Parchment & Pen Blog

<p><a href=”http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/category/dan-wallace-contra-mundane/”><img height=”170″ width=”335″ align=”right” style=”width: 335px; height: 170px;” src=”http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/images/Parchment%20and%20Pen/danpandp6.jpg” alt=”” /></a><br /> Wow! Nearly five dozen brave people have put their reputations on the line by taking this little quiz. Well done, folks. You all get an A just for courage. Now, for the questions again with their answers and explanations:</p> <p>1. The first [...]

I am an Evangelical . . . a “Historic Evangelical.” Meaningless, I know. But let me respond to many of you by taking the next step in putting some flesh on this proposed new name for an old tradition. Reason for the Change: 1. Evangelicalism has lost its meaning in most circles today. “Evangelicalism” means both everything and [...]

Considering the current discussion on the blog about the crisis in Evangelicalism, I found that Michael Spencer posted on this subject a few days ago. He lists 13 critical problems facing contemporary evangelicalism. I agree with all thirteen. I will also add mine to the end in brackets. 1. Vast evidence of a growing doctrinal [...]

It would seem that every so often designations lose their value. I have talked about this much in this blog as I have lamented the demise of evangelicalism. I have watched the roots of evangelicalism rot, splinter, dry out, and die. I am was an evangelical. I find that it is hard to call myself such without dying [...]

Michael Patton put up A Brief Primer on Textual Criticism last week without my knowledge. He didn’t know that I wanted to begin something of a series on this topic. Sheesh! We need to talk to each other a bit more often! I’ll try not to duplicate what he has written too much. But I [...]

My best friend while I was at seminary, Chris Woodall, has recently converted to Anglicanism. He wrote about this in his blog recently. It is worth a read. Give him some trouble—he always does me! Here is a nice statement made by Chris: The spiritual-life advertised by evangelicals all my life did not work for [...]

Dear friends, A different sort of blog this time, but one I can hardly keep to myself. As many of you know, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org) sent out two teams on expeditions this past summer—one to Patmos and one to an eastern European country. The expeditions accomplished far more [...]

I grew up as a surf bum in Newport Beach, California. You probably already have the wrong image: I was too poor to own a surfboard or a wetsuit, but I could buy a "Duckfoot" swim fin and go bodysurfing all summer long. I miss that Duck Foot, that lifestyle, that city, that era of [...]

Having grown up in the north, I have a great appreciation for this time of year "the harvest season." While living in Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, my family and I greatly enjoyed the crisp evening air, the spectacular fall colors, going on hayrides, drinking fresh apple cider, and picking pumpkins, gourds, and apples. My wife [...]

It is no secret that our culture today is undergoing a massive paradigm shift with regards to the way people come to know truth. The atmosphere of the intellectual landscape has changed. Confidence, certainty, and dogmatism have been replaced with doubt, skepticism, and agnosticism. All truth claims are held in high suspicion. Those still working [...]

On Monday of this week (October 1, 2007), an icon of sober-minded New Testament scholarship died. He was ninety-eight. Born in China on December 3, 1908, Charles Francis Digby Moule (pronounced "mole") had a stellar career as a pastor and professor. He was one of the best known New Testament scholars of the twentieth century. [...]

In times past, most serious theologians and biblical scholars could look to the modern Charismatic movement merely as the latest movement among folk Christianity that doesn’t take intellectual studies seriously. The sensationalistic tendencies of the movement could be easily written off knowing that soon this fad would end with disillusionment and an “I told you [...]