Soul (movie review)

Though originally intended for theatrical release, Disney/Pixar's Soul was released on Disney+ on Christmas last year given the present pandemic. Christians may rightly already be skeptical just by virtue of the film's title and its dealing with souls. Weird metaphysics are to be expected, but there's also a skewed sense of justice that's worth examining …

Philippians in the Legacy Standard Bible: Instances of “Think”

In case you've been hiding under the sky☘, a team from The Master's University and Seminary is working on the Legacy Standard Bible, an update to the much-beloved NASB 1995. They recently released a PDF containing the entire text of Philippians, and I've made the time to note all of the differences from its predecessor. …

Justification, Mercy, and Propitiation

I should probably get back to working on the book manuscript I wrote. Back in May, I posted an excerpt called "The Need for Justification." This is the portion that follows. Just and Merciful But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God (being testified by the Law and the Prophets) has been made …

Socially Responsible Investing Choices, part 3 — Conscience, China, and Putting it Together

In part 1 of this series, I discussed the concept of ESG investing from a secular standpoint and evaluated the screening of GuideStone Funds, the Southern Baptist Convention financial services arm. In part 2, I evaluated three more Christian providers of investment funds and discussed the dollar value of ESG investing. Here in part 3, …

Socially Responsible Investing Choices, part 2 — More Alternatives and Dollar Value

In part 1, we discussed secular "ESG" investing choices and did an overview of GuideStone's negative investment screening. In this post, we'll look at some firms that claim positive screening and consider whether these are worthwhile for the individual investor. We'll then consider the costs of such fund choices and whether they are worth their fees. …

Socially Responsible Investing Choices, part 1 — Secular “ESG” and GuideStone Funds

Every so often, the advertisements on my social media feeds become heavily saturated with “socially responsible” or "ESG" investing products. There are also get plenty of “non-responsible” investing products and perhaps even a few overtly "sinful" investing products such as VICE (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, etc.) and TOKE (cannabis!). Lots of us are going to be …

LSB, NASB 2020, NASB 1995: Three-Way Comparisons in Psalm 65 and Mark 4

With the recent release of the LSB text of Psalm 65,  we now have an opportunity to examine the LSB's handling of an Old Testament passage in addition to the earlier release of the entire Gospel of Mark. Psalm 65 Within Psalm 65, a line-by-line glance through the highlights reveals that only a handful of …

Legacy Standard Bible Gospel of Mark: Initial Observations

Wake up and smell the coffee. Wait, does John MacArthur drink coffee? Wake up and smell the...uh...Postum? Are the rest of you drinking Postum? There's a new Bible translation coming, and it's looking really promising. Unfortunately, the only major engagement the Legacy Standard Bible is getting from social media is from King James onlyists. Can we …

NASB 2020 Review, Part 2 — Direct Comparisons in John, Hebrews, and Psalms

In part 1 of this NASB 2020 review, I dove a bit into major passages concerning gender, the Greek term doulos (slave), and the Hebrew term hesed, which is mostly translated as "lovingkindness" in the NASB 1995. In the time between part 1 and now, my wife gave birth to our fourth child (hence the delay) and the …

NASB 2020 Review (and GIVEAWAY!), part 1 — Gender, Slaves, and Lovingkindness

I now have two copies of the recently released NASB 2020. I'll give you a short preview of the physical editions, and then we'll dig into the translation. The Lockman Foundation is selling two primary offerings: the Large Print Ultrathin edition and the Giant Print edition. I initially made the mistake of ordering the Giant …