“Bible use continues to lag behind levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Bible Society said in recapping key findings from the 2022 State of the Bible.” - BPNews

The issue of the two genealogies takes some harmonizing. At first glance, they both appear to the genealogy of Joseph. Yet the wording in Luke’s Gospel has some wiggle room.

How do you harmonize the two? Bible-believing Christians have gravitated to three choices, but perhaps there are more? If so, please share your thoughts!

Poll Results

How do you harmonize the two accounts of Jesus’ Genealogy?

“Northern Baptists opposed slavery in the antebellum era and southern Baptists supported it….It’s not an invalid summary of the broad state of affairs, yet the reality was more complex. Consider the case of David Barrow.” - London Lyceum

“when it comes to policy changes like funding for employees to have an abortion, vaccinations, or even trans inclusion, it’s likely these are not calling for a direct mistreatment from you to other people.” - Kainos

“The New England Puritans were strong opponents of Christmas, not only because of its connections with Roman Catholicism but also because, in 17th-century England, it had become a day known more for excessive drinking and gaming than for any religious observance.” - CToday

An in depth look at UMC and the collection of essays, The Next Methodism: Theological, Social, and Missional Foundations for Global Methodism. - Acton

“Families have many traditions on Christmas morning, and most pastors acknowledge not as many of their members will be present compared to Christmas Eve and services earlier in the month” - BPNews

Most who study Christian Apologetics have heard of Blaise Pascal; others note a problem with Pascal’s Famous wager.

The wager

According to Got Questions,

The gist of the Wager is that, according to Pascal, one cannot come to the knowledge of God’s existence through reason alone, so the wise thing to do is to live your life as if God does exist because such a life has everything to gain and nothing to lose. If we live as though God exists, and He does indeed exist, we have gained heaven.

“The statistics are genuinely alarming: it sounds like boys are all going to drop out of school, quit going to work, and spend the rest of their lives watching porn, doing drugs, and playing video games.” - TGC

“Mentor Books is publishing “A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689”, edited by Rob Ventura and written by a collection of over 20 long-serving Reformed Baptist pastors.” - Ref21

“Many people assume that the Catholic Church stopped granting indulgences….This comprehensive doctrine, revised in 1967 by Pope Paul VI, remains one of the church’s teachings to this day.” - The Conversation

“ ‘We decided on a biblical village theme that attempts to re-create a 2,000-year-old experience’ said an official in charge of developing the site.” - RNS

“Yesterday, scientists … confirmed that they had discovered a pathway to the first potentially viable nuclear-fusion power… But is it too good to be true?” - National Review

Related: Nuclear fusion technology passes key milestone - Axios and DOE National Laboratory Makes History by Achieving Fusion Ignition - US Dept of Energy

“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! …there was no misprint.” - Dan Wells

Read Part 1.

e. God tests people to know their character.

Boyd states, “The fifth and strongest group of passages we’ve examined thus far that suggest the future is not exhaustively settled shows that God frequently tests his covenant partners to see if they will choose to follow him or not.”²²

Response # 1: When evidence to the contrary from Scripture is presented against this point, Boyd’s response is less than satisfying. He explains:

“the junior high and senior high ministries were incredibly fruitful in their own right…. On the other hand, the combined events were reminders that there are many riches to be discovered with cross-generational ministry.” - 9 Marks

“those with lower family incomes (53%) are more likely than those from middle- (38%) and high-income households (30%) to have experienced high psychological distress at least once since March 2020” - Pew

“Ortlund declined to comment to CT on the allegations, but in the state filing, the church said that Hyland was fired because of ‘her unwillingness to grow out of insubordination and lack of performance.’” - CToday

“A second federal appeals court has blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to require doctors and hospitals to perform gender-transition procedures, as well as abortions, over their objections.” - BPNews

“Since we forfeited the garden, humans have been pierced with a home-longing. We leave home looking to find home. Yet it always seems to elude us. It’s never the same if we go back.” - Desiring God

“Here’s where you go in the SBC to find a registry of all ordained ministers: www.​fahgettaboutitSBC. There is no requirement that any pastor in any position be ordained.” - William Thornton

“I am not pitting the Bible against reason. I am pitting Wolfe’s application of reason against what I consider the Bible’s own exegetical and redemptive reasoning.” - 9 Marks

“Though we can only observe from our corner of the world, we see most clearly when we look for what God’s doing in the other corners.” - Collin Hansen

“None of the songs I have included today on my least-favorite list are actually Christian Christmas songs at all; but they all commonly get included on Christmas playlists.” - Kindle Afresh

Read the series.

Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology

10. CT reads Christ into passages where He is plainly not in view and employs Him (particularly His first coming) as the lens through which Scripture must be understood.

“What means are justifiable in pursuit of good ends? What alliances are defensible? What schemes are permissible? … Proverbs takes a dim view of dirty tricks and amoral transactionalism.” - CToday

“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it?” - Olinger

“Christmas — over any other season — tends to make life’s sweet things sweeter and hard things harder.” - Desiring God

“for Crouch, the question isn’t so much, ‘How do we get off our phones?’ but rather ‘How can we start seeing one another as persons again?’” - Acton

“This post is not meant to be a poll on Johnny Hunt; rather, I want us to focus on revoking ordination. How is that done? What would justify revoking a pastor’s ordination?” - SBC Voices