Monthly Archives: March 2013

March 28, 2013

Hey Jude, Who is this Son of Man?

By Clarke Morledge
God took Enoch (Genesis 5:24). From Figures de la Bible, Gerald Hoet and others, 1728.

God took Enoch (Genesis 5:24). From Figures de la Bible, Gerald Hoet and others, 1728.

Jude is one of those obscure little books. Just one page in most Bibles. Whenever I glance at it, I want to sing with the Beatles, “Na na na, na-na na na. Na-na na na, hey Jude!” Often overlooked, the Letter of Jude references a critical key to help unlock the mystery of Jesus as the Son of Man.

The odd key is found in verses 14-15:

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him (Jude 1:14-15 ESV).

The funny thing about this is that you will search your Bible in vain for this prophesy from Enoch. Enoch is only mentioned a handful of times in the whole Bible, such as in Genesis 5:24:

Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.(Genesis 5:24 ESV)

Pretty brief. Pretty curious, too. Pretty much leaves a lot open to the imagination. So, what is up with this Enoch, who just disappears, and what does he have to do with Jesus as the Son of Man?
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March 23, 2013

Crisis at Marburg

By Clarke Morledge
"This is my Body... This is my Blood." Matthew 26:26-27. Literal or symbolic interpretation?

“This is my Body… This is my Blood.” Matthew 26:26-28. Literal or symbolic interpretation?

Zwingli, with tears in his eyes, extended the hand of fellowship, but Martin Luther steadfastly refused: “Yours is a different spirit from ours“. Luther walked out.  The split was final. The unity of the Protestant Reformation movement was in tatters.

Marburg, Germany. 1529. Martin Luther’s attempt to reform the Roman Catholic church and restore confidence in the Bible “alone” was in full swing. Years earlier, he had nailed his famous 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door, protesting abuses within the church. Four hundred miles away, in Zurich, Switzerland, a young renegade priest, Huldrich Zwingli, was beginning to do the same thing Luther had started in Germany. Both Luther and Zwingli felt that the Church of Rome had lost its way. Christianity needed to return to the Holy Scriptures as the pure, unadulterated Word of God. The medieval church had allowed man’s traditions to creep in and compromise the truth of the Gospel.  Luther and Zwingli were hoping to stand together against what they saw as the corruption within the Roman church.
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March 22, 2013

Announcement: Apologetics Conference

By Clarke Morledge
Daniel Janosik, professor of Apologetics and Islamic Studies at Southern Evangelical Seminary. A College of William and Mary graduate, Dr. Janosik will be speaking at an Apologetics Conference at Faith Bible College, April 12 & 13, 2013.

Daniel Janosik, Apologetics Conference speaker.

In an effort to alert the Veracity community in the greater Williamsburg, Virginia area about other resources…..

Ken Petzinger asked us to help spread the word that Faith Bible College will present an Apologetics Conference at Tabernacle Church (Norfolk, Virginia) on April 12 & 13, 2013. The brochure can be downloaded from the Faith Bible College, and the topics will surely be of interest to Veracity readers.

Daniel Janosik, professor of Apologetics and Islamic Studies at Southern Evangelical Seminary will be speaking. A College of William and Mary graduate, Dr. Janosik will cover a number of topics, including his areas of specialty, Science and Islam.

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March 17, 2013

A New New Testament: Are You Serious?

By John Paine

Veracity is all about the Bible: what it is and is not, how it came to be, what it reports and claims, who it describes, and the difference it should make in our lives. Here’s another outstanding post by Dr. Daniel Wallace that gets to the heart of these issues, demonstrating solid scholarship and discipleship in response to yet another agenda to remake Christianity.

Daniel Wallace

Daniel B. Wallace

Just released from the giant publishing firm, Houghton Miflin Harcourt: A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts, edited by Hal Taussig.

The advertisement from HMH distributed widely via email last week was not shy in its claims for the 600-page volume. The subject line read, “It is time for a new New Testament.” In the email blast are strong endorsements by Marcus Borg, Karen King, and Barbara Brown Taylor. Borg and King, like Taussig, were members of the Jesus Seminar (a group headed up by the late Robert W. Funk, which determined which words and deeds of Jesus recorded in the Gospels were authentic). King and Taylor are on the Council for A New New Testament. All of them share a viewpoint which seems to be decidedly outside that of the historic Christian faith, regardless of whether it is…

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March 15, 2013

Like a Son of Man

By Clarke Morledge
The Ancient of Days. 1794. Watercolor by William Blake.

The Ancient of Days. 1794. Watercolor by William Blake.    Based on the “like a son of man” passage in Daniel 7.    In the Old Testament, Daniel is the master of apocalyptic imagery, which means using words as pictures to “reveal” or “uncover” that which is hidden.

Jesus talks about being the “Son of Man” eighty-one times in the New Testament. The term is Jesus’ favorite designation for Himself in the Gospels. So, what is the deal with this “Son of Man” stuff anyway?

“Son of Man = Messiah = Divinity of Christ“. For years, I merely assumed this to be true, simply out of reflex of being a Christian. But if it is true, why is it true?  I never really thought about it that much. Recently, our  small group Bible study has been looking at the Gospel of Luke, and every now and then there are puzzled looks whenever Jesus speaks of this Son of Man. As I observe everyone scrambling to read their study bible notes, I know that I am not alone in my why question.

A number of critics complain that Christians read way, way too much into this phrase. The Son of Man as the Messiah?  Mmmm. How so?   Furthermore, the Bible never explicitly equates Son of Man with “divinity”. Are followers of Jesus getting ahead of the Bible when asserting the messianic, divine meaning of Son of Man? Can a believer in Christ reasonably defend such a claim?

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