Selected Reading, December 11, 2021

 

A few good things I read recently.

Prayer

Should we pray imprecatory prayers?
Aaron Armstrong says yes. 

You can understand why some Christians would reject praying in this way altogether. It seems in conflict with Jesus’ call for us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. But I don’t believe the full counsel of Scripture supports that. Imprecatory prayers modeled in both the Old and New Testaments (Matthew 23; Galatians 1:8-9; Revelation 6:10). Jesus and the apostles alike prayed in this way. We probably shouldn’t dismiss these sorts of prayers and petitions, then.

I may have mentioned this here previously, but I once heard a sermon in which the preacher chalked an imprecatory bit in one of the psalms to the immaturity of the psalm’s author, so I know from experience that some people do reject all imprecatory prayers. But everytime we pray for God to bring justice for someone who has been harmed, we are praying an imprecatory prayer.

Words 

Big Bible Words: Atonement
A great little essay on the biblical word atonement. And it starts with a double nightmare.

A Mystery

Who wrote Hebrews?
We discussed this pretty thoroughly at the beginning of the Hebrews Bible study I attend. This is an excellent examination of this New Testament mystery.

Romans and Hebrews, of similar length, may be the two great pillar epistles of Christian theology, and yet far more is known, and certain, about Romans. With Romans, we get the systematically reasoned heart of Paul. With Hebrews, we get another learned, powerful, complementary voice — but whose? 

Birds

Bathing is crucial for a bird’s longevity
All the reasons birds need baths.