Pastor Erik's Sometimes Dangerous Blog
Erik DiVietro
Teaching Pastor,
Bedford Road Baptist Church, 2004
Master of Divinity,
Liberty University, 2016
PhD in Bible Exposition,
Liberty University, 2022
Oddball Contrarian,
Since Birth (according to his parents)
Recently, I saw a video of a supposed Messianic Jewish rabbi talking about Luke 2:12. After declaring Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem, the angelic host tells the shepherds: And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. This rabbi goes on to say
Herod the Great It is important to understand that Herod was not just “a king.” He had been declared the “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate, a title which had been confirmed by Octavius Caesar when he became the First Man of Rome. Herod was an Idumean convert to Judaism who had ruled over
One of the most peculiar characteristics of the Christian Scriptures is the quadruple testimony of the gospels. The presence of these four similar and yet very distinct books which seem to cover the same territory bring up a lot of questions. Among them: Why are there four versions of the same story? And why do
The Song of Songs (שׁיר השׁרים) is one of the great works of Hebrew dramatic poetry. In an ancient, pre-literate world, the great works of literature were not written for the page. They were to be presented publicly. Although these stagings were not as elaborate as modern plays and were presented for moral, polemic or
Three weeks ago, I began a teaching series at Bedford Road on Solomon: The Tarnished Crown. Yesterday, I taught on Adonijah, the son of David who attempted to usurp the throne from Solomon. There is never enough time to talk about all the people who pass through the biblical narrative. I would never finish a
Many Christian apologists who answer Mormon doctrine do so on the basis of looking deep into their lesser known beliefs and pointing out that there is some wild stuff going on there. For example, Joseph Smith taught that Methuselah and Abraham used the urim and the thummim as magical telescopes to discover the star Kolob,
In 1965, Hal Moore (Lt. Gen. US Army, retired) led the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Airmobile Cavalry Division into the Ia Drang Valley in the highlands of Vietnam. Over three days and nights, his troopers fought a rolling battle against overwhelming odds. The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley was the first battle
As we begin to dive into the Book of the Revelation at Bedford Road Baptist Church, it is important that we be honest about this particular portion of Scripture. There is a great deal that we do not know about this book, and there is nothing even approximating a scholarly agreement on how to interpret it.
This old man must still train and train. – Morihei Ueshiba, shortly before his death Aikido is learned by experience or taitoku (体得). Teaching was often done through challenge, offering something incomprehensible and then providing the means by which one can experiment and learn to understand through experience. Aikido evolved from the jujutsu of medieval Japan,
For many Christians, faith is a safe and comfortable little thing they keep in their pockets in case they need it. They go to church regularly. They may even work at the local soup kitchen during the holidays or teach a Sunday School class. It is relatively easy to call yourself a Christian; and because
