Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
God is often identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Bible. Abraham and Jacob are especially associated with the beginnings of the Hebrew people. Isaac almost serves as a link between the two. Abraham is presented as the founder of the Jewish nation and Jacob as the father of the 12 […]
A straight reading of the chapter has God testing Abraham by seeing if he will kill his beloved son. Scholars differ widely on what to make of it. Some think it indicates the great demands God makes on us. Some think it describes how God provides animal sacrifice to cover human sin. And others even […]
Chapters 1- 11 could be regarded as the introduction to Genesis. The plot begins with Abraham in chapter 12. In fact, if you looked at the story that runs through the Bible, these chapters could serve as the setting for it as well. God begins saving his creation with Father Abraham. One of the best […]
It seems strange that Noah and the Ark ( Genesis 8:20-9:28) has become a beloved children’s Bible story. You have to question what we are teaching our young people. Sadly, it is usually presented as a precaution about being good so God does not punish you– something like behaving or Santa Claus will not bring […]
Genesis maintains when we are not in a proper relationship with God, all other relationships are corrupted. That pertains to humans as well as all other parts of the creation. The narrative labels violence as the big sin. Humans were vegetarians until Noah’s time when God made allowances for violently killing and eating other living […]
After examining the goodness of creation and humanity’s task in caring for it, Genesis spends several chapters on our failure. Again it is clear we are not dealing with historical events so much as the meaning of ancient stories that try to express humanity’s alienation from God. The rather bizarre narrative and four stories maintain […]
Although the ancient stories felt all parts of creation were good and worked together according to God’s design, they focused especially on the relationship between the divine and the human. In the second creation story, the human was to till and care for the garden. In the first, he was to operate as God’s agent […]
An honest reading of the creation stories quickly reveals the authors are not interested in particulars. Once you acknowledge that there are two very different, even contrasting accounts right next to each other, you recognize the editors are not trying to write accurate historical accounts. They are obviously more interested in what the ancient stories […]
Let’s do a series on what Genesis has to say about our present situation. We tend to think of the Bible as beginning with the Genesis creation and ending with Revelation’s last days. Then we remember it is really a library with books gathered in categories. When we do that we can consider that we […]
Perhaps it is time to wind up this little experiment. Five months ago, I set out to discern some marks of a gospel community. At the time, I was not sure where I was going. People kept telling me the church had changed drastically since I retired twenty years ago. Many were no longer worshipping, […]
Frontline Study is an online discussion of the scriptures, inviting you to share your comments and your reflections on each weekly topic. Simply click on the "Add Reply" text at the top of each post to see what others have posted and to add your thoughts.
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