Trying to be sensible about doctrine.
I woke up yesterday with a strong urge to write about the possible means of “you are all gods”. So this is what I am doing. It is found in Psalm 82:6 (thus the title).
In John 10:31-39, Jesus is recorded as saying “Is it not written, ye are all gods?” I am going to explore the source of this quote. I will lay out the different ways the psalm could be understood and then see which ones fit with the way Jesus used it.
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The community was asked to share their favourite religiously-themed jokes on Questions for Christians. They did not disappoint.
Here are some of my picks from the replies.
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The state is not here to service the church and enforce her laws. The church is here to serve the state or, more accurately, the people therein.
We were never meant to fight issues like abortion through the courts and the halls of lawmaking. We were meant to weep on our knees before God over the loss of unborn lives. And, while weeping, hold the hand of the woman seeking an abortion and defend her right to choose. In doing so we can say with our actions “we are here for you and your choices; look at our lives – there is another way”.
If we cannot point to another way through our lives and actions, we have no business condemning others when they fail to follow a path that we ourselves have yet to demonstrate.
Is it not written in the book of Romans, “who are you to judge another man’s servant?” If we are not to even judge our fellow servants in Christ, how much less are we supposed to judge those that serve any other authority?
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I seem to have taken an unintended sabbatical from this blog. I have many ideas and will be back to write about them soon.
Brown–Driver–Briggs is a Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament known as Brown–Driver–Briggs or BDB (from the name of its three authors). Brown–Driver–Briggs was first published in 1906.
Brown–Driver–Briggs is a standard reference for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. It is organized by (Hebrew) alphabetical order of three-letter roots. The chief editor was Francis Brown, with the co-operation of Samuel Rolles Driver and Charles Augustus Briggs, hence the name Brown–Driver–Briggs.
See also (as I add them) Thayer, Strong, and Gesenius.
I asked Tumblr if the bible was against men having long hair.
The reason for my asking was that 1 Corinthians 11:14 says something that is frequently given as a biblical rule that men should have short hair. Whereas Ezekiel 44:20 and Numbers 6:5 seem to command the exact opposite.
I have talked before about testable doctrine. Any conclusion from 1 Corinthians 11:14 should, likewise, be tested.
One thing that I find strange is that this passage stands alone. There do not seem to be other writers of scripture endorsing the position of 1 Corinthians 11 on men and long hair.
Furthermore, the foundation for the New Testament, the Old Testament, seems to teach the exact opposite. How can we arrive at 1 Corinthians 11:14 from the old via the teachings of Jesus? I do not presently see any path no matter how nebulous.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (the very same text) can be mustered to say that all things are allowable within reason and personal restraint.
“All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12 [NET]
Indeed, the doctrine of grace could, likewise, be mustered to say that God is not concerned about the outward appearance but of the heart of a person. Therefore long hair on men can be said to be a non-issue.
The long hair on men is a shame passage stands alone and in contrast to many other passages. Quite what the writer of that verse was trying to say and how it can be fitted into the wider scriptural narrative is not a question I feel qualified to attempt at this time.
This 1 Corinthians sits as a paradox in its apparent irreconcilable contradiction of itself on this subject.
Is the bible against men having long hair? Yes and no, apparently.
I asked social media if you can you have morality aside from a divine authority? This is some of the discussion that resulted.
I asked social media, should each gender have different roles? This is the discussion that followed.
Is God all-powerful (omnipotent)? Is it true, as it is written in Luke 1:37, that there is nothing He cannot do?
God as an omnipotent creator is what I was taught growing up. It is what the Bible does indeed seem to teach (the foundational axiom is that the Bible is good for teaching and establishing doctrine).
So why do we have a common teaching that suggests God is not all-powerful?
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