I had a friend some time ago who loved to argue the Bible, and whenever we got to a certain point, he would say Well, the Bible says what it means and it means what …
Introduction to the New Testament #12
The Book of Acts sits in a pivotal position in the New Testament. The early Church fathers tended to speak of the New Testament in terms of Gospels and Epistles, but Acts fits in a …
Introduction to the New Testament #11
The Gospel according to John is a very special book. If you ask me to explain why, I would have a hard time telling you. It is the fourth Gospel, but some scholars think it …
Introduction to the New Testament #10
We take the reading of histories for granted, and it is hard to realize that most people haven’t got a clue what it takes to actually write a history. People call Herodotus the Father of …
Introduction to the New Testament #9
Among the earliest Christians, Mark did not command the attention of the Fathers. According to Everett Harrison, they placed Matthew and Luke in the most prominent positions. But Harrison also notes that in modern times …
Whatever Happened to the Bible?
When I was a lot younger, I was associated with a church that was, hands down, the most Bible-reading group of people I have ever known. With all of the faults of that generation and …
Introduction to the New Testament #8
When you pick up the Bible to begin reading the New Testament, you will commonly start with Matthew. It may come as a surprise to you to learn that the Gospel itself makes no claim …
Introduction to the New Testament #7
There is little to learn from the order in which the books of the New Testament are presented in the Bibles we have today. There is no evidence that there is an inspired order. And …
Introduction to the New Testament #6
The New Testament is really an amazing set of documents. It is only logical to ask how it got written in the first place. We have already talked about how it was transmitted to us, …
Introduction to the New Testament #5
The New Testament is really a miracle in every way. We now know that most of the books that form our New Testament were written in a short period between AD 50 and the destruction …
About the Old Testament
What did the First Christians believe about the Old Testament? I might as well have asked what they believed about the Bible because, as the faith developed, the Old Testament was all the written word …
Introduction to the New Testament #4
When you think about it, it is a logical question. Why didn’t Jesus write his own book? For that matter, why didn’t an angel hand the prophets a golden plate with prophecies written by the …
Introduction to the New Testament #3
It is of some interest that the New Testament church soldiered on for some 20 years before anyone wrote down anything that has remained for us to look at. (The fact that transitory papyrus was …
Introduction to the New Testament #2
When you sit down to read the New Testament, you encounter a strange cast of characters. I say strange—but only strange to us. The New Testament writers didn’t bother to explain, because all these characters …
Introduction to the New Testament #1
Imagine that you are in a room, all by yourself. No one else is there. No one else is supposed to be there. You are in the process of carrying out a rather simple task, …
How to Read the Bible
I forget where I first saw the book title, How to Read the Bible, but I recall a certain, what shall we say, amusement. I thought, Find a comfortable chair, open the book and read. …
About the Jewish Sabbath #3
You know, it isn’t generally realized that even the non-Jews among the First Christians were already God-fearers and Sabbath keepers before their conversion to Christ. They had come to understand the God of the Bible, …
About the Jewish Sabbath #2
What did the First Christians believe about the Sabbath day? Did the first Gentile Christians see this important issue differently from the Jewish Christians of that era? An unusual group of Christians developed quite early …
About the Jewish Sabbath #1
What did the First Christians believe about the Jewish Sabbath day? Now, when I speak of the First Christians, I’m talking about those Christians who were alive and working while the New Testament was being …
The Mysteries of God
Why is God so mysterious? Why all the mumbo-jumbo about religion? Why doesn’t God just speak plainly to man and tell us what he wants? I think that is a fair question. So does God. …