Andy Erickson

Reading Jesus and the Disinherited and pondering if MLK leveraged Thurman's thinking in Chapter 2 about Jesus' dream to play a role in his I Have A Dream. #MLK #IHaveADream #subversive #resistance #nonviolentdirectaction

If you’re making a point using a gospel and aren’t connecting it to the Old Testament or ancient Roman culture, you may want to do some work to make sure your takeaway works as Jesus would expect before making it.

The apostles teachings that the disciples were devoted to? Yeah, we actually don't have most of that. We got some hard work ahead of us to understand our OT in order to derive it. There are some clues: Paul taught that the Jewish messiah had to die. We have Jesus in the gospels.

There is a reason that kings are required to write their own copy of Torah and read it every day. It provides the wisdom and principles to effectively govern a nation.

After the 10 commandments in Exodus 20, the very first set of regulations given to Israel as part of the law, or Torah, is how to set slaves free.

Not to be pedantic, but ...

I'm sure you've noticed repeated topics and themes when you read Torah, esp Genesis. They are so obvious that it should occur to you that there must be a reason. Find that reason.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 is pretty clear that the OT thoroughly equips Christians. Paul doesn't even have an NT on his mind in this statement. For you, is the OT enough? It was for Paul, the apostles, and the larger community of disciples.

if the NT is a continuation of the story of the OT, you have to ask, "what is the story of the OT?"

The Pentateuch, or Torah, is a book about the law and not the book of the law.

Heh, so, what questions do you have about Romans? If you don’t have any, have you read it?

One does not have to be critically aware of a textual strategy to come under its influence or to follow its logic. One has only to be a competent reader. Jos 1:8, Ps 1:2, Neh 8:8 demonstrate that from its beginnings, Torah has been the object of much careful study by the prophets, probably earlier.

Just because the rest of western evangelicalism holds a specific kind of biblical mindset doesn’t mean it’s the only one or even the one God wants us to hold. There is a reason Paul urged the transformation of the mind. If you haven’t changed your thinking in 10 years, you may have work to do.

"the prophets spent most of their time writing about the hopes and dreams engendered by their relationship with God and much less time predicting future persons and events in exact historical detail"

Sailhamer. The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition, and Interpretation (p. 437)

Dr. Scot McKnight on early Christian engagement with empire.

Check out the full interview on the Disarming Leviathan podcast.

@scotmcknight.bsky.social @revcalebcampbell.bsky.social

Cruciformity means understanding that although Jesus was in the form of God really means because Jesus was in the form of God. His selflessness illuminates the selfless character of God himself. And that we, in turn, empty ourselves.

@scotmcknight.bsky.social eats at City BBQ! I knew there was a reason I liked his work.

Henrietta Mears taught Sunday school. People flocked to be taught by her. They didn’t actually stay for church. Neither did Henrietta.

Note what women did in the bible. Do women do these things in your church? If so, your church is biblical.

You get better not by doing what you already know how to do, but by doing the things you’re not good at. For Bible study, that means tackling Torah, Job, the prophets, Romans, and Hebrews. These require work to answer the questions why was the book written and what is the author saying.

If my church never grows numerically, can I still be happy and content as a minister?

... prostitute," as if that's the end of it. This ending is so abrupt and out of place, with the ends justifying the means in the eyes of Jacob's sons, that the author must intend something. Otherwise it would not be included. What meaning, or connection might one draw here? Maybe Judges "own eyes"?

Legit asking the question bc IDK: Gen 34 ends with Simeon and Levi slaughtering a city and intentionally traumatically taking the women and children ostensibly in a fashion worse than Shechem's treatment of Dinah. The story ends with a rhetorical question, "Shall he treat our sister like a ...

The lists of names in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament are maps. They explain where people come from and should be used as a starting point for generating questions like why this geographic location is important to this story.

Rules were required. Yahweh intended his people to be priests (Ex 15:6). They would faithfully believe and not require laws. With their failure they instead became a people _with_ priests (Ex 19:22-24).

There is this shift in the Pentateuch that follows the people's disobedience. At first, the people follow in the tradition of Abraham: he believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. This status was conferred before the law at Sinai (Ge 15). With their sin, belief was no longer enough ...

Devil in the Details: Rest, Relief, and Frame Semantics - Episode 121 Podcast Episode · Genesis Marks the Spot · 04/04/2025 · 1h 9m

Carey Griffel provides helpful guidance on how to read scripture better, introducing the concept of, or putting words to the idea of contextual reading, frame semantics podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

Moses says take my life. God relents and says no, looking ahead to a later prophet like Moses. That later prophet, the prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy 18, gives his life without God’s relenting.

Our Lord sacrificed himself for human beings. For people. Not for systems.

Here’s one: with the exception of egregious wrongs, if someone or a family chooses to leave your fellowship for another, bring them on stage, acknowledge them, bless them and the good they brought to your community, and ask God to work through them as they continue on their journey.

If the apostle Paul got it all wrong, it’s not an unfair statement that I could also be very wrong.