I get a lot of email about my views on Yahweh and divine plurality. You’d think people would find my material via Google or my divine council website, but I guess not. I’m making this page for you all, of course, but also to provide myself a convenient one-stop link to send people.
Mike’s “lay level” work on the divine council and the nature of Israelite monotheism (the basic essays)
These live on my divine council site; the items selected here can also be found in the Faithlife Study Bible (FSB), the Lexham Bible Dictionary (LBD) and a volume of the InterVarsity Press OT Reference series (IVP). They are short distillations of the topics:
I should also mention that these issues feature prominently (among many other points of biblical theology) in my best-selling book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible(Lexham Press, 2015), and its “person-in-the-pew” distillation, Supernatural: What the Bible Says About the Unseen World and Why It Matters (Lexham Press, 2015).
Mike’s relevant scholarly publications
Some of these live on my divine council site as well. Others cannot be posted here due to the wishes of the academic journal that published the content (if you subscribe to my newsletter you can access articles not linked here via a protected folder). These articles tend to be technical, save for the one critiquing Mormonism’s use of Psalm 82.
Ezekiel, Obadiah, Habakkuk What do these names have in common? Well, they are three of the 15 prophets that have their own books in the Bible.
And if you have tried to read these books, odds are you got lost in their dense poetry and strange imagery. But these books are super important for understanding the overall biblical story.
When I hear the word “prophet”, I think of a fortune teller, someone who predicts the future.
That is what being a prophet means in many cultures, but not in the Bible.
While the biblical prophets sometimes speak about the future, they are way more than fortune tellers.
How should I think about them?
Well, they were Israelites who had a radical encounter with God’s presence and then were commissioned to go and speak on God’s behalf.
Like a representative.
Right! And the thing that they cared about the most. It is the mutual partnership that existed between God and the Israelites.
Right! the partnership. God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt and invited them to become a nation of justice and generosity, that would represent his character to the nations.
So, this partnership required all Israelites to give their trust and allegiance to their God alone. In the Bible, this partnership is called the “Covenant”.
But the leaders — the priests, the kings — led Israel astray and they broke the covenant.
So, this is where the prophets came in, to remind Israel of their role in the partnership. They did this in 3 ways.
First, they were constantly accusing Israel for violating the terms of the covenant. The charges usually include idolatry, alliances with other nations and their gods and allowing injustice towards the poor.
So, they are like covenant lawyers.
Right. So, second, the prophets called the Israelites to repent, which means simply, “to turn around”. They spoke of God’s mercy to forgive them if they would just confess and change their ways.
But, Israel and its leaders didn’t change. Things went from bad to worse.
And so that brings us to the third way that prophets emphasized the covenant. They announced the consequences for breaking it which they called, “The Day of the Lord”.
Oh, yeah! The apocalypse. Visions of the end of the world.
Well, sort of. The prophets were mostly interested in how God would bring his justice on Israel’s corruption and on the violent nations around them. And while explaining these local events, they often used cosmic imagery.
Cosmic imagery?
Yeah! like Jeremiah. He described the exile of the Israelites to Babylon as the undoing of creation itself. The land dissolves into chaos and disorder, no light, no animals or people. Or Isaiah described the downfall of Babylon as the disintegration of the cosmos. Stars falling from the sky, the sun going dark. For the prophets, when God acts in human history to bring justice, it is a “Day of the Lord”.
So, the prophets aren’t talking about the end of the world?
Well, hold on. They are doing many things at once. The cosmic imagery shows how these important events of their day fit into the bigger story of God’s mission to bring down every corrupt and violent nation once and for all. The prophets cared about the present and the future. And the cosmic imagery allowed them to talk about both at the same time.
Got it. So, no matter when you live, the Day of the Lord is bad news if you are part of Babylon.
But, it is good news if you are waiting for God’s kingdom. The Day of the Lord pointed to the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. And once again, the prophets use cosmic poetry to describe it. They see a New Jerusalem, like a new Garden of Eden, with all humanity living at peace with each other and with the animals. And, there is a new Messianic King who restores God’s kingdom in a renewed creation.
Beautiful! So, those are the three themes in the prophets. These prophets must have been very powerful, persuasive speakers.
Well, some were. But others lived on the margins. They would often perform strange, symbolic stunts in public to communicate their message. Like when Ezekiel lay in the dirt and built a model of Jerusalem being attacked by Babylon. Or when Isaiah walked around naked for 3 years as a symbol of the humiliation of exile.
