From my ministry in Central America, I understand how names change from language to language: the English form of my name “Gary Shogren” is difficult for the Spanish-speaker – the “a” and the “e” don’t have exact counterparts in Spanish; nor does “sh”. I say my name one way if I’m speaking English and another way if Spanish. Not even my mother would recognize my name in the Spanish version! Nevertheless, when my students call me “GAH-ree CHOH-grain” with a foreign accent, I take no offense: I’m still me, the same identity and the same name, with a pronunciation adapted to the relevant language. (more…)
Gog of Magog is dead…and I have seen his grave
In my first days as a Christian, they filled me in that the Soviet Union was predicted in Ezekiel 38-39 and that Russia and the Warsaw Pact countries would attack Israel at any time. Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth was the #1 bestseller; it had a chapter called “Russia is a Gog,” and said it was clear as could be that the Bible foretold a Soviet invasion more than 2500 years ago.[1] Google Magog and Russia and you will see how many “prophecy experts” take the Lindsey/Russia view as gospel, without ever checking on the basic facts. [2]
Where did this idea come from? From an amateurish reading of certain Hebrew terms.
Rosh – probably not in your Bible at Ezek 38:2 (unless you read the NKJV or the NASB), but the Hebrew word that is rendered “chief” or “prince” is Rosh = head. But others said, “Hey, think about it! Rosh…uh?? Roshuh? Russia, you see?”
Meshech – why, that must be Moscow!
Magog – was a Scythian city, and the Scythians later migrated into Russia, so Magog is Russia! (they did no such thing, I later found out, but that was the rumor at the time)
Tubal – this would have to be Tobolsk which, some speculated, was the eastern capital of Russia.
Gomer was East Germany.
To cap it all off, these enemies come “from the north,” and Russia, at least its extreme western frontier, lies due north from Israel.
This meant, then, that Russia and its Warsaw Pact allies would attack Israel, immediately before or after the rapture
“Gog is dead and I have seen his grave”
of the church, and that Israel’s enemies would be totally eliminated, perhaps by nuclear weapons. Imagine the chills this gave me in October 1973, when the United States and Russia very nearly intervened with A-bombs in the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Egypt. (more…)
Are you a Wretched Man or Woman? Should you be? [Romans 7]
Since I just published an article on chronic sin (CLICK HERE), I thought I’d follow it up with another about the Wretched Man passage of Romans 7:14-25. It took me about eight years of back-and-forth to write. My conclusion may surprise you.
Originally published in Evangelical Quarterly 72/2 (April, 2000): 119-134.
“O, wretched man that I am!”
1 Corinthians and Thessalonians: My New Commentaries now available!
The English versions of my Thessalonian commentary is available from Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Thessalonians-Zondervan-Exegetical-Commentary-Testament/dp/0310243963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343856671&sr=8-1&keywords=shogren
And the English version of my 1 Corinthians is available on Logos software – http://www.logos.com/product/24079/first-corinthians-an-exegetical-pastoral-commentary
Blessings! Gary
Thunder. Lightening. Isn’t God amazing?
Lightening near Volcano Arenal, Costa Rica
Thunder and lightning; how I love them. It’s a good thing too: here in Costa Rica, just about every afternoon from May through December we have a ferocious electrical storm. One tries to adjust one’s schedule so as not to be caught out in the torrential rain. And amusingly, the other day the paper ran an article: Rainy season is upon us! We urge you not to buy an umbrella with a metal tip, it might be the last decision you make!
Inside my office I close my windows, since the rain comes in at a sharp angle. I look at it for a while, then go back to my studies, hoping the internet doesn’t cut out. The thunder booms right outside, shaking the windows and setting off car alarms. This is thunder you feel in your chest. I smile and keep working. Thunder and lightning don’t bother me, no sir!
But it does bother some people. We have a four-year-old who spends many days with us. When it was thundering the other day, he teared up and repeated, “¡No quiero!” (“I don’t like it!”). Fortunately, I remembered a trick from when our kids were little. “Listen, listen! Just pretend that pirates are firing their cannons at you! When you hear their cannons, you pretend to pull the rope and yell ‘boom!’ and fire back at them! Watch, do it like this!” Little Ethan is crazy about pirates, so this brought a grin to his face. (more…)
What books have I used to write a commentary on 1-2 Thessalonians? [Studies in 1 Thessalonians]
Note: In November 2012 I published a commentary of 1-2 Thessalonians for Zondervan (click HERE). The advice given below is applicable to all preaching and writing projects.
![gm029001[1]](http://openoureyeslord.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/gm0290011.jpg)
I used to do business at a local office building. On the wall was an engraved map of the New World from the 1600s. It was a real work of art, but of course it was also grossly inaccurate. Florida was too stubby. Much of the area north and west of the Mississippi was missing. Many of the lands were out of proportion. Antarctica and Greenland were freakish. A modern sailor would love to have a map like this on his wall, but who today would attempt to navigate Tierra del Fuego or the Hudson Bay with that information? (more…)
Buy Strack and Billerbeck’s Commentary – but beware! [technical article]
Its drawbacks:
First, S-B treated Judaism as if it were one monolithic whole, and did not take into account the differences between one group and another or the changes that took place in Judaism throughout the centuries. So if they located a found a parallel to (more…)
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on March 26, 2013 at 11:54 am Leave a CommentTags: Bible, Billerbeck, Kittel, Kommentar, Midrash, Strack, Talmud