Faith Is Just Believing

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Near the beginning of Sir Walter Scott’s classic novel Ivanhoe, the fool Wamba discusses the difference between good old AngloSaxon words (like swine and sheep) and the (then) new-fangled French words (like pork and mutton) that had been making headway in England since the Norman conquest of 1066. Many centuries later we still use Wamba’s
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Voice from the Past: Born Again

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This article was originally published in the GES newsletter in April of 1991. Have you ever heard or had a conversation something like the following? “Are you a Christian?” “Well of course I’m a Christian! Do you think I’m a heathen? I’m an American!” “Well, I mean do you believe…” “I believe in God.” “But
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You and Your Teaching – 1 Timothy 4:16

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During the hundreds of years in which the notorious Spanish Inquisition was in force to root out and destroy “heresy,” there was a “ceremony” called an auto da fe, which is Portuguese for “act of faith.” In Spain, Portugal, and their New World colonies, Protestants, Jews, and other non-conformists were frequently burned at the stake-often
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In Defense of the Faith: Biblical Answers to Challenging Questions

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In Defense of the Faith: Biblical Answers to Challenging Questions. By Dave Hunt. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1996. 347 pp. Paper, $11.99. Hunt’s full and well-researched book seeks to answer the hard questions on the Bible and on conservative, Evangelical Christianity in this organized and interesting volume. Part of the success of the text
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Historical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles

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Historical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles By William M. Ramsay. Ed. by Mark Wilson. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1996. 160 pp. Paper, $9.99. Many religious writers have doubted or denied the historical reliability of at least parts of the Bible. Few, however, have gone out to test these theories as did Sir William Ramsay (1851-1939).
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The Parable of Joy: Reflections on the Wisdom of the Book of John

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The Parable of Joy: Reflections on the Wisdom of the Book of John. By Michael Card. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995. Pp. 259. Cloth, $19.99. Especially after reviewing the emasculated “Inclusive” Oxford variant of the NRSV and the loose and racy Message, I find musician Card’s book reverent, artistic, and accurate. His work is a
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The Message: New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs

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The Message: New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. By Eugene H. Peterson. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1995. Pp. 940. Paper, $17.00. All Scripture quotations in this publication [review] are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. The author—I feel “translator” would be a misnomer—says that the NT was
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The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version

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The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version. Ed. by Gold, Hoyt, Ringe, Thistle-Thwaite, Throckmorton, and Withers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 55 pp. Cloth, $14.95. Since this book is a further revision of the NRSV in the interest of even more inclusive language than was there allowed, perhaps it would be germane to
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