What is the origin of the stories of Jolly Ol' Saint Nick?

Mark Driscoll posted on the origins of Santa Claus last year. Clicky-clicky.

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Theology Lectures (1 of 4), TMS

TH 605: Theology I Dr. Andy Snider The good folks at the Master's Seminary want to see the Christ's church as biblically-oriented and God-honoring as possible.  As such, they have been placing their class lectures online for free. This post highlights the first of four theology classes offered by the seminary.  Here are a few questions these videos will help you answer: Is it okay for Christians to study theology, and are there dangers to it? What does it mean to be a liberal or a conservative theologically? What is God like, and how does He relate to His creation? Should we believe that God exists in a Trinity? What does the Bible really say about itself? Can we believe that the Bible is from God and without error? The class description according to the TMS catalog: A study of prolegomena, dealing with the essence and source of systematic theology, and reasons for its study; theology proper, including revelation, trinitarianism, and God’s relati...
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Katie Souza and Selfish Repentance

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For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.  - 2 Corinthians 7:10 When we as chaplains find copies of Katie Souza's The Key to Your Expected End  floating around the jail, we kindly try to replace them with something better.  Anything.  And then we file them in our special file. Not an actual copy of Key, but a good idea. Why?  Perhaps the most damning aspect of this book is that, while it is aimed at inmates, it encourages a false, Word-Faith approach to their cases.  In short, Souza tells detainees to ignore legal counsel and simply believe God for victory. That's more than a minor issue, and it's more than a minor point in the book. For instance, chapter eight is called, "Just Say You're Sorry."  That's not a bad start, and Souza talks about the need to quit fooling around, admit one's crimes, and repent.  The problem starts to enter when she says that, when ...
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Was Rebekah a child when she married Isaac?

Did Isaac marry a three-year-old?  If you've never pondered this question, it's because nothing in the straightforward reading of the text would suggest that Rebekah was a toddler or that their marriage was arranged. Even so, a couple of verses out of context could be used by skeptics to prove anything.  While perusing the web for a related topic, however, I found a thread stating that the Bible isn't against the raping of children .  The cited evidence was this issue, the claim being that Isaac engaged in pedophilia. The question comes from the fact that Genesis 22:23 announces the birth of Rebekah after the binding of Isaac.  Tradition states that Isaac was then thirty-seven, and Scripture says that the two wed when Isaac was forty (Gn 25:20).  Hence, Isaac robbed the cradle. The whole theory is fraught with assumptions, the primary being that Scripture never records a age marker for Rebekah.  Further complicating the matter, however, is Jewis...
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