So, did people pay attention to them?
Not really. The stories in these books show how the prophets were a minority group mostly shunned by Israel’s leaders. And their writings were a kind of resistance literature. Most people ignored them. That is, until their warnings came true in the Babylonian exile.
And after that, people began to take their word seriously.
Yes! The works of these earlier prophets were inherited later by unnamed prophets who studied these texts intensely. They’re the ones who arranged the Hebrew scriptures as we know them, including the books of the prophets.
Okay. And there are 15 books of the prophets. The big 3 are Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Then, there is a collection of 12 smaller prophetic works unified on a single scroll. And in each of these books, you will read stories about the prophets and their poems and visions, all arranged to show the cosmic meaning of Israel’s history. How God will turn their tragic story of failure and exile…
…into a story of hope and restoration for all nations.
And it’s that twin message of prophetic warning and of hope that the prophets cared about so much. And, it is a message that we still need to hear today.
Those who would attack the church require only the slightest pretense. Where no basis in law exists, a legalistic pretense will be created as illustrated in two recent examples (with thanks to WND for reporting on them.)
In this case, a misguided fear of “violating the Constitution’s establishment clause” led the city council to ban church worship services.
The case is not yet resolved, but will likely go in the church’s favor (with no help from the constitution’s establishment clause.) The city was inconsistent when implementing their policies: they let other groups use the civic center for similar events and rented office space in the same building to a Lutheran church. But that didn’t stop “their fears” from making up ad hoc rules to exclude the church.
If cities should implement their policies consistently, or cleverly revamp them from scratch to exclude the church, protection from the constitution’s establishment clause will be revealed to be merely rhetorical. Practically, only those with the resources to press the issue will be heard in federal court. In the meantime, ministries will be shut out or shut down until the local domains excluding them have a compelling reason to relent.
‘Constitutional’ Protection?
The federal constitution doesn’t prevent a city from making policies and ordinances. There is no agreement between these entities (fedgov and city). The state constitution might have a clause to which churches may appeal, depending on the state. Such will only be tested if churches in their domain have the will and resources to protest.
The church in this first example protested to local authorities and will likely prevail. Their victory will stem from the inconsistent policy implementation by the city.
Retired Pastor Threatened With Eviction Over Bible Study
A company that runs a senior-living center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has decided that a Bible study is a “business” and consequently has threatened to evict a retired Lutheran pastor and his wife for conducting one in their residence.
From the start, the retired pastor characterized his Bible study as a “book review” to avoid friction with the management company. Then we see another example of a private entity making ad hoc changes to their policies to justify an eviction. In this case, they recategorized the Bible study as a business.
As in the first example, the company ’s mistake was inconsistently implementing their policies. Other groups were permitted to meet in the same space to engage in activities ostensibly identical to those of the pastor’s Bible study. The company would have to show that holding a Bible in your hands when meeting others somehow makes it a business meeting to justify their eviction of the pastor.
The legal defenders of this small group say the federal housing act (FHA) may be the remedy for the pastor:
The actions by the Evergreens “violate the Fair Housing Act and its accompanying regulations,” First Liberty contended. “The FHA prohibits discrimination ‘against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of the sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, because of … religion.”
Private Homeowners in HOA Domains
The FHA might be a remedy for church activities under its domain. But what about private homeowners? 40 million households (53% of households in America)1 are in the legal domain of a Home Owners Association and bound by the agreement that defines it.
HOA agreements control the use of the home. Could the language in those agreements be changed, after the fact, to restrict Bible studies or house churches?
Of course, they could.
What if the atheist in the previous example was on the HOA board of your community? What would prevent him from making up an ad hoc rule as was done in the first two examples in this article?
Most of those who’ve signed HOA agreements have little knowledge of their contents. After the fact, homeowners may object to their restrictions. But those restrictions are clearly outlined in a document bearing an essential legal feature: the signature of the homeowner. Indeed, participation in this domain is entirely optional.
As faith-based attacks on homes in the domain of an HOA increase, believers must be mindful about their voluntary consent into these domains.
First Line of Defense
A believers first line of defense is prayer and God’s supernatural protection. However, Christians should take notice of Walter Williams’ description of the first line of defense in secular terms.
