Twenty Years Ago I Wish

By | July 11, 2012
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I wish I had read this book twenty years ago. It existed, but I was unaware of it. There may be others equally good or better, but I don’t know of them. I do know that if I had read it twenty years ago, I would have read it several times since, and my writing would have been better for it.

There are probably many boring books about writing in the world. Writing with Style is not one of them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I laughed out loud frequently. I did not want the book to end. Why? Because the book itself was an example of what it was trying to teach: how to write so that people want to read what you write.

For example, the author suggested that surprise is a valuable element in the writer’s toolbox. And he used it effectively many times. style-trimble

I will never forget his chapter on revising. And it’s only 8 lines long.

The “Fundamentals” section includes chapters on openers, diction, superstitions, and proofreading. The “Odds & Ends” section includes such things as a chapter on punctuation, but if you ‘re not ready for a rather lengthy discussion of the rules and why they exist, you can skip it. The last 25 pages are quotes from writers about writing.

The book is filled with great quotes, helpful tips, and personal examples. I read the second edition, which was published on the 25th anniversary of the first edition, and I felt like I was enjoying the fruits of 25 years of continued learning, revising, and improving the book. As I go to check the link on Amazon, I see a 3rd edition is available (and the price is much too high for a thin paperback). The 2nd edition is available used for much less.

I’d like to require this for every class I ever teach in the future.

Thank You

By | June 28, 2012
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In December of last year, I suggested that you might use a link I provided when going to Amazon.com to shop. Any purchases made from that link would provide a commission to me. Probably a few of you, but likely one in particular, put that link in a good spot and the results were significant. My commissions went from about $30/month to $75-$140/month. That was a nice surprise, and I’ve been able to do a few good things with the surplus, including buying Kelli a camera. It may be her first non-hand-me-down since we got married :-). Thank you.

First Photos 169

The girls pass their swimming lessons class; photo by Mommy

Heaven Experiences

By | June 19, 2012
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I think that a lot of Christians struggle with what to do with the testimony of a person who claims to have gone to heaven and come back. How do you respond to someone who makes such a claim? You can’t call them a liar, can you? How do you argue with someone’s experience?

Tim Challies has a brief answer to that question that may be helpful if you don’t know what to say or think. The whole post is worth reading, as well as this conclusion:

How do I respond to a Christian who has read these books and who finds great joy or comfort in them? You point that person to what is true. You will need to be careful with tone and timing, but ultimately, it will be a blessing for any Christian to direct his faith to the worthy object of faith. Faith will be strengthened by reading the Bible and believing it. Faith will be weakened by reading the Bible and believing it only after reading 90 Minutes in Heaven. You can serve any Christian by directing him to the Bible and helping him to see that we are called to believe God on the basis of what he says in his Word, not on the basis of another person’s experience. 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven Is For Real and all the rest are not books that beautify the doctrine of heaven, but books that attack the doctrine of Scripture. The Bible insists that it is enough, that it is sufficient, that we have no need for further special revelation from God; these books insist that it is not.

He has a follow-up post that addresses biblical passages that may seem to be similar to Near Death Experiences but are not.

Jesus in a Vacuum

By | June 6, 2012
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I am astonished by R.C. Sproul’s answer to the question, “What does Scripture teach us about the future role of Israel?”

He starts off well, giving two major views:

Some Christians believe that the New Testament church replaces Old Testament Israel as the subject matter of Old Testament prophecies about Israel. That is to say that the church today is regarded as the new Israel. If this is so, then any prophecies in the Bible having to do with Israel now refer to the Christian church and have no specific reference to the nation of Israel.

Other Christians are convinced that the Scriptures have much to say about ethnic, national Israel and that God still has another chapter to write for the Jewish people as such. I am persuaded that God will write a new chapter for ethnic Israel, for the Jewish people who are alive in the world today. I’m persuaded of that principally because of Paul’s teaching in his epistle to the church at Rome; in this letter he makes a clear distinction between the Jewish people and the Christian church (Rom. 11). In that distinction he speaks about the fact that God still has work to do with the Jewish people.

He continues well, citing Jesus’s prophecy of the end times:

One of the most important sections of all of Scripture that teaches about future things is what we call the Olivet discourse, called such because it takes place on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24). Here, Jesus and his disciples discuss future events. Jesus speaks about the last times and the signs of the times and those things that will transpire at the end of the age before he returns to this planet. For example, in Luke 21:5-28, Jesus predicts the imminent destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple. This took place in A.D. 70, when the Romans perpetrated a holocaust against the Jewish people by destroying Jerusalem, slaughtering about one million Jewish people, and tearing the temple down. The Jews, of course, then went into exile. But when Jesus made this prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, he said that Jerusalem would be trodden underfoot until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So even our Lord talked in his prophetic utterances about a period in which that exile of the Jewish nation would end and they would return to Jerusalem, which has taken place in our own very day.

But watch how he concludes:

Beyond that, I do not know and can’t speak specifically to Israel’s situation.

