Absolom Bracer

Posts in ‘Old Testament’

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

Genesis – Chapter 1?

Clashes between the Church and Science are nothing new. Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter, but later denied his discovery. To claim otherwise was to burn at the stake. Now that we have explored those same moons with our space probes, even the Pope admits their existence today. How can we reconcile the Bible and the claims of modern science?

  • Posted: December 9, 2012

Genesis and Science

As Marco Rubio re-learned, it is dangerous to mix Genesis and Science. Do Christians remain in the closet or do we come out? What do we say when we come out?

  • Posted: September 11, 2012

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  • What I’m Reading

    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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