"This too, shall pass". - My Best Friend's Wedding, 1997. "You SHALL NOT PASS!" - Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring, 200l.
- My pre-Cal professor, 1985.
"This too shall pass" certainly sounds Biblical, but like my Pre-Cal answers and Best Friend's Wedding, sounding true doesn't make something true, much less Biblical. "This too shall pass" likely came from useful but non-divine Jewish folklore. My non-true Pre-Cal answers were only useful for fertilizer.
Which is why Biblical Literacy is so important. While you probably suspected from context that Jules Winnfield was mangling the Bible in Pulp Fiction, in My Best Friend's Wedding, Richard's grandma sounds like she's quoting a well-worn family Bible. The Enemy's sophistry can be seductive in its false comfort and utility. We must be on guard.
This is why we must know and prefer the Bible -the actual truth- over Hollywood homilies aimed more at spiritual edification than doctrinal instruction. Prioritize the Word and apply a healthy skepticism to all secular sources of information, including bloggers like me, since I lifted that last line wholesale from a first-hit Google search.
Et tu, Brute?
Ita, etiam me, per Google Translate.
Now that you're hungry for some real truth, let's dig into some useful links and Easter eggs buried in the Logical Theological Reading Plan.
Bible Project Links
Sometimes it helps to know what you're going to read before taking it on. Other times, it helps to have a summary to refresh what just passed before your eyes (Foucoult's Pendulum, anybody?).
So each book in the Reading Plan has a link to a Bible Project animated summary. They go deeper than a Level 1 understanding but are brief and easy to follow. Highly recommended before AND after reading a tough book (John 3, you can go outside and play. NOT SO FAST, Leviticus...).
Next Time: The link between Biblical Literacy and Cultural Literacy.
The author rediscovered cityonahilldfw.com during COVID. Post-vaccination he snuck in a service, finding zero social pressure. He's a member now and everyone knows he sucks at small talk. They don't care: it ain't that kind of church.