A civilized society’s first line of defense is not the law, police, and courts but customs, traditions, and moral values. Behavioral norms, mostly transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings, represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error.2
The “customs, traditions and moral values” Williams refers to came directly from the foundational document of western civilization: The Bible. So did common law, although the current legal system in America is commercial.
In other words, whereas the Bible, itself, was the primary legal document in Christendom, Americans must now appeal to its faint echo filtered through society and commercial law.
Recommendations
While not possible or righteous to avoid all persecution, we are sent out “as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Mt 10:16.)” As hard as dove-like innocence may be to some, and serpentine-like wisdom to others, the fulfillment of the great commission requires both. Where one is lacking, believers are compromised.
Any justice received by Americans is limited to what they can or will afford. For ministries already entangled by legalistic pretense, it will cost money to break free. More often, what’s required is the wisdom to navigate the various domains of the territory to remain on task.
Pray for God’s supernatural guidance on every premise and decision of your ministry.
Look for states, counties, and cities with widely shared Christian beliefs; without a history of making ad hoc ordinances to quell irrational fears or provide temporary convenience.
Disabuse yourself of the false mindset that your first line of defense is the law. The legal system is the last line of defense and available only to those who can afford it.
Look for protection from the inconsistency of your opponent’s policy implementation or the customs and traditions of the domain of your ministry.
Think carefully before signing a home owner’s agreement that might one day be used as a lever of control over your Bible Study, ministry, or house church.
Where they don’t “receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” (Matthew 10:14)
Where escape is impossible, stand your ground for the truth and God’s glory. Bear your cross with steadfastness and joy and “consider this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Co 4:17–18).
The excerpts, below, are a sample of the transcript.
God Exists
And as we look at the rise of science in the 16th and 17th centuries, Alfred North Whitehead and many others commented, that men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not ashamed of being both a scientist and a Christian because, arguably, Christianity gave me my subject.
What I am amazed at is that serious thinkers today continue to ask us to choose between God and science. That’s like asking people to choose between Henry Ford and engineering as an explanation of the motor car.
When Newton discovered his law of gravity he didn’t say I’ve got a law, I don’t need God. No, he wrote the Principia Mathematica, arguably the greatest work in the whole history of science, because he saw that God is not the same kind of explanation as a scientific explanation. God doesn’t Compete. Agency does not compete with mechanism and law.
It reminds me a little bit of GK Chesterton who said, “It is absurd to complain that it is unthinkable for an unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing and then to pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.”
Leading philosopher Alvin Plantinga of Notre Dame says, “If atheists are right that we are the product of mindless, unguided natural processes then they have given a strong reason to doubt the reliability of human cognitive faculties, and therefore inevitably to doubt the validity of any belief that they produce including their atheism.” Their biology and their belief in naturalism would, therefore, appear to be at war with each other in a conflict that has nothing at all to do with God.
As modern science sprang from Judeo-Christian sources, so did the concept of human equality. Listen to atheist Jurgen Habermas, arguably one of Germany’s leading intellectuals. He said that “Universalistic egalitarianism from which sprang the ideals of freedom and collective life and solidarity, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love.”
This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day there is no alternative to it. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk.
Just before falling asleep, last night, I found my thoughts turning to whether the book of Revelation was written before, or after AD70. It was a lingering curiosity after taking Dr. Heiser’s course “Why Do Christians Disagree about End Times? and late-night viewing of N.T. Wright videos on preterism.
A quick web search led to a useful excerpt from a book by Jonathan Welton where he lists many of the pre-AD70 arguments in one place. As it turns out, I was reading from the first edition of Jonathan’s book, “Raptureless” which he’s made available for reading online. The third edition of the same book was published in 2015.
An expanded version of the same excerpt is also published on Jonathan’s website in the first two chapters of his “The Art of Revelation.”
Welton Addresses Three Common Objections Stemming from the Title ‘Raptureless’
The excerpt, below, is written by Jonathan Welton. You can read more from him on his website: Welton Academy.
Excerpt of ‘Raptureless’ by Jonathan Welton
I have come to believe the majority of the Book of Revelation was written regarding events that took place at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. In order to believe that, we must first address the date of authorship. If the book was written in AD 96, as many modern teachers claim, then my point of view cannot be valid. Yet, I believe the overwhelming body of evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that Revelation was more likely written before AD 68. Let’s look at the proofs to establish the date of writing.
