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Suzerain-Vassal Treaties & the Books of Moses: Joshua Berman

December 16, 2022 / 5 Comments on Suzerain-Vassal Treaties & the Books of Moses: Joshua Berman

I had the privilege of interviewing Jewish scholar Dr. Joshua Berman, professor of Hebrew Bible at Bar-Illan University in Israel, on the fact that the books of Moses, the Pentateuch, follow the late second Millennium BC format of a suzerain-vassal treaty. This fact strongly supports the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, and, hence, the existence of genuine and unavoidable predictive prophecy in the Bible, and, thus, the Bible’s Divine authorship. Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the suzerain or great King, and Israel is the vassal, the subordinate dependent on the suzerain.

Dr. Joshua Berman Bar-Ilan University Israel suzerain Vassal treaty professor Hebrew Bible — Dr. Joshua Berman, professor of Hebrew Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel

When my wife and I visited Egypt last year as part of a faculty tour of Egypt led by evangelical scholar James Hoffmeier, we had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Berman in Luxor, Egypt, on the issue of suzerain-vassal treaties (he prefers to be called “Joshua.”) Joshua Berman explains the issue quite clearly and effectively, so if you find the terminology “suzerain vassal treaty” scary, watch the video below of the interview, and I suspect you will both understand the issue and see the value of it for Christian apologetics.

I have posted about apologetics videos recorded on this trip to Egypt in previous posts on this blog, such as this one on the famous Merneptah Stele.

Ironically, when I debated president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Dan Barker, on the Old Testament, Mr. Barker claimed that “The Israelis over in Israel … the archaeologists are throwing up their hands saying, ‘No, there’s nothing. None of these stories has any archaeological evidence at all.’” Barker’s assertion was always ridiculous, as was demonstrated within the debate itself, but the interview with Dr. Berman provides even more evidence for the foolishness of Mr. Barker’s argument.

After the interview with Dr. Joshua Berman, other scholars, including Kenneth Kitchen (On the Reliability of the Old Testament), James Hoffmeier (The Archaeology of the Bible), and Meredith Kline (Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy) are also quoted. You can learn more about archaeological evidence for the Old Testament here.

So please watch the video below. You can watch the embed below, or view it on faithsaves.net here, or on Rumble by clicking here, or on YouTube by clicking here.

–TDR

Insightful Books, part 2 of 2

July 8, 2022 / Leave a comment

Two weeks ago I provided a list of insightful books by well known authors on subjects that might be of interest to readers of this blog. I supply some further resources for your reading pleasure below. Again, feel free to add some comparable titles of interest in the comment section.

Modern English Bible Versions by Gnocer Tanty

Islamic Jihad: Head-Turning Practices by Cho P. Emoff

Infant Baptism by Sprin K. Lem

Evangelicalism Today by Stan F. O’Rnothin

Keswick Theology by Paz Ivity

Ethics: Hard Choices, by Wong R. White

Charismatic Healing by Dozon Wurk

Word of Faith Pentecostalism by A. P. O’Stacy

Speak in Tongues: A Learner’s Guide, by Shalbalauawala Simbakulawakawaka BlabaBlahbaBlubaBlaba

Papal Doctrine by Nunin Fa Lible

Mormonism by Bus M. Burns

The Watchtower Society by Cul Tic

The Goal of the State University by Bray N. Washing

Chinese Fast Food: Is Gluttony A Danger? by E. Tmo Fu

The Key to Biblical Church Growth by Evan G. Lizm

Independent Baptists: A History, by Stanford E. Troot

May these noteworthy volumes by leading authorities on their subjects be a benefit to you.

Insightful Books, part 1 of 2

June 24, 2022 / 1 Comment on Insightful Books, part 1 of 2

I have listed below a small bibliography of some interesting and insightful books on a variety of mainly religious themes. While it is generally unwise to judge a book by its cover, the books below can indeed by judged by the distinguished reputations of their authors, many of whom, as one can see from their names, especially if one reads them aloud, are international scholars of high repute.

Lord willing, I will supply a few more of these in a few weeks in an upcoming post. If you have any comparable books to recommend, please feel free to supply their names in the comment section.

Roman Catholicism by I. D. O’Latry

Transubstantiation by Istil Bred

Islam: Religion of Peace by Gno Wei

Jihad: A History by Blough M. Upp

Is Anglicanism Apostate? by Sir Tanley

The New Evangelicalism by Vichy Vashey

Contemporary Christian Music Practices by Kray Z.

Ellen White: A Life by Fals P. Rofet

Put Your Child in Public School by R. U. Nutts

How To Make Your Spouse Happy by Luv Yu

What Should We Do With the Bible? by Obei Itall

Means to Personal Growth: How I Grow as a Person

January 4, 2022 / 4 Comments on Means to Personal Growth: How I Grow as a Person

We’re all going to die and personal growth will then end. At what point does personal growth stop? The older you get, the less years you have left, and maybe it doesn’t matter any more. I don’t know how much time I have left. It could be twenty years. It could be twenty seconds.

