Category: Gospel Doctrine

Here’s the link to my combined podcast of lessons 29-30, and transcript.

I find the order of the next few lessons a bit odd. Today we cover about 100+ years of major history (c. 750BC- 609BC), which happens to be the same time period and historical background for Amos (760 bce), Micah and Isaiah (735-700), Nahum (between 663 and 612), Jeremiah (627-??), Lehi, Urijah (Jer 26:20-23) and we’ve probably skipped Joel (uncertain), Obadiah (uncertain), Habbakuk (uncertain), and Jonah (set sometime before 612). (All dates are approximate.) Continue reading

We skip chapters to move into Kings today, but it’s useful to recap the history.

David virtually passes sentence upon himself and his house in 2Sa 12:5-6, “As the LORD lives [an oath], the man who has done this deserves to die.” (NRSV)

When Nathan says to him, “Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die” he’s not absolving him of adultery and murder per se (as the JST would take it), as much as “look, you’re forgiven to the extent that the Lord is not going to strike you down right here and now, which is what you said should be done to someone who has done what you did.” Continue reading

Eeckhout, public domain via wikipedia.

First, here is my podcast for this lesson.
Now, as we move into books like Samuel and Kings that are more historical in nature, we need to discuss just what that means. How should we read and understand these? Continue reading

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Mat 22:36-40 KJV)

I begin with this familiar passage because it bears directly on our study of Deuteronomy. It illustrates two things. Continue reading

Balaam, the donkey, and the angel, by Jaeger. Public domain in US via wikimedia commons.

These chapters are all about Balaam, Balaam’s talking donkey, God’s power, blessing and cursing. The manual chooses as subtitle “I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord” and describes its purpose as “to encourage class members to submit to God’s will without hesitation.”

First off, I think without any parsing, that’s a dangerously overstated thing to say. And secondly, even when carefully parsed… I think it’s dangerously overstated.
Why? Continue reading

The Ten Words, from the 1638 Amsterdam Esnoga synagogue. Public domain.

Insert here my usual gripe about how we’re trying to cover so much ground in so little time, but let’s talk about The Ten Commandments. It’s a common-knowledge topic, and everyone’s seen the film, so we all know everything about them, right? Continue reading