Bible Study Magazine—July–August 2019 Issue

Luis Palau: After Five Decades of Ministry, He’s Still Pointing People to Jesus

Throughout 50 years of ministry, Luis Palau’s message has remained the same. Decades have passed and his evangelism methods have changed, but he is still confident in the unchanging message of the cross and the power of the Spirit. He has preached at mass evangelism events in more than 75 countries, with over one million registered decisions for Christ. In December 2017, Palau’s life took a sudden turn when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. While he no longer participates in large-scale events, his illness has only emboldened his personal witnessing.

—Rebecca Van Noord

A Lesson on Prayer from the Landscape

In the last week of his life, Jesus observed in his disciples an attitude toward prayer that would not do. Crossing from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus had cursed a fruitless fig tree to teach a lesson about the failure of the Jerusalem religious establishment. But the lesson was nearly lost on his disciples who were consumed by the rapid and unexpected withering of the fig tree. They were “amazed.” Their wonder left the larger lesson about the failed temple leadership unclaimed, and it laid bare a weakness in their perspective on prayer. In response, Jesus lifts their eyes from the fig tree to the horizon for a lesson on prayer drawn from the landscape. We have that lesson in Matt 21:18–22.

—John A. Beck

Plagues, Polemic, and Power

The plagues with which God judged Egypt excite the imagination of Bible students. They are spectacularly cataclysmic. But if our minds are captured only by the CGI scenes that play in our head as we read Exodus 7–12, we’ll miss the real impact. The plagues not only decimated the Egyptians and their land. They were a polemic—a direct debunking—of Egypt’s gods, which included pharaoh. While it’s not clear to us as modern English Bible readers, the point of the plagues could not have been missed by Egyptians.

—Michael S. Heiser

Who Was Saul of Tarsus?

Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5), and his parents gave him the name of the one ancient Benjamite king (Shaul). They may have chosen this name also because its Greek form (Saoul or Saoulos) sounded similar to his Roman name, Paulus. Contrary to what some people think, Saul did not change his name to Paul because of his conversion to Christian faith. He already had both names, but it made sense for him to go by his Roman name among Greeks and Romans. (The Greek word that sounds most like Saul’s Jewish name means “effeminate,” which was applied to men only as an insult. Outside Judea, Paul’s Roman name would work much better!)

—Craig S. Keener