John Mark Hicks

After the Confederacy’s seizure of Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor and Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers in April 1861, Tennessee–scheduled to vote on secession in early June–will be the last state to join the Confederacy. That same month Tolbert Fanning penned a brief but poignant plea for peace by appealing to the role of kingdom people amidst […]

Abraham Lincoln was elected President on November 6, 1860. Though the Upper South ( Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia) voted for the moderate John Bell, the Deep South–many of which did not even have Lincoln on the ballot–was solidly anti-Lincoln.  South Carolina seceded first in December 1860 and was quickly followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and […]

While many have treated this section of Mark as a series of isolated sayings that follow a passion prediction, the thread that runs through it carries a powerful punch if we hear it as one continuous exchange between Jesus and his disciples. This thread directly connects with the prediction. Just as Jesus would serve others by suffering, […]

On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a courageous speech against the Vietnam War at the Riverside Church in New York City. The speech is a principled statement against war itself. David Lipscomb, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, offered a principled statement against the “spirit” of war. That “spirit” stands in radical contrast with […]

Zechariah sees a rider on a “red” (more like reddish-brown) horse among myrtle trees in a “glen.” Behind this rider is an indefinite number of horses with a range of colors which reflect the variety of horses within the Persian Empire. Scouting is the only function given these horses (and their unidentified riders)—they “patrol the […]

Samuel Parker Pitmann (1876-1965), a graduate who joined the faculty of the Nashville Bible School (now Lipscomb University) in 1897, enjoyed a unique position to assess the values and interests of its founding fathers. He called James A. Harding his “father in the gospel” who taught him “the true philosophy of life” based on Matthew […]

Part I moves us from the prophetic anticipation of the coming kingdom through the appearance of the Christ child to a conclusion in the ministry of Jesus.  At the heart of this movement is a missional vision–God comes to give rest to the nations. Handel weaves together texts from Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Luke and […]

That was no place for a child. In the darkest days of Jerusalem’s despair, God told Jeremiah to neither marry nor have children (Jeremiah 16:2). That world—the world of Jerusalem’s destruction—is no place for children. All that would await them was pain, horror, gloom, dislocation, and destruction. Even now it may sometimes seem that the […]

My dear friend, as well as colleague, Lee C. Camp has recently released a new book entitled:  Who Is My Enemy? Questions American Christians Must Face About Islam–and Themselves. Lee is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville (TN) where I also teach.   Lee uses a line from a prayer of St. […]

“Got him!” The headlines fill our papers, newsrooms and social media. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9-11 is dead. What should I do? Dance? Party? Shout “U-S-A” over and over? What should I feel? Pride? Joy? Satisfaction? Patriotic? Gratitude? I have mixed feelings. “Justice has been done,” says our President. Maybe so. One function […]