Bible

The Feasts of the Lord

Who doesn’t love a good feast? We might think of Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving, perhaps a wedding or a graduation feast with friends and family. Personally, the image from ‘The Grinch’ always drifts into mind, where ‘He, he himself…the Grinch…carved the roast-beast!’ Biblically though, feast is one of those words that doesn’t mean what we think …

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The Meaning of Hannukah

We all know that Christmas is celebrated differently around the world – and sometimes we mistakenly think that the Jewish celebration of Hannukah is simply their variation of Christmas; it falls at the same time of year. But of course the great majority of Jews never accepted Jesus as Christ, so they don’t celebrate Christmas.  …

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Context is King

Whenever a question of biblical interpretation comes up, the first and foremost consideration must be context.  In my days at theological college, the absolute importance of context was drilled into us.  So in my very first lecturing role in hermeneutics (interpretation) at Domboshawa College in Zimbabwe, I taught my students to remember the phrase: ‘Context …

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But do you take it literally?

We’ve probably all been asked at one time or another, ‘Do you take the Bible literally’?  My advice? Never, ever, ever answer that question.  Why not?  Because the questioner is either naïve, or it’s a trap.  The question is simply not legitimate.  First, the Bible is not a book.  It’s a collection of books – …

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