Field notes on the biblical text, divine council, and the ancient world. Working-class IT guy in Ohio. Door open. https://xitter.cf/t.co/TjBA0UrbJS
Ohio
Joined April 2022
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James McLaughlin retweeted
1. In the Middle East, fig trees produce small edible buds before or alongside their leaves. Full leaves were an outward signal: "I have food." This tree had full leaves, advertising fruit it didn't actually have. It was a picture of hypocrisy.
2. In the Old Testament, the fig tree symbolized Israel’s spiritual health. Right after cursing the tree, Jesus went to the Temple and cleansed it. The religious leaders had plenty of "leaves" (showy rituals and noise) but no true "fruit" (justice, mercy, and genuine faith).
3. Why Not Force It to Bear Fruit?
Jesus used an enacted parable. Making the tree bear fruit would have missed the point. He used an inanimate tree to visually demonstrate the danger of spiritual hypocrisy so people could repent before it was too late.
4. God doesn't want showy leaves (outward religious displays). He desires genuine, heart-level fruit.
Authenticity over appearances, always.
James McLaughlin retweeted
Mike Heiser offered a framework for gently redirecting someone who's misinterpreting Scripture—without damaging them further.
Learn more about this topic: drmsh.com/heisers-laws-for-b…
#Heiser #BibleStudy #Hermeneutics #Interpretation #Grace #MajorOnTheMajors #Theology #UnseenRealm
James McLaughlin retweeted
The Church would be better served if more people could understand the important work of scholars in commentaries and other works.
What discipline in the world embraces a 90% failure rate and calls it a success and the right course to follow? Swimming instruction? (90% drown, but at least somebody’s using that skill). Explosives training? Emergency medicine? Construction engineers? Good guesses, but the answer is: seminary language training. We’re trying to improve what happens.
We don’t think the strategy of trying to turn people into translators can provide evidence that it’s actually working for the mass of seminary graduates. It seems to only be working for the people who emerge as doctoral students (people like me). While I’m thrilled that people like me emerge from the process (and I certainly have no regrets; I still memorize vocab and rehearse forms, even in Ugaritic and Egyptian), the Church would be better served if more people could understand the important work of scholars in commentaries and other works. Our efforts at Logos are no more complicated than that.
Dive deeper into this topic: drmsh.com/scholars-understan…
#heiser #unseenrealm #biblestudy
James McLaughlin retweeted
Death sucks.
Even though the bible says, "Death, where is your sting?"...
It still stings.
James McLaughlin retweeted
Mike Heiser spent years speaking at UFO conferences—and he found something surprising: the average attendee was more primed for deep theological conversation than the average churchgoer. They were already asking the big questions: Who are we? Why are we here? What or who is God?
In contrast, evangelicals are increasingly resistant to supernatural categories like the Divine Council. And if “proof” of alien life is shown to them, they will not be able to process it.
Learn more about this topic: youtu.be/UY-hgSOzx0c
#Heiser #UFO #AncientAliens #Apologetics #Gospel #Supernatural #Evangelicalism
James McLaughlin retweeted
Want $50K for discovering the first letters in an ancient papyrus scroll? We've published a new article that walks you through one possible way to win our First Letters Prize
scrollprize.substack.com/p/f…
James McLaughlin retweeted
“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.” (Ezekiel 37:5, ESV)
Keep reading: ref.ly/logosres/esv?ref=Bibl…
