Two Contradictory Church of Christ Principles
There are two principles you will hear if you spend much time in our fellowship: We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent We support our practices by studying the Bible looking for commands, examples and necessary inferences I am sure someone, somewhere has already pointed this out…but I […]
Infant Baptism
I had slacked on my baptism series because this post has been a difficult one to publish. I really want to make sure I have my facts straight here and not stir things up based on faulty information. Infant baptism is practiced by a very high percentage of Christianity and it is important to understand […]
Ben Witherington on Hermeneutics
While looking back at Witherington’s Pagan Christianity material I ran across a really well written piece on hermeneutics. Any preacher, Bible class teacher, elder, or Christian in general could learn a lot from this. Hermeneutics – What is it and why do Bible readers need it. Hermeneutics is the art of biblical interpretation. Reading requires […]
Let the Bible Speak for Itself
I was working on a LIFE group lesson about the front doors the church has where people first encounter the church. Being in ministry I am often thinking about ministries and how we can get people in the door through our ministries (Small groups, worship, service projects, etc). So I opened up the Bible and […]
10 Commandments of Scripture Interpretation
Thanks to Steve Puckett for pointing this one out over at Out of Ur. It is a pretty decent list to at least be familiar with if you preach or teach. Actually, if you preach you should already have somewhat of a handle on these 🙂 10 Commandments of Scripture Interpretation
CBD’s #1 Selling Book Right Now – The Coming Economic Armageddon
Not a book about Jesus, God, or anything textual but a book on the current economic situation tops Christianbook.com’s book sales right now. The #1 best seller is by David Jeremiah and is called The Coming Economic Armageddon. Here is what his website says this book covers: Find answers to all the disturbing, dire financial […]
How To Study the Bible – Genre
One of the things you have to be aware of when studying the Bible is that all of biblical literature is written from various genres of literature. This was not done haphazardly but very deliberately and so our interpretation of these passages also has to be very deliberate. We are trying to hear the words […]
How Not to Study the Bible – Prooftexting
“The one thing the Bible is not is what it is so often thought to be – a theological outline with proof texts attached.” – Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature, 9 How did Christianity end up reading scripture as a list of disjointed and disconnected proof texts? It was developed from […]
Just Stuffing Our Faces
I was baptized by Stan Webb when I was 11 at the Lafayette Church of Christ in Ballwin, Missouri. One of the first questions I had was what I was supposed to do when communion was passed. I got some really good advice. I was told that it was a time to remember what Jesus […]
Reading Revelation – Putting Yourself in Their Shoes
One of the biggest difficulties in understanding Revelation is our lack of familiarity with several things: Old Testament prophesy, intertestamental literature, Jewish tradition, and Greco-Roman political and religious mythology. It is very easy to read Revelation without tapping into a good commentary that has taken these things into account when appropriate and miss the point. […]