Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Continuing with my questions about the Genesis account of creation—but never doubting that we and the world we live in were created by God—focus on the person of Cain—who killed his brother Abel—asking questions 3, 4, and 5. Question 3: At this point in the story, only three (living) humans have been identified: Adam, Eve, […]
By faith, I believe that God created us and the universe in which we live. But that resolute statement does not preclude questions about the biblical account of our origin. Here are two of them: Question 1: On the fourth day of creation God made the sun to separate day from night and to mark […]
In my prior posts, In the Beginning, Creation or Evolution, and the Time-Space Continuum I pondered about the reality behind our origins. The Bible’s book of Genesis provides us with an explanation of how things began. This is an account that would have been comprehensible to ancient man, one that would have sufficiently answered the […]
In my post “Omni God,” I mentioned that, among other things, God is “omnipotent.” This means that God possesses unlimited strength and has universal power and authority. God’s Omnipotence The word omnipotent occurs in Amplified Bible, but most translations use “almighty” instead, often in the form of a proper name, as in the Almighty, God […]
In my prior post, I made a couple of tweaks to the prayer of Jabez. The original text reads: “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me […]
God Takes Away Our Pain When I study the Bible, I use multiple versions (translations), depending on my mood and goals. One version that I seldom use, however, is the New King James Version (NKJV). There’s no particular reason, it’s just how things have worked out. There is only one passage that I have memorized […]
In one of the blogs I read, someone posted a comment. The message only somewhat tied in with the topic and the backlink was to an unrelated website. I dislike the idea of giving the author’s rant any more exposure by repeating it, but once I set aside the invective nature of the post, I […]
Cain and his younger brother Abel both gave offerings to God. This was well before the life of Moses and the laws that God gave to him, therefore, there was no requirement to give an offering. In fact, there was not even a precedent for doing so. Cain and Abel’s offerings were the first ones recorded […]
In Jude’s brief exposition of ungodly people in the church, he evokes three Old Testament characters: Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Cain, we know to be a murderer; Balaam, greedy; and Korah, rebellious. However, it is simplistic to see them merely as evil men, for they also had an air of godliness to them, seeking God or […]
Jude writes his short letter to those who are called—that’s you and me. In it, he often writes in triads, listing three items or offering three examples. He does this with such regularity that when he deviates from this in verse 12, I thought I had misread the text. Consider Jude’s triplets (and a couple […]