Introducing: Blue Letter Bible

With the election over, InstantReplay will be transitioning to three new themes:

(1) Nothing this weekend, and less in general. The InstantGirlfriend is returning from exile, and frankly she's more interesting than you are.

(2) Projecting the political trajectory. InstantReplay has in the works at least three different versions of how history will look at our period's political realities. Is the Bush-Clinton Era (1989-2008) a continuation of previous themes, a transitional period, or a new paradigm that will continue until altered again by historic events as big as the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks? If the last, what is the new paradigm? Are the "New Left" and the "Neo-Conservatives" here to stay? Will all elections be close? Are the parties fundamentally changing? Can the Democratic Party survive America's demographic shifts? I'll be writing some of these articles, and I would welcome guest articles outlining a possible "future history" of the political dynamics of the Bush-Clinton Era.

(3) A long look at the love of God. I stated my thesis - that the agape love of God cannot be universal if salvation is by election in the Reform sense of the word - in a previous post; I will attempt a Bible study on a grand scale to explore the concept of chesed and agape love in the Old and New Testaments.

A vital tool in this study will be my newfound favorite online Bible (thanks to Tanker Bob and others), Blue Letter Bible. It's got all the plusses of the trusty old Bible Gateway, but with a better interface and lots more bells and whistles. Anybody could have come up with this idea, but the actual execution of it is impressive. For instance, not only can you see II Chronicles 7:14 in twelve different translations, you can see other passages correlated to key phrases, the words and meanings of the original Hebrew (as well as the Septuagint), Matthew Henry's commentary on the passage (or any of a dozen others), or a topical text list on any of the themes in the verse, such as Prayer, Public.

Think of it as a candy store for upstart theologians.