In the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, by Norm Geisler (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998; p. 532), there is a comment about the number of textual variants among New Testament manuscripts:

“Some have estimated there are about 200,000 of them. First of all, these are not ‘errors’ but variant readings, the vast majority of which are strictly grammatical. Second, these readings are spread throughout more than 5300 manuscripts, so that a variant spelling of one letter of one word in one verse in 2000 manuscripts is counted as 2000 ‘errors.'”

There are several problems with this paragraph, one of which is this: to say that variant readings are not errors is an odd way of putting things. If the primary goal of NT textual criticism is to recover the wording of the autographa (i.e., the texts as they left the apostles’ hands), then any deviation from that wording is, indeed…

View original post 1,353 more words

February 4, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

The Symposium at Purdue University

Daniel B. Wallace

Just a quick note that I will be speaking at Purdue University on Friday, Feb 5, at 7 pm on the topic, “How Badly Has the Bible Been Corrupted?” Here’s the link: http://www.symposiachristi.com

If you’re in the West Lafayette area this weekend, you might want to come to the conference. I’m speaking Friday night then giving two lectures on Saturday as well, followed up by a message at Covenant Church.

View original post

February 1, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

Thomas Merton— from Theology of Creativity

St. John One: One

Excerpted from an essay which first appeared in 1960 in The American Benedictine Review.

The creativity of the Christian person must be seen in relation to the creative vocation of the new Adam, mystical person of the “whole Christ.” The creative will of God has been at work in the cosmos since he said: “Let there be light.” This creative fiat was not uttered merely at the dawn of time. All time and all history are a continued, uninterrupted creative act, a stupendous, ineffable mystery in which God has signified his will to associate man with himself in his work of creation. The will and power of the Almighty Father were not satisfied simply to make the world and turn it over to man to run it as best he could. The creative love of God was met, at first, by the destructive and self-centered recusal of man: an…

View original post 129 more words

February 1, 2016February 1, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

Economic Inequality is Wrong–Nick Hanauer

Nick Hanauer

I know I must sound like some liberal do-gooder. I’m not. I’m not making a moral argument that economic inequality is wrong. What I am arguing is that rising economic inequality is stupid and ultimately self-defeating. Rising inequality doesn’t just increase our risks from pitchforks [as in the French Revolution], but it’s also terrible for business too. So the model for us rich guys should be Henry Ford. When Ford famously introduced the $5 day, which was twice the prevailing wage at the time, he didn’t just increase the productivity of his factories, he converted exploited autoworkers who were poor into a thriving middle class who could now afford to buy the products that they made. Ford intuited what we now know is true, that an economy is best understood as an ecosystem and characterized by the same kinds of feedback loops you find in a natural ecosystem, a feedback loop between customers and businesses. Raising wages increases demand, which increases hiring, which in turn increases wages and demand and profits, and that virtuous cycle of increasing prosperity is precisely what is missing from today’s economic recovery.

Nick Hanauer

January 27, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

‫צפירת זיכרון – Holocaust Remembrance Day Siren‬‎ – YouTube

January 25, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

Hear All Three of Jack Kerouac’s Spoken-World Albums: A Sublime Union of Beat Literature and 1950s Jazz | Open Culture

At the epicenter of three explosive forces in 1950s America—the birth of Bebop, the spread of Buddhism through the counterculture, and Beat revolutionizing of poetry and prose—sat Jack Kerouac, though I don’t picture him ever sitting for very long.

Source: Hear All Three of Jack Kerouac’s Spoken-World Albums: A Sublime Union of Beat Literature and 1950s Jazz | Open Culture

January 18, 2016 by James Ross Kelly

Martin Luther King–Midnight of Moral Degeneration

Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing. Right and wrong are relative to likes and dislikes and the customs of a particular community. We have unconsciously applied Einstein’s theory of relativity, which properly described the physical universe, to the moral and ethical realm. . . . This mentality has brought a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and the midnight of moral degeneration deepens.