The teaching known as Lashon Hakodesh (“the sacred language”) is multifaceted. It was originally a designation for Biblical Hebrew as such. But it later grew to have more implications that Hebrew is somehow a magical language. There are sub-legends that follow along with this: 1. That Hebrew is the language spoken in heaven. 2. That... Continue Reading →
Planet X? Planet 7X? Nibiru? Let’s not worry about it!
I teach, and try to live, the fact that every Christian should live with a daily and hourly focus on the return of Christ and our appearance before his judgment seat. This is a given, and it is impossible to understand the faith in any other way. Nevertheless, false predictions pop up with alarming frequency;... Continue Reading →
Preachers: don’t believe everything you see!
Have you seen the memes that go like this? A pastor friend just mentioned something that I had also wondered, that the figure 365 seemed high! So I ran it through my Bible software, and within a few minutes found that the number indeed was way, way off.[1] “Fear not” is a Kings-James-ism; the NET and... Continue Reading →
Israel and Palestine and a Hope for Peace
Seminario ESEPA held a conference in 2014 on the topic of "Israel and Palestine." They asked me to be one of the participants; I offered the following thoughts, which I have updated a bit, with the warning that they come from a Bible student with only cursory knowledge of world affairs. Good evening, and thank... Continue Reading →
My month with the Book of Mormon – May 2017
To download the article as a document, take a picture here: The Bible is really, incredibly old! The Old and New Testaments were copied by hand for centuries, if not millennia! And to interpret the Bible correctly, an expert ought to be well aware of the original languages! At least, that’s how it is with my... Continue Reading →
How to Read Romans [Studies in Romans]
Certeza Unida and Kairos will publish my Romans commentary as part of their Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo (Contemporary Bible Commentary). More than 160 scholars participated in the project. What follows is adapted from the section "How to Read Romans," in which I show its particular application for Latin America. The epistle to the Romans meets the... Continue Reading →
My Time with the Koran, April 2016
Read the whole file here shogren_my-time-with-the-koran My reading the Koran is like a rock-and-roller trying to figure out what in the world that jazz trio is up to. Still, if I will opine that the Koran is right, wrong, or indifferent, I feel I should have at least a basic, first-hand awareness of what it actually... Continue Reading →