Ronald V. Huggins

  The above hymn is from the early LDS publication Times & Seasons 6.2 (Feb 1, 1845): 799. In studying the apologetic material of a mid-twentieth century LDS apologist some time ago I was struck by the fact that the impression most Mormons of that time had of historic Christianity was not derived from reading historic Christian systematic theologies, talking with members of historic Christian denominations and so on, but rather from a single Mormon source, the parody of Christian theology presented in the preaching of the so-called "Sectarian Minister" in the LDS Temple ritual. That stalk character, who was also represented as a money-grubbing lackey of the devil, was, I believe, finally retired in the 1990s. He was not always a part of the ritual. At an earlier stage several sectarian preachers were present saying the same kinds of things. In the ritual the "Sectarian Minister" preaches to Father Adam at the request of the devil, who is represented as his e...

  Ever wonder why Joseph is almost always portrayed as an old man in Nativity scenes? The reason goes back to an early apocryphal book--maybe as early as the 2nd Century AD--known as the  Proto-Gospel of James . In the story Joseph is an elderly widower who marries the youthful Mary in order to take her under his care, as a father figure not as an actual husband. In the story, James the brother of Jesus is the son of Joseph by his previous marriage. The story marks an early departure from the New Testament view of Mary and Joseph as simply husband and wife and Jesus’s brothers and sisters as Mary and Joseph’s natural children. In contrast, The  Proto-Gospel  was interested in preserving the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary, going as far as claiming that Mary was found to still be physically a virgin after Jesus was born (chapter 20). This then is the story that stands behind the way of depicting Joseph in Eastern Orthodox Iconography.  From there the conv...

  I figure there's got to be a parable for life here somewhere. In my dream this morning I was in some city, and I needed to find the bus station to catch a bus to some other city I had to get to. I needed to hurry. So I stopped at a hotel I was passing and asked the concierge for the directions to the bus depot. He told me that we were on 34th street and 12th avenue, and that the bus depot was at 34th street and 34th avenue, in other words 22 blocks away. So I started off in a walking as fast as I could up 34th street in the direction indicated by the concierge. I figured I would keep my eye out for a city bus and catch it if one happened to come by. As I was hurrying along I passed a little artificial pond and slipped and fell in. I wasn't too happy because I was wearing my tweed jacket, but I thought, "No time to worry about that now, I just have to keep going and get to the bus before it leaves!" So I pulled myself out, shook a little of the water out, and...

  One-year-out Congratulations to Marcia and Don! A pastor named Tyler Zach, who promotes what he calls the "Gospel Enneagram," wrote a little tract in which he asked: "Let's just get to the heart of the matter and ask the question: If some of the Enneagram’s origins do have occultist roots—should this fact alone be enough for Christians to stop using the Enneagram?" His basic answer is: No, It shouldn't matter. Strange thing is, I was actually encouraged to see this. Why? Well, the reason is that he was responding to Claudio Naranjo's 2010 claim in an interview with E. J. Gold that when he was creating the Enneagram of Personality back in c. 1970, he had relied on automatic writing. In the same interview Naranjo also admitted that he had lied about the enneagram being an ancient teaching (see minutes 1:20-4:20 for both admissions). Zach mentions that Naranjo says he originated the enneagram in the clip but neglects to mention that he had previously li...

 I always smile when I hear someone say, "I don't care about the Bible, I just follow Jesus.  I'm a red-letter Christian."  I smile because of what Jesus himself says about Scripture. For him every word of Scripture is our very life.  He is continually quoting it as a final authority, referring to it, making arguments from it, and telling about how he himself fulfils it.  Indeed one cannot get very far in understanding what Jesus says unless we too are steeped in Scripture. So here are just a few examples of how Jesus talks about the Bible taken from Matthew's Gospel alone.   Matthew 4:4 -- Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 8:3.  If we live like Jesus every word of Scripture is our life. Matthew 5:17-18 -- Jesus affirms the Law and the Prophets.   Matthew 15:3-9 -- Jesus criticizes the Pharisees and teachers of the law for putting their traditions over Scripture -- Exodus 20:12 & Deuteronomy 5:16 / Exodus 20:12 & Deuteronomy 5:16 / Isaia...

Forty year ago, James Sire's book  Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible  provided me with my first lessons in hermeneutics and sound exegesis. The book shows not only how the cults misread Scripture, but how everyone does. Yesterday while working through the statement put forward by the leadership of John MacArthur's Grace Community Church (henceforth, the "MacArthur Statement") that provided their biblical rational for refusing to comply with Covid 19 restrictions, I was reminded once again of Sire's book, and spent a considerable time digging though my three-book-deep bookshelves, book bins, and book piles trying to unearth a copy. Finally I did. The reason I did is because the Church's statement provides several good examples of the kinds of misreadings Sire describes, including: Misreading 4: Ignoring the Immediate Context Misreading 10: Saying but not Citing Misreading 11: Selective Citing Misreading 12: Inadequate ...

Here is a site that has PL 71  in text form.  I do not know how many of the other volumes have been digitized, but this is amazing.  Richard John Neuhaus on  Bible Babble   Original 1609 Douay-Rheim's Bible , 2 , 3 This page is a mess, because I am in the process of compiling it.  But it is a treasure trove too Jerome's Helmuted Preface in English and Latin     Old Latin  Pierre Sabatier,  Bibliorum Sacrorum latinae versiones antiguae : seu, Vetus italica, et caeterae quaecunque in codicibus mss. & antiquorum libris reperiri potuerunt : quae cum Vulgata latina, & cum textu graeco comparantur ... Operâ & studio ... Vetus Latina : die Reste der altlateinischen All the voumes ,   Isaiah , 2    Sirach , 2 ,  Wisdom of Solomon , Esther ,   John ,   1 Corinthians ,  Ephesians    Ephesians/Colossians  , Epistles of Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews...