A False Prophet. A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing.

This is the reason this generation needs to raise up a group of people who can discern spiritually, and protect the Biblical message in it's integrity.  Watch this video.


Someone once misquoted Paul to me in 1 Corinthians 2:2 in defense of a pastor who preaches the distorted gospel of New Evangelicalism from his pulpit.  They were claiming that Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2 was proclaiming that as long as a pastor proclaimed Christ Crucified from the pulpit, the rest of the message is peripheral and up for interpretation.  This individual, like so many, is an infant in Christ at best, without the ability to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Paul is not saying that all he thought important to communicate to a lost city was Christ and Him crucified.  Upon a closer, and rather simple look at the context of the statement, Paul was declaring that the power of His message, although seeming simple and foolish came from the salvific and transforming power of Christ's work on the cross.  He was saying that he sought only to rely on the spiritual power and wisdom from God's message (know Christ and Him Crucified), rather than depend on man made rhetorical and apologetic wisdom to convince people.  Paul went far beyond (and before) "Christ and Him crucified" to convey the necessary information of salvation to a lost people. 1 Corinthians 3:18 "Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise."

The danger of thinking Christ and Him Crucified is the only important part of the Gospel message, is that it eventually leads to a distortion of the entire Gospel and will eventually attack the fundamental truth of itself (it will cause you to eventually doubt the statement itself.)  Like the above video of John Shelby Spong, a bishop in the Episcopal Church in America.  If you know Christ, strive for the meat of God's Word.  Leave the milky nutrition (Paul says not to lay the foundations again, but to move forward in Spiritual knowledge. Hebrews 5:11-6:2) of text-proofing scripture quoting, and learn the message of the Bible so that you can defend it.

God Bless.

With you for His Glory

5 Steps for Meaningful Bible Study

5 steps for Meaningful Bible Study: .This is not intended to make the Bible more "elusive" or difficult; rather, it's meant to bring responsible stewardship back to a text that is 2000 years removed from us today in almost every conceivable way culturally, perspectively, and in systematic thinking strategies.

1. Historical-cultural context - a lot involved in this for initial study. Once you learn it for a specific book though, you have it forever and just have to revisit every once in a while.

ex. political background at the time (national and local), philosophical influences of the time, major personalities that were influencing life at the time even though not mentioned in Scripture, church environment (age at the time, leader, founder, problems and strengths , specific history, etc.), cultural affluence and poverty demographics, cultural pastimes, geography, time space continuum, what do we know came prior to this point in history and after (did the original hearers have this insight?) all these help you later on being able to discern how the original audience "received" the text. This is the most important step in studying scripture - what was the worldview and understanding of the original audience. We say, "What it originally meant." "Scripture can never mean what it never meant to the original audience."

2. Literary genre - What type of writing is this text? There can be sub-genres within larger genres (ex. Genesis is historical but contains a lot of poetic, narrative, and prophetic genre as well which all serve a different purpose and affect the meaning of the text in question) Mostly, their is historical, poetic, wisdom, narrative, and prophetic. As you study, reference material sources will tell you what each genre is intended to do. The way the arab mind works uses tropes (figurative language) is vastly different than the way the western mind does, even more so separated by 4000-2000 years of cultural development. If the text in question is poetic, it is probably meant to do something very different than if it was written in narrative form, even if it contains the exact same information.

3. Literary context - What is the immediate context (purpose of the surrounding verses, the specific portion of that letter, the entire letter, the group of like letters (main emphasis of Pauls writings, Peters writings, etc.), the testament, and then the meta-narrative. [note: most parables are intended to create a conflict which demands a response from the hearers. The conflict that Jesus is trying to invoke is usually indicated by the question of the character or challenge of the Jewish leaders immediately before Jesus' parable.]

4. Possible applications of the original audience. Can't do step five without at least considering the importance of this first. (Can never mean to us what it never meant to the original audience.)

ex. Both times the word "pastor/preacher" is used in scripture, it is used in the listing of offices that elders are called to. It was never understood to be a separate superior eschelon in the hierarchy of church government, i.e. deacons, elders, pastor on top. Pastors are not equivalent to Apostles. Therefore, it can't be interpreted as that in todays contextualization that Pastors are supreme to elders - that is 20th century western evolution. This, by the way, indicates a higher standard/position of elders, not less responsibility for pastors.

5. Contextualization of that application. If the specific principle cannot be contextualized, climb the principle ladder until you find a principle that can be contextualized.

ex. Paul says that women are not to speak in church. Obviously that principle taken literally today would be naive and ignorant (we know that there were women teaching in their own house churches - not as elders though); so go up the principle ladder until something makes sense. The principle that we probably arrive at is the principle of propriety in worship through the interaction of the members whether it be emotional, social, mental, or spiritual.

Hope that serves in a meaningful way that promotes more edification.

With you for His glory

How Do I Study The Bible Part 3

Well, Today I want to quickly address "Theme". Remmeber, if you want a more robust scholarly approach to Bible Study, please read my post titled, "5 Steps for Real Bible Study" posted July 5. These several posts on "How Do I Study the Bible?" are intended for those who want to study the Bible responsibly, but are limited in their resources and time, and are supplemented by sitting under good Bible Teaching elsewhere.

In Part 1 and 2, I suggested that the two most important aspects of reading the Bible are to know your own Worldview of the Scriptures, and to know the "who's" involved. Today, I want to encourage you to think about theme.

Theme is what the big ideas are that are being talked about. there is usually one really big theme for a book and then lots of little themes running throughout. This makes it easier to interpret certain passages sometimes, and it also helps you memorize where certain portions of scripture are located. For example, probably the biggest theme in the Gospel of Mark is that Jesus was a suffering servant. In the Gospel of Matthew however, the biggest theme is probably that of Jesus being the Messianic King. this might help you remember what book a certain story is in if it is talking about Jesus as Messiah or King as opposed to the Servant of all.

It alos helps though, when we study what the primary lesson truly is behind a text. If we know the "who" of the story, then we should ask, what is the point? The Theme will help us find that out. The great thing about most Bibles nowadays is that they help us with little book and chapter introductions and footnotes to help us distinguish these things. If we pay attention to these three big ideas, we can have a pretty productive personal Bible Study.

I'm keeping this kind of short tonight, so I can spend some time with my family (I write the night before the post occurs). If you have any questions or comments or if you would like to add another consideration, please post it. My policy is transparency with the posts, If you post something, it will appear. Hope to hear from you soon.

God Bless.

With you for His glory

How Do I Study The Bible Part 2

Studying the Bible. What does that mean? Some people sit around in a small group and read a portion of Scripture and then ask each other what they think of that portion of Scripture. Does that Sound like Bible Study? Or how about this? A group of people get together and read a Bible story out of a book about Bible Stories, and then proceed to discuss the spiritual insights given by the author of that book. Without ever actually opening the Bible, they complete their "Bible" "study". Notice that both words are in quotes because both words, in this instance, are ill-represented.

God's Word is a very precious and Holy gift. Think about that. If we truly want to understand Gods will for our lives; if we want to be drawn closer into fellowship with Christ Himself; if we truly want to experience the regenerated life of the sanctification journey, then we need to approach the living, active Word of God with a little more respect than we would a book club. This is meant to encourage growth, not demean and shame you. If you are reading this, then I'm assuming this is your desire in the first place, but for the sake of understanding where we begin, articulation of vague presuppositions is important. It's good to know why we do what we do.

Well, yesterday, I wrote about the worldview you approach Scripture with regarding Scripture. In other words, what do believe is the point of Scripture. This "lens" will filter everything you read in Scripture, so it really is of paramount importance. Now I can't claim to be an expert on Divinely inspired text (because I haven't had secret council with God), so I can only offer my best seminary-educated opinion. Some will disagree with me, but the point is, you need to know what you believe so that you can somehow guard against "study" that really flies in the face of true Biblical guidance.

Look at yesterdays post to see what I think God's main agenda is in giving us the Bible. That is where I start from.

Today, I give you what I believe to be the second most important Study tool for the lay disciple with simply their Bible, and maybe some friends. One of the most important questions you can ask and answer with simply your Bible in hand is, "who is the text written to?" Sounds simple doesn't it? You won't believe the problems this has caused in history by people who simply don't pay attention to the whole story.

Remember, most of the Old Testament was written specifically for the Jewish Nation (Israel) to have as a guiding and empowering moral, historical and litigious reference. Most of the New Testament is written specifically to the Church. Even the books named Timothy and Titus were most likely written to the entire local church in order to establish authority for the person it was titled to. It makes a big difference at times to realize that a particular command in scripture was given to a group of people rather than a single person, or that a particular command or rebuke is written to Christians and not unbelievers. Be aware of this.

