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How Can the “Apocrypha” Help Me?
I have lots of conversations. That is ok since Casper is not a good conversation partner. So I either have conversations going on via text, FB and email, they are usually about several things:...
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It Doesn’t Mean What it Says: Why We Need Translations
A Classic Restoration Quote “The Bible translated,’ is our motto, not the Bible hid in the past, buried in the tomb of an obsolete, and forgotten language, but the Bible trembling all over with the...
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Racist Theology Begets Racist Preaching: A Sermonic Response to Brown v....
I discovered Cameron’s racist sermon while doing research on another project in the early 2000s. Racist Theology begets Racist Preaching God is not racist. The Bible is not racist. Christianity is not...
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Four Preachers + One, One City: Radically Different Messages
One of the most ironic photos of the Selma March in March 1965. Marchers are approaching the city of Montgomery. Do you know Norman Adamson? Do you know O. B. Porterfield? Do you know Martin Luther...
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Faith of Our Fathers and Mothers: The Wonder of Unity and Nonsectarian Faith
What follows is a series of quotations that highlight a theme that was once prominent among “us.” This theme gets at the very heart of what we where once about, thought we have always struggled to not...
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Birmingham 1921: Best Speech by the “Worst?” President, (Warren G. Harding)
Warren G. Harding, 29th President “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 16.20, NRSV). Prelude In...
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The “Bible” and the Early Church: A Few Things We May Not Know
Today we will think about stuff that is rarely thought of in our churches, the Bible and early Christianity. Or what scholars call the material remains of Christianity. I pray it will be enjoyable and...
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Back to the Past: A DeLorean takes us at 88 MPH to AD 60
DeLorean Why Some Choose 1950 over AD 60 “To be honest is to confront the truth. However unpleasant and inconvenient the truth may be, I believe we must expose it and face it” – Martin Luther King Jr....
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The Great “O’s”: The Antiphons of Christmas
Boethius (AD 480-524) For approximately 1600 years or more, disciples of Jesus have prayed the “O” Antiphons leading up to “Christmas.” Ancient disciples did not use that term which was introduced...
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Where Do Black People Come From? White Christianity & Slave Indoctrination
Where Do Black People Come From? What Slaves were Taught in America Do you know who J. D. Green was? Probably not. Green was a three time escapee slave from Kentucky. He was born approximately 1813...
View ArticleThe Apocrypha: What is It? (A Video Presentation)
To fulfill some requests, I am placing this video here to make the content available to those who desire. During Coronacation, I took care of speaking engagements via Zoom rather than travel. What...
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Five “Unknowns” of the Stone-Campbell Movement
First. Some of our “apostates” have had significant impact in other religious movements. A sizable portion of the Stone Movement became part of the Shakers. And Sydney Rigdon, a preacher in the...
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Seven Uses of Wine in the Bible
“wine to cheer us up” (Ps 104.15, CEB) Quotable Quote from J. J. M. Roberts “It was only years later that I learned that grape juice for communion was a liberal innovation associated with the...
View ArticleRubel Shelly & Mike Cope on Wineskins
Wineskins. I cannot even write the title of that magazine without a smile crossing my face. I received our first copy, Volume One, Number One way back in May of 1992. I devoured each issue cover to...
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K. C. Moser’s Journey to the Cross
K. C. Moser sitting on the steps of a schoolhouse in 1911 reading a book. Today I want to share ten items about one of my heroes of the faith, Kenny Carl Moser (1893-1976). My own saga with Moser...
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A Doctrinal Christmas? Two Theological Gifts of the Nativity
“Christmas” offers important doctrinal gifts to believers in the Messiah An earlier version of this article was published in Wineskins (December 7, 2017) and can be accessed here. I grew up in a...
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The Battle is Over: Odes of Solomon 22,
Charlesworth is one of the leading scholars on the Odes. His very readable translation is a joy. I discovered the Odes of Solomon twenty + years ago and have loved them since. Written in Syriac or...
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Instruments, Worship, Unity, Ephesians 5.19: Reviewing Arguments Against...
I broke two strings An Explanation. Earlier this year a dear brother contacted me and asked me if I would read a “position paper” on instrumental music and offer him an “honest critique and feed...
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The Bookroom: Remembrance and Forgiveness, A Memoir (A Review)
The Bookroom: Remembrance and Forgiveness, A Memoir (ACU Press 2024)When I learned that Leonard Allen had published a memoir I was eager to dive in. I have been reading Allen’s writings since the late...
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AMMONIUS: THE BLIND “READER”: The Bible in the Early Church
This is p10, a papyrus dating to AD 316. The text is Romans 1.1-5 (from the net) The Bible as we know it is a fairly modern invention (since basically the Reformation period). Neither Jews nor...
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