Posts in ‘Old Testament’

Acte – A Strong Woman in the Court of Nero

Evil is a roaring lion stalking the land. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. It is to our eternal shame as men that sometimes a woman must show us the way.

  • Posted: July 16, 2022

The Great Flood

Something happened in the Black Sea 7,500 years ago. It’s all about climate change, real climate change. It could be the flood of Noah as told in Genesis. Is anybody interested?

  • Posted: November 30, 2021

Methodist Anschluss

Anschluss is history’s name for the abject surrender of Austria to the Nazi Reich. As the Nazi’s goosestepped into Vienna, Austria’s citizens watched helplessly at something that could have easily been stopped. Is this the fate of the Methodist Church?

  • Posted: February 13, 2020

The Making of an Apostle

Peter knew Jesus for three years, but it was on the shores of Galilee that he really came to know Him.

  • Posted: April 15, 2019

Esther & the King

Cinderella behind the scenes. A plunge into the history of the Middle East through the eyes of Herodotus, Ctesias, and the Book of Esther – with a nod to Rodgers and Hammerstein

  • Posted: October 23, 2018

A Virgin Will be with Child

In times of trouble we seek a sign from God. There was a man who refused to seek a sign from God.

  • Posted: December 16, 2017

The Age of Reason

The Enlightenment of Western Civilization created the world of science and technology that has made our comfortable life possible. But it also challenges our belief in God. Where do we go from here?

  • Posted: June 10, 2013

Garden of Virtue

People are basically good, aren’t they?

  • Posted: March 19, 2013

Battle of the Sexes

The world of Father Knows Best has evolved into the world of Modern Family. A lot has changed, but men and women still are often crossways with each other. Will it always be that way?

  • Posted: January 26, 2013

The Creator or Creation?

There is something in the human soul that desires, actually needs, to idealize something greater than ourselves. Earlier generations would use the more accurate and descriptive word worship, rather than idealize, but that is a topic for another post. What we choose to idealize says a lot about us.

  • Posted: January 15, 2013
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    What I’m Reading

    The Twelfth Department
    By William Ryan

    What happens when we forget, or never bothered to learn, what we believe in and why we believe? What happens when the emotional whirls of Facebook and Twitter are the depths of our understanding? Evil, great evil, is regularly found lurking in the unexamined depths of good intentions. Mathew Arnold put our present political climate in memorable words years ago:

    And we are here as on a darkling plain
    Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
    Where ignorant armies clash by night

    Novels, good stories, provide a lens to see life, including our beliefs, without camouflage. As an example, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the finest Bible commentaries ever written. Progressive political ideals may lack in recent electoral success, but have undisputed possession of today’s moral high ground. And while death and taxes may be the only sure bets, the eventual victory of those holding the high ground have very good odds in any battle.
    And so fiction provides a look at eventual victories. There is no question that the outlines of today’s progressive agenda can be clearly seen in other times and places. William Ryan takes us to a time and place fondly imagined, idealized at the time, by the forefather’s of todays progressive leadership. In The Twelfth Department, we see a police captain in 1930’s Moscow. Captain Alexei Korolev is just a man trying to be a good father, a good citizen, a good police officer. In many ways Alexei is a fortunate man, with a good reputation and many more material advantages than the average citizen. But a high profile murder brings him into ambiguous circumstances. The tone of the book is respectful of life in Moscow, with no axes to grind. It is just a portrait of a man trying to do his job, bringing a gruesome killer to justice, among ordinary human beings seeking only to live normal lives in a progressive paradise.

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