My earliest memory of a “witch” is of a pretty young lady named Samantha making magical things happen by twitching her nose with a quirky sound effect. It was the 1964 sitcom, “Bewitched.” We watched the reruns over and over. Another childhood memory is of the cackling crone in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, who left hair pins in her wake whenever she ran. I later learned she also had a name: Witch Hazel.

And who in my generation could forget…

Read Part 1.

Although Gideon is certainly a man driven by his anxieties when we first meet him in Judges 6, the magnificent accomplishments which God worked through him were definitely done on the basis of faith.

Indeed, this man of fear became a man of faith—and it was that faith that drove one of the greatest victories in all of Biblical history.

Now, in his first recorded words, Gideon exuded unbelief (Judg. 6:13). But shortly thereafter, in spite of the inadequacies that plagued him,…

From DBSJ 22 (2017): 75-90. Republished with permission.

by Jonathan Moreno¹

Introduction

Elie Wiesel trusted in God. As a boy, he believed that Yahweh cared deeply for him and his people. All that changed in the grueling death camps of Nazi Germany. Elie was a Jew. Subjected to the horrific atroc­ities of Auschwitz, his faith was shattered as his God seemed to sit idly by while countless victims suffered through the darkest evils imaginable at the…