Sorry, folks, for skipping out on my weekly blog last week. I’ve been sort of busy. I was in Albania a week ago, with three CSNTM teammates. We were there to finish the photography of one manuscript from last year’s expedition and do UV photography on several others. Then, off to Patmos to photograph seven manuscripts. We had budgeted two weeks to do the job, since the library would be open only 3.5 hours a day. But we were successful in getting through all seven manuscripts, including one that was done entirely with UV photography, in five days! Continue Reading »

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May 24, 2008: The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts has sent a team to Albania for the second year in a row. Four of us are here in Tirana as I write this. The National Archive opened wide its doors to us today. We began in earnest, setting up the cameras to do UV photography. We had to borrow some poster boards and duct tape them to the windows. By the time we could start shooting with UV photography, everything went at a good clip. We brought two UV lamps which really sped up the process. With one, it can take up to 30 seconds to shoot one page. With two lamps, that was cut down to less than 10 seconds. Continue Reading »

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That’s the title of a press release that is going out this week. I’ll have to wait until the news of the location, as well as the number and significance of the manuscripts, is broken before I can say too much more. But as many of you know, these “discoveries” were made by a team from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org). The team came back with over 18,000 high-resolution digital photographs, filling one terabyte of data. Altogether, 47 manuscripts were photographed (though many of them were previously known to western scholars). The equipment broke down, the air conditioning was shut down by the government every day, and the heat of the summer beat down on this team mercilessly. It took five weeks and two different teams (four took the first shift and three the second) to shoot all the manuscripts.

What I can tell beyond the above is that a few of the manuscripts seem to be fairly important, although only one or two can properly be called “early.” Continue Reading »

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In what is becoming a rather embarrassing annual occurrence, Pat Robertson makes his prediction for 2008. It would seem that the Lord has informed him of an immanent stock market crash that is scheduled for this year. Oil will reach $150 a barrel. As well, because of the crash, in the chaos, many people will seek the Lord. “We will see the presence of angels and we will see an intensification of miracles around the world.”

According to Robertson, he receives these revelations from the Lord as the Lord speaks to him during prayer.

Here is a quick review of some of his previous prophetic revelations over the last decade or so:

1980: The USSR will invade the Middle East Continue Reading »

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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. Already many obituaries and eulogies have been written about him. Here are some of the links:

Scot McKnight’s blogsite
The Telegraph
The Independent
Mark Goodacre’s website

The basic information about his life can be seen on these websites. I’d like to share some more personal information. Continue Reading »

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Check out The Theology Program’s new online certificate student’s site.

You can still enroll. Online classes begin Tuesday. The cost is $100 per course. for those of you who cannot afford this, we do have a limited number of scholarships available from generous donors. Email us for more information.

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1. I will finish my series on imputation on Monday. 

2. Ben Witherington writes on authorial intent hermeneutics. His three basic guidelines: 1) It means what is means, not what you want it to mean or your presuppositions determine it means. 2) Context is king. No proof texting. This is one of the biggest interpretive problems in the church today.  3) Genre Matter. You have interpret according to the rules of engagement determined by the type of literature. Oh that people would embrace these principles. Here is an excerpt. Continue Reading »

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Here is the trailer for the new Intelligent Design (ID) movie with Ben Stein. It looks like it is well done with a bit of humor that is going to drive many people mad. Get ready . . .

Now, I want everyone to notice who is a rebel along with me and Ben. Yes, you can check right here. Those of you who know me will know exactly who I am talking about! Oh yeah! Continue Reading »

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If you live in the Dallas area or you can be in the Dallas area in late October, you won’t want to miss the Jesus in Prime Time conference. The subject couldn’t be more timely and the lineup of speakers couldn’t be better.

Continue Reading »

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Concerning the discussion on the blogs recently, I have corresponded with James White I spoke with James White on his show The Dividing Line tonight. You can listen here. I think it was a fruitful discussion?

[audio:http://www.aomin.org/podcasts/20070712fta.mp3]

Continue Reading »

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It was brought to my attention that James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries has devoted one of his “Dividing Line” broadcasts to these issues concerning Roman Catholics and Evangelicals here on the Parchment and Pen blog. Most of his comments are directed critically toward Dan Wallace and I. I cannot speak for Dan, but I thought that I would respond very briefly here. Continue Reading »

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I’ve been generous to the Catholics this week on matters of Salvation by faith and works, and now what do I get? Pope Benedict XVII kicks me in the face by approving a document that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches—that the Catholic church is the only true path to salvation. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they don’t have apostolic succession. Thus their ordinations are not valid. Well, so much for Catholics. Such slurs can go two ways. Continue Reading »

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Well Dan, you have certainly caused a stir. I think this conversation concerning the relationship of modern Catholicism and Protestantism is needed.

I just have one initial point to make. Having spent much time with Catholics, I think that it is important that we don’t lose this: While Catholics are monolithic in confession, they are not monolithic in their interpretation of their confession. In recent years Rome (no, not Rhome - he has not authority in this area) has given much allowance for discovery and diversity. This has encouraged those both in the Protestant and Catholic church. The implications seem to be far reaching. Continue Reading »

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ETS Papers on RMM

Reclaiming the Mind Ministries is now the official host for the Evangelical Theological Society’s (ETS) annual meeting papers. We have posted hundreds and will be posting hundreds more in the coming days. Check them out here.

The Evangelical Theological Society is an organization that exists “To foster conservative Biblical scholarship by providing a medium for the oral exchange and written expression of thought and research in the general field of the theological disciplines as centered in the Scriptures.” All the papers presented on the RMM site are from the annual ETS conferences. Continue Reading »

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“It is better than Disney World.” Those are not my words, but the words of my two daughters, Katelynn, age 8, and Kylee, age 7. I am sure that Will, age 3, would say the same thing. Continue Reading »

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