In other words, all that Dr. Sproul knows about the future of Israel is what is recorded in Romans 9-11 and the Olivet Discourse.

I see two failures here. The first and obvious one is that Dr. Sproul is unaware of all that the Old Testament teaches about the future of Israel. The second is what motivated this post. Dr. Sproul (and many others) do not realize that the source of Jesus’s prophetic knowledge was the Old Testament. What Jesus told his disciples in the Olivet Discourse was little more than a summary of the visions that Daniel had received. When one doesn’t know the Old Testament, then one doesn’t recognize when the New Testament is repeating or developing revelation from the Old Testament, and then one may conclude that “beyond” what Jesus says, we are in the dark. But Jesus expects his disciples to know and understand the Old Testament, and he said to those who did not, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).

The future of Israel is not a minor issue found in an obscure verse or two, but it is instead the major theme of many prophets, including Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai, Obadiah, Micah, as well as of large portions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. These books are not optional reading for Christians and their relevance did not end when Jesus came and the New Testament was written. The surest way to misinterpret the New Testament is by ignoring the Old.

The Month of May

By | May 31, 2012
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For one who works, studies, and plays at home, my life could be quite a mess without some rather careful borders that separate study time from work time from family time from blog time. The last of these falls into the evening hours, after the kids go to bed. As the kids get older, they go to bed later, and there are fewer evening hours in my life. Some other pursuits have been pushed into the same slot as I try to guard the more central hours of my day. The result is that I usually have to turn in before I’ve had a chance to consider something for the blog.

I’m going to steal the last few minutes of the month of May to write a brief summary of a few items of significance this month.

1. I’ve already noted the completion of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. I doubt that I will ever do a project as large as this in the future. (Before the millennium, anyway.)

2. Publication of the photo collection does not end related work, however, as websites still need to be updated and expanded, and support provided for potential and real customers.

3. The photo work has taken second seat to the dissertation in the last two weeks. I have begun research in earnest, adding to what I did in previous years in writing an exploratory paper and then crafting a proposal. I am enjoying getting re-acquainted with the 9th century BC.

4. Though technically a few hours beyond the month of May, four of our kids are expected to pass their grade in the last day of school tomorrow. We ‘ll then have a pair of 8th graders, a 5th grader, and a 3rd grader.

5. This week our home was invaded by not one but two electronic devices. They ‘re tablet-type devices, not phones, but two of the kids saved their money for a long time and within days of each other crossed the desired thresholds to order the device of their dreams. Now on my wishlist: a device to make parenting easier.

6. I spent the four Sundays of the month teaching through Daniel 9. I enjoyed this great section of Scripture. Chapter 10 has me more mystified.

7. At the beginning of the month I was in Israel, finishing a two-week tour with a group of 45 from my church. That was a special trip in many ways. Two days ago I finished naming the 1,100 photos I took. Someone please tell me that I can stop taking pictures already.

8. I had the opportunity for a quick flight to California to honor a professor retiring at Talbot with whom I’ve worked for many years. Teaching Talbot Bible Lands since 2000 has been a great blessing for me.

9. Especially on plane rides, I read a few books: Domestic Life in Palestine, by Rogers (4 stars), Unbroken, by Hillenbrand (5 stars), The Reason for God, by Keller (4 stars), Scholars on the Record, by Shanks (4 stars), and Sinking the Dayspring, by Jackson (3 stars).

Shechem, Tell Balata, Middle Bronze wall and Mount Gerizim, tb042612790

Back at Shechem for the first time since 2000

A Big Day

By | May 15, 2012
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120515564tb Kids with new PLBL

I’ve created a number of digital publications over the years, but this was the first one in which the whole family was involved. Lots of little details that most will never guess needed to be done were worked on by these four over the last year. Thus they were all excited when I delivered the masters to the replicator and when their own copies arrived in the mail. (I think they are also in awe that they now have a personal possession valued at about $400.)

I can only wonder what help will be provided in the future by the little guy holding the dog.

May 10

By | May 10, 2012
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Here’s a cool chart of Psalm 119.

Nathan Busenitz lists five dangers of fallible prophecy. This is important.

“How do incredibly wealthy superstar athletes blow their fortunes?”

Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu are old friends. I wouldn’t have guessed.

Somebody has analyzed email closings and graphed the most popular from natural to self-conscious, and from familiar to unfamiliar. This is still my least favorite part of writing an email.

A red button. This video is fun.

April 16

By | April 16, 2012
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I’ve been away for a while and one of the things I accomplished was finishing the revised edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. If you look at my Twitter feed, you would have seen that I finished one year to the day that I passed my last comprehensive exam. (We won’t say anything about how I expected the project to take four months.)

I didn’t understand how robots would work in a fulfillment warehouse, but now I do.

This version of Hamlet is supposed to be the best. It is online for free.

An Isaiah devotional is one way to get yourself into this amazing book.

Farjumping: sign this former pole vaulter up!

I really do hate all things i, but this is still kinda cool.