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In this Issue
"Do you suppose we'll meet any wild animals?" Dorothy asks her fellow travelers in the Wizard of Oz. Oh, only "lions, and tigers, and bears," the Tin Man responds. The Israelites might well have sung a similar chorus about their entrance into the Promised Land, although "Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, oh my," doesn't have […]
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Is God A Moral Monster? – Q&A with Paul Copan
"Sure, God condemns homosexuality in the Old Testament, but he also condemns hot dogs and orders the stoning of disobedient children." We hear this on pop "news" programs a lot. At the outset of Is God a Moral Monster? you write that you were motivated to address this issue because of misrepresentations of violence and […]
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The Church Meets the Humpty Dumpty Zoning Ordinance
Near the end of World War II, Winston Churchill remarked of war-torn England, "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." Churchill understood buildings as more than pretty pictures on souvenir postcards. We learn many things from the bricks, stone, mortar, sidewalks, streets, and plazas in many cities. Our buildings, rooms, corridors, streets, […]
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Christian Perspectives on Euclidian Zoning
Euclidian zoning has several economic effects. These effects can be seen clearly in cities with exclusionary zoning like Detroit. The first effect is felt immediately, and the second effect becomes more evident as economic conditions change. The first effect of exclusionary zoning is to create a high bar for entry into a neighborhood. It says […]
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The New Testament Part 1: A Mother's Gift
You're pregnant! It's a boy!" This is one of the sweetest reports a woman can receive in her life. The notice that she is going to be a mother, to have a child of her own, is a potent joy. These tidings were like angels singing to Eve after Abel was stolen from her. It […]
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The Gospel According to Joshua
Several years ago, when a friend recommended the television show 24, I went to my local video store (back in the day when there was such a thing) and found the relevant section. I noticed that the first few episodes were checked out, so I grabbed an episode halfway through the first season in order […]
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How was the Land Divided?
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Rahab the Prostitute, Heroine of Faith
What do we know of Rahab the prostitute? In the Old Testament, her name occurs only in Joshua 2 and 6. (The other references to Rahab ‘e.g. Psalm 87:4′ are not to Rahab the prostitute. The names are spelled differently in the Hebrew.) In the New Testament, Rahab is mentioned in three somewhat prominent passages: […]
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Joshua's Missing Wall
The story of the excavation of Jericho, the site of Joshua's famous battle, has long symbolized the tensions that can arise between archaeological explorations and faithful readings of the Bible. The story begins at the dawn of the twentieth century, when some European scholars first undertook a formal scientific excavation of the site. Perhaps not […]
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A Canaanite Genocide?
To modern readers, there is an ethical problem with the biblical commands found at various points in the Old Testament to wipe out the Canaanites. Why would Israel's God, the God of Jesus Christ, order his own people to kill another people group’even a sinful people’in order to take their land? Several factors can help […]
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Holy War in Joshua: Texts of Terror?
Addressing over a thousand Israeli school children, University of Tel Aviv professor George Tamarin told a story of "General Lin." Using religion as a pretext for "ethnic cleansing," the general, who presided over the Chinese kingdom three millennia ago, ordered a massacre of men, women, and children throughout China. When asked for their response, only […]
