The events in Joshua chapter ten followed right after the nation of Israel had been deceived into breaking the command of God.  God had told them to march into Canaan and kill all the inhabitants of the land.  Israel had successfully destroyed Jericho and Ai, but then the city of Gibeon sent men disguised as travelers from a distant land to trick Israel into signing a peace treaty and forming an alliance with them.  In Exodus 23:32-33, God had specifically forbidden Israel from making any covenants with the people in Canaan.  He said, "Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.  They shall not dwell in thy land."  Israel fell for the deception of Gibeon, and by signing the treaty, they violated the command of God.  Chapter nine ends with Israel’s realization of their sin, but look at how God turned their mistake into a victory in Chapter ten.

Over the past few years, I've had several friends ask me for my opinion of Mark Ward's book Authorized: The Use & Misuse of the King James Bible.  I read the book after the first request, and I found Ward's arguments to be both shallow and false.  My position on the KJV is that it is currently the most accurate English translation of the purest Greek and Hebrew texts.  I hold to that position for a variety of reasons drawn from my studies of theology, history, etymology, and linguistics.  I expected Ward's book to present an intellectual challenge to my position.  What I found instead was a childish and pedantic collection of arguments that did more to prove the ignorance of the author than to support his claims.

Every game has a set of rules that govern how the gameplay proceeds.
 
In Super Mario Bros., for example, there is a rule that jumping on a Goomba will kill it and a corresponding rule that if a Goomba runs into you it will kill you. You will have a very difficult time trying to win in Super Mario Bros. by running into Goombas, and your game will proceed much smoother if you try to win by jumping on the Goombas instead. You could argue that those who choose the latter are more privileged than those who choose the former, but that is solely the fault of those who choose to ignore the instruction book and attempt to play by their own rules.

This is part two of my review of the book The God Who Risks by John Sanders.  (Part one can be read here.)  Sanders is an Open Theist who claims that God does not have exhaustive knowledge of the future and that He learns things and changes over time.  I believe that this idea contradicts Scripture which teaches that God knows everything that will happen in the future, that He does not learn new things because He already knows everything, and that He does not change.

About a week ago, I wrote a quick blog post sharing my thoughts as I watched a video on Open Theism.  The creator of that video, Warren McGrew, decided to reply to my criticism by inviting Dr. Alan Rhoda to take part in a two-hour live critique of my blog post.  I wasn't planning to write anything more on Open Theism (except Part 2 of my analysis of The God Who Risks which is being edited now), but I had some free time this afternoon, so I figured I would respond to this video too.

On January 30, 1750, Jonathan Mayhew stood in the pulpit of Old West Church in Boston and preached what was to become one of the most famous sermons in history.  The occasion was the 101st anniversary of the death of King Charles I.  The challenge that Mayhew addressed before his congregation was the question of whether rebellion against a tyrant was a violation of the Bible's command in Romans 13 for Christians to submit to political rulers.

When considering Jefferson’s famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, most people only consider how the phrase “wall of separation” sounds to our modern ears.  To us, this phrase sounds as if it is describing an impenetrable impasse which stands between our nation’s religious institutions and her political institutions.  Consider, for example, the following opinion of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in McCollum v. Board of Education:

Every year around Easter, my Facebook feed fills up with speculations about the timing of the various events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  I’ve previously addressed questions about the hour at which Christ was crucified and about the timing of the crucifixion in relation to the Passover.  In this article, I’ll present a few of the reasons that I believe the crucifixion of Christ took place on a Thursday.