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Year 2020 in Review: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times
The year 2020 will be a milestone in history and a milestone for many people who lived through it. For me personally, it was a year of profound crisis but also a year of new ministry opportunities.
[Read more…]Has Anyone Ever Read Genesis 1 Like this Before?
Hasn’t the church always read the creation account in Genesis 1 as a straightfoward narrative? Haven’t Christians always believed that the earth is relatively young and that the creation days were twenty-four hour days? How do I just up and think I can read this text anyway I want to? Where has the Holy Spirit been all these years?
Todd PattersonMerry Christmas 2020 from the Pattersons (video)
What a year! At this time last year we had no idea what 2020 had in store and I think most of us feel like 2021 can’t possibly be worse (and, at the same time, that it very well might be!).
Despite all the trials of 2020, the social distancing for the holidays, and the uncertainties ahead, we wish you a peace that passes understanding during this holiday season and all of 2021.
Immanuel!
God is with us!
[Read more…]How Can the Creation Account in Genesis 1 be Both History and Literature?
In my posts on Genesis 1 I say that the creation account is history and that it is literature. Is it possible to cross the impassable divide? At first, it seems the obvious answer is no. Historical fiction, after all, even though it’s cast in a real historical setting, is still fiction.
[Read more…]Reading Genesis 1 as Literature and Three Problems it Creates for Evangelicals
Evangelicals often read the creation account in Genesis 1 as straightforward history but I’ve been suggesting that we need to pay attention to the literary features of the text and its ancient Near Eastern background. The text is historical narrative, I affirm, but also literary and figurative. This raises three questions that we need to address.
[Read more…]The Little Girl with the Big Voice
I can still remember holding that tiny little baby (5.0 lbs, 16.75 in) and thinking to myself, only eighteen years with her! Well, time has flown by and Elisabeth turned eighteen in June. Since Slovakia has a thirteen year school system she still has one more year to go, but she’s looking to the future: college in the States, developing her voice talents and driving (have to be 18 in Slovakia).
[Read more…]When a Day Might not be a Day
The creation account of Genesis 1 is divided into six days of creation and one day of rest. Each day of creation ends with the same two clauses: “And there was evening and there was morning, day 1,” “…evening…morning…the second day,” etc. To us, it seems perfectly clear that day means a 24 hour period. Why else would he say, “And there was evening, and there was morning…?” So why do some interpreters, like myself, say it’s possible that Moses uses “day” in a non plain-language way?
[Read more…]