Category: Bible

  • A Letter to Our Church

    Can you imagine getting a letter from Jesus to your church? That’s the situation that seven churches in Asia Minor found themselves in when the Apostle John penned the book of Revelation. The book starts out with the statement: Revelation 1:1-2 – The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His…

  • The Heavens Declare….

    The Psalmist wrote, “The Heavens declare the glory of God.” Sometimes we forget that. Today we got another reminder. Check out the pictures of Saturn from the lastest JPL mission to the ringed planet. It is certainly spectacular. And yes, the Heavens do declare God’s glory. Amen.

  • Freedom or Bondage of the Will?

    I am thinking today about libertarianism (Free Will) and determinism (Bondage of the Will). In particular, I am thinking about compatibilism. Under compatibilism there is an assertion that man is both free to choose and determined. The example of Saddam Hussein in prison comes to mind. In some very limited sense of the word free,…

  • Clay Prism of Sennacherib

    This is a neat piece of physical evidence for the historicity of the Old Testament. This clay prism describes the siege of Jerusalem by King Sennacherib. The text says “I shut up Hezekiah like a bird in a cage.” This matches the Biblical account of the siege where Sennacherib surrounded the city, but did not…

  • Heritage of Machen

    Machen fought the forces of liberalism in his day. His spiritual children ended up fighting each other. This article details the areas of battle.

  • Punting to Mystery

    Biblically, what is a true mystery? When are we justified in calling something a mystery? If there is a contradiction in our theology can we say that it is all rectified by recourse to mystery? There are things in Scripture that are called mysteries. The calling of the Gentiles was only hinted at in the…

  • Solving Alleged Bible Contradictions

    There are a number of passages in Scripture which are cited by critics of the Bible as showing the the Bible has contradictions. As an example, the infidels.org website has a long list of alleged contradictions in the Bible. They do this in an attempt to deny the Divine authorship of God’s Word. If there…

  • Walking on Water

    Why Walk on Water? The Gospels tell us that Jesus walked on water (Mat 14:23-32). At first glance this might seem like something that is too showy for Jesus. Why walk on water? Does this miracle story play a crucial part in the Gospel? Would it still be the Gospel without the story? The story…

  • Twenty Centuries Later – Locating the Nexus

    How Do We Understand the Bible? N. T. Wright, in his book, “The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is” addresses the question of how we are to understand the Bible in our modern world. Wright starts with an carefully developed historical view of first century Palestine. He puts his scholarly focus on…

  • New Testament Uses of the Old Testament

    Some Preliminary Thoughts on How the New Testament Writers Quote the Old Testament 1 – The NT writers frequently quote OT passages. 2 – The audiences of the NT writers have varying familiarity with the OT texts. 3 – The audiences may have people that know the OT text quite well since there are probable…

  • Dead Men Can’t Respond

    It is often said that “dead men can’t respond” or “dead means unable to respond“. This is used in relation to the passages which speak of our condition before we came to Christ. It is said that since we were dead, and dead men can’t respond, then we were unable to respond to God. The…

  • Whence Cometh Faith?

    Where Does Faith Come From? The New Testament has a lot of verses on faith but not too many passages clearly identify where faith comes from. There are several Scriptural possibilities for where our faith comes from. One is that faith is from God, and the other is that faith comes from somewhere inside a…

  • Christian Apologetics

    What isn’t Christian Apologetics? Christian Apologetics is not giving an apology for the faith as if there is something deficient in the faith. The Christian faith is God’s self-revelation to mankind. There is nothing deficient in that revelation. What is Christian Apologetics? Apologetics comes from the Greek word; apologia, ap-ol-og-ee’-ah; a plea (“apology”):–answer (for self),…

  • Real or Imaginary Hypotheticals in Scripture

    Real or Imaginary Hypotheticals A hypothetical can be either a real or an imaginary hypothetical. It is important to classify the sort of hypothetical that is intended when reading an author who is using hypotheticals. For instance, “if pigs can fly” is an imaginary (not possible) hypothetical. Pigs do not normally have wings. There could…

  • N. T. Wright on the Gospel and Justification

    Anglican Bishop, N. T. Wright, writes: By “the gospel” Paul does not mean “justification by faith.” He means the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord. To believe this message is to give believing allegiance to Jesus as Messiah and Lord” is to be justified in the present by faith (whether or not…

  • What is the Gospel?

    I have been thinking a lot lately about a question that is deceptively simple. The question is “What is the Gospel?” The answer is surprisingly evasive for a number of reasons. One of these is that there are few clear definitions of “the gospel” in Scripture. Another reason is that the word “gospel” seems to…

  • Scriptural Synthesis

    The Grammatical-Historical-Contextual (GHC) method is the method used by many people to understand Scripture. Using the GHC method a person is said to be able to come away with the original meaning of the Scripture as the author intended. There is much in the GHC method to commend itself. There are also weaknesses in the…

  • Greek Text of Eph 2:8

    Ephesians 2:8 is often quoted as evidence that faith is a gift. The Greek text makes this interpretation a difficult one, however. It may be the case that faith is a gift from God but this verse is inconclusive as proof. Greek has a concept known as gender agreement. Nouns, pronouns and adjectives share the…

  • Esau Have I Hated

    Romans 9:13 is frequently by double predestinarian advocates as Biblical evidence of individual election. The passage has: Romans 9:13 – Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” At first glance it appears that this passage is referring to the historical individuals, Jacob and Esau. The story is so familiar that…

  • Pair o’ Dimes

    Paradigms. That’s the fancy word for systems of belief. Definition #3 at dictionary.reference.com gives the definition of paradigm as: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline. Everyone has a paradigm. In fact, everyone has a paradigm…

  • Eternally Secure

    I’ve been thinking quite a bit about eternal security and thought I’d lay out my own thoughts. Take them for what they are worth. There are a lot of different ways of approaching this subject and mine is not unique by any means. I need to start with a confession of humility of what I…

  • Female Angels

    Are there female angels? In the book of Genesis, the angels that visit Abraham were men. Other angels in the Bible have masculine names (Gabriel, Michael). These names describe attributes of God. Genesis 6 describes the sons of God that married the daughters of men. In all of these examples, angels are manifested as men.…

  • Baptism in the Evangelical Covenant Church

    The Evangelical Covenant Church has a fairly unique practice when it comes to baptism. Covenant Churches practice both believer and infant baptism. (The Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals also has the practice, but they are quite small.) Local churches may prefer to operate in one mode or the other but Covenant pastors are required to baptize…

  • Hating the Sin and Hating the Sinner

    At church we been learning about the Love of God for this past semester. Today, we talked about what God hates. There are a lot of passages which talk about how God hates sin. We are familiar with many of them. The Psalms are full of them. In the Psalms, sin is understood as falling…