Questions
I have always wondered about the passage in Genesis 6 verses 1-4. Who were these sons of God who chose the daughters of men as wives? What happened to them and their offspring?

Answer
The storyteller has demonstrated how sin has grown from its first instance in the Garden. Sin moves from an individual act to a corporate act with the sons of God marrying the daughters of men. We must remember that the Hebrews lived in a time period in which sacred prostitution occurred which involved fathers dedicating their unmarried daughters for service in the temple. In practice these girls served as sacred prostitutes giving pleasure to priests and other wealthy worshippers.

The phrase “sons of God” has three possible meanings: (more…)

Thiry-nine years ago today Donna and I were married on a Friday evening in Honolulu, HI at 8:00 pm Hawaiian time. It was a great time. Donna and I were both living in SoCal and she had gone back to Hawaii where her dad and mom were pastors at the beginning of the summer. Immediately after she left there was an airline strike on the airline that I had made reservations on. (more…)

Questions
How did Noah put all the animals into the ark if there were so many? Biblical proof.

Answer
Our presuppositions (starting points) for reading the early stories of Genesis predetermine our ending points. If we read it with “science” as a starting place, we will end up in a place that was unknown to the first hearers. We must remember that the story of the flood was told for a purpose to its first hearers. That purpose was not to teach some biological fact to those around the campfires at Mt. Sinai. The intent of Moses was to help his listeners to understand God’s purposes for them in light of how God had dealt with those who had come before. (more…)

Today is my 63rd Birthday! Two years ago today I was on the eve of a new part of my journey. I began the DMin program at George Fox Evangelical Seminary. It has been an exciting ride. I’ve met some interesting folks. Our cohort was a cross-section of religious bodies in America. We had one Mennonite Brethren, one Nazarene, 3 Lutherans, one Southern Baptist, one Assemblies of God, one Episcopalian, one Free Methodist, one United Methodist, one Home Church, one United Brethren, and 5 Vineyard.

We had lively conversation of a variety of subjects, one can imagine such when you put that many different folks from different life experiences and different theological backgrounds into one conversation for two years. What a blast!

Len Sweet was the mentor for our program and he kept us playing “outside of the box” thinking (more…)

Question
How can we explain the remarkable similarities between the Bible’s flood and creation story with ancient Greek and Roman mythologies written years earlier?

Answer
It is true that great flood stories are found in literature all over the world, however, no deluge accounts are so strikingly similar to the Noah account as those of ancient Mesopotamia. The three parallels most striking are first, the Sumerian account with the hero Ziusdra, second, the Old Akkadian account with the hero Atrahasis, and third, the Old Babylonian account contained in the Gilgamesh Epic, with the hero Utnapishtim. Although these accounts share many similarities with the biblical account, the biblical account stands apart in a significant way. (more…)

Answer
These verses demonstrate for the reader a contrast between the divine creative act and human creative acts. In one sense, Adam is doing what God did: create. God created and humankind is procreating. Verses 1- 2 give four details about creation. First, God made humankind in his image. Second, God made humankind male and female. Third, God blessed them. Fourth, God called them man. God created humankind to live in a community. This was a message that Israel needed on their way to the Promised Land and is still a message that the Church needs to teach today. Individuals, in fact, find their greatest potential inside of God’s community, the Church.