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 →
Commencement Address, given at Seminario ESEPA, Costa Rica, January 31, 2025
To my dear ESEPA coworkers, to the graduates, and to their families and friends.As we celebrate this special evening, let me share a few words from the heart. They are based on this amazing promise in 2 Timothy: 2 Timothy 4:8 NIV – “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which... Continue Reading →
How I predicted future events of 2020! (Or did I?)
May I express two opinions: ONE: I am not a hard “cessationist”, that is, there is not a single Bible verse that says the gift of prophecy ended with the apostles. Not Hebrews 2:4. Not 1 Corinthians 13:8-12. Certainly not Revelation 22:18-19. If cessationism is not explicitly taught in Scripture, I have no right to... Continue Reading →
“Did some Thessalonians Tamper in God’s Domain?”
A paper read at the 2012 Conference of the Evangelical Theological Society, and published in JETS 63.4 (2020): 703–20. We give only a selection here (Intro, Conclusion). Click here for the full pdf copy. jets_63.4_703-20_shogrenDownload WERE THE THESSALONIANS “MEDDLING IN DIVINE MATTERS”? A REREADING OF 2 THESSALONIANS 3:11 Second Thessalonians 3:11 contains a play on... Continue Reading →
Did David Wilkerson predict Coronavirus in 1973? Or in 1986? Or, was it only last Wednesday? Or did Jim Bakker predict 9-11, but only mentioned it 6 years after the fact?
Beware of those who are trying to resurrect David Wilkerson's The Vision, where in 1973 he supposedly predicted the plague that we now call Coronavirus. He did not, not by a long shot. What he ACTUALLY said was quite different. Most of his "vision" was utterly generic and rambling and could be true for any... Continue Reading →
Planet X? Planet 7X? Nibiru? Let’s not worry about it!
Note: we are not dealing with a hypothetical Planet X, a body that has been talked about for two centuries. It might be a large planet beyond Neptune, whose mass may affect Neptune’s orbit. Due to further data, since the 1990s such a Planet X has been widely thought to be disproved. I mention it... Continue Reading →
1-2 Thessalonians and the Olivet Discourse
To download the entire article with footnotes click here: Shogren_1 Thess 2 Thess and the Olivet Discourse How can we sketch out the outline of Christian eschatology from the years AD 40-50s and earlier? The Thessalonian epistles provide the clearest, datable data. The Thessalonians learned their eschatology from Paul; the apostle added to or further developed... 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 →
** GARY commentary alert!
To my surprise, I just found out that Zondervan republished my Thessalonians commentary some months back! You can now buy three full commentaries in one eBook! Mine has a lot of Greek in it, but also much application and thoughts on how to preach the letters. The collection includes Holmes NIV Application Commentary (which I... Continue Reading →
No commentary necessary
Here is a snapshot of one and the same website, once in early September, once in early October. BEFORE AND AFTER STILL LATER - it still looks the same! "Currently offline!" These are not Photoshopped, by the way, except to blur out the website address. Which was a very gracious act on my part. By... Continue Reading →