The Proofs
The primary reason some Bible teachers claim the Book of Revelation was written around AD 96 is because John noted in Revelation 1:9 that he was on the island of Patmos at the time he received the Revelation. There is some historical evidence that John was exiled to Patmos under the reign of Domitian between AD 81 and AD 96. Therefore, the book might have been written during that time—or so some claim. In reality, there are also historical documents that tell us John was exiled to Patmos at a much earlier date. Here I will share ten evidences that Revelation was written before AD 68.
1. The Syriac
We have the witness of one of the most ancient versions of the New Testament, called The Syriac. The second-century Syriac Version, called the Peshitto, says the following on the title page of the Book of Revelation:
Again the revelation, which was upon the holy John the Evangelist from God when he was on the island of Patmos where he was thrown by the emperor Nero.
Nero Caesar ruled over the Roman Empire from AD 54 to AD 68. Therefore, John had to have been on the island of Patmos during this earlier period. One of the oldest versions of the Bible tells us when Revelation was written! That alone is a very compelling argument.
2. Revelation 17:10
When we look at the internal evidence, we find a very clear indicator of the date of authorship in Revelation 17:10: “They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while” (Rev. 17:10). This passage, which speaks of the line of rulers in Rome, tells us exactly how many rulers had already come, which one was currently in power, and that the next one would only last a short while. Take a look at how perfectly it fits with Nero and the Roman Empire of the first century.
The rule of the first seven Roman Emperors is as follows:
“Five have fallen…”
Julius Caesar (49–44 BC)
Augustus (27 BC–AD 14)
Tiberius (AD 14–37)
Caligula (AD 37–41)
Claudius (AD 41–54)
“One is…”
Nero (AD 54–68)
“the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.”
Galba (June AD 68–January AD 69, a six month ruler-ship)
Of the first seven kings, five had come (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius), one was currently in power (Nero), and one had not yet come (Galba), but would only remain a little time (six months). The current Caesar at the time of John’s writing was the sixth Caesar, Nero.
3. Those Who Pierced Him
As I discussed in depth in _Raptureless, _the Hebrew idiom “coming on clouds” speaks of God coming to bring judgment on a city or nation. That is what Jesus came to do in AD 70. Revelation 1:7 tells us who His judgment is against:__
Lo, he doth come with the clouds, and see him shall every eye, even those who did pierce him, and wail because of him shall all the tribes of the land. Yes! Amen (Revelation 1:7 YLT).
Here, the phrase “those who did pierce him” refers to the people of the first century. According to this passage, they were expected to be alive at the time of Revelation’s fulfillment. The fact that “those who did pierce him” were not alive in AD 96, because they were killed in the slaughter of AD 70, is a clear indicator that Revelation was written before AD 70.
4. Jewish Persecution of Christians
The Jewish persecution of Christianity in Revelation 6 and 11 indicates a pre-AD 70 authorship. After the slaughter of AD 70, the Jews were not in a position to persecute the early Church. In fact, since AD 70, the Jews have never been in a position to be able to persecute Christians.
5. Judaizing Heretics in the Church
The activity of the Judaizing heretics in the Church (see Rev. 2:6,9,15; 3:9) is emphasized in the letters to the churches in Revelation. This tells us something about the dating of the letter, because the Judiazing heretics lost a great deal of influence after Paul’s epistles were circulated. Also, it makes sense that the heresy would have been a much smaller issue after so many Jews were slaughtered in AD 70. Only an early date of authorship allows for the heretics to be a significant problem.
6. Existence of Jerusalem and the Temple
The existence and integrity of Jerusalem and the Temple (see Rev. 11) suggest a date before the destruction of AD 70. If the Book of Revelation was written in AD 96, only twenty-six years after the destruction of the Temple and the Holy City, it is shocking John didn’t mention the recent massacre of the city and Temple.
7. Time-related Passages
The internal time-related portions of Revelation indicate that the events it foretells will come to pass shortly (see Rev. 1:1,3; 22:10,20). If this is read with an unbiased perspective, we can easily conclude Revelation was not written about events 2,000 years in the future. The time texts are bookends, which frame the content of the book.
8. John’s Appearance in AD 96
Another reason to believe the Book of Revelation was written at the earlier date is because Jerome noted in his writings that John was seen in AD 96 and that he was so old and infirm that “he was with difficulty carried to the church, and could speak only a few words to the people.”1 We must put this fact together with Revelation 10:11, which says John must “prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” It is difficult to imagine John would be able to speak to many nations and many kings at any date after AD 96 since he was already elderly and feeble.
