Our Keynote Speaker is Rev. Dr. Lew Parks

 

 

Keynote Description: Texts of Terror – Conclusions of Grace

There are stories and words in our Bible that a Christian would be reluctant to share with a
seeker or a new believer. They are stories of unbelievable cruelty to women and children,
irrational hatred of those who do not fit some religious norm of the time, even holy wars where
God is said to have ordered the extinction of every man, woman, child, animal, and structure.
What to do with these texts of terror? We can ignore them, and hope seekers and new
believers do the same. The problem with that is that these texts have a long reach. Echoes of
them can be heard in the hateful and hurtful language of contemporary persons. So, Bible in
hand, in this year’s Mid-Winter Institute we will examine several of the texts of terror and four
methods biblical scholars have suggested for turning the texts of terror into grace-filled
conclusions and applications.