wondering what I would be in for when all of a sudden a new customs officer appears with two people in tow. Apparently they had tried to bring meat into the country without declaring it. From Iraq! Uh-oh! They're probably still there, or in jail.

When they got to me, the customs woman asked me why I was here, what I had shipped, why I had shipped it and then let me go. I offered to show her the book I had in my backpack: Ashkelon 1, but she wasn't interested. I told her I was proud of it and that it was just published. She reluctantly agreed to let me show it to her, but she didn't seem impressed by its 7 pounds of mass. Oh well.

One advantage of catching the later flight was that I ran into the guys from TBN and we shared a cab. Since it was around 11:00 at night, I didn't see much of the city, but it looks nice. Hopefully I can walk around some while I am here.

When I got to my room and opened my suitcase, I noticed that they had rummaged through it. I had a brand new bottle of contact lens solution in a side pouch. The unzipped the pouch and moved it. It was still sealed, or I bet I wouldn't have it anymore. They also took my toothpaste! I've never had that happen before. Oh will, it has been a long day with 8 hours in airports, so I think I will head for bed. The hotel has a workout room that I will use in the morning.