Winter Musings (February 7, 2025)
Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Podcast Updates:
The Blessed Hope Podcast has hit the 100 “five star” likes count on Apple Podcasts! Thank you so very much!
My Riddleblog series on Hebrews and Francis Schaeffer continue
How do you like the new “musings” photo?
Thinking Out Loud:
With Trumps’s executive order removing restrictions on lo-flow shower heads, I can finally get my Commando 450.
One subject most all comedians seem to address is the dreaded colonoscopy—the new “rite of passage” for 50 year-olds. Foxworthy’s shtick is among the best. The night of prep before the procedure gets most of the various comics’ attention, with one explosive drano-like product often singled out for ire, “Golyghtly.” I’ve consumed this stuff twice and no product has ever been so badly misnamed. I guess “Run-Quickly” (the apt title) was turned down by the marketing people.
The makers of Rinvoq promise sufferers of ulcerative colitis “visible repair of the colon lining.” How does the “visual” part work? Just asking . . .
According to those progressive politicians and pundits who fiddled while Los Angeles burned, the freakish windstorm which drove the LA fires (after months of no rain) was the consequence of climate change. OK, for the sake of argument, if true, why did these same people do nothing to prepare for what they claim was inevitable? Even if this windstorm was truly a consequence of climate change, why did state and local officials cut funding to the fire departments and infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, and do nothing to store last year’s rainwater, etc.? They have no excuse. Elections have consequences.
Speaking of no excuses, those Los Angeles voters who said to themselves, “yeah, Rick Caruso would do a great job as mayor, but I think it more important to elect the first black woman to that office, even if she’s never run anything, so I’ll vote for her,” got exactly what they deserve. You vote for a candidate’s resume, competence, and skill set, not ideology, race, or gender. For those political offices which deal with local emergencies when they arise, being able to actually do the job really matters, not progressive virtual signaling.
All of the above leads me to ask, has Trump not done the same thing with some of his cabinet picks (i.e., Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard)? These people are not known for their extensive resumes, competency, and leadership skills, but instead for the fact they are loyal to Trump, telegenic, and vow to “shake things up.” What will happen when their competency is tested by a crisis? And it will.
I am still amazed at the ease in ditching the constitution undertaken by both Biden and Trump. While heading out the White House door, Biden declares the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment ratified upon the stroke of his pen, while in his first week in office Trump bulldozes the Birthrate Citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The courts have already said to Trump, “not so fast.”
What could possibly go wrong? Trump appoints Word-Faith heretic and pastorette Paula White to establish a White House “Faith Office.” Some Word of Faith devotee must have named it and claimed it.
Recently Read:
Although I read through the book after I first purchased it in 2020, it finally made its way to the top of my “unread” stack, which means it was time to give it a more careful “red-pen” treatment. Perspectives on Paul: Five Views offers a helpful overview of the five main current approaches to understand Paul’s Gentile mission. The introduction to the current state of Pauline “perspectives” on Paul by Scot McKnight and B. J. Oropeza is worth the price of the book, even if the volume is now five years old and important new works on Paul are being published non-stop.
Like other “Five Views” books, this volume is a bit of a mixed bag. E. P. Sanders (Paul and Palestinian Judaism) stands at the headwaters of the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) and the contributors debate how to understand the apostle Paul in Sander’s shadow. The various contributors, John M. G. Barclay, A. Andrew Das, James D. G. Dunn, Brant Pitre, and Matthew Zetterholm, interact with each other throughout.
Das represents the “Lutheran Paul.” I expected a defense of the confessional Protestant view of justification, but instead found Das presenting what he calls a “newer perspective on Paul.” His view has some merit in light of NPP, provided you think Sanders is largely correct about Second Temple Judaism and covenental nomism. Das tweaks Sanders’s view, but is much better (and more helpful) when responding to Dunn, Pitre, and Barclay.