If you are not growing then, you’re not maintaining. You are diminishing. In order not to diminish, you’ve got to grow, no matter what’s happening in your life. You’ve still got a purpose for being here on earth. You shouldn’t give up.

Since God exists and He functions as we read in His Word, we see His working in the life of a true believer in Jesus Christ. God works toward the growth of a believer. This is a promise of sanctification seen in Romans 8:28-29, that God conforms the one who love Him into the image of His Son.

Cooperation with God’s Working

God works, but He wants cooperation. Cooperation must occur, what the Bible calls, working out your salvation (Philippians 2:12). This isn’t salvation by works. It is working out a salvation already there. I call this cooperation, because it is God working in the life of the true believer. He’s working, so that you’re working. When this occurs, growth occurs.

Personal growth is cooperation with what God is doing in and through you. Based on your cooperation, it can be better for you and then others. If you’ve had some set backs and unfavorable circumstances, this does not signal to you, just give up, don’t keep cooperating.

Growth relates to purpose. It is not growth if it is not fulfilling God’s purpose. Someone might call it growth, but it would be something like cancer. It’s growing, but we don’t call that growth. If you got better at fleshly living, regular disobedience to God, that is not growth. It is regression, even if it is fueled by fulfillment of goals. A person adds skills for better building of the world system. It will pass away. It is vanity. True growth and vanity are mutually exclusive.

For true personal growth, which relates to the purpose of God, what are the means? Several means fuel my personal growth. Among these are Bible reading, prayer, fellowship, reading, writing, and practice.

Bible Reading

I’m not going to do much to prove these means of personal growth, especially a few of them. I keep reading my Bible. I read through the Old Testament twice in 2021, and the New Testament 1 1/2 times. I’m finishing up the NT from 2021, right now midway through Romans. I’m doing something different in 2022. The goal will be once OT and twice NT.

Prayer

My daughter and son-in-law gave me a prayer journal for Christmas. I’ll use that this year for prayer. Our church gives out a prayer sheet every week, which I’ll dovetail with the prayer journal. I’ve done prayer journals twice before. To me, the journal will strengthen and emphasize biblical prayers, ones in God’s will.

Fellowship

For sure, biblical fellowship means faithful church meeting, not missing church meetings. The personal growth also means engaging as the year progresses. It’s a transition year, but while we meet with the church, we grow through preaching, teaching, and sharing.

Practice

Practice is the faithful work for the Lord. Through the first three, I consider my wife, practicing the Bible with her in my role. I want to grow in marriage. Even during this transition, I want to evangelize and make disciples. I have one evangelistic Bible study. I have the goal of two other discipleships at least. In addition, I continue evangelizing. I strive to edify other believers in the church, encouraging them. It’s happening. I am helping a young man learn Greek, who wanted to learn it.

I do some physical labor to take up my share of that. Maintenance does not just happen. Most churches, almost everyone needs to take up their part, so that burden does not rest on a few people. It is ongoing.

In one sense, practice is like exercise that strengthens. Someone might read the Bible and pray, but that would be vain without practice. Some compare that to the Dead Sea. It’s dead because there is no outlet.

Writing

This is an important writing time to me. Writing crystallizes thinking. Whatever I am reading, the sharing I experience in the church, by writing it becomes a talking point. It becomes useful. I have the words to speak, because writing them forces me to have them. Whenever we communicate in our practice, writing makes it better. Writing practices the words that will come from the mouth in practice.

You know I write here twice a week. I will continue. Some don’t want me to do that for reasons I’ve expressed here before, but many encourage me to continue. I don’t want to stop.

I want to finish all writing projects. What are they? It is five books at least. First, I finished in 2021 the Disciplines for Discipleship. It was actually a thorough edit of what I wrote in 1991. The answer edition is printed and in California at Bethel Baptist Church. The disciple edition is being printed right now and will be shipped to California in the next week or two. The disciple edition is 162 pages.

I finished two other books in 2021. They are not published, but they are in the hands of a friend, who volunteered to get them into the final step. If he accomplishes that, it will be a great help. One is on apostasy, about 100 pages and five chapters written by me only, the second overall and entitled Lying Vanities. Two is a book on dress or appearance, about 300 pages and six chapters written by me only again, the third overall entitled Fashion Statement.

I have two projects I’m working on. One, so a fourth in total, is a book on the gospel, about 400-500 pages written by five or six men including me, entitled The One True Gospel. I am editor of these two books, just like Thou Shalt Keep Them and A Pure Church. I believe it is close to done. Almost everything is written. It’s in the final parts of editing, formatting, indexing, and then printing. I will let you know when we are at pre-publication, hopefully soon.

Two, so a fifth in total, is a book on sanctification, about 300-400 pages written by five or six men including me, entitled, A Salvation That Keeps On Saving. I have about half of the chapters that are completed. I want this done before the mid point of 2022. That’s a lot of work. All of these books will be published by Pillar and Ground Publishing, which is Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante, CA publishing.

