6/19/2012 Links

I have three links for today:

1.  Sarah Moon’s blog has a guest post by Abe Kobylanski entitled What Makes a Good Daddy?  Abe talks about how certain Christians (such as the Christians in a small group that he was in) claim that only Christians can show love, and yet his father is an atheist and has shown love to him numerous times.  Abe asks if all love, including the love shown by non-Christians, can be from God.  This is a beautiful post because of what Abe says about his father.  But (whether this would be Abe’s intention or not) the post also reminded me of why I tend to shy away from evangelical small groups, in which (in my opinion, based on my experience) there’s a lot of simplistic bombast.

2.  Derek Leman has an excellent post, Chicken or Egg? Bible and Culture, in which he touches on similarities between Yom Kippur and a Babylonian day (while also acknowledging that there are differences between the two).  So did a biblical author simply copy from another culture?  What are the theological implications of that?  Derek says that the ways in which the Hebrew Bible reflect its ancient Near Eastern environment demonstrate that revelation is incarnational and that God dialogues with human beings.  Derek states: “God dialogues more so than lecturing. Revelation is give and take, a discussion. And we are partners in the discussion, because we are made of God-stuff. “  Derek makes essentially the same point as Peter Enns in Inspiration and Incarnation, which many have echoed.  But Derek made it in a manner that resonated with me.

3.  And, speaking of Peter Enns, he has a post on evangelicals getting a Ph.D. in biblical studies—-advice for those considering it, potential pitfalls, how one shouldn’t attribute certain thoughts and feelings to God, etc.