Pitre’s chapter and the various responses to it focus on the Roman Catholic appropriation of NPP. In a PhD New Testament seminar, Don Hagner had us read Sanders, Dunn, and Wright. I wondered at the time, “how long will it take for Roman Catholic scholars to appropriate covenantal nomism into their anti-Protestant polemics?” Pitre’s chapter does exactly that. This chapter is helpful because Pitre exposes Sanders’s “get in by faith/grace but face a final judgment by works” view as perfectly compatible with Trent’s view on justification. No surprise there. The Federal Vision boys ought to take careful note. Pitre also cites a host of Pauline texts throughout which he is convinced support the Roman view of an initial justification by faith and a final justification by good works, with little realization that these texts have been discussed and addressed by countless confessional Protestants since the time of the Reformation—and who have all come to an entirely different and far more compelling understanding of these passages. No surprises here either.
Dunn’s chapter and various responses reaffirm what he has said many times before—although he does concede that Martin Luther’s view (even though Luther supposedly misunderstood Second Temple Judaism), was compelling at the time of the Reformation as a response to medieval Romanism. All in all, the chapter is a short introduction to Dunn’s thought. Dunn’s New Perspective on Paul is the place to start with Dunn’s approach to covenental nomism and ethnic badges.
Magnus Zetterholm offers a Paul “within Judaism” view, while contending that the apostle simultaneously taught a gospel intended to support the Gentile mission. The respondents politely respond to Zetterhom’s claim that Paul thought of himself as a Jew and operated within Judaism, but there’s really not much to say since his view has far and away the least biblical support.
Last up is John M. G. Barclay, whose work on the nature of “grace as gift,” (which he defines as both conditioned and unconditional), is changing the course of “Perspectives on Paul” (Paul and the Gift). My take is Barclay is a bit too amenable to Sanders’s thesis as well as the NPP definition of “works of the law” as “Jewish practices,” and not a reference to obedience to God’s commandments in the Decalogue (cf. Galatians 2:16). But much of his work on Paul is very supportive of confessional Protestant views on Paul and justification. Better yet, he speaks the king’s English. He is like Wright in that regard—very readable.
As an aside, one of the editors, B. J. Oropeza, (like me) was a graduate of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law back in the day. SGSL, is now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana.
I recommend this volume to anyone wanting a good overview of the current direction of Pauline studies—just don’t lose track of it in your “need to read” pile.
Recommended Links:
It is old news now, but if you haven’t yet seen apologist Wesley Huff’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, I highly recommend it, especially the last hour or so. Ignore Rogan’s “f-bombs” if you can, but this is how you talk to an unbeliever—with respect, command of the facts, and a joyous enthusiasm for the Christian faith. Well done Dr. Huff!
Joe Biden became a master Freemason on his next to last day in office—”Tell me the legend of Hiram Abiff” Doesn’t Rome forbid its adherents from participating in Freemasonry? Like Rome or Biden care . . .
Problems for Postillennarians in Revelation 20: The Unbinding of Satan
True God from True God — Matthew Barrett on the Eternal Generation of the Son
This promises to be good, Dr. Harrison Perkins is beginning a series on the Apostles Creed
What did Thomas Aquinas actually look like?
Fun Stuff:
Elephants are not getting sprung from their prison any time soon. Why? A court rules they are not human and therefore can’t release themselves from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Not kidding . . .
The Chinese Corgi police dog didn’t perform very well
Hold on tight! Passenger clings to train going 175 mph
It is raining gigantic lizards! When Iguanas fall from trees
Apparently, Kim Jong-un and Joey Chestnut are not on good terms. Not a fan of hot dogs
Dogs on Canadian voter rolls? If animals have rights, why not? say Canadian liberals
The cactus shortage has consequences. Native Americans tell white people to leave their peyote alone
You can find just about anything in an IKEA. The case of the missing mines
A new way to eat your soup. Gross . . . Slurp free soup
Past Musings:
Video:
The worst rock song ever, by the worst rock band ever. I actually saw these guys in concert in the early 70’s—they opened for Big Brother and the Holding Company not long after Janis Joplin died (Chi Coltrane filled in). This band was simply awful—Arkansas hippies mixing Zen with Bible-belt fundamentalism. They used washboards, jugs, spoons, in addition to all the gear of a typical rock band. If you are asking yourself, “how did that work?” It didn’t. “Go [away] Jim Dandy!”