skipper – Page 10

The Message of the Wise Men

A lot has been made of the wise men who visited Jesus very early in his life, and it seems that most folks are interested in knowing who they are or where they came from, why they brought gifts, what the star they followed actually was, etc. These are all interesting questions, but I want to look at something else. (By the way, fast facts on the wise men: we don’t know how many, we don’t know from where, and there’s nothing which says they were kings.)

I want to focus on the fact that they were not Israelites. What in the world were they doing there? Why did Matthew include them in his gospel? Most of Jesus’ interactions in this gospel were with other Jews, so it seems important when these foreigners are mentioned so prominently.

Was Adam immortal before the fall?

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about Adam recently, and one idea which I’ve read is that Adam was physically immortal prior to the fall. This idea has been around a long time, at least since the dispute between Augustine and Pelagius in the fifth century.

Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible

Here’s a lengthy essay I wrote on this topic: link.

For the tl;dr crowd, here’s the conclusion: both the Old and New Testaments provide certain grounds for a valid divorce, which includes the option of remarriage. Divorce outside of these grounds is forbidden to Christians, and Christians are always encouraged to maintain the marriage.

I welcome comments! Corrections, agreements, disagreements, what-about-this observations, etc.