Tag Archives: Research

Come, let us reason together. To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom!

Plumbing the Mysteries of God In modern English when we describe something as a “Mystery”, we mean it has not been “solved”. Either we can get enough information and can solve it, or we can’t and it remains a mystery. But that’s not what the word means when you read it in the Bible. In the Bible […]

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Bachelor of Theology: Done

The Results are In I have now officially earned my Bachelor of Theology. I’m proud of my results – my overall GPA is a “Distinction”. How do I feel about that? What have I learned…?

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An Encounter with a Modern-Day Cultural Man

Bennelong: One Man, Two Worlds I have a (dear) friend who grew up as a young boy learning many of the Indigenous Australian ways – bushcraft, stories, hunting, and so forth. I had the opportunity to interview him as part of an anthropology assignment, and in the process I became his student. For some cursory background […]

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1 Corinthians 11 – Why Head Coverings for Women? Does it apply today?

1 Corinthians 11:3-12 – The Head Coverings. Must women cover their heads to pray? Must men remove head coverings? That is what this passage says, but does it apply today?

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A Fraud: The so-called Constantine Creed

Beware of Propaganda A quick note to express my gratitude to Roger Pearse, who has exposed the increasingly popular fraud called the “Constantine Creed”.

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Holiness: It’s not a process.

What is “holiness”? The term “holiness” conjures ideas of piety and moral uprightness. In fact, the word translated as “saint” from the New Testament is literally “holy person”. So we might well imagine very religious piety. Sanctification is a word based on the same Greek root word as “holy”. It means making something holy. Modern commentators will […]

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A magnifying glass on the Galileans, the Blood, the Tower of Siloam, and the Vineyard of Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:19 – Pilate, Tower, Siloam, Galileans, Blood, Sarcifices, Sin, Calamity, Vinyard, and Jesus. I recently wrote this piece about Luke 13:1-9. My findings surprised me in one way: I had always thought this passage was about “sin and calamity”, and as it turns out, most Bible scholars think that too, to various extents. What I […]

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Trinity: Perhaps the JW’s believe it?

Trinity: Have the JW’s withdrawn their objection? I’ve given Roman Catholic theology a few critiques, so it’s only fair that I publish something different. I recently wrote this essay to refute the 1989 Jehovah’s Witness tract entitled, “Trinity: Should you believe it?” My overall answer is that the tract was badly misleading and inaccurate. It […]

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Romans 8:12-14 “Flesh and Spirit”. Do the translators understand?

Discerning the Worldview of the Translators…? The Bible talks about “the flesh” and “the spirit”. Various translations treat these concepts in subtly different ways, and in those differences there can be substantial theological impact. Irrespective of what we want it to say, it is important to comprehend what the original author meant by these terms, […]

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Isaiah: Hiddenness

Isaiah and the theme of Hiddenness In the Book of Isaiah there is a notable theme describing a kind of “hiddenness”, which refers to spiritual blindness and deafness by the people. It is a fascinating theme, and often misunderstood. This is a little journey through the Book of Isaiah tracking on this particular theme.

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The Big Biblical Covenants and their Relationship to Hittite Suzerainty Treaties

Summary The four “major covenants”, with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David are reviewed with a particular eye to their possible relationship with the Hittite suzerainty form of treaty, in the ancient Near East. The formal features of the four covenants are compared to the Hittite treaty form, and also considered without that constraint for their […]

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The Crusades – What motivated people to “Take the Cross”?

This is a research essay. It may be a bit boring to read through, so I’ll blog about it separately, later. Abstract The study of motivations of the crusaders represents not only an interesting subject, but one which has arguably affected the modern world’s tensions between Islam and the West, Islam and Christianity, and Judaism […]

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