Secondly, but along the same lines, it is important to understand, when reading a story, who is being addressed. Is the passage of Scripture you are reading a story that Jesus is telling in response to the Pharisees or is it to the inner 12 disciples. The point of the story would be very different depending on who the audience in the story is.

So ask the questions, "Who is this written to?", and "Who is the audience in the story that would be listening to this and receiving the point of the story or communication?" Check it out. Open your Bible tonight and start reading. Then ask yourself these questions and find the answer. It may make a significant difference in your "Bible Study".

Tomorrow, we'll talk about "themes", and why this is second instead of first. Hope this is helpful or at least a launch pad. Let me know if you have thoughts you would like to share.

With You for His glory

How Do I Study The Bible

This is a great Question. The Bible is simple, but it is complex. It is literature, yet it is the Living Word of God. What do you do with that?

Well, if you are serious about getting the most out of studying the Bible, then I have posted another post, with a list of five principles for a more scholastic study; or an approach more suitable for those who will be teaching it to others. There is no definitive approach, but the one I'll offer is adequate for being a God-fearing steward of God's Word.

But what about the rest of us? What about those who simply want to study the Bible for themselves? Well, over the next several days, I will give you several principles that will help you study the Bible while meeting two criteria:

#1 It will help you understand what any portion of Scripture is saying , and what it is not saying.

#2 It will not allow you to become arrogant, thinking you have sufficiently plumbed the exhaustive depths of God's truth.

In other words, intimacy with respect.

If all you have is a Bible (and maybe some friends), the most important thing you need to approach Bible study with is a defined worldview. This means, you need to decide first and foremost what you believe Scripture to be for. For example, if you think the Bible is primarily a resource book from God which provides answers to every life problem you have, then the Bible becomes a tool for crisis management and that is how people read it. It doesn't really apply to the small items of every day life and emotion, just problems.

If you perceive the Bible to be a love story to people showing How God loved people from beginning to end, then your view of the Bible will be one in which man is the central character of Scripture and his well-being is the ultimate objective of God's plan. These are both worldviews. People read anything based on the expectations they have of it. They translate what they read through their worldview. In other words, if I open the Bible and read about a conflict and resolution in the life of a person, depending on my worldview, I will unconsciously inject the supposed moral or lesson of the story. It may make complete sense according to my worldview, but it may be the entirely wrong moral intended by the author of Scripture. Let me give you two classic examples.

The first is the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15. If your worldview is that the Bible is primarily about God's love for people, then you would tend to ignore the rest of the scripture around the prodigal son story and take the lesson to be that God always takes back a wandering sinner (or something like that). But if we just read a little further ahead, we see that the story really isn't about the prodigal son at all, but about the hardened pharisees who ask Jesus why He is eating with "sinners". The other lesson is nice, but if we only get the nice stuff we want from Scripture without the other stuff that God wants us to get primarily, then we aren't really encountering Christ in the Scriptures. Think about that statement because it is very serious.

A second classic example is St, Augustines allegorical interpretation of the Good Samaritan story found in Luke 10. The following is a piece of that explanation based on the worldview that parables were moral allegories.

" The man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is paradise, and Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers. The priest is the Law, the Levite is the prophets, and the Samaritan is Christ. The wounds are disobedience, the beast is the Lord's body, the pandochium (that is, the stable inn), which accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church. And further, the two denarii mean the Father and the Son. The manager of the stable is the head of the Church, to whom its care has been..."

Now, that all sounds nice, but the parable is not a metanarrative (encompassing the entire gospel story) moral allegory, it is an answer to a direct question of neighborliness. Do you see how a worldview can really make a difference in translation?

I am going to give you my worldview of what the main agenda of Scripture is and then I will continue this discussion tomorrow.

I believe the main agenda of Scripture is God revealing His sovereignty and glory. That's it. Everything in scripture is about this element. Jesus' incarnation is about the pure revelation of God's revelation. The redemption is about the ultimate glorification of God and saving man to that end. The Psalms are responses to God's sovereignty out of every life situation we can imagine. Etc, etc. etc.

Start with your worldview. I obviously think mine is correct, but feel free to offer insight or critique it with respect and humility. I welcome your thoughts.

Now for those who wanted more, I have provided a second Post.

With you for His glory