The Bible Archive

I’ve tried to highlight certain assumptions: (1) the Church is made up of people; (2)that the Church could only come about after certain historical requirements were in place; and (3) that the Church’s leadership  is divine (in other words: God is the church’s leader). Following those assumptions (and an unmentioned fourth) I progressed to highlighting the Goal of the Church summed up in glorifying God by glorifying Christ. Such a broad definition leaves the most vague of us floating helplessly through a foamy sky of ambiguous vapor. Therefore, I want to spend some time looking at how that purpose is evidenced by the overarching Work of the Church.

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Tags: New Testament, redemptive history, the gospel, the holy spirit
Posted in christ, church, israel, spirit | Comments (0)

With the tri-fold assumptions in place: (1) the Church is made up of people; (2)that the Church could only come about after certain historical requirements were in place; and (3) that the Church’s leadership  is divine (in other words: God is the church’s leader), we can safely move on to the purpose, or goal, of the Church. An ambitious goal for one post but that’s what you can expect from a probable-heretic.

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Tags: new testament church
Posted in church, israel, study | Comments (0)

Why even have assumptions anyway? I mean, why can’t I simply study The Church without any assumptions whatsoever, like a theological tabula rasa?

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Tags: assumptions, logic, new testament church
Posted in Uncategorized, church, study | Comments (2)

Congregational and Bible Churches have long raised a banner that lays claim to New Testament Principles. Disagreeing vehemently with their banners, hierarchal churches within the single pastor systems have taken to questioning Congregational reasoning and shaken sympathetic pastoral heads. Over all this the Roman Catholic Church has pointed to the shaky claims of the entire Protestant movement, stuck its thumbs in its theological breeches and scoffed. But I have to ask: who is right? What does a church established on New Testament principles actually look like?
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Tags: church, New Testament, pastors, Plymouth Brethren
Posted in brethren, church | Comments (2)

In Politics, certain subjects took on a political endangering quality. Social Security has been labeled the Third Rail of American Politics specifically because it’s so charged and touching it meant death for a person’s political career. In the same way certain subjects do the same for professional careers, conversations and churches. For churches in particular, the third rail is Music: time for me to waltz on it.

You go into any Church during their service, listen to the music and note your first reaction. I don’t mean the piety of your reaction, like the part that you say “Praise God!” I mean the part of your reaction where you decide that the specific sound you’re hearing is a Good Expression of True Worship.  That reaction will clue you in on what you’re approach to music in church is.

Is there a right approach to music or is it just a matter of taste? Does Music have a place in Christian worship or is it more a distraction that what it’s worth?

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Tags: church, contemporary, music, praise
Posted in church, history, worship | Comments (0)

In D.C, a small choral group got together to practice. They were classically trained voice musicians excelling in chamber music and using this to minister to churches up and down the East coast. One young man in particular was exceptional in the group because of his perfect (or absolute) pitch; and yet this young man had to lower the volume of his voice when he sang.

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Tags: corporate theology, individualism, perfect pitch, relative pitch, theology
Posted in church, human, religion | Comments (0)

The argument goes something like this: The Bible says that where two or three are gathered there is Jesus in the midst of them (Matt 18:20). That indicates that a gathering of two or three includes the very important presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. People wear their best clothes when they meet someone Important (like if one had a meeting with the President). This indicates that the esteem put on the person justifies the better clothing. Christ is more Important than anyone and to be greater esteemed. Therefore, when going to any meeting of the church a person should wear their best clothes.

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Posted in apologetics, brethren, church | Comments (1)

My buddy-blogger Darrell first scored Amillenial on the Eschatology quiz and then took dispensationalism to town citing some problems inherent in the system and some really bad press due to overzealous Left Behind Series theologians. Darrell rightly points out that taken to its extremes dispensationalism can become a sort of mythology which allows non-Christians to dismiss Christianity as a Sci-Fi Cult…a point which gave me pause.

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Posted in apologetics, church, eschatology | Comments (0)

It was tough answering these questions because of the way they were phrased. (HT: Jeremy)

Posted in church, dispensationalism, eschatology, israel, metas & memes, personal | Comments (0)

What sort of teacher am I? Every now and then I get in a black funk where I start reexamining my motives or questioning any gift the Lord has granted or checking the barometric pressure of my big head and I sit off to the side, somberly reflecting. Maybe its that I’m tired (two kids plus one newborn can do that) or maybe its that I’m in a new area where my ministry has changed from working with urban minority teens and college age folk to working mostly with rural, white over-sixty year olds that’s causing this reflection. I don’t know what’s causing it but this time I decided to write it down.

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Posted in acts, church, human, personal, religion, rey's a point, study | Comments (0)

RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH (highlight mine though it impacts little with what Protestants believe anyway)

Introduction
The Second Vatican Council, with its Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, and its Decrees on Ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio) and the Oriental Churches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum), has contributed in a decisive way to the renewal of Catholic ecclesiolgy. The Supreme Pontiffs have also contributed to this renewal by offering their own insights and orientations for praxis: Paul VI in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam suam (1964) and John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint (1995).

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Posted in church, current affairs | Comments (3)

This measure of our object of faith finds its power in the fact of the gospel. Christ became a servant in that Gospel so now, as a new humanity with new life, we can be proper God honoring servants. On behalf of God’s truth, Christ become a servant to those of the circumcision to authenticate and make real all of the promises given to the Jewish forefathers so therefore a Gentile believer can be a servant to those of the circumcision on behalf of God’s truth as well. Here’s how.

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Posted in acts, church, dispensationalism, israel, romans, salvation | Comments (0)

So continuing this thought of using our measure of faith with those believers who are “weak in faith” we must carefully note how Paul carries out his discussion for there we see how Paul himself defines weakness in faith.

Remember, we’re not saying that the person has less appreciation for their object of Faith (which is God) or that they are unsure of where they stand (which is God’s mercy). This is not a black or white concern where the person is doubting something that is foundational (like the fact that we are justified by God through faith). Rather this weakness is on the person’s own stance (not the ground on which they stand). In other words, it’s on the actions or thought-constructs which they see as God honoring.
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The Measure of Faith comes to work in this concept of the “weaker in faith” and the “stronger in faith”. Now here I’ll have to do some preliminary defense of my previous (and continued) position on the measure of faith. For in the sense that some people take it (this person has more God-give-faith-power and this person has less God-given-faith-power thus I have more God-given-faith-power then X or less then Y) it starts bolstering ourselves in an area that Paul says to think soberly about. But the fact is we really don’t know the faith in another person: that’s an impossibility. All we know is the actions of another person.

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Posted in acts, church, romans | Comments (0)

The Measure of Faith comes to the aid in our daily lives under the governing bodies as well. For if our object of faith took advantage of the ruling powers and orchestrated events so that through them the Gospel actually was brought into effect then there is no reason why a Christian should be raising his fists against those governing bodies. If anything the Christian should know, with a definite assurance who exactly is in control of those ruling bodies.

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