I have a new AUTHOR WEBSITE! All of my books - English and Spanish - described and with links to purchase them. Share with your friends! Commentary on 1 CorinthiansCommentary on 1-2 ThessaloniansMyths that We Christians Accept and Pass along to OthersIceberg Ahead! When God's Servants Crash into Cold, Hard RealityTools on New Testament GreekAnd... Continue Reading →
MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2024 and 2025
Reading is a great tool for fending off mental sluggishness and for lifelong learning! I gave a talk on it here: “Christian Leaders and LifelongLearning.” Or to put it another way: “The man who does not read,” said Mark Twain, “has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” In 2025 I read (or listened... Continue Reading →
My new book. For anyone who does any ministry and who might run into any disappointment!
Am I mistaken, or does the cover look like the Titanic? Gary: Interesting story: the book had its start back in 2012. I was asked to give a conference to missionaries working in Spain. I wanted to address: How do we process disappointment in our ministries? It happened to be the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, and suddenly I... Continue Reading →
Join us as we read the Historical Books in Hebrew in 2026
Greetings from Gary Shogren! Who are we? Every year we open a Facebook "club", whose members can learn a new ancient language (we have done Biblical Aramaic, Latin) or read Scripture in the original languages (the whole Septuagint; the Torah; the Hebrew Poets and Latter Prophets; the New Testament, twice; also the Apostolic Fathers). For... Continue Reading →
Myths that We Christians Accept – my new book, many years in the making!
Ebook from KindlePaperback from Amazon Spanish ebook from KindleSpanish paperback from Amazon or from CLIE The 21st century, that digital arena where information and misinformation battle for our attention! To be sure, the internet can render up solid facts, for instance: “Who won Super Bowl XLVII in 2013?” But the very same medium also lures... Continue Reading →
Read the entire Greek New Testament with us in 2025!
Every year we have a reading group for some ancient language. We return to a classic, which we last did in 2014. In the new year we will begin with the simplest Greek (John's Gospel) and hopefully finish the most difficult (Hebrews) for Christmas! Welcome aboard, bring your friends! Spanish-speakers are welcome, but most of... Continue Reading →
9Marks of a Healthy Church. Or is it 8Marks and change?
I agree with so much of the 9Marks paradigm. Sound doctrine? Check! Preach the gospel? Right! Biblical preaching? Oh, yeah! Missions? Amen! Baptism? Discipleship? Right on, right on!!No women in leadership? Hold on... You see, they had me, then they lost me. It's not so much that I disagree with them on the point. (Which... Continue Reading →
The Text of 1 Timothy 3:16
A while back I wrote a brief commentary on 1-2 Timothy for Bible translators. In I had to deal with the most important textual variant (place where the manuscripts differ one from another). It appears in 1 Tim 3:16: “Beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness, ___ was manifest in the flesh” (NASB version). In... Continue Reading →
The canon of the Bible is closed, but Revelation 22 says nothing about it
I affirm that, of course, the canon is closed. But beyond that, there are those who use Revelation to prove that the gift of prophecy must have gone extinct, because of the dark double curse found in Rev 22:18-19: For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If... Continue Reading →
My favorite books of 2023
Last year we were in Costa Rica for Seminario ESEPA's anniversary; I gave a talk on "Christian Leaders and LifelongLearning." I suggested that "reading" was one of the best tools for building up brain power. And that reading broadly, including books we disagree with, will help rescue us from our social media echo chambers. Just... Continue Reading →