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Welcome to Wednesday night Bible study!I was off last week due to a vacation. This week, however, we're resuming the vlog series on why the New Testament was written, focusing on Romans.Why Paul Wrote RomansA little shorter than last time, but the history behind Romans isn't all that complicated. Video runs at 11:16.

Ancient bones found around the Strait of Gibraltar... dating to the first few centuries AD or earlier, belong to grey whales and North Atlantic right whales -- coastal migratory species that are no longer found in European waters. Researchers... add that Romans would not have had the technology to hunt whale species found in the region today -- sperm or fin whales which live further out at sea -- meaning evidence of whaling might not have been something archaeologists and historians were looking out for... The right whale was once widespread in the North Atlantic, with breeding grounds off the...

Sometimes an ostensibly crushing defeat turns out to be the seed of a mighty regrowth. Vatican City — In about a.d. 64, legend has it, Emperor Nero started a fire in Rome to raze the land and clear room for monuments in his honor. In the aftermath of the fire, which killed thousands of his own people, Nero blamed the early Christians, already a suspect and unpopular group. During the subsequent persecution, historical accounts suggest, as many as 7,000 Christians died as martyrs in the Circus of Nero — some covered in animal skins and thrown to wild dogs, others...

Gay sex between consenting men in Trinidad and Tobago could soon be decriminalised following a court judgment that campaigners said might spark similar decisions elsewhere in the Caribbean. In his ruling on Thursday, judge Devindra Rampersad said sections of the Sexual Offences Act, which prohibit “buggery” and “serious indecency” between two men, criminalised consensual same-sex activity between adults, and were unconstitutional. “The judge came down on the right side of history in this case by striking down the buggery law and ruling it as unconstitutional,” said Kenita Placide, Caribbean advisor for rights group OutRight Action International, in a statement. The...

Much of the scholarly discussion about the circumstances of JesusÂ’ death relates to the question of who was responsible for his arrest and crucifixion.Who was responsible? The Jews or the Romans?Historically, the primary responsibility has been placed on the Jewish leadership and the Jews in Jerusalem. Throughout the centuries, this has sometimes had tragic consequences, resulting in anti-Semitism and violence against Jews.More recent trends in scholarship have shifted the blame to the Romans.The tendency to blame the Jews, it is said, arose in the decades after the crucifixion with the churchÂ’s growing conflict with the synagogue and its desire to...

“Passion Prediction, Passion Production” (Mark 8:27-38; Romans 5:1-11) Most of you probably remember a movie a few years back called “The Passion of the Christ.” It was about Jesus’ suffering and death. That’s what the word “Passion’ means in that sense, the things that were done to Jesus, his being betrayed, arrested, beaten, crucified, and killed. Well, our Gospel reading today is about the Passion of the Christ, his suffering. To be more precise, it is a prediction of it--the first prediction of his Passion that Jesus makes. In the gospel narrative, the early ministry of Jesus in Galilee leads...

“Reformation 500: By Grace Alone” (Romans 3:19-28) Happy Reformation Day! Now I could say that every year on the last Sunday in October, which is when we observe Reformation Day. But this year it is something special. Because this year, 2017, and this week, October 31--this is the 500th anniversary of that day in 1517 when the Reformation really began. And you and I are here as a result. We are in a church, this congregation, and a church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, that hold to the teachings that came out of that great Reformation. We are partnered with...

“How to Understand--and Do--Christian Exhortations” (Romans 12:9-21) Take a look again at the Epistle reading for today, as printed on your Scripture insert. It’s Romans 12:9-21, and it starts out as follows: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” What do you notice about all...

“The Word Is Near You, in Your Mouth and in Your Heart” (Romans 10:5-17) There is a wealthy author and art dealer in New Mexico by the name of Forrest Fenn. A lover of adventure, Mr. Fenn decided to fill a chest with gold nuggets, rare coins, jewelry, and gemstones, and to hide this treasure somewhere in the American West. He gave out clues, so that other adventure-seekers could search for the treasure chest and hopefully find it. The hidden treasure is said to be worth about two million dollars. Well, in the seven years since this began, dozens and...

“Inseparable!” (Romans 8:28-39) Do you ever worry that God has given up on you? That he’s finally had enough and is ready to kick you to the curb? It’s like God is thinking: “Oh, my goodness! There he goes again! Haven’t I told him often enough not to do those things? What am I going to do with this one?” Yeah, how could God put up with a supposed Christian as lousy as I am? So I wonder if I’m going to make it with God all the way to the end. Or maybe you think God has forgotten about...

