Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

As far as secular rap goes, I must admit, I quit listening to it a number of years ago. However, I must also admit that whenever I hear Tupac, I get very inspired. In many ways, Tupac reminds me of Israel's prophets. Like them, his lyrics deal with issues of social injustice, political oppression, marred relationships, spirituality, familial devotion, crime, sin, brokenness, forgiveness, redempton, judgment, etc. Some might take offense at it but I see Tupac as a Martin Luther King, Jr. type of figure. King was certainly prophetic (not necessarily in the sense of "prediction" but rather forthtelling, preaching)! Though the two have thier differences (King and Pac), they also share many similarities. That's why they both can still be so inspiring. The fact is, truth is truth and truth is everlasting. That's also why King's and Pac's messages still ring true today. That's why what they spoke of when they were alive, still has bearing on what's going ...

Here is my 'take-off' of the "original" Names of God Poster, enjoy!

To the twenty-first century mind time and history are conceived of in one way: linear. This, of course, is reflected in the use of timelines where events are dated and ordered chronologically. Yet, to Israel, time and history were understood differently. For them, time was not linear but periodic, cyclical and therefore, rhythmic. It was the rhythm of the festal and non-festal times that gave rhythm to Israel’s life. Yet, it was not the festivals themselves that gave Israel the bulk of her identity but rather the God who acted in and thus, linked these events together. Israel’s expectation, wrapped up in circularity, was always that their God, who has already acted on their behalf, would surely act again in a similar way. Yet, with the prophets, there occurred a type of breakthrough in understanding God’s actions in time and history: the future. This new facet of time is what Von Rad referred to as Israel’s “eschatological element” ( OT Theology , V.II, 113). This element, Von Rad argu...

Heschel, Abraham J. The Prophets , Perennial Classics edition. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2001. Pp. vii-672. ISBN 0-06-093699-1. Abraham J. Heschel’s The Prophets is both a voluminous and ambitious work. Heschel, now deceased, was unapologetically and avowedly Jewish in his views and lifestyle. Heschel’s daughter, Susanna, has remarked that her father’s disposition came from Israel’s prophets, who, for him, “were not simply biblical figures…but models for his life” (xiv). Indeed, Heschel, like the prophets, was a man whose heart grew heavy from all of the injustice in the world. He lived during the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the Holocaust (which he escaped, though his parents did not). Clearly, Heschel’s understanding of God was colored by such events. To him, God was not absent or distant, an Unmoved Mover as Aristotle argued but rather the Most Moved Mover (xviii). To some, Heschel’s understanding of God might be too anthropomorphic. Such persons though, Heschel a...

In Isaiah 4.1, these words are recorded: "In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, 'We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!'" Given the circumstances of the time--the violent overtaking of Jerusalem--it might well be the case that so many of the town's men were killed in battle, that in terms of a man-to-woman ratio, after the fght, there was left only 1 man to about every 7 women. Now, a lot of men would love to have 7 women bickering over them but if we can see past that for a moment, we find something very interesting in this passage. We all know that names were of great importance in the ancient world but according to this passage, there was a link between betrothal and the taking or bearing of a name. Abraham Heschel points out in his book The Prophets (which I will post a book review on soon), that the prophet Jeremiah was one who knew what it meant to be intimate wit...