Category: Christian Mind
-
Christian Zionism: Revisiting My Doctoral Dissertation (II)
What new insights related to Christian Zionism have been produced by scholarship over the past 16 years? This is Part II of a re-evaluation of my thesis (Hornstra 2007). Part I looked at three points that I feel have been confirmed. Here, I discuss new developments. I started working on this content a year ago.…
-
Deconstruct Your Faith: The New Trend?
What are we to make of ‘deconstructing faith’? Is ‘evangelical’ still a meaningful – or desirable – label? What can we do about young adults leaving the church?
-
The Bible and Music; Plus: The Revised Toolbox!
James McGrath has published an unusual and innovative book, The Bible and Music. It uses the power of the World Wide Web by embedding links and videos in the text. Admittedly, you don’t have to be a genius to have that idea, but it is not often done. To top it all off, the book…
-
Foreknowledge: God of the Impossible?
Does God know the future, in detail, the way he knows the present and the past? After last month’s look at God and time, it is now time (ahem) to ask this follow-up question. One book arguing against God’s foreknowledge has the curious title God of the Possible (Boyd 2001), which makes me wonder. You…
-
Time and Eternity
“Those who think about time are thinking deeply. Those who think about God are thinking even more deeply still. Those who try to think about God and time are pressing the very limits of human understanding” (Craig 2001a: 4). Indeed. I can speak from experience now: William Lane Craig’s statement is true. I have been…
-
Anniversary Issue: Five Years Create a Learning Site
This month, it is five years since the first issue of Create a Learning Site (CALS) came out. That makes for a grand total of 60 issues. So this one, issue 61, will be a little different. I am not presenting a topic or wrestling with a Bible book. Instead, I revisit those months in…
-
What Does the Bible Say about Health?
This is the question I was asked by David and Catherine, the couple who is preparing the health track meetings that will be part of YWAM Together in Kansas City this year. As a result, this will be a premiere: this month, I am presenting the first topical study for Create a Learning Site. YWAM…
-
Special Project: Reading the Greek NT
Every once in a while my Bible reading starts to run dry. I am not getting much out of it anymore. I catch myself thinking the same things as the last time I read a particular passage. Often, when I reach this point, I am in a rut, and it is simply time to change…
-
Six Reasons Why I Am Starting This Blog (and Why You Might Want to Follow It)
Any SBS graduate will recognise the “Why?” question; it is often a good one to ask when engaging with a biblical text. Here, I am asking it in relation to this new platform: why bother? In these first few pre-launch posts I explain my motivation a bit more in detail – for those who are…
-
The Lost Value
I first wrote this essay in the autumn of 2002, shortly before I started my Ph.D. project. It describes part of my motivation to go through this, well, ordeal. In the new context of this website it serves a similar purpose: a partial answer to the why question. The text has been slightly edited for…
-
Movable Type
The first time I heard this phrase I had no idea what it meant. It refers to Gutenberg’s invention that enabled book printing. As we all know, up until his time, everything had to be copied by hand or by cutting out a wooden template. Gutenberg used single letters that he combined in a frame.…