The Bible Archive

Someone, either Billy Graham or John MacArthur (can’t remember which) said that “we’ve all milked from the Plymouth Brethren Cow”. Too often people raise the banner of the Plymouth Brethren as a byword to be hissed at because of the damage that has been or is being done (ie: Aleister Crowly, Brian Mclaren, pop-Left-Behindism, etc.). Anyway, I wanted to underline the rich culture found in the Brethren Movement and the way it has benefited the corporate Body of Christ to try to regain some balance. The Brethren Movement was sort of like the Emergents, it wasn’t defined by any denomination and it spread from the ground up. But in stark contrast, the Plymouth Brethren was a Back to the Gospel movement focused on the truth of the Gospel by studying the Bible, adherence to the Lord’s Supper, and preaching the Word to as many as possible. The Movement in English speaking countries has greatly diminished although places like India have seen tremendous growth.

What I’ll do for these features is quote Wikipedia or something similar and link to some good reading, either about them or by them..

Today’s feature: F.F.Bruce. Yeah, He was one of us.

John 8 is often used as an example of people who profess belief but never really believed, I want to look at it as it stands: people who believe who refuse to be disciples. Now disciple is one of those archaic words that have religious overtones making it almost incomprehensible in modern day discussion. When dropped in conversation it automatically evokes images of a Jedi-like figure, hooded and dust-covered or of one of Christ’s Dozen. But “disciple” simply means someone who follows and molds their lives from the teachings of their teacher: a student.

Why is it that the strong can prey on the weak and the rich can grow fat off the poverty-stricken while these can do nothing but pay alms to their better offs by sweating their last remaining strength and their enemies stand? Why is it that one can sing songs and pray prayers while remaining aloof in their thoughts and their actions are drenched in violence, with lofty words in their prayers and a loud tune on their lips?How is it possible that a man can live while constantly wrestling with the man he lives with? Why is it necessary for a man to struggle all of his days with himself. Consider it.

There is no goodness within me, my body wastes away, my mind melts within me: the man I am betrays me.

But Lord God, you are faithfully loving and you have formed me; even in my weakness, your thoughts dwell upon me: the man you wish me to be is ever before you.

The battle is fierce but you are a near help in times of trouble. This constant wrestling is dire but you live with the man who carries on. The songs are lofty and the prayers are prayed yet you will rise and take action: you will purge one of violence, of loftiness, of prideful sin.

The enemy will not stand and the poor will be made strong for you are a helper in time of need: You are good and you have plan for the man you wish him to be. We will consider it.

Inspired by Lingamish’s Cyber-Psalms

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.

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.

Evolution is a funny word that gets bandied about. Saying it in different context evokes different responses, sometimes laughter and sometimes justified anger. In fact, I’ve been in conversations where a person is using evolution in one sense and me in a completely different sense and both of us have gotten riled up until we pinned down our terms.

This Measure of Faith also becomes useful in dealing with the enemies (be they Christian or Non) of a believer. For when a person understands that they were a God Hating Idolater for whom Christ died and God justified and promised to glorify then a believer can become an advertisement of mercy for anyone.

Death is humiliating. It doesn’t seem like that nowadays when we go to music-filled funeral halls in suits to gather around the dearly departed. There the person lays, sometimes wearing perfume for the first time ever, seemingly asleep and no odor escaping their preserved body. The perfectly ironed suit, the cushioned coffin, the gilded gold and the deep cherry wood—all of it looks rather royal, presidential even. But somebody else washed that corpse, carted it around, ensured that it wouldn’t stink then propped it up for people to see: humiliating.

Airing dirty laundry is pretty nasty when your neighbors peek out the back window and see the stains and filth. But, for our own purposes, it helps get rid of the stench and hopefully, puts the stuff to light to expose how bad the stains are. In our Christian home we extol the virtues of Martin Luther and gloss over some of the other stuff he’s done or said chalking it up to age or uninformed. Here’s a quote from Martin Luther’s book "On the Jews and Their Lies" or rather Von den Juden und ihren Lügen which is outright wrong in it’s approach to the Jews and completely antithetical to Paul’s thinking. Forgive me for posting it, but this is for my records. The full book is here.Remember I am QUOTING and I by no means agree with Luther on what’s below.

We’re considering God’s righteousness and seeing how it works with mercy specifically in the case of the Jews. Thus far Paul impressed on us his sorrow that the Jews are not presently believers of the revealed Christ. Paul has been showing us how important a people they truly are and has taken us through history showing how and why God’s Word of Promise was established. We saw how they were kept from Edom’s fate only by God’s mercy. Let’s look at this mercy.

These next few verses wind up being breeding ground for lots of
contention. Some have inappropriately used these verses to show that
Jacob was “saved” and Esau “damned to hell”. It seems to me that this
ignores Paul’s argument at this stage of his defense of the
righteousness of God: that being, God’s Word stands and now, why it
stands.

Every Halloween Christians argue about what they should do on Halloween (I dealt with that here). Every Christmas and Easter another group of Christians points out the pagan origins of those holidays and level a similar charge. But rarely has the same point been raised about Thanksgiving. “It’s a time to thank God for all He has done” are the usual words while any pagan relationship to the holiday is ignored. My main premise with this post is not to validate or deny the celebration of the day but rather to show how far spread certain practices and celebrations are across religions and how that’s not surprising in the least.

The Voice completely changed Noah’s life. One moment he’s heading to market the next God is telling him that everything is about to die.

“Sexual abuse is disgusting, but it’s not as harmful as the grievous mental harm of bringing children up Catholic in the first place.” I’ve copied the rest of the article below to save it in case it disappears. (Originally posted here and HT to Jeremy).

If there’s a blog there’s an opinion. If there’s
an opposing opinion there is an extreme. It’s the nature of blogging.
Extreme liberals versus Extreme Conservatives. Hyper Atheists versus
Biblical Extremists. It gets pretty darn annoying when those polar
opposites are so blind to everything else that they wind up being a
travesty of their position. One of these that come to the fore in my
immediate thinking because of their extreme irresponsibility are Family
Blogs.