BIBLE ENRICHED SPIRITUAL TRUTHS: November 2020

Monday, 30 November 2020

How to Fake a Fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls

And other things you wanted to ask an expert in forged biblical antiquities.

The recent discovery of forged fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of the Bible has called attention to the problem of faked antiquities. Evangelical collectors are thinking twice about spending money on rare bits of Bible history, fearing they could be expensive frauds, as Gordon Govier reports in the December issue of CT. But the problem is deeper than that, says George Washington University professor Christopher Rollston, an expert on ancient biblical inscriptions and the author of a forthcoming book on modern-day frauds. Forgeries corrupt what we think we know about the world of the Bible and create serious challenges for scholars trying to learn about the cultures that produced Moses, David, the prophets, and Christ’s first followers. Rollston thinks scholars have to be much more suspicious of forgeries and evangelicals should stop buying from the antiquities market.

How hard is it to forge a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Forgers today have really become quite good. It’s not something that just anybody can do. And when just anybody attempts it, it’s painfully obvious that it’s a modern forgery and a particularly bad one.

Basically what is required is a good knowledge of the ancient language, whether that’s Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, or Coptic; a very good knowledge of the script; and a really good knowledge of the medium as well. A forger has to know how a piece was produced, like the chemical composition of the ink and other technical aspects. But if someone knows the language quite well and knows the script and has access to a scanning electron microscope with extended depth-of-field determinations of the chemical composition of the patina and the inks, it’s not ...

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How to Do Advent When Nothing Seems Worth Celebrating

Our Emmanuel doesn’t offer us an escape. He comes to suffer with us.

As we approach Christmas this year, we are confronted with an uncomfortable question: Is there really anything worth celebrating?

We’re now in the season of Advent, an annual rhythm meant to slow us down as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Desiring an escape from the difficulties of this year, many of us declared several weeks ago that the Christmas season had already begun.

Advent is meant to be a time of hope, joy, love, and peace. These are beautiful virtues, but this year they risk sounding hollow. This time last year, while many Americans were worried about pumpkin pie and Black Friday deals, a deadly virus was silently starting to spread. Most of us knew nothing about it then, but with hundreds of thousands dead in our country alone, we certainly know about it now. Can we speak of hope in such a time?

In our efforts to curb this destruction, we’ve seen other predictable casualties, any one of which would be devastating in a “normal” year. Staggering numbers of people have lost their jobs. Business owners have shut their doors. Schools, in their shift to remote education, not only laid an added weight on struggling parents and teachers, but also restricted one of the most reliable safety nets for vulnerable and impoverished children. Can we speak of joy in such a time?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the strain brought on by the coronavirus was then paired with yet another American summer marked by racial strife. Ahmaud Arbery, then Breonna Taylor, then George Floyd. Innocent black people were killed, and in several cases, video evidence allowed us to witness the horror. Can we speak of peace in such a time?

Protests arose demanding justice and change. In some cities, these protests became ...

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Sunday, 29 November 2020

Week 1: He Will Come Again in Glory

Advent devotional readings from Christianity Today.

Sunday: In Between

Today’s Reading: Revelation 1:4–9; 19:11–16; 21:1–5, 22–27; 22:1–5

Almost immediately, the opening chapter of Revelation lifts our eyes up to gaze at a glory that utterly transcends our earthly circumstances. “I am the Alpha and the Omega ... who is, and who was, and who is to come’” (1:8). Our Savior “who loves us and has freed us from our sins” will return; “‘Look, he is coming with the clouds’ and ‘every eye will see him’” (1:5, 7–8). John goes on to describe a wondrous vision of Christ himself—an encounter so awesome that John “fell at his feet as though dead” (v. 17).

But right in the middle of these two glorious passages is a line we might easily miss: John’s brief description of his life and the lives of his letter’s recipients. John writes that he’s a “companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (v. 9). John wrote Revelation while in exile; it was circulated among a suffering church facing pressure and persecution that would only worsen in the coming decades. Revelation’s initial recipients were living in two overlapping realities: their assurance in the sovereign reign and glorious return of Christ; and their earthly, everyday experience of waiting and suffering.

Some two thousand years later, we still live amid these overlapping realities. Here, between Christ’s first coming and his glorious return, our lives may also feel like a mix of kingdom and confidence alongside waiting and suffering.

It’s ...

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Friday, 27 November 2020

Why We Can’t Stop Talking about ‘Hipster’ Pastors

Hillsong’s celebrity pastors remind us how style can be both a status symbol and liability in ministry.

The episode and transcript will be available on Wednesday.

At the beginning of this month, Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz was fired. A day after the news went public, he posted a picture of his family on Instagram admitting he was unfaithful in his marriage. Both before and after the news, Lentz made headlines across Christian and secular media for his popularity and successful ministry—as well as the “hipster” pastor look he popularized.

