Q: What is this?
A: This is Hope Abbey, my personal blog. I will write about that about which I will write, but for the most part, my thoughts and ideas are confined to Christian scholarship, especially studies on early Christianity and its schism with Judaism. I love reading books and interacting with them. I also have interests in Christian orthodoxy (what Christians believe and why) and Christian orthopraxy (how things are done and why).
Q: So you’re some kind of Bible scholar?
A: Not by a long shot. I’m a student, and I love learning. Hope Abbey is not a teaching ministry or a credible source, nor is it a forum for academic debate. It’s just what I happen to be thinking about on any given day. I find that writing my thoughts down helps me to solidify concepts in my head, and I like getting feedback, so I started putting these thoughts out on the Internet. I guess time will tell if that was a good idea or not.
Q: Are you really a Christian? Some of your beliefs are whacked-out.
A: Yes, I am an evangelical Baptist pastor. I just happen to believe that some of the dominant trends in evangelicalism and Baptist theology are wrong. I’m a “reformer”, so to speak. Some people would call me a heretic, just like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and every other reformer in Christian history has been called a heretic in his time. But “wisdom is justified by her children”, and I believe my theology is quite Biblical, and that it will eventually win out over less Biblical views.
Q: What is your relationship with First Fruits of Zion? You really seem to push their stuff.
A: FFOZ is an international publishing ministry and I push their stuff because it’s great. I have for many years. Recently I became a member of the FFOZ creative team, helping to write books and articles. This is why I don’t blog as much as I used to. However, this still remains my personal blog and its content does not reflect the official stance of First Fruits of Zion.
Q: Don’t commas go inside of the quotation marks?
A: *sigh* Please read this article on logical punctuation.
Q: What does “Hope Abbey” mean?
A: The name “Hope Abbey” came to me in a dream. It is a name for my house, and a name for my personal mission in life: to be a beacon of hope to those around me, a light that shines to the nations, a city set on a hill. To me, it represents family-centered worship, strong fathers, ancient rites, self-sufficiency (vs. government dependency), caring for those around us, and personal discipleship.
Q: Why isn’t my comment showing up?
A: All comments at Hope Abbey are moderated before they appear. This is due to the outstanding number of spam comments we get. For some reason, people think my blog on Christianity is a great place to advertise sneakers. Go figure. Feel free to discuss the post and disagree, but if you display a pattern of insulting, off-topic, or confrontational comments, I will block your IP address. So mind your manners.
Q: What’s with the books on the right sidebar?
A: Hope Abbey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Q: Okay, but what’s with the other advertisements?
A: Like everything else, having a website costs money. I believe that what I write about is important and it’s worth paying for. However, as a pastor with a single income household and a wife and kids to support, every penny counts. So if I can get someone else to pay for it, even better.
Q: But I saw an advertisement that offended me!
A: That’s not even a question.
Q: What can I do to keep from seeing it again?
A: I don’t have much control over what appears. But if you email me the URL responsible for the offensive ad (the website address beginning in “http://” or “www.”; it shows up in green under the text ads) I can block that advertiser from running further ads. Send all complaints to jacELEPHANTSobfronczak@gmaiRHINOCEROSESl.com. (sans animals, of course.)
Q: Wait, what?
A: The animal names keep spam bots from picking up my email address for their nasty spamming activities.
Q: Oh. How often do you post articles?
A: Once a week, tops. I am too busy with other projects to do any more than that.
