Christians and “Coincidences” or Is There a Hex in the Patternicity?
This article has many images and footnotes; I encourage the reader to download it as a pdf here: Shogren_Christians and Coincidences It happened just the other day: I had been thinking about James Bond, and later when I pulled out a form of identification for the bank teller, I noticed that my ID number began with 007!... Continue Reading →
Is the Nestle-Aland Bible against the deity of Christ? No!
It is the narrative in a few remote corners of Christendom that only the Textus receptus reflects the original text of the New Testament. Some would add a second chapter, that newer critical editions – which, in fact, are based on almost 6000 manuscripts, let alone ancient versions and church fathers – are part of... 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 →
Fear is a false god, not a sign of how alert you are
I have tried to sketch out a blog article on this very topic for some time, but could never say it this well. So I'm going to link to this short essay by John Pavlovitz, posted last year in Relevant. By the way, a lot of people wrote back to the author and claimed he... Continue Reading →
It’s easy to preach against sins your people don’t commit
One of those, "Wish I had said this, in this way, but there's no way I could have improved on this statement by Russell Moore - I think sometimes pastors and leaders simply take whatever they find objectionable in the culture and rail against it. They sometimes use the language of decline, where we’re in the worst... Continue Reading →
What I read in 2016, the short list
I have always been a big reader, but never anything close to my list for 2016. That’s when I began to use the wonderful online group, Goodreads.com, to log the books that I have read, am reading, and want to read. I am up over 1900 books that I have logged as "read" in my lifetime, so... Continue Reading →
Your politics is not Christianity
No matter what you think; no matter what your favorite pundit tells you; no matter what the majority of your friends believe; no matter if you are Right, Left, Center, Libertarian, or Other: Any word you can tack "ism" to the end of is a potential idol. Anytime you add a hyphen to the word "Christian"... Continue Reading →
Bible study – a work of prayer!
This is a prayer of the great church father Augustine, which he was accustomed to use after his sermons and lectures. I have updated the version found in NPNF 1,8, p. 683. We now turn to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts we offer to him, so far as we can... Continue Reading →
Your Body, God’s Temple
The devil has a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and it is called online pornography. Of help is the following article is by Jason DeRouchie of Bethlehem Bible College and Seminary. It is one of the best explorations of the topics of masturbation and sexual fantasy that I have read, and I repost it, knowing I... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 