Confessions of a Seminarian

Jesus Christ!!!

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not Jesus viewed Himself as divine, and whether or not the early church viewed Him as divine. In response to these questions, I had asked for permission from Dr. Dan Doriani to post his lecture notes specifically on the implicit divinity claims throughout scripture. As I said, these are in note form and as such dont read that fluidly. If you are interested in reading a scholarly article by him that has been published on this topic, you may go here. If anyone simply wants a point on the notes clarified, please ask a question and I will do my best to answer. The PDF of his lecture notes is in our resource page as well. Enjoy:)

Good Humor

We have been delving into some of the really heavy topics lately, and I thought I would lighten things up a bit.  After all, God has a sense of humor, right?  Why else would He give me a photographic memory, dyslexia, and ADD.  That’s like putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in a room and seeing which one wins.  But seriously, scripture is filled with puns, funny stories, and odd little details that make you chuckle.  For instance, take a look at John’s account of the resurrection and note how many times John points out that he beat Peter in a foot race to the tomb!  It makes me laugh every time. Read more »

The Call of Discipleship: To Be a Blessing

“Missional” is such a buzzword in Christianity right now; thus it’s impossible to use it without defining it. For many, it’s the new word that means “evangelism.” For others, it means downplaying or ignoring so-called “offensive” aspects of the Bible so Christianity is more sensitive to our culture’s extreme value of tolerance. Regardless, the Bible describes the mission of Christians as being a blessing.

To show this, I’m going back to the “founding father” of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity: Abraham Read more »

Confessions of a Hard Heart

This week I was sitting with some people telling “inspiring stories” in their Christian lives.  Many of the people around in the room were edified as a woman explained her most intimate moment with God, or as a young man told a story of how God provided for him after he prayed.  Typically, I rolled my eyes and kept my mouth shut.

Then I realized, theses people do not have a problem, I do.  These people’s faith was not naïve, nor were their stories unbiblical.  The problem was that I was unwilling to hear them.  It was not that their stories were not powerful, but that my heart was (and likely still is) hard.  Here was a real moment to find fellowship with other Christians, and I blew it.

  Read more »