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Evangelical

2025-01-13T11:22:23-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Abraham Saga– Part Thirteen

Last updated on: January 13, 2025 at 11:22 am By Ben Witherington

Just when you thought Abraham and Sarah could live happily ever after, Gen. 22 shows up, and as the very first verse indicates, after all that had gone before, God decided to test Abraham. Lest you think he won’t do this to you at some point in your spiritual pilgrimage, read this story carefully. A test is different from a temptation, though in Greek the word ‘pirasmos’ can mean either test or temptation. While God will not tempt you... Read more

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Father

where is the lamb?

2025-01-12T15:06:25-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If You Are Moving to the South– Learn the Vocabulary

Last updated on: January 12, 2025 at 3:06 pm By Ben Witherington

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU MOVE TO THE SOUTH. 1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road. 2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the South. 3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple no one’s seen before. 4. If it grows, it’ll stick ya. If it crawls, it’ll bite cha. 5. Onced and Twiced... Read more

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On learning Southern

2025-01-13T14:15:34-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Abraham Saga– Part Twelve

Last updated on: January 13, 2025 at 2:15 pm By Ben Witherington

Without question Gen. 21 is a crucial chapter in the Abraham saga. Here, finally, and after many many anxious years of waiting we hear “and the Lord singled out Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the set time that God had spoken to him.“. If Abraham knew a set time, he certainly didn’t act like it, or... Read more

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Call me Ishmael

2025-01-12T05:57:38-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jimmy Goes Home

Last updated on: January 12, 2025 at 5:57 am By Ben Witherington

Jimmy Carter was one of the most genuinely Christian Presidents we have ever had. When he wasn’t spending 4 years as governor or 4 years as President, he was busy teaching Sunday school and building houses for the poor, but also working to eradicate a dread disease and working for peaceful solutions to international problems– for instance the peace accord brought about between Egypt and Israel, for which he received a Nobel Prize. He lived for 100 years, and his... Read more

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Jimmy we already miss you

2025-01-11T08:16:39-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Cheetahs Never Prosper!

Last updated on: January 11, 2025 at 8:16 am By Ben Witherington

The top speed of a cheetah is between 69 to 75 mph, which explains how a county mounty could be pulling him over on a major highway. The moral to this story is surely— cheetah’s never prosper! Read more

Health, Fitness and Religion

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animal crackups

2025-01-13T14:14:28-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Abraham Saga–Part Eleven

Last updated on: January 13, 2025 at 2:14 pm By Ben Witherington

You might say that Gen. 20 is a rerun, including the same fearful behavior of Abraham, having his wife say she is his sister. But here in this chapter we learn this is not a bald-face lie, Sarah is in fact the daughter of Terah, though not the daughter of Abraham’s mother. The problem however is this is at best a half-truth, because though Sarah may be Abraham’s half sister, she is also his sole wife. Once again, we... Read more

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2nd verse

same as the first.

2025-01-10T12:52:52-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Abraham Saga– Part Ten

Last updated on: January 10, 2025 at 12:52 pm By Ben Witherington

The story starts well enough with Lot bowing before the visitors, pleading with them to come aside and spend the night, have their feet washed, ‘so you can set off early on your way’. They demur saying no they will sleep in the town square, and so they came into Lot’s house, and he prepared them a feast including some baked flat bread, notice not freshly made with kneaded flour. But before they could get some rest, the men of... Read more

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Don't ever look back in longing!

2025-01-10T12:23:17-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Abraham Saga– Part Nine

Last updated on: January 10, 2025 at 12:23 pm By Ben Witherington

Without question Gen. 19 is one of the most debated and controversial chapters in the OT as a whole, never mind just in Genesis. For one thing, the chapter clearly includes the notion of rape, not only the possible rape of angelic messengers, which many would characterize as homosexual rape, but also the scandalous suggestion of Lot that instead the men of Sodom should be satisfied with raping Lot’s two virgin daughters, who apparently are the younger offspring... Read more

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Sodom=Siddim=salt lake

2025-01-09T08:34:49-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dave Barry’s Hilarious Christmas Story

Last updated on: January 9, 2025 at 8:34 am By Ben Witherington

Dave Barry has been entertaining us for many years, but somehow I overlooked this brief Christmas special (about 100 pages counting vintage pictures) from 2006, complete with pictures of Dave and the place where he grew up–Armonk New York. The story is told from a fictionalized version of Dave as a child’s perspective, and it includes his usual hilarious anecdotes. Armonk is in southeastern N.Y. state near the coast, and is a pretty typical small town. Dave grew up the... Read more

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and we just live in it

It's a dogs world

2025-01-08T21:26:05-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Being Left-Handed in a Right Handed World

Last updated on: January 8, 2025 at 9:26 pm By Ben Witherington

Needless to say, this is not real, it’s a joke. But in fact being left-handed in an overwhelmingly right handed world is not easy. There is a store in London that provides left-handed things for those of us who are such. I wish we had one somewhere near Lexington. A left-handed pair of scissors would be helpful. We lefties make up only about 10% of the population, but a much larger percentage of the brainiacs. For example, 7 Presidents in... Read more

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