When Lentz co-founded Hillsong NYC with Joel Houston in 2010, the church drew lines around the block and caught the eye of A-list celebrities, none more famous than Justin Bieber. Lentz, who became famous for his wire-rimmed glasses, plunging V-necks, and designer sneakers, himself became subject of a number of profiles. As Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote in a GQ feature:

“The music! The lights! The crowds!” begins an incredulous woman narrating a CNN segment on Hillsong NYC . “It looks like a rock concert.” The chyron reads “Hipster preacher smashes stereotypes.” They call Pastor Carl a hipster. Carl says he doesn’t know what that means, and he wears a motorcycle jacket when he says this.

Pastor Joel is unwilling to acknowledge that there’s something going on here. Yes, he tells me, sure, he likes clothes. But that’s the end of it. I should ask Pastor Carl about the clothes, he tells me. What Pastor Carl does, he says—that’s intentional, and then he laughs.

This week on Quick to Listen, we wanted to discuss the attention around a new generation of fashion-forward pastors. What does it reveal about ministry? But what does our fascination with this aesthetic reveal more broadly about the American and Western church? ...

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Advent: Living Hope

Advent devotional readings from Christianity Today.

What does it mean to have hope amid trying times? Hope is more than a feeling; it isn’t simply being perpetually optimistic or having a “hopeful” attitude. Scripture offers us an understanding of hope that is much more robust. Christian hope has heft, endurance, and purpose—and God is its source.

God, “in his great mercy … has given us new birth into a living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3). And it is our “God of hope” who enables us to “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). This reality isn’t true only in good times; in fact, it is in dark and difficult times when hope truly shows its mettle.

As Jay Y. Kim writes in “Hope: An Expectant Leap,”

This is what Christian hope looks like. It doesn’t ignore fear, anxiety, and doubt; it confronts them. It holds steady, clinging to peace in the midst of chaos. Through life’s many treacherous storms … Christian hope is buoyed by something greater that has happened and something greater that is going to happen again.

This weekly devotional series explores the theme of hope as it weaves throughout the biblical story. In these daily biblical reflections, we focus on our hope in Christ’s future coming—the Second Advent we await that gives us endurance, confidence, and joy in our daily lives, no matter what difficulties we might face (week 1). We reflect on the hope of God’s people in the Old Testament as they relied upon God in hardship and we look at prophecies of hope that pointed toward the First Advent: the coming of the Messiah (week 2). We contemplate the miracle of hope breaking through in the Incarnation, when “the ...

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Thursday, 26 November 2020

A Thanksgiving Like None Other

The world may look different, but there is still plenty to be grateful for.

Thanksgiving looks a bit different this year. Whether you’re celebrating alone, with a few close family members, over Zoom, or maybe a combination of all three, I’m sure things don’t feel quite the same. I grieve this loss alongside you, and with millions of others. You are not alone.

In my family, and I assume in many of yours, at some point during usual Thanksgiving celebrations, every family member or friend present is invited to share what they are most grateful for on this special holiday. As LifeWay Research recently reported, Americans are most thankful to and for their family, even in this unique year. Of course, I want to assure readers that I too am thankful to and for my family. In this year, I am adding a new item to that standard list. And, this new addition begins with a descent.

What do I mean by descent? Well, if you’re like me, your version of descent might be a lost job, a lost relationship, or a lost graduation. It may be a lost loved one, or the death of a dream, like a small business. This year, we all had plenty to lose. Descent might not just mean the loss itself—it may be sleepless nights, or anxiety-ridden days. It might be a nose-dive straight into self-pity. Descent might be your mental state as a result of these losses.

I am not mature enough in my faith to say plainly and honestly that I am thankful for these losses, or the many sleepless nights that followed. I would love to report that I was a perfect imitation of Job this year, and that I faithfully turned to God after each loss, as Job does, saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised (Job 1:20-21).

To be ...

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SCOTUS Gets It Right on Religious Liberty: Church IS Essential, a Guest Article from John Inazu

But the right outcome here doesn’t mean all restrictions are invalid or that churches should reopen.

Last night, the Supreme Court issued injunctive relief to houses of worship challenging New York City’s COVID-19 restrictions on in-person gatherings, the first time it has granted such relief during the pandemic. I have mixed views about the decision and early reactions to it.

First, I don’t think this decision is as momentous as commentators are suggesting. It is fairly fact-specific injunctive relief, and the nature and scope of pandemic orders vary greatly around the country. It’s hard to generalize much from this decision, and I’m concerned that public messaging about it will fuel a broader culture wars narrative from religious leaders like John MacArthur who insist “there is no pandemic” and continue to hold services for 7,000 unmasked people. An injunction against a 25-person cap is not a green light to return to regular worship. Given the current state of the pandemic, it’s not even a yellow light.

The dire rates of transmission we’re seeing all around the country, the Thanksgiving holiday travel, and our growing awareness that indoor, in-person gatherings are a major cause of transmission all increase the likelihood that even more restrictions may be coming. That’s another reason it’s best to view this order as limited and fact-specific.

That said, I think the Court’s decision is correct and offers some important observations. One of the most important is that these shutdown orders cause irreparable harm because they restrict First Amendment freedoms—and that virtual worship is not a constitutionally sufficient alternative. In other words, worship is absolutely an “essential activity” and to say otherwise is constitutionally incorrect ...

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