Category Archives: Index

Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Rabbi (with a Blue Parakeet note appended)

The lesson begins at Gamla, a Jewish settlement founded after the return of the Jews from Babylon. The community is on the side of a hill, so steep that one family’s roof is another man’s floor. The opposite side of … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: How Things Could Have Been Different, Part 1 (Race)

As I’ve been pondering this approach to understanding the Bible, I’ve asked myself how the church’s history might have been different had this approach had greater prominence in our thinking. How might the Churches of Christ behaved differently in the … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: The Story and Our Salvation

As I’ve been thinking through this approach to hermeneutics, it’s occurred to me that there’s an obvious objection: where in this Story is salvation? Where is forgiveness of sin? Where is heaven? You see, in the religion I was brought … Continue reading

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Communion Meditation: Renewing Our Vows

[Prayer for the loaf.] [Dispensing of the loaf.] You know, the more I study the Lord’s Supper, and the more I learn about First Century culture, the more amazed I am at how many symbols and images and ideas are … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: Restoration Movement Blue Parakeets

So how does this approach to hermeneutics affect Restoration Movement teaching? Well, quite a lot, actually. Let’s take some examples. Sunday The classic Restoration Movement hermeneutic is to think in terms of commands, examples, and necessary infererences (CENI). This approach … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: End Notes

Just a few thoughts that didn’t fit in the earlier posts. Thought 1: So what’s what’s so fearsome about “emerging”? Scot McKnight is one of the leading scholars in the emerging church movement, and yet his book doesn’t partake of … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: Discerning

McKnight offers an extended example of how to apply these principles in practice by working through the passages on the role of women. I’ll not cover those chapters in any detail, as they follow the outline of my own Buried … Continue reading

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Hermeneutics and Blue Parakeets: Missional Listening

McKnight argues that if we love someone, we’ll listen to his words. Therefore, our Bible reading must be a listening reading. Now, this seems pretty elementary, but consider what it contradicts — * Reading to prove yourself right * Reading … Continue reading

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Is it okay to celebrate New Year’s Day?

[Re-posted from last year. The football references have not been updated.] On a discussion board, I’ve been engaged in an oh-so-long discussion re the propriety of a Christian celebrating Christmas. And then someone asked what I planned to do for … Continue reading

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Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: No Greater Love, Part 2 (the Sermon on the Mount)

Jesus ministered in the area of Capernaum and Korazin, an area where Jews and Gentiles were mingled, and along the Via Maris — which would allow his teaching to be spread throughout the world. (Mat 4:13-25)  Leaving Nazareth, he went … Continue reading

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