9. Timetable Comparison with Daniel
In Daniel, the author was told to “seal up the vision, for it is a long way off” (Dan. 12:4)—which referred to a 483-year wait until Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy. By contrast, in Revelation, John was told to “not seal up the vision because it concerns things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev 22:10). If 483 years was considered a long way off, meaning that the vision should be sealed, it makes no sense that 2,000 plus years would be considered “shortly to come to pass” and not to be sealed up. Clearly, the obvious answer is Revelation shouldn’t be sealed because it was about to happen at the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem.
10. Only Seven Churches
The existence of only seven churches in Asia Minor (see Rev. 1) also indicates a writing date before the greater expansion of Christianity into that region, which occurred after the fall of Jerusalem.
The Other Perspective
Those who believe in the later date of authorship for the Book of Revelation mainly lean on the fact that Irenaeus the Bishop of Lyons (AD 120–202) claimed John wrote while on Patmos under Domitian’s reign. This alone could seem compelling, except Irenaeus is noted for making mistakes in recording dates and times in his writings. Irenaeus is the same Church father who claimed Jesus’ ministry lasted nearly twenty years, from the age of thirty until the age of fifty.
Because Revelation contains no internal evidence for a later date of authorship, proponents of the later date must lean only upon external evidence to force this conclusion. Even the external evidence of Irenaeus is not a reliable source, and many scholars have even picked apart Irenaeus’ quote about the date of authorship as possibly being a very misunderstood quotation.
Kenneth Gentry has done the world an invaluable service by writing his doctoral dissertation on the dating of Revelation. His irrefutable paper is easily purchasable as a book under the title: Before Jerusalem Fell. John A.T. Robinson has also graced us all with his book, Redating the New Testament, in which he proves all the books of the New Testament were written before AD 70.
Considering these strong proofs for an early date of writing alongside the very poor evidence in favor of a later date, I believe it is common sense to date the writing of Revelation prior to AD 70.
These two movies are from the same director, Andrew Hyatt. “Paul, Apostle of Christ” is coming out this Friday the 23rd, see the trailer and behind the scenes videos, below.
Another Christian movie from Andrew Hyatt, “Full of Grace” has been posted online in its full-length since November of 2016.
Paul, Apostle of Christ
“Risking his life, Luke ventures to Rome to visit Paul — the apostle who’s bound in chains and held captive in Nero’s darkest and bleakest prison cell. Haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds, Paul wonders if he’s been forgotten as he awaits his grisly execution. Before Paul’s death, Luke resolves to write another book that details the birth of what will come to be known as the church.”
Behind the Scenes
EWTN Interview Jim Caviezel, Raymond Arroyo
Full of Grace
Released in October 2015, this movie has been posted online for quite a while so I infer this is the producer’s preference. I have not seen the whole movie, yet, but am encouraged by this review.
“Mary of Nazareth spends her final days helping the church regain its original encounter with the lord.”
I’ve been mesmerized and confused by “prosperity gospel” (PG) sermons for decades. Twenty years before the phrase came into use to describe them, I wondered about the supposedly direct relationship between the Gospel and prosperity so boldly proclaimed by PG preachers.
Though most of PG’s heyday, I had not yet mined the depths of the Biblical text. I was unarmed and unable to refute or affirm the Biblical references placed at the bottom of the screen during these sermons. Did they prove the relationship between the Bible and prosperity, or did they merely proof-text long enough to separate believers from their tithe?
“Blessed” provides history about, but no answers to such questions. It leaves the Bible unopened, provides the facts, and risks only tentative opinions on the so-called prosperity Gospel. The book is no more and no less than “A History of the American Prosperity Gospel.” The history comes in a series of newswire-like reports on the preachers, events, and relationships associated with this Pentecostal offshoot “movement.”
The Bible is Unopened
The Bible remains unopened in the author’s historical exploration. Except for quoting a preachers use of a Biblical verse, there is no exegesis or comment on some PG tenet or another.
Just the Facts
If you read a string of newswire reports about the Viet Nam war, you might form opinions about it. However, except for the editorial choices of which stories to cover and which to leave unreported, newswire services are not (or shouldn’t be) in the business of providing opinions. Likewise, except for a few tentative views at the end of the book, neither does “Blessed” offer those of the author on her subject.
