The OT is Not On Par With Jesus

"The Old Testament is not on par with Jesus. The Bible is not a flat text where every passage carries the same weight. This is why Jesus says, “You have heard it said, but I say to you…” 

... 

Wars of conquest, violent retribution, the institution of slavery, and women held as property are all “Biblical.” But when placed in the light of Tabor they must be renounced." 

- Brian Zahnd

Read more: Jesus Is What God Has To Say

Sola Scriptura and Following the Lord

"What would Sola Scriptura have meant in the early church? Nothing. 

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What would Sola Scriptura have meant from 250AD to 1600AD? Nothing. The Scriptures were kept from the “laity” and were exclusively in the hands of the “clergy.” 

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From an empirical standpoint, Sola Scriptura has had little force or usefulness. Since 1500 church leaders and “lay” people — even many cults — have exclaimed “Sola Scriptura.” Yet, what have we ended up with? There are 25,000 denominations, a gezillion dogmatic and contradictory interpretations of the Bible, and endless strife about which group is closest to the truth. All of this and more has happened while everyone involved has cried out, “We practice Sola Scriptura — we go by the Bible alone — if the Bible says something, that settles it for us.” It is clear that at the end of the day Sola Scriptura falls from the lips of many, but really accomplishes nothing practical for the ongoing problems facing the body of Christ." 

- Jon Zens

Read more: Sola Scriptura: Does Following the Bible Equal Following The Lord?

Daniel Wallace's Response to Kurt Eichenwald

"A true liberal is one who is open to all the evidence, including the possibility that God has invaded space-time history in the person of Jesus Christ. A true liberal is one who is willing to go where the evidence leads, even if it contradicts his or her cherished beliefs.” 

- from Daniel Wallace’s critique of Kurt Eichenwald’s piece in Newsweek

Read more.

6 Ways You May Be Incorrectly Reading Your Bible

6 Ways You May Be Incorrectly Reading Your Bible, by Phil Drysdale

"Same Bible. One subject. Several perspectives."

"Same Bible. One subject. Several perspectives."

Read more: 5 Things I Wish Christians Would Admit About the Bible, by John Pavlovitz

The Bible was 'clear'...

A good reminder, by Rachel Held Evans, to bookmark and revisit, whenever we feel tempted to declare that the Bible is “clear” about issues and topics, that (surprise!) coincidentally reflect our views.

The Bible was 'clear'...

5 Churchy Phrases That Are Scaring Off Millennials

Quotes from the article, by Addie Zierman: 

"We don’t want to hustle to prove our faith; we don’t want to pretend. We want to be accepted, not analyzed." 

... 

"You’ve heard us say that we like Jesus but not the church, and it’s not because we’re trying to be difficult. It’s because the Jesus we read about enters into the pain of humanity where so often the church people seem to want to float above it."

Read more, here. 

Interpretation, the Lens.

This cartoon has to be one of my favorite works from David Hayward.

"Truth" is subject to the lens of one's interpretation.



Related post: The Elephant and the Four Blind Men

"Bible Based" Church

"My church was a building where everyone would come to once a week to worship God – just like the Temple in the Bible.

I encouraged everyone it was God’s will that they bring their tithe to this building – just like the Temple in the Bible.

I organised musical worship, that placed God high up in heaven and the rest of us far away on earth – we were always ‘reaching up to him’ – just like the Temple in the Bible."

Read the rest of the story by Joey Dazzler at http://mickmooney.com/bible-based-church/

What we believe about the Bible

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means." 

- George Bernard Shaw

Truth vs Interpretation

The Bible is an ocean that cannot be limited by one interpretation. When we think we have the handle on the truth, what's usually happening is that we are merely backing one interpretation of the truth.

The Christian world is littered with interpretations. The last I checked, there are close to 40,000 Christian denominations. 40,000 groups saying, "I'm right". And each one of them base their positions from the same manuscript.

Interpretations are often mistaken for the truth. Yes, there may be nuggets of truth in them, but, in my view, it can never be the complete picture. God will never be contained in our favorite doctrinal bowl. We won't see the full spectrum until we cross over.

Clarity

I like clarity. Instead of blindly accepting the commonly accepted interpretations, it is nice to see what the written texts actually mean. I have several versions of the Bible, and each I time I purchased a version, it was to get a better clarity on the written text. But unless I am well versed in Hebrew and Greek (which I am not), my understanding would be limited.  The other day, I "stumbled upon" the Strong's Concordance. There was a time when I used to think Strong's Concordance was for the "theologian" types. But a quick thumb through showed me that it is an invaluable tool. I repeat, a tool. The revelation comes from the Holy Spirit; not from a book, a particular version or a language.

Here is the link to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance online. I have also added the link under 'Scripture Resources' on the right column of this blog.

The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Red-Letter Edition) [Hardcover] can be purchased from this link (Amazon Affiliate*). 

* When you use the link above, you will be purchasing the book directly from Amazon and I get a small % of the sale. Amazon is responsible for the shipping and handling of the book. 100% of the cut that I receive from Amazon from the sale of Christian materials are sowed to the organizations that ministers the unconditional Love and the Grace of God in and through Christ Jesus.

Bibles Unbound

In many countries, we have the luxury to debate on the different versions of the Bible, but that is not the case everywhere.

Visit BiblesUnbound.com, a ministry of Voice of the Martyrs, and see how you can can send a Bible to someone who desperately wants one!