In a world of injustice, sometimes innocent people are blamed and punished for crimes they didn’t commit. What’s worse, sometimes they’re chosen as scapegoats by the wrongdoers themselves. But why do we call the victims “scapegoats” if they escaped nothing? The original concept of the word is actually supposed to be a good thing. Az-azel: the “goat that goes (away)” Taken from Hebrew עז (’ez) for “goat” and the Hebrew-Aramaic root אזל (‘azal) for “going (away),” this name has a fairly literal meaning behind it. But still it’s mysterious, sounding like a personal name in all 4 occurrence ..read more

In this edition of the Pillar News: Pillar publishes its annual report The Seminary exceeds year-end fundraising goal Pillar to host Golf Classic in Arlington, TX What do we mean when we say “torah”? | Pillar offers a lifeline for overseas missionaries and more! Click the button below to read the full edition of the Pillar News for March 2023. Pillar News Learn more about Pillar’s unique mission and values. Find out how we are working to reimagine seminary for anyone, anywhere. Click here to receive content from Pillar’s faculty and stay up to date with what’s going on at ..read more

Law? Pentateuch? Instruction? What do people mean when they say the word “Torah”? In this post, we talk about three major uses of the word in our churches today, and what we usually mean when we use this word at Pillar (and more importantly, what we don’t mean!). Torah=Law? Sometimes when people say “Torah,” they mean simply biblical legal texts or case laws (usually contained within the first five books of the Bible). In our contemporary 21st century context, when we hear the word “law,” however, we think of statutes and regulations (e.g., a stop sign). In the Hebrew Bible, however ..read more

Jacob and Rachel are both students in the Master of Divinity program at Pillar Seminary while serving as missionaries to Marseille, France. Jacob shared with us how Pillar helped them during a particularly difficult time, and how grateful they are to be recipients of scholarships thanks to Pillar’s partners. Pillar was a lifeline... “After only 2 years on the mission field, my wife and I were preparing for the possibility that we were about to join the statistics of missionaries who had been driven out of ministry by a host of factors. That didn’t happen, but our return to the field w ..read more

Francis Mwangi, one of the church leaders from Compassion International Kenya taking Dr. Moore’s pilot leadership course, grew up in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi. He left his job in cinematography to go back to pursue ministry in community development in Kibera because of his passion for the people.  He told us, “I grew up in the slums and didn’t realize I could change the face of where I live.” Francis is involved with a couple of different initiatives. One is Drop the Gun where he is fighting crime with the Word of God. He has had 14 men who were living a life of crime turn in ..read more

Genesis 1:2 presents the world in watery chaos. How is Yahweh going to bring order? Why a watery chaos? Ancient Israelites would have seen a watery chaos at the beginning of a story as a genre trigger for a creation story (what we call a “cosmogony”). In the same way we think, This is going to be a fairytale, when we hear the words “once upon a time,” an Israelite would think, This is going to be a creation story, when they heard “watery chaos” (i.e. “now the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep ..read more

We all celebrate Easter a bit differently, depending on our particular faith traditions (and we’re privileged to serve a wide array at Pillar!). Some of us have journeyed with Jesus through the forty days of Lent, perhaps even setting something aside to more fully identify with Jesus along the way. Still others will continue Holy Week services this week with a full slate — Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday services to more fully prepare for Easter Sunday. Still others of us may attend a Good Friday service, and yet others may simply celebrate Easter on Sunday. However we ce ..read more

Join us in this interview with current student, Dr. David Moore of Gentempo, as he interviews Dr. Booth.  In this interview they discuss: Do the Old Testament events foreshadow the Miracles of Jesus Christ? Are some of Jesus’ Miracles a nod to the Old Testament? How the entire book builds towards Christ coming again. The post WAS JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT? appeared first on Pillar Seminary ..read more

The following was transcribed from “The Longevity of Volunteers and Pastors” podcast, published September 15, 2017 Eric:  In our staff meeting this week we were discussing a law about when you come across a nest and it has eggs or hatchlings in it and the mother bird is there. The law covers what you’re supposed to do. We started discussing it with questions like, “What’s going on here?” “What’s the principle?” “Why is this in scripture?“ So let’s talk about it. Let’s start first off by talking about our approach to Torah and the law. When we’re coming across this law, rather than looki ..read more

The following was transcribed from “Your Call and Your Spiritual Autobiography” podcast, published September 18, 2018 Dr. Booth:  The book of Exodus begins by telling us that the original Israelites in Egypt eventually died and then we get to a new generation. This new generation experiences a boom in population . The story turns to Pharaoh. What is Pharaoh going to about all these Israelites? Pharoah’s idea, in be beginning, is slavery. He thinks that will solve the population problem, but it doesn’t work.  He then decides to up the slavery, but that doesn’t work.  Pharoah’s ..read more