Loving The Black Letters of the Bible Too

Matt Smethurst:

With the way some Christians talk, you might be forgiven for wondering why the canon includes more than four books. Sure, the Old Testament is useful in tracing the development of human reflection on the divine, and the New Testament in conveying the thoughts of some of Jesus' earliest followers. But if you really want to know what God thinks about something, you hear today, you'll need consult the recorded thoughts of Jesus. And if you want to do that, you'll need to stick to the "red letters." In other words, flip to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John (or that less traversed terrain, Revelation 2-3) and stay put.

To be sure, I understand the impulse. It makes some sense in light of the differences between the sinless Son of God (on display in the Gospels) and the bona fide sinners who penned most of the rest of New Testament (unbelieving James and Jude, denying Peter, blaspheming Paul, and so on). Dubious résumés, to say the least.

Nevertheless, Christians have always recognized the God-breathed character of their words. The miracle of inspiration means the whole Bible is the voice of God. While central and foundational, the fourfold Gospel witness is no more true or reliable or relevant or binding than the black letters that precede and follow. Indeed, when we treat the red letters more seriously than the black ones, we muzzle the Son who speaks in all of them.

Read the rest.

The Danger of Forgetting How To Read The Bible

Dan Doriani: 

In the past month, I learned that two more Christian leaders whom I know have either tarnished or destroyed their ministries. Neither was a friend, in the full sense, yet I've been friendly with both men and respected their talents and the fruit of their labors.

Once again, I wonder: How could a man who studied and knew Scripture and taught it faithfully to others, brazenly violate its most basic principle of love and self-control?  

Even as I ask the question, I know I'm liable to self-destructive sin too. Everyone needs Paul's admonition: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted" (Gal. 6:1). Self-aware leaders know that we can violate principles we thought we knew. 

But how can we repent quickly and keep from hardening ourselves to God's voice as he calls us back to himself? 

Read the rest.  

Books by Dan Doriani.  

Some Transparent Honesty from Richard Dawkins!

STR.org:

A reaction of “Tell us what you really think, Dr. Dawkins” in response to his famous quote about the character of God (see below) turns out to not be as rhetorical as one might think. Dawkins clarified his position a bit on a recent episode of the Unbelievable? podcast in the midst of his conversation with a rabbi and a Christian:

JUSTIN BRIERLEY (host): “The God of the Old Testament,” you said, “is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”…. Do you still stand by that description of the God of the Old Testament? 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yes, I do…. 

RABBI JOSH LEVY: There is also a deeply, deeply ethical God, who 3,000 years ago is saying to the Israelites, “You have to care about the vulnerable in your society. You have to do your business honestly. You have to look after your workers. You have to care about the immigrant who comes into your society.” So to only describe the God of the Old Testament in that way, I think, is actually just simplistic and doesn’t help us to really engage with the Old Testament as a whole. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yeah, I accept that, of course. It was a passage that was semi-tongue-in-cheek actually, because, well, when I do public readings of my books, I do it with my wife, and we usually try to get a laugh from the audience early on in our performance because it sort of lightens up the atmosphere. And that passage, we always used when doing The God Delusion readings right at the beginning, because it does get the audience roaring with laughter…. So it was a sort of humorous passage, and I do accept that if you look through either the Old Testament or the New Testament, you can certainly find passages of wisdom, passages that one would ethically approve of tucked in amongst the others that one wouldn’t ethically approve of…. 

CHRIS SINKINSON: The problem, though, I think…is that, Richard, you are very good with rhetoric. You have a very powerful mastery of the English language, and that rhetoric can be very bullying sometimes. And…in terms of the passage, it’s clearly a very slanted view of how to read the text of the Old Testament. Most of us would take the clearer passages to interpret the harder passages. We would be talking about Leviticus 19—“love your neighbor as yourself”—before we’re looking at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, we would have an approach to Scripture that would weight things in such a way that that description of God just does not sound like the God who I believe in, or the God who I worship. So the rhetoric, I think, can generate a lot more heat than it does light. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: That’s probably fair, yes.

A Missional Community Primer

Helpful stuff from Jonathan Dodson:

Over the past five years we’ve trained, failed, and multiplied a lot of missional communities. Several years ago we moved to a more formal training (and re-training) process to set and reset the identity and commitments for each missional community. We found this is important because it’s human nature to drift from your values and commitments. 

A group may start off with bold aims for engaging non-Christians with gospel hope, showing mercy to their city, and being a “family”  not meeting. When we set out with these aims, we’re driving upstream, against our self-centered, cliquish cultural current. However, everyone experiences mission and community drift. In order to remain focused and stay behind Jesus, not cultural currents, we need reminders, guides, and communally formed commitments. This is why we created a Missional Community Primer.

• Every missional community goes through the Primer at the beginning of the year.

• The process is very conversational, with the aim of applying our core values into clear, firm commitments

• We conclude the process by drawing up a Missional Commitment that everyone agrees on

• We occasionally pull it out through the year to celebrate, repent, or redirect.

Feel free to check it out, copy it, download it, improve upon it, or whatever you like (just include a link back or footnote for folks to find it).

Reading the Bible Like Jesus

Great post here from Thabiti Anaybwile.

A Great Bible Reading Plan for 2014

Tim Chester:

I’ve posted this Bible reading plan before. We use it in The Crowded House Sheffield. If you’ve been using it then you’ll be interested in this postcard-sized version of the plan for 2014. If you’re not reading through the Bible then the approach of the new year is a good time to review your Bible reading habits. Here are a couple of old posts on why that would be a good idea – Hearing God Speak and Must I Read My Bible Every Day?This plan has a number of differences from other plans. 

