The Gospel According to Yeeks

Genesis 2:7 "... then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground ( adama ) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man ( adam ) became a living creature." (Genesis 2:7) Genesis 3:17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife     and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,     ‘You shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground ( adama ) because of you;     in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth ( adama ) shall be blessed.” Genesis shows strong links between the ground ( adama ) and the man ( adam ). Genesis 2:7 shows the man being formed from the ground. Genesis 3:17 shows the ground being cursed because of the man But Genesis 12:3 tells us that the ground has hope. All the families of the ground ( adama ) find their hope in an ...

In preparation for a series of things that I will be busy with next year, I am currently making my way through "Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible" by Stephen Dempster. Dempster argues that the order of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh (TNK spelling out the Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim) has a literary purpose. Unlike the Old Testament order, it begins with Genesis and ends with Chronicles. In this arrangement, the ending of Genesis and Chronicles display remarkable similarity. At the end of Genesis, Joseph about to die tells his brothers: “I am about to die, but God will visit  (Hebrew root: paqad ) you and bring you up  (Hebrew root:  alah ) out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (Genesis 50:24) At the end of Chronicles, Cyrus sends the exiles home to rebuild the temple: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he h...

"But he who is joined  to the Lord becomes one spirit with him." (1 Cor 6:17) It dawned on me after recent studies in 1 Cor that this is alluding to two passages. The first one is Genesis 2:24 - "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." The other is actually Deut 10:20 - "You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear." It's amazing to see the same imperative "hold fast" used in these two passages. The first talks about the oneness of human marriages, the second with regards to our relationship to God. Paul makes the argument that sexual immorality is more than just sex. We become " one flesh ". The choice is between a prostitute and bizarrely, God Himself.

Bruce Waltke has shared the importance of using the parallelism in the text of 1 Kings 19:9-18. What is the point of the small whisper to Elijah? Using the table below, we can see the parallels within the text. There he came to a cave and lodged in it.  (v9) And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave . (v13a) And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “ What are you doing here, Elijah? ” (v9b) And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “ What are you doing here, Elijah? ” (v13b) He said, “ I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away . ” (v10) He said, “ I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Is...

لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَاثَةٍ ۘ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّا إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۚ وَإِن لَّمْ يَنتَهُوا عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ لَيَمَسَّنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ "They have certainly disbelieved who say, " Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment." A recent answer to a Quora question prompted me to think further about this in relation to what our Muslim friends hold. On the surface, it seems like there is nothing wrong, it is typical Muslim theology addressing Christian theology. Now I have seen this surah being quoted before but today for some reason I paid more attention to it and I thought, wait a minute that is not what Christians think at all. Christians do not believe that God is the third of the three. Christians believe that the Father  is the third of t...

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesu...

2 Samuel 3 – Civil War in Israel and when Generals Run Amok      The setting of 2 Samuel 3 describes Civil War in Israel. Perhaps Bible summaries have done us a disservice by describing David as the Second King of Israel after Saul and that is right, to some extent. But before David was king, there was Civil War in Israel where David was king in Judah, and Saul’s son Ish-bosheth was king over the Benjamin, and the rest of Israel. 2 Sam 3:1 documents for us: “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.” We as readers know what will happen, for 1 Samuel already describes for us a time when Saul’s kingdom will go to David. But 2 Sam 3 is important for us. In both kingdoms, there are two generals, who overrule their kings. Abner overrules Ish-bosheth and Joab overrules David in these two kingdoms. First Abner, who by this time has gr...

Read Sandy Praharsha 's answer to What's your favorite line from a book or movie that's spoken by the villain? on Quora

So this was asked in Quora : My response below: The verse is NOT non-existent. The thing is the reference to a river flowing out occurs in a few places in the Old Testament. Thus when Jesus says "As the Scripture has said ..." He is referring to a theme that occurs repeatedly in the Old Testament. It is important to understand what "the rivers flowing out" imply in the Old Testament. They always refer to the  dwelling place of God . These occurs in a few places. As early as the Book of Genesis, we see this Scripture in Genesis 2:10 "A  river flowed out of Eden  to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers." (Genesis 2:10, ESV) Therefore, the source of the river = Eden. And Eden is none other than the very dwelling place of God. Biblical theology helps us understand Eden as a "type" of temple. Where else do we see this? We see this again in Ezekiel 47. In Ezekiel 47, in Ezekiel's vision of a New Temple, he pi...

I have been reading Bruce K. Waltke's Genesis Commentary for the church's Christian Education Class. Two classes on Genesis were completed by God's grace despite what I felt was inadequate preparation. I decided to still plough through Genesis anyway. Waltke has been very helpful in exposing the various juxtapositions of the narrators between characters and events in Genesis. In the class I demonstrated the theme of the "seeing of nakedness" between in Genesis 3 involving Adam and Eve and again in Genesis 9 involving Noah and Ham. Clearly the parallels aim to show the continuation of the seed of the woman to be with Shem over Ham. Another helpful one is to observe the juxtaposition of the characters Abraham and Lot. There is so much to be said here but one illuminating one is the comparison of the "meals" offered by Abraham versus Lot. These chapters are side by side Genesis 18 and Genesis 19. Both chapters begin with the LORD appearing versus an...

1. The definition of the word   God  is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”  2. God exists in the understanding, since we understand the word with that definition.  3. To exist in reality and in the understanding is greater than to exist in the understanding alone.  4. Therefore, God must exist in reality.

http://youtu.be/zd7wPFgg-eQ