WDJD trumps WWJD

Theologian Greg Herrick writes in Baalism in Canaanite Religion and Its Relation to Selected Old Testament Texts * that "it behooves us to utilize all ancient resources available to us in order to uncover the thought-world and religious milieu in which men penned the very words of God. While there is always the danger of leaving the text in history, this should not detract us from seriously engaging the historical data we have, lest we fall off the other side of the hermeneutical horse and modernize the text to our own peril."

In other words, study as many authentic ancient texts for context as possible but don't wash out the salt of scripture in the process. Herrick is right to be more concerned with our common habit of modernizing scripture.

Jesus isn't my CEO. He's not yours either.

*What? I heard about it on Leno.