"…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2

Dig & Delve

November 14-15

Ottawa Little Theatre

Dig delve

OCRCC is a sponsor of and is helping to organize a new conference for the city of Ottawa called Dig & Delve.  Full Details and Registration can be found HERE. The speakers for this event will be:

Greg Monette

 Greg is a Ph.D. candidate in Biblical Studies at the University of Bristol. He is the Canadian Marketing Representative for Logos Bible Software and the author of The Wrong Jesus. He is also a speaker who specializes in New Testament history and the origins of Christianity.

His upcoming book, The Wrong Jesus, aims to put right some of the misguided portraits of Jesus floating around in contemporary culture. The purpose of the book is to outline a basic foundation by which high school and college students, as well as laypeople, can understand how historians come to conclusions about the historical Jesus. The Wrong Jesus also shows how the basic Christian beliefs concerning Jesus can be defended when Jesus is studied in his historical context.

Greg is a deeply passionate Canadian hockey fan who loves to read, travel, and spend time with his best friend and wife, Julie. He resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia and would love to connect with you on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

For a complete Bio, click here.

Mike Licona

Mike Licona has a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies (University of Pretoria), which he completed with distinction. He serves as associate professor in theology at Houston Baptist University. Mike was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his book The Case for the Real Jesus and appeared in Strobel’s video The Case for Christ. He is the author of numerous books including The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, Paul Meets Muhammad, co-author with Gary Habermas of the award-winning book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus and co-editor with William Dembski of Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science. Mike is a member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Society of Biblical Literature. He has spoken on more than 50 university campuses, and has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs.

For a complete Bio, click here.

Craig Evans

New Testament scholar, Craig Evans, is the Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament atAcadia Divinity College of Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, he received his M.Div. from Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Claremont Graduate University in southern California.

Evans taught at Trinity Western University in British Columbia for twenty-one years, where he directed the graduate program in Biblical Studies and founded the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute. Author and editor of more than sixty books and hundreds of articles and reviews, Professor Evans has given lectures at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Yale and other universities, colleges, seminaries and museums, such as the Field Museum in Chicago, the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. He also regularly lectures and gives talks at popular conferences and retreats on the historical Jesus, Archaeology, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible.

Along with countless interviews on radio networks across Canada and the US, Evans has been seen on Dateline NBC, CBC, CTV, Day of Discovery, and many documentaries aired on BBC, The Discovery Channel, History Channel, History Television and others. He also has served as a consultant for the National Geographic Society and for The Bible miniseries, produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. (Click here for recent programs.)

For a complete Bio, click here.

Andy Bannister

Dr. Andy Bannister is the Canadian Director and Lead Apologist for RZIM Canada. He speaks and teaches regularly throughout Canada, the USA, Europe and the wider world. From churches to universities, business forums to TV and radio, Andy regularly addresses audience of both Christians and those of all faiths and none on issues relating to faith, culture, politics and society.

Andy holds a PhD in Islamic studies, a topic on which he has taught extensively, especially since 9/11 and the huge interest that was sparked in the subject by the events of that day. He has spoken and taught at universities across Canada, the USA, the UK and further afield on both Islam and philosophy and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology.

With a background in youth ministry before studying theology and philosophy (focussing especially on Islam), Andy was previously based in Oxford, from where he worked with churches and organisations across the denominational spectrum.

When not travelling, speaking, or writing, Andy is a keen hiker, mountain climber and photographer. He lives in Toronto and is married to Astrid and they have one daughter, Caitriona.

For a complete Bio, click here.

Daniel B. Wallace

Dr. Wallace influences students across the country through his textbook on intermediate Greek grammar. It has become the standard textbook in the English-speaking world on that subject. He is a member of the Society of New Testament Studies, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Evangelical Theological Society. Dr. Wallace is also the senior New Testament editor of the NET Bible and co-editor of the NET-Nestle Greek-English diglot. He has been a consultant on four different Bible translations. Recently his scholarship has begun to focus on John, Mark, and nascent Christology. He works extensively in textual criticism, and has founded The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (csntm.org), an institute with an initial purpose of preserving Scripture by taking digital photographs of all known Greek New Testament manuscripts. He has traveled the world in search of biblical manuscripts. His postdoctoral work includes work on Greek grammar at Tyndale House in Cambridge, textual criticism studies at the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster, and the Universität Tübingen, Germany. He is in demand as a speaker at churches, colleges, and conferences. Dr. Wallace and his wife, Pati, have four adult sons, three daughters-in-law, one granddaughter, a Beagle, a Labrador Retriever, and a cat. They enjoy all their children and the dogs.

Recent Posts

Sin: A Family Tale

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We continue a series of blog devotions based on the CRC Contemporary Testimony “Our World Belongs to God.”. These devotions incorporate both Christian and non-Christian student reflections on the statements.  The series begins HERE if you wish to read them all.

Suggested Scripture Reading – Genesis 3

But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:9-11

Our World Belongs to God – Article 13

In the beginning of human history,
our first parents walked with God.
But rather than living by the Creator’s word of life,
they listened to the serpent’s lie
and fell into sin.
In their rebellion
they tried to be like God.
As sinners, Adam and Eve feared
the nearness of God
and hid.

~~~

imagesWCG35L78I recently had the chance to visit my parents and I was reminded of a particular way in which members of my family sit. When we’re relaxed, we’re inclined to sit with our bottoms on the edge of a chair, our legs stretched out with feet crossed, and often our hands folded over our bellies. I sometimes think of this position as the coffin position because it’s how they usually arrange a body in a coffin. Yet in our family we attempt this position as we sit in chairs. My dad does it, I have cousins that do it and I do it. It’s hard to say what part of this sitting position is a learned behaviour and what part of it might be genetics. Either way, it was passed on to me through my parents.

The thirteenth article of Our World Belongs to God makes a thoughtful choice of words. As it begins to discuss the topic of sin and how sin exists in the creation, the subject is made personal. By beginning with the imagery of parents walking with God, it emphasizes our connection to the entire history of our human family. So often when it comes to the problems of our world we like to point fingers at other nations, races, religions, etc. etc. But to understand the problem of evil or sin we must look at ourselves. N.T. Wright in his book “Simply Christian” says it so well:

“imagesC0OS667AThe line between good and evil does not lie between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ between the West and the rest, between Left and Right, between rich and poor. That fateful line runs down the middle of each of us, every human society, every individual. This is not to say that all humans, and all societies, are equally good or bad; far from it. Merely that we are all infected and that all easy attempts to see the problem in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ are fatally flawed.”

The story of sin is OUR story.

untitled (8) When we read Genesis 3, we must hear an incredibly personal story about the way in which so many of us choose ourselves first. Genesis 3 is not just a story about the first sin, it’s a story about the way things go wrong. Our family history shows us a long and sordid tale of people who are constantly seeking ways in which we can be all-knowing. The problem of sin is a family story of learned and genetic behavior where we are always trying to live beyond our means. And in our contemporary society, we only need look at advertising slogans to see how we’re prone to lies of putting ME first – “Just Do It – Nike” “Because You’re Worth It – L’Oreal,” “I Want That – The Source,” “Have it Your Way – Burger King.”

The life aimed at serving the self is a lonely life, something that is emphasized in this article when it points out that as Adam and Eve chose themselves first they feared the nearness of God and hid. Life works best within the confines of a way where we as humans do not put ourselves first, where who we are exists to serve the creation as stewards of the garden, where we seek the good of our neighbor and ultimately where we acknowledge that only God can be all knowing. What lies might we be listening to these days? What does our chapter of the family story look like?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen

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