The Theologian's Table

The Wise Old Sage In case you haven't read any of the first two posts, I have been pondering over a dream about the Bible being called a spare tire. The first post concluded with the analogy that reading Scripture is like wrestling with it because it can be hard to come to terms with. The second post dove more deeply into that theme, suggesting that the violence of the Old Testament and the failures of humanity operated as a mirror being held up to us that simply reflects the realities of human existence, and we don't like that. Now, though, I'd like to recognize another facet of why we sometimes avoid the Bible; it was written two thousand years ago. I've seen the criticism in online interactions that we don't need to pay attention to what the Bible says because it's 2000+ years old. I haven't seen Christians say it as much, but at one time in my life, I have felt that way, and I know I'm not alone. Even though people quote 2 Timothy 3:16 to affirm th...

As a seminary student, I have been studying a lot about sin and how it effects people. One of the most interesting things for me has been learning how many different words there are for sin in the original languages the Bible was written in, Hebrew and Greek. For example, in the Old Testament there are at least 7 words that describe sin and in the New Testament there are at least 9 words that describe sin. There is another interesting thing about sin that my studies have revealed. The first sin the Bible records is when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. They went against the expressed command of God, so sin put a separation between humanity and God, but pay attention to this verse, "The man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate' (Genesis 3:12).”  Now, look at the second sin the Bible records, "And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, ...

No, this is not about a Lifetime Channel rom-com. It may not enter the minds of the general public, but seminary students often face a stigma in the church. Sometimes they are viewed as out-of-touch, or as intellectual snobs who think they know what’s best for everyone. I was very aware of this and wrote a memo to myself before I entered seminary so that I would stay down to earth. The people who run seminaries seem to be aware of the stereotypes surrounding them too. To prevent this they offer courses that help the spiritual formation of the student, which can encompass most parts of life, but to make sure that the student knows that they too need to progress spiritually, not just the average church goer. Even though I had written a memo to myself reminding me that there are real-world problems still happening in the midst of my studies there were and still are areas of my life that need to be addressed spiritually. Though there are more than I’d care to count, ...

In my last entry, I talked about my strategy in dealing with anxiety. Mainly, it's summed up in trusting the goodness of God. There are a couple more things though that help me fight anxiety and the one I want to talk about today is worshiping God. More specifically, I want to highlight two worship songs that have helped me immensely, then try and explain why they have helped me, and what I think worship accomplishes for us. The first worship song that I want to highlight is called Fill My Cup, which is fairly new, and its actually from Lee University's worship band on their debut album. Musically, the whole song has this calming effect, but what impacted me the most was just one line of the song, "in you[God] I'm made whole." There are so many theologically significant things I can say about this, but it mainly points me back to what Scripture says about our beings residing in God's care. Psalm 139:13 says, " For it was you who formed my inward par...

I'm not sure what it is with my generation, the millennials, and anxiety. It seems every time I get onto social media I see some post about it. In fact, since there is so much about it out there now, the temptation is to wonder if people aren't confusing it for something else, or are just trying to seek attention. The latter part could be true, but we as a people have already become so dismissive of each other that I do not want to add to that problem. And then, of course, there is the fact that I myself publicly admitted last week that I've experienced several anxiety attacks within the last month or so. My attacks have interfered with everything, work, faith, family, and self-worth. They didn't just come out of nowhere. Since these recent episodes happened I have had to look back through my life and see if I had anything similar happen. I remember around the age of 19 that, at times, before I would work, I would lay in bed until the last possible second trying to ...

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past week then you are probably aware of the hashtag #metoo that went viral recently. Triggered by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's deplorable practice of sexual assault and harassment, the hashtag is meant to shine a light on those issues as well as unite women who've been the target of that behavior. The movement has since sparked a conversation of how widespread the issues are and why they seem to persist even in places that seem, for the most part, egalitarian.* There are some corners of thought that have dismissed the whole thing as some kind of liberal slacktivism, but scrolling through my social media feeds and seeing women I trust post #metoo.... I have to say that I was deeply disturbed. Disturbed by the fact it happened to them and disturbed that people would be dismissive of it. Sexual Ethics in Christian Ministry The history of Christian ministry is littered with stories of sexual misconduct by people in positions of aut...

This is a paper I wrote for my Old Testament course I attend. I thought it might be interesting to some people who are curious to see what students in seminary work on. GLORY GOES TO THE WILLING: A READING OF THE PROPHET DEBORAH Introduction When God recruited Moses to free the Israelites from bondage, Moses hesitated and then struck a bargain with God where Aaron would speak on his brother’s behalf (Ex 4:10-17). Later in the book, the characteristic of this interaction repeats itself when the Israelites, the nation who would be a light to the rest of the world, struck a deal with Moses where he would speak to them on God’s behalf (Ex 20:19). In both cases, the parties whom God recruited showed hesitation and insecurities in their own skills, and both showed a lack of understanding of God’s empowerment. Therefore, it can be argued that both Moses and the Israelites missed out on a deeper relationship with Yahweh than had they agreed with Him from the start. The book of...

At the height of their idolatry, the Israelites worshiped a Canaanite deity named Asherah (Hosea 4:12-13). This deity was depicted sometimes as a nude woman and sometimes as a tree. When I learned of this I was struck by the connection between Asherah's depictions and the Creation story in Genesis. Eve after all, did spend most of her time in the garden of Eden naked and then helped to usher sin into the world by eating the fruit of a tree. While I could admittedly be reading too much into the text, I believe that Asherah could be a perversion of the first biblical woman. Jealous of God's creations, the serpent in the garden sought to twist everything God had done, but his perversion with humanity only started there and continued through history. It is troubling that the serpent perverted a woman into a false deity to replace God. It is troubling that humanity was tricked into eating something that brought separation from God. And it is troubling that humanity brought sin and...

A Devotion for 2/21/2016.                      What is a person’s worth? Since the dawn of civilization humans have been asking this question and have developed many attempts to answer it. We have not become good at answering the question. We live in a pluralistic world where we have created many faiths in which the person must climb their way upwards to find some kind of enlightenment. Even the Christian Church has had a hand adding to the difficulty of the question by often downplaying the worth of a person.             One way we try to answer to this complex, human question, is through the practice of trying to find acceptance among others. As humans we think, “Well if I just work hard enough and make enough money then I’ll prove my worth to everyone,” or, “If my body looks this certain way then people will finally start noticing me,” and “If I say the right things, w...

benirwin.files.wordpress.com      Like a child who pleads with their parents for one more bedtime story, the inquisitive Christian says, “Please, Father, tell me more.” The Bible holds many mysteries that beg to be explored for those who decide to pick it up and read it. There are also some stumbling blocks within it that can make people outside Christianity, or even Judaism, from seriously considering taking a closer look.      The Issue      One of the main issues many have with the Bible is that God seems to command the Israelites to commit much violence in the Old Testament. I’m no scholar, especially when it comes to the OT, but when I set out to study the OT in earnest I decided to also take special notice for possible explanations on why God would command said violence. What I present here is some of the things I have observed and please keep in mind that it is just observation and is by no means a definite answer.   ...