Recently, I posted my Spider-Man Bible Study / Discussion Guide. Simultaneously, I dropped a few comments on some blogs that referenced a different Spider-Man Bible Study produced by Fuller Theological Seminary's professor Craig Detweiler.

Some GodBloggers have been critical of the whole "movie-based Bible study" enterprise. Not surprising, really: using Hollywood movies to teach Biblical truth is a little like using dance to teach worship, or wine to serve Communion. There may be a place for it, but it's going to generate controversy somewhere.

I've been asked before to justify how I could write a Bible study with a movie as its context. After all, if I'm writing a

Update (07/14/2007): "Carlton Pearson: The closest to God you’ll probably ever get"

On Heresy

What is heresy? The textbook definition is simply:

• An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs … or
• A controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine.

And right alongside that definition — at least on this weblog, anyhow — you can find a picture of Bishop Carlton D. Pearson who wants to "rewrite the theology of the charismatic world" by preaching a "Gospel of Inclusion" asserting that Christ's death conclusively reconciled all mankind to God — whether we realize it or not — and that the only separation between man and God's grace is subjective, illusionary, and exists only in unenlightened minds (Carlton Pearson, "Jesus Savior of the World/Gospel of Inclusion — Position Paper," Higher Dimension website, viewed March 5, 2006).

More on that later, but first.…

Christianity Today just released an article by Sarah Sumner that so nicely exegetes Ephesians 5 that I am compelled to share it with you here. Not only that, I want to be sure to remember this, so it’s going into my blog as part of my online brain.

Article Summary
Sarah comes right out of the gates with the observation that we have read into Scripture what was probably never intended: that the metaphor describing the union between man and wife (we become one flesh, one body) and the imagery of that metaphor (that the man is the head, the wife is the body, as Christ is the head of the Church and we are his body) has been taken too far.

Christianity Today just published an interview with Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. It’s a concise and interesting interview, well worth the read. It comes on the heels of his latest book: The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism. According to editor Mark Galli, in this book, Witherington “makes a positive argument for how biblical interpretation should be done in an increasingly postmodern setting.”

Here’s the link to the article:

The Problem with Evangelical Theologies
Ben Witherington III thinks there is something fundamentally weak about each branch of the movement.
Interview by Mark Galli | posted 11/09/2005 09:00 a.m.

Here’s an excerpt that is clearly relevant for Pentecostals:

So, what is the problem