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When Judah recommended to his brothers that they sell Joseph into slavery we often look on in disgust and judgment. How dare they do this, and how dare Judah recommend this course of action? Why not take him home as Reuben suggested. But when we stop and examine all of the possibilities we discover that Joseph being sold into slavery was the best possible option given the circumstances.

When you get down to it, it was Abel that was the first martyr. The first person who was killed for his faith. And yet Stephen is often given that label as he was the first to die for his faith in Jesus. When we take these two stories and compare them to each other we find that the motivation of those who killed these men was the same.

When we read the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, it is easy to assume that God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's because Cain did not offer a blood sacrifice. The idea is that Cain's sacrifice was not legitimate and so God did not accept it. But when we read the text in the original language we find that this is not the case. Cain's sacrifice was arguably more legitimate than Abel's according to the various descriptions of sacrifices in the Bible. This story is not about Cain giving the wrong thing. It is about something much deeper that we can all learn from.

The Ten Commandments have been studied quite extensively over the ages. But one of the best ways to understand the 10 Commandments is to allow them to interpret each other. You see, the 10 Commandments are given in parallel. Five commands on the side of how to love God, and five commands about loving your neighbor. And when we examine them in parallel we discover the underlying principles that we can then build our own lives off of.

Pentecost is a celebration that existed long before the events of Acts 2. In tradition, Pentecost, or Shavu'ot, was a celebration of the events at Mt. Sinai. If we turn to Exodus 19-25 we will find something peculiar hidden in the text of Scripture. A ceremony and covenant that is then used later in scripture to describe God's relationship to Israel.

Jesus fulfilled the law. But does this mean what many understand it to mean?

It is often said, "line upon line," is the way that we are meant to interpret scripture based on Isaiah 28.

Matthew 5:18 states that the law will not pass away until all is accomplished. The assertion is then made that when Jesus declared "it is finished" on the cross He was declaring that all had been accomplished and so the law is no more. Is this the best way to understand these passages in relation to each other?

Temptation comes at us in three primary ways. We catch sight of these three primary ways when we compare the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and the three failures of Israel in the wilderness from Numbers 11-14.

God wouldn't allow good people to go to hell. But that's the thing. We are not judged or condemned by our works. It is our very nature that condemns us, which is why we must be born again into a new nature that comes from God.

Romans 10:4 states that Jesus is the end of the Law for all who believe. But just what does this mean when we compare this snippet to the context of the surrounding passage?

When people find out I am pronomian, one of the most common questions I get is, "but what about Galatians."

In Revelation 1:10 we read a phrase that is only used once in the Bible. This phrase has over centuries become used to describe Sunday, but is this the only way to understand this phrase?

The book of Deuteronomy can seem daunting as you read through it. So many of the commands seem completely disconnected from each other. Often the book is seen as simply a jumble of different ideas that have all been mashed together. This is not the case. Rather, this book is extremely well organized and the Ten Commandments act as the index for the book. Once you see it, you will never see Deuteronomy in the same way again.

When attempting to interpret the Torah, what is the best way to do so? Well if we look to how the authors of the New Testament handle the Torah we find that they use certain principles in their interpretive technique. Principles that I call, the Law of Extrapolation.

In Judaism we often hear of the 613 laws of the Torah. But is this understanding of the Torah accurate? Where did it come from, and what are the inherent dangers in this type of view?

One of the most often skipped parts of the Bible is the first few chapters of Leviticus. The chapters on sacrifice. Since we are not able to carry out these sacrifices physically, then there is no need to understand these chapters. But this is a faulty way to look at the Torah, because every command is based on an ideal, and the ideal that is represented in the command is what teaches us of our relationship with God.

As a Pronomian I get a lot of questions about how I strive toward keeping the Law. One of the most common is the question of which of the laws of the Torah still apply to the modern believer. The answer to this question as I see it might surprise you.

Many sectors of Christianity have taken a stance that discards the Torah, or the Law of God. But is this stance accurate? Should we discard the Old Testament as unnecessary or non-applicable? Should we embrace an antinomian view of the Bible, or should we instead see the Torah as Paul describes it in Romans? Holy, and Righteous, and good.

When we hear of praise and worship, our culture has trained us to think of music. But should praise and worship be limited to a musical expression? What do these words mean anyway?

Knowing how or what to pray can be difficult. It is so difficult that the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray. When He responds, He does so with a pattern. This pattern that Jesus gives mirrors another pattern from earlier in the Bible. A pattern that was given to Israel in the wilderness.

The festival of unleavened bread is one that is profoundly meaningful in its preparation. Cleansing out the leaven is a powerful symbol of a Christian. But what can we learn during the week of unleavened bread? What deeper principles are part of this festival of Matza?

The plagues of Exodus serve as an introduction of God to a world that had forgotten about Him. They begin low and move upward to encompass the entirety of creation. It is through these plagues that God demonstrates His initial quality. He is the God of creation.

God is often criticized as judgmental and mean. Especially when people look at how he is portrayed in the Old Testament. But this quality of God that is so offensive to some is a direct outpouring of His character of Just. But when God enters into judgment with mankind, he does so in a particular way. Let's look at three scriptural examples of this in action.