What does the word “rhetoric” mean to you? Most people associate “rhetoric” with words that are big, showy, or empty, fake, and manipulative. Why would we want to teach our children how to use words to manipulate people? As an online teacher who teaches rhetoric, I’d like to submit that rhetoric is inescapable. We are surrounded …
Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus on the first resurrection Sunday, and they were distraught: “Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God” was dead (ESV, Luke 24:19). They “had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (v. 21), but now he …
The African sailed through the waves north of Africa with a full cargo. Her captain sat comfortably in his quarters reading his Bible and thanking God for what looked to be a profitable voyage. Considering himself one of the more humane of Britain’s slave traders, John Newton self-righteously compared himself to other captains: “A guilty conscience haunts them all,”[1] he …
A Guilty Conscience Haunts Them—John Newton, 1751 Read More »
Christians are often accused of being so heavenly-minded they’re of no earthly good. More than 100 years ago, activist Joe Hill thought as much. While traveling throughout America, he drew cartoons and wrote songs in defense of America’s poor. He had no patience for pastors who preached for spiritual conversion without providing physical comfort. In …
Thank God for the “Pie in the Sky”: Why the Heavenly Minded Do the Most Earthly Good Read More »
Philemon Zachariou is a native Greek, a retired Greek professor, and the author of Reading and Pronouncing Biblical Greek: Historical Pronunciation versus Erasmian. He currently develops New Testament Greek instructional material, is an adjunct professor of English at Northwest University, and a BibleMesh Greek tutor. Two Greek words, σχῆμα and μορφή, generally understood as figure …
14 Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. 15 Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians …