Height of Goliath

I preached last Sunday on 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. During my study, I read articles in the recent Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society that deal with the height of Goliath. The NKJV states that Goliath's height was 'six cubits and a span.' Traditionally, it is thought that Goliath was well over eight feet tall, perhaps well over nine feet tall.

In the December 2005 edition of JETS, J. Daniel Hays argued that Goliath was only about 6'9" tall. He based his argument on a Dead Sea Scroll text, major early LXX texts, the fact that Goliath is never called a giant in the narrative [he is called a 'champion'], and the fact that the overall thrust of the narrative is the comparison between Saul and David. Hays argues that Saul should have been the one to fight Goliath; they were close to the same size.

Clyde Billington responds to Hays [and Hays responds to Billington] in this edition of the journal. He believes the MT reading is original, and Goliath was over 8 feet tall. Billington spends much of his article dealing with the Anakim giants of the Bible and in Egyptian texts, which Billington believe essentially agree.

This is a pretty good scholarly "smack-down," and a very interesting discussion. I suggest that you get hold of the article and make up your own mind. You might also want to track down Hays' original article to get his full argument. He makes a pretty convincing case, but I wonder if David's courage against Saul's fear is the only reason for the longest war narrative in the "David story." Would Saul have feared Goliath if they were essentially the same size? Perhaps, but I wonder?

Halo 3

I'm constantly amazed at how we attempt to use worldly means to get people in church. Halo 3 is being used by some youth ministers to attract young men.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?th&emc=th

Does anyone see any contradictions here?

Mission Statement & Core Values

It has been popular for several years now for churches to come up with mission/vision and core value statements. I believe both can be helpful to define a church. I officially unveiled our new statements yesterday.

Missions statements should be short and to the point. Ours is: "The purpose of Fairview Baptist Church is to make disciples." When you get right down to it, this is the reason churches are in business. Our core values undergird the mission statement and call attention to how we'll carry it out. First, we value Scripture. Obviously everything a church does must be based upon the truths of God's Word. Second, we value celebrative worship. The word "celebrative" is used to remind us that we are to love God with everything that's in us. Third, we value relational evangelism and discipleship. "Relational" is important because both evangelism and discipleship are best done through building relationships.

Our church's purpose then is to make disciples. We do that through building relationships with lost people and an effort to win them to Christ, assimilating those won into small-groups to learn about Christ and His will, continually celebrating the goodness and grace of God through worship, and building a foundation under all of us that is Scripture based.

A strong church can be built on these principles!

Great Story

Here is a great story about a young man accepting Christ. I especially like it because this happened in our neck-of-the woods. Lyman is just down the road from us and the music director quoted served for years at Fairview.

http://www.baptistcourier.com/1978.article

Alocohol Survey

I was pleased by poll results on a survey taken concerning the consumption of alcohol. See the results in the following story.

http://www.bpnews.org/bpnews.asp?id=26564

If I could destroy the alcohol business I would do so today. I've seen too many lives and families destroyed by it.