Bock
Darrell Bocks posts
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Interview about Jesus according to Scripture
Fred Zaspel runs a web site called Books at a Glance. He just completed an interview with me about my book, Jesus according to Scripture. It is the first of several he plans to do about my books. This is a book I loved writing. It covers all of the gospels and how Scripture presents Jesus in quadaphonic sound. Here is the link to that interview: http://booksataglance.com/author-interviews/interview-with-darrell-bock-author-of-jesus-according-to-scripture-restoring-the-portrait-from-the-gospels I hope you find the exchange enjoyable. My blogs are likely to be erratic the next few weeks. as I am in Ireland now and headed for Australia tomorrow for a large, complex round of teaching over the next 6 weeks. I will…
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Some Statistics to Think About
As churches consider their call to mission, it is important to see what is going on around us. In particular, the family as we know it is becoming a minority idea. Here are some statistics that should make us think about how might we minister to people in single parent homes, not just the formerly married. Here are statistics tied to unmarried births as of 2011.[i] We seek to trace how things have changed since 1980. In 2011, there were 46 births for every 1,000 unmarried women in the USA. That number has remained relatively steady since 1994. However in 1980, there were 29 births per 1,000. So the 2011…
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Common Grace, by Abraham Kuyper
I bought Common Grace thinking it would be a discussion of what those outside of faith share as humans. In fact it was something else. It was a close look at two covenants prominent in Reformed Theology: the Adamic and Noahic covenants. The focus is on God's program and what he asks of us as humans before Him. It is full of reflection about these two parts of Genesis and discussion of theological concepts such as the image of God, original righteousness, paradise, God's promise not to destroy the world again by flood, and numerous other ideas. The result of rading the book leads one to ponder why we are…
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New Assessment Argues Jesus’ Wife Text Is a Forgery, Updated 5/10/2014
Tyndale House in Cambridge has just posted an interview with Christian Askeland arguing the Jesus wife text is a forgery. Christian is a resident at the research library and has done detailed work in Egyptian Coptic Texts. Here is the link to the interview: http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=97&cntnt01returnid=15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tyndale+News+May+2014+alternative&utm_content=Tyndale+News+May+2014+alternative+CID_23ff96ee4b7b2ac5a7daa18126d70f43&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_term=You%20can%20read%20what%20he%20said%20here In addition, there is a summary Christian has posted himself. This is the latest take on this text and there is good reason now to question whether the actual text is authentic. Here is Christian's own summary: http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-forgery-of-lycopolitan-gospel-of.html The key here is that another fragment (that is a Coptic version of John) in the Karen King collection that included the Jesus…
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Greg Forster’s Joy for the World
How can the church be a positive presence in the culture? How did it lose its place? How can it come again to be a place where its influence can be positively felt? That is the goal of Greg Forster’s new book, Joy for the World. Forster is Program Director at the Kern Family Foundation and a senior fellow at the Friedman Foundation for Educational choice. He is a political scientist with a degree from Yale University and is one of those thoughtful believers wrestling with how the church should function in a diverse culture. His book begins examining how America was an experiment with one of its greatest innovations…
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Repost of Hollywood, Bible and the Movies: Should We Rewind How We View?
Last week Gospel Coalition posted my blog on the recent set of movies that questioend how we are engaging this area in the public square. I am reposting the link here now that it is off their main page. It has been widely recirculated. Here is the full link: http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/tgc/hollywood-movies-and-the-bible-should-we-rewind-on-how-we-view The core blog is below: I have watched with great interest the thumbs up or thumbs down on the host of recent Hollywood movies. I have seen those opinions raised often with a sense that if you think otherwise, the Holy Spirit must have departed your soul while you were at the movie or departed from it before you…
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Jesus Wife Text, Part Deux (Updated 4/13/14)
Well, we finally heard the scientific report on the Jesus Wife manuscript from a year and a half ago. Yes, right before Easter, as always. The sense of PR timing is so consistent. What we have, according to the analysis, is an ancient manuscript from the 6th to 9th century. This is pretty standard for an ancient manuscript. Key here, if the analysis is correct, is we do not have a modern forgery. The claim is it goes back to the second to fourth century, but how can one know that with so little to work with? It is a suggestion based on when these discussions commonly arose. That is…
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Reversal: Its Lesson
The board of World Vision is to be thanked for its prayerful reconsideration of its earlier decision. Reflecting and turning back is a very biblical concept. The move shows the heart intent of the organization as we live in a complex world full of ethical tension and their ultimate desire to represent Christ well. The criticism that came was because many Christians so love what World Vision stands for and what it seeks to represent in its care for those in need. This is true of the engagement on the entire topic. It is love that motivates critique, not hate. That is what good friends do. They challenge because they…
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More World, Less Vision
This is a sad blog to write. It is about a profound failure in a ministry whose track record has been good, even exemplary. World Vision has served the needs of the poor in exceptional ways for decades. I recall with deep fondness visiting numerous times their school site located on the edge of the garbage dump in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I took students in to show how poverty can be met with ministry. Their outreach to children living in the dump to give them a core education using the help of volunteers and seminary students showed love and compassion of the deepest kind. It was the faith at its…
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Fox News, Resurrection and Truth Matters
I continue to do a host of interviews about the book Truth Matters. It continues to do very well. There is a lot of buzz around it, as they say. One of the latest interviews was with Lauren Green of Fox News on a segment called Spirited Debate. Most of the conversation was on the resurrection, since Easter is approaching. So here is the link of the six minute discussion. How much can one say in six minutes? Well we tried to cover the empty tomb and the body being stolen among other things. Not time for too much more. The interview by uplink was interesting since you are in a…