Cersei Lannister needs some anti-dragon air defenses. This past week on Game of Thrones, the self-appointed Queen of Westeros asks her cryptic right-hand man, Qyburn, to reveal his secret dragon-killer because Daenerys Targaryen and her trio of fire-breathers might be knocking on the door of King's Landing any day now. What he comes up with is this double-bowed monstrosity. He even tests it on an ancient dragon skull (which would be like firing an AR-15 through King Tut's sarcophagus, but whatever).

“Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest” (Matthew 11:25-30; Romans 7:14-25a) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Here in this verse from today’s Gospel, Matthew 11:28, Jesus issues a gracious invitation and makes a wonderful promise. “Come to me” is the invitation, and “I will give you rest” is the promise. And to whom does he address this invitation and promise? To “all who labor and are heavy laden.” What is it, then, to labor and be heavy laden, to be weary and burdened? What does Jesus mean...

“These finds tell the story of the last battle between the Roman forces and the Jewish rebels who had barricaded themselves in the city, a battle that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem,” the Antiquities Authority said. “This battle is described by the historian Flavius Josephus [born 37 CE]: ‘On the following day the Romans, having routed the brigands from the town, set the whole on fire as far as Siloam (Josephus, Wars, Book 6:363).’” According to Nahshon Szanton and Moran Hagbi, directors of the excavation on behalf of the authority, the ballista balls were fired by Roman catapults used...

Subtitle: What Would the Romans do? Foremost among the reasons I despise the democrat party is its destructive nature. It builds nothing; it exists to destroy. In the name of social justice, it corrupts and soils every previously noble institution it comes to dominate. ‘Divide and conquer’ is a tactic as old as warfare, and one which the democrat party puts to skilled use for its nefarious goals. Together with their fellow travelers in the media, they exploit every possible Alinsky distinction in race, wealth, education, gender, and sexual orientation. Keep society back on its heels. Keep various factions at...

“An Eternal Gospel to Reclaim and Proclaim” (Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28) It was 499 years ago tomorrow, on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, thus beginning the movement known as the Reformation. We are the heirs of that heritage, and so it is that on the last Sunday in October every year we observe Reformation Day in our churches. We are grateful to God for raising up his servant Luther to bring the clear truth of the gospel to light and to prominence once again. And we want...

With remarkable insouciance, NYT writers Jeremy W. Peters and Lizette Alvarez blithely make reference to “a Bible verse from Romans that calls for the execution of gays,” meaning Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans 1:18-32.As anyone who has ever read the New Testament knows, Saint Paul never permits that Christians should commit any violence whatsoever against homosexuals, but the Times editors apparently thought that fact-checking with the original text was superfluous or that readers were too ignorant to check for themselves.The Times report, titled “After Orlando, a Political Divide on Gay Rights Still Stands,” follows on the fatal shooting of...

An archaeological dig has turned up the earliest known handwritten documents in Britain among hundreds of Roman waxed writing tablets. Some 410 wooden tablets have been discovered, 87 of which have been deciphered to reveal names, events, business and legal dealings and evidence of someone practising writing the alphabet and numerals. With only 19 legible tablets previously known from London, the find from the first decades of Roman rule in Britain provides a wealth of new information about the city's earliest Romans.

When the Romans expanded their empire across three continents, they probably seemed like the neat-freakiest people to attempt global domination. The Romans brought aqueducts, heated public baths, flushing toilets, sewers and piped water. They even had multiseat public bathrooms decked out with contour toilet seats, a sea sponge version of toilet paper and hand-washing stations.

In two years from now, many Christians will be commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Already there are signs of this significant date approaching. The German toy company PLAYMOBIL has even issued a special, commemorative, limited edition figure of Martin Luther; and it's already sold out! While many of my colleagues at Reformed Theological Seminary are already thinking about 2017, most of us are not aware of a very important church history anniversary this fall. I'm thinking, of course, of the 500th anniversary of Luther's lectures on the Book of Romans, which helped pave the way for the...

A stained glass portrait of St Augustine After Mary Beard's list of important Romans, here's mine...Mary Beard has done more than anyone else, I think, to bring ancient Rome alive, and over at the Guardian she provides us with her list of the ten best ancient Romans. Lists are very personal things, and everyone will have a rival version, so I cannot resist submitting my own. Here are ten people we call all learn from, indeed need to learn from, in the order in which they popped into my head.1. Aurelius Augustinus, better known as St Augustine of Hippo,...