November 2, 2011 Can a Christian, or anyone for that matter, really speak for God? This episode uses President Obama’s recent attempt to do so as a test case, but not in a political sort of way, in a biblical-speaking sort of way.
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October 20, 2011 Whether one thinks that the Bible has God as its author, or several humans with competing agendas, or even some middle ground, one must admit that there are some pretty amazing nuggets in the text of the Bible. Genesis 9:6 has fascinated me in recent weeks. The NASB translation is: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.” One can see in the English that there is a kind of parallelism in the first two clauses. Then there is a descriptive reason given. But the underlying structure becomes even more fascinating in the Hebrew. I’ll highlight the structure of the parallelism which seems to be a chiasm.
I find it interesting that the exact same words are reordered, with the appropriate verbal and prepositional changes. The writer used this technique to create rhetorical force. Then he adds the explanatory clause or purpose clause. In that final clause of verse 6, the fact that God’s image is in man is somehow tied to the previous two clauses. This is prose no doubt. But it is a deeper more stylized sort of prose than one finds in a Dan Brown book. One might summarize the rhetorical thrust of this verse as conveying the idea that one who kills another human will himself be killed because he has destroyed the image of God. If the third clause (which is introduced with the ki preposition) was not in the text, this might seem like something out of one of the wisdom writings, but the third clause gives a more worshipful purpose to the apparent general law of the world.
Genesis is some deep stuff. I can’t count how many times I’ve read it in English. I’ve probably read it 5 times in Hebrew, and several parts 30 times. Yet, it still fascinates me.
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October 3, 2011 
I first saw a story about “crazy” ants on Yahoo News. Then I read this story from Texas A&M describing the ants in detail. These ants constitute a true ecological concern. I say that because they are an invading species that disrupt the ecology of the land they invade.
One thing I find interesting is that if one works from a truly evolutionary perspective, then one should allow them free reign to breed and move wherever they like. After all survival of the fittest means that if these guys kill off fire ants then they deserve the habitat because they are the fittest. Yet, it seems that “green” minded people who aren’t Christians are often the ones who think that this sort of species invasion should be controlled.
On the other hand, there is often no sort of Christian response to a species invasion. What I mean is that Christians who claim that creation was made with an intended order should be fundamentally opposed to a disruption of that order, such as species invasion. Yet, often Christians don’t even think about the implications that invading ants have on the ecology of creation, the land in which we live.
Thankfully these ants are not found in my county within Texas, but as the above picture shows, the ants are moving along the coastline.
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September 25, 2011 I discuss the good and the bad of the Bible going digital. It’s on your iPad, your phone, and your coffee table – but is that good? Have you thought about it? Give this track a listen and let me know what you think!!
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