The Wandering Heretic

Awhile back I made (and to some extent proved) that the earliest New Testament document written was the Epistle of James, one of the sons of Zebedee (Mat. 4:21). Somewhat ironically, I am now going to make the assertion that the last book of the New Testament was written by his brother, John.
However, after [...]

We, the United States citizens, have elected the first declared radically left wing President. It does not matter if the popular vote in favor of this change was 52% of the populace; this country works in terms of the electoral college and on those terms it was a mandate. Those in power will act [...]

Updated: See below.
Now that Colin Powell has probably given the coup de grace to the McCain/Palin candidacy, I am going to take some time to review or give my postmortem on this year’s Presidential Election. (Though barely a day after Powell pulled the trigger, Joe Biden dove in front of the bullet—but I will [...]

The issue of Payday Lenders is the latest “social concern” of Ohio area pastors. As I have noted already, they are behind current proposed legislation (HB 333) to limit such lenders to a 36 APR rate on short term loans. My previous essay noted that the Bible does not lend its support to [...]

The decision of James at the Jerusalem council has been the subject of some controversy; not the decision itself but the rational behind the decision. Unless someone is willing to admit that the four restrictions of Gentile behavior were arbitrary, James had to have some underlying understanding of the Scriptures that prompted that focus.
This [...]

The decision of James at the Jerusalem Council almost demands a search for the underlying logic. On its own, the four stipulations given to the Gentiles appear almost random. They were to avoid “things” sacrificed to idols, blood, food that was strangled, and “sexual perversion.” As I noted previously, this is [...]

In my last post, I discussed Tim Hegg’s proposed underlying logic behind James decision at the Jerusalem Council. Hegg’s rather extensive and valuable contribution to this topic is contained in his essay, Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council. In that document, Hegg proposes that the four restrictions given on Gentile behavior all had [...]

The decision of James at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:19-21 and codified in a letter to the Gentile churches in Acts 15:28-29 almost begs for an underlying rational. On its own, it does not serve as a comprehensive ethic, for it restricts Gentiles only from 1) things offered to images, 2) blood, 3) [...]

In my last post, I noted the quandary that was created by God’s desire to “bring in the Gentiles.” The Apostles were taken aback by just how committed God was to that goal. In essence, they suddenly had a large group of Gentiles who were attaching themselves to Israel through the Jewish Messiah, [...]

N.T. Wright has often said that an ordination question he asks seminarians concerns just what three chapters of the Bible they would keep if they were about to be stranded on a desert island. Then he notes, they already have Matthew 28, John 3, and Romans 8. I used to be at a [...]