The Deification of the American Dream
The exception to the opinion-less nature of “Blessed” comes at the end of the book when the author comments that the prosperity gospel is “the deification of the American dream.”
The point is offered and then only partially made by the author. Counterpoint questions such as, “But, didn’t the advances that made the dream possible stem naturally from a new nation adhering, however briefly, to Judeo-Christian principles and values?” are not posed or answered.
A Paradox for the Reader to Untangle
If there’s any truth at the heart of the prosperity gospel, it will have something in common with all great truths: paradox. That discovery might begin with questions neither asked nor answered in “Blessed”:
What is the relationship, if any, between the Gospel and human prosperity?
How could salvation of the lost have nothing, whatsoever, to do with human flourishing?
Every believer with a heartbeat might have an opinion on such questions. But, what is the truth contained in the Biblical text? What might a believer seeking the whole counsel of God, conclude? Have some, or all, of these prosperity gospel preachers been fleecing the sheep or does the fulfillment of one or more of the missions of Jesus Christ involve prosperity and believers?
“Blessed” neither poses nor answers, such questions. For those interested in forming their own opinion, however, the history documented in the book provides an informed place to start.
I wanted to get more out of “Blessed” by sharpening my thoughts and confronting any scriptural tensions between prosperity and the Gospel. But the book is subtitled as history, so the fault is mine for bringing those expectations to it. Perhaps the author will build on this book and dive into the heart of the matter (the paradox?) in a future work.
This is the advanced version of the Story of the Bible Logos Layout demonstrated in a previous video. We’re going to pick up where that video left off adding pictures and enhancing the ability to navigate story elements with automatic sync.
The Bible does not always unfold in chronologically which makes it hard to grasp the story from reading in the sequence of the canon. Unfortunately, the “find box” in the event navigator is limited making it easy to get lost and hard to reorient yourself when you do. The remedy for this is the logos explorer.
Use Logos Explorer for Reorientation
With the Explorer set to the same linkset as your Bible, you’ll have three options to reorient and get back in sync with the story: through the event navigator, the explorer, or from your Bible.
Additional Benefits
There are two added benefits of having the explorer in this layout:
The “Media” tab in the explorer automatically finds all the pictures in your library related to the passage you’re reading (though I recommend keeping the “media” tab closed until you want to find more images, so it doesn’t search continually while the narration moves from verse to verse.)
The notations in the event navigator are hot-linked to open in the Factbook.
This advanced story layout is the centerpiece of my morning routine. I highly recommend this layout for writers or anyone looking to reach a deeper understanding of the narrative structures of the Bible.
One of my favorite ways to read the Bible is to listen to it being read aloud. By listening, instead of reading, I can more easily focus on the story the words are intended to convey. If that seems child-like it’s because it is. It’s also the most demanding and thrilling “reading” I’ve ever done. And, if sophisticated describes “the degree of complexity or that which appeals to those with worldy knowledge or experience” then, yeah, it’s that too.
I would argue that books are the “new kid on the block” for human communication. People have been telling each other stories since there was a second pair of ears to hear them. And the first person to exist probably told stories to themself! How long after storytelling did books come about? Nobody knows. But there’s is no doubt about which came first.
Wired for Story
People are wired for story; we think in pictures and learn from narrative. Want to explain something beyond words? Show a picture or paint one with the words you thought the idea was beyond. Want to impart lasting knowledge? Tell stories about those pictures.
It should come as no surprise, then, that God’s word came to us first by voice, and then in story. For all its many uses in describing the relationships between abstract entities, math is most certainly not the first language of God.
Introducing Basic Story Layout
This is more than enough to introduce a favorite morning ritual: listening to the Bible while focusing on the story. It’s the first part of my morning routine and great for writers or anyone looking to reach a deeper understanding of the narrative structures of the Bible. I use it to keep story, characters, and plot elements (and their relationships to other stories) at the forefront of my reading/listening.
Wisdom, prayer, songs, and stories within stories telling the Big Story. That’s what the Bible is. And yet, there’s more to the Big Story than what’s on the page.
Once absorbed, story becomes the raw material from which we build and live our own. And our story becomes part of HIStory, not in canon, but as Paul filled up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
Like it or Not: Narrative is Your Premise
The most important decisions I’ve ever made were deciding what stories were true enough to build my life on. Disagree? Yeah, sure, tell me a story about it. Wherever you may be on that journey, perhaps this morning ritual and layout may be of assistance.