Reading

What I wanted to write about the most is what I’m reading. I would include with reading today, what I hear and watch in sermons, podcasts, and programs. Even as I’m writing this, I’m listening to a podcast with a man lecturing, who I know, a Jewish man, who teaches at Loyola in Chicago, published author, that I’ve known for now about six or seven years. He stayed at our house for a week after I met him on a bus ride, where I preached the gospel to him and others. I wanted to hear what he would say, which was about interfaith dialogue and conflict. I almost always listen to these while doing something else.

What am I reading right now? I am using Basics of Biblical Greek by William Mounce for the Greek with the young man. I didn’t use this book, but he did, so I got it to use with him before I move to second year. I read several columns every week, usually on RealClearPolitics. Almost all of these I quick-read.

I am reading six books right now. I’m anywhere between 15% to 85% done with each of them. One, I’m reading Sharing the Good News with Mormons, edited by Eric Johnson and Sean McDowell. It has twenty-four short chapters to help evangelize LDS. It is worth having for this purpose. The three other books I read in 2021 for the same purpose were The Mormon People, I Love Mormons, and Leaving Mormonism. All four of them gave me something different and helpful. They all had strengths and weaknesses. Maybe I’ll write about that sometime soon.

Two, I am reading The Church That John the Baptist Prepared by Joel Grassi. It is an 850 page book (mammoth) on who Jesus called the greatest man who ever lived. How many books are written on the greatest man who ever lived? Not enough. I don’t think anyone will do better than Grassi. It is a tour de force, tremendous.

Three, I am reading Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer. This book gives the best and most updated scientific evidence for God. It will give you numbers of talking points for atheists and agnostics, where you start with creation in evangelism like Paul in Acts 17.

Four, I am reading The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England by Marc Morris. This is the most crucial event to the formation of the nation of England. Since the United States started from England, this will help Americans understand themselves and their mother country. This is bed time reading.

Five, I am reading Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men by Richard D. Phillips. He writes in an edifying, substantive way on some of the foundational knowledge for men to fulfill God’s purpose for them.

Six, I am reading Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning by Nancy Pearcey. She continues with her excellent worldview material, following Total Truth.

Do I read fiction? I do, but I’m reading nothing fictional right now. I read a few in 2021. I very seldom share what fiction I’m reading. I don’t think I need to encourage people to read fiction. Does fiction aid personal growth? It can and does. It helps creativity, imagination, and communication. I also do it for enjoyment. I don’t mind enjoying myself as an activity, since God created a world to enjoy.

What I’ve written above is the means of personal growth for me. God works through every one of these in and through me.

Free Logos & Accordance Books!

November 5, 2021 / 2 Comments on Free Logos & Accordance Books!

Free books with Logos and Accordance Bible software–great! I own–and use regularly–both Logos and Accordance Bible software. I believe Accordance has superior resources for detailed exegetical study of Scripture in the original languages, so I use mainly Accordance for my study of the Bible itself, whether for my own devotional reading, for sermons and for teaching, and so on. I also use Accordance in case I need to look a word up while hearing the great expository preaching at Bethel Baptist Church. I use Logos for most of my commentaries and reference tools, because, in my opinion, the books are easier to read and reference in Logos. Logos also has a superior read-aloud feature, so I can listen to practically every book I have in my Logos library read aloud to me while I am doing errands, driving, and so on.

You can regularly get free books with both Accordance and Logos. To get free books on Accordance, sign up here for their mailing list where they tell you about their free books. Make sure you read down or at least scroll down to the end of their emails, as they sometimes put the free books at the bottom, to get you to read the whole thing. There are several free books you can get from Logos each month. Click here to find out about the Logos free book of the month. You can also get on their mailing list so that they tell you each month about the free book. Logos has a Catholic division called Verbum which also offers a free book every month; you can get this month’s free book and sign up to get notified each month here. Sometimes the Catholic free books are idolatrous garbage, since Catholicism is an evil false religion, but other times they are useful works by patristic writers or some other worthwhile volume (at least for free!). Logos also offer free e-books that are not searchable in the same way their Logos and Verbum resources are; I sometimes get those for free as well, although I have not found them especially helpful.

Maybe you say, “I don’t own Accordance or Logos. Why should I get free books from them?” You can get the free books and use them even if you never buy anything with Accordance or Logos. For example, sometimes Logos has given away expensive and very useful commentaries as their free book of the month. (Other months the books are not as useful, but the price is still right.) You can open and read the free books within the Accordance or Logos laptop/desktop or phone apps even if you never buy a Logos or Accordance base package. What is more, if you ever do buy an Accordance or Logos base package, you don’t have to pay for what you already own, so if you have gotten a lot of books for free already, then you are also getting a discount on whatever base package you eventually purchase. (That’s another reason I take the free Catholic book each month as well as the free Christian/non-Catholic one; if they throw the Catholic book into a base package I end up buying later, I am paying less for the base package.)

Why do Accordance and Logos give away free books? They do it because they think you will eventually buy something from them if you sign up. With the free books, they also tell you about discounts on other books in order to get you to buy them. It probably works, too; if you get enough free books, you probably will eventually buy a base package. But that wouldn’t be too bad–both Accordance and Logos Bible software base packages are very useful for studying God’s holy Word. There are definitely worse things to spend money on.

–TDR

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