Musings of a Snickerdoodle

World War II England, and in particular, WWII London, was an intimidating place to be; itt seems that around 40,000 civilians in total were killed in England during the war.   During this time, when many bombs were being dropped by Nazi Germany on the civilian population, the director and the assistant director of the BBC's Religious Broadcasting department, James Welch and Eric Fenn, were searching for someone to draw people to the religious programs they were broadcasting on the BBC's radio station which were apparently being passed by in deference to stations/programs that were entertaining.   C. S. Lewis was the man they ended up recruiting.   C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity by Paul McCusker is the story of how C. S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity came to be.   It took a little bit for me to get used to the way the book was put together.   The story is told, not by mere sequence of events, but also by 'flashbacks' to C. S. Lewis' history, and consta...

The Israeli Solution:   A one state-plan for peace in the middle east is an excellent and very compelling argument for the abandonment of the "two-state solution".   Just today, I heard that, though Israel had accepted a cease-fire, Hamas   rejected it. So Israel still has to defend itself against their enemies who do not desire peace with them, but desire their annihilation instead.   This has been the case for many years, beginning even before Israel even existed as a state.      In this book, Caroline Glick takes us on a trip through history to examine the Arabs' constant rejection a Palestinian state. As she puts it so well, "Israel's desire for peace with the Arabs has been amply proven" .   They have put themselves at risk multiple times, releasing their proven enemies from prison, giving up land that could be used as a base of attack against them, even approving the entry of known terrorists into the land they relinquished.   I...

It is odd, at least to me, to find a commentary that is both exegetical and Premillennial.    Normally exegetical/linguistic commentaries are really good with their linguistics, and much of their basic exegesis, but are Amillennial, Covenantal and overly typological.   And to my knowledge, most premillennial commentaries are not exegetical/linguistic commentaries but more of the devotional/light type, and like the Covenantal commentaries, are too typological in their views of certain texts.     This commentary on the Psalms, by Allen Ross, is a very refreshing find in that it is both exegetical and Premillennial, and if anything, tries a little too hard not to be typological, focusing on examining the text for what it says.   Each examination of a Psalm starts out with the Psalm itself, and underneath the Psalm, one of my favorite features, LOTS of footnotes containing textual variants from other manuscripts, such as the Greek version, Symmachus, t...

The NIV Read Easy Bible is just what it claims to be, easy to read.   The font is nice and large, and the Bible generally lays down nice and flat, but the pages tend to turn on their own toward the beginning and end of the book, this could be because I haven't worn it in enough yet.   I really like the look and feel of the cover, it's simple and has a…strange but soft feel to it.   The only extra thing this Bible has is a 'table of weights and measures' at the end.   Other than that, it's a typical NIV(2011), there are no study notes and no commentary except for the textual notes at the bottom, which is, in my opinion, the best thing about the NIV.   These notes give many variants from the Masoretic Text from the Syriac, several Greek translations(Symmachus, Theodotion…etc.), the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as other sources.   I only wish the translators would have replaced the verses that don't match up with the Apostle's quotations of the Old Testam...

Can a biography be focused too much on its subject?   This may sound odd, but I think it can.   As Christians, we know that our faith comes from God, and we know that He has ordained whatever good works we do in our service for Him.   We are also not after the praise of men, nor do we consider it a great compliment to be praised by them.   We try to do our good works as unnoticed by people as possible, seeking the praise of God alone.      Knowing all of this, it seems quite strange for this biography of D. L. Moody to begin with telling how Moody was praised by three U. S. Presidents, and that he, " gained an immortality only presidents can bestow: their genuine respect".   You'd think that as a Christian Moody would resent the praise of the 'great' people of the world.   Kevin Belmonte made too much of the man. One statement in particular makes it seem as though God was dependent on him. "Consider as well how history would have ...

Before I read this book, I didn't realize how controversial the subject of Elders has been in recent years, especially amongst Baptist churches.   My church family has always had at least two elders, and I guess I have just never really considered the concept of single eldership(pastor as the only elder).   Elders in the Life of the Church by Phil A. Newton and Matt Schmucker makes the case for the Biblical basis of churches having multiple elders.      The book begins with a short history lesson on the historical presence of multiple elders in Baptist Churches, and how the practice of plural eldership has declined.   The authors turn to the Bible to examine what is said about elders.   It is noted that the development of elders in Churches is not addressed in the New Testament, it is assumed, and appointing elders is practiced/promoted by the apostles rather than defended.   The qualifications a man must have to be an elder are addre...

I usually love chronological Bibles as it is very interesting to read the Bible through in the supposed chronological order, and I was quite excited to get this one. This Bible has full color throughout, and the headers that note the changing of epochs   are so vivid they almost look 3d.   But sadly, some of the pictures were inappropriate/indecent and it's not very nice to have such things in one's Bible, let alone have them be so visually crystal clear.    The NIV Chronological Study Bible seeks to present the Scriptures in their probable chronological order, with historical notes, chronologies, maps and pictures throughout. I thought it was interesting that they note that, "The Bible is not a theology book arranged according to topics: God, man, sin, salvation, etc.   Nor is it simply a chronicle of events from creation to the final consummation.   Historical events are often the Bible's subject matter, but these events are always reported f...