Believing the Bible is “Literal” is Irrelevant. Actually Reading it Makes All the Difference.

A lot of people say they believe the Bible should be read “literally.” Whatever that means. Not everybody reads the Bible literally. What is significant is not whether you or not you believe the Bible should be read literally. It’s whether you actually read it. Actually reading the Bible is...

Abuse, Divorce, and Paige Patterson’s Bad Bible Reading

Last week Paige Patterson was removed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth for comments he made about women that are insensitive and demeaning at best. Yesterday he was fired. It is not my intent to write a commentary on Patterson as a person or as a leader in the Southern...

Beth Moore and Evangelical Women Get Their Say

Last week popular Baptist author and Bible study leader Beth Moore published “A Letter to My Brothers,” in which she shared, lovingly but honestly, her experience as a woman in the male-dominated world of evangelicalism in general and the patriarchal SBC in particular. If you haven’t read it, you should....

Voices in the Bible

The Bible is different than the Koran or the Book of Mormon. Just not in the way you are probably supposing. According to Muhammad, God spoke to him through the angel Gabriel over the course of 23 years, dictating the various parts of the Koran. Muhammad isn’t the author, nor Gabriel; God is the author....

The Only Real Reason to Read the Bible: Part Seven of “How I Read the Bible, And So Can You!”

When I interpret Scripture I go through a process, almost second-nature by now, that includes, suspending my assumptions about the nature of the Bible; not letting my previous instruction about a passage inhibit something new and different coming out; letting the original writers have their voice and their...

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