1. Flexibility - The plan specifies a number of chapters for each week rather than for each day. This makes it more flexible. You can read a chapter or two each day or you can read it in two or three sittings. Or you can set out reading a chapter a day and then catch up at the weekend. It means it fits more readily around people’s lifestyle. 

2. Communal - It is designed to be followed with a partner or among a group of people. There is only one section each week (occasionally two shorter books). So you don’t have to read a section from one book and then a section from another book each day. It means the sections are somewhat uneven, but it makes it easy to discuss what you have been reading when you meet up with other people. 

We’ve been using it for a year now and it works very well in this way. I meet up with a friend each week for lunch. It’s easy for us to discuss what we’ve been reading because there is only one Bible book to focus on. 

It also means I only need look at the Bible plan once a week – I don’t need to refer to it each day. 

3. Realistic - Following this plan you read the OT in three years and the NT twice in three years. This works out at about nine chapters a week. It means you are not rushing through what you are reading to ‘get it done’. I’ve found with other plans I tend to read it with my mind disengaged. This plan gives time to meditate on the passage. 

There is also a version in the document in which you cover the OT once and the NT twice in two years = about 16 chapters a week. 

4. Balanced - The plan balances OT history, prophecy, wisdom, Gospel and Epistles throughout the year. You move between genres so you’re never faced with reading OT prophecy continuously for six months. 

Here’s the complete three year plan and here’s this postcard-sized version of the plan for 2014.

Books by Tim Chester:

• You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions
• Closing the Window: Steps to Living Porn Free
• A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table (RE: Lit) 
• Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Re:Lit)
• Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission (Re: Lit Books)

Special Reading Glasses

(HT: adam4d.com)

Reflecting on a Challenging OT Passage

R.C. Sproul Jr.:

Among the countless nuggets of wisdom I have received over the years from my father is this bit of gold- when you are reading your Bible and you come across something that makes you uncomfortable, resist the temptation to simply move on to something else. Where the Bible makes us uncomfortable is precisely where we need to slow down. It is compelling evidence of a specific weakness. When our thoughts or feelings bristle under God’s Word, He is right and we wrong. 

That said, it is understandable that so many would recoil from God’s command that every living person in Canaan would be put to death as His people conquer the land. No mercy for those women and children, no compassion on the aged, God’s instructions were as clear as they were brutal. 

Many outside the faith have planted their flag here, arguing that our God is immoral, monstrous. Many on the fringes of the faith perform sundry exegetical gymnastics to wiggle out from under the account. Many faithful believers are simply puzzled and embarrassed. The God we worship, however, the true and living God, did in fact give this command, and rightly so. If we would rightly worship Him, even here we would praise His name. 

There are at least two reasons why God did this. 

Read the rest.

LOGOS Bible Software - I'm a Fan

I use LOGOS all the time for my sermon prep. I love having the ability to work anywhere I want and only have to bring my laptop.  It's extremely handy.  I know I am only scratching the surface in terms of what it can do for me but I look forward to learning more and more about it in the future.

Recently LOGOS released a new resource that I have found quite useful.  It's the 300 Quotations for Preachers series.  Easily searchable and chalked full of helpful sound bytes from 2,000 years of church history.  I especially enjoy the Puritan and Reformed collections.

For example I recently did a quick search on pride and free will from the modern church collection and found this gem:

A man’s free will cannot cure him even of the toothache, or of a sore finger; and yet he madly thinks it is in its power to cure his soul. The greatest judgment which God himself can in the present life inflict upon a man, is to leave him in the hand of his own boasted free will. 

- AUGUSTUS M. TOPLADY 

I would highly recommend LOGOS 5 for anyone serious about studying the Bible and be sure to get the 300 quotations add-on if you are preaching or teaching.

"Sometimes our systematic theology kills us."

Stephen Altrogge:

Now, before you pick up your massive, “don’t carry it in a backpack cuz’ it will throw you out of alignment”, copy of Systematic Theology, and prepare to give me a systematic, theologically corrective beatdown, let me explain.

Systematic theology is the process of bringing together all the Bible says about a certain subject. To do a systematic theology study of prayer is to take all the scriptures in the Old Testament and New Testament that relate to prayer, study them, interweave them with one another, and come to a solid, well-balanced conclusion regarding biblical prayer. I’m all for systematic theology. The Bible should always interpret the Bible. Clear passages should interpret unclear passages. Etcetera and so on. Huzzah for systematic theology.

But…sometimes we can be too quick to pull the trigger on systematic theology. We become Bible gun slingers. We let our knowledge of the whole Bible mess with our heads. I know I sound like a semi-heretical lunatic, but trust me, I’m going somewhere with this.

For example, in Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus tells his disciples:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

This passage has wonderfully sharp edges. Jesus doesn’t give any qualifiers. He simply says ask, seek, knock, and you WILL receive. We are evil and we know how to give good gifts, how much more does God know how to give good gifts? This is a big, powerful, faith-fueling passage. Jesus intends us to pray big, hairy, audacious prayers. He wants us to pray them again and again, without giving up and with increasing earnestness.

The problem is, I often let my systematic theology rub the sharp edges off Jesus’ words. When I read this passage I think, Jesus doesn’t really mean what he says. Our prayers have to be in line with God’s will. And we can’t ask out of selfishness. And sometimes God’s answer is ‘no’. I don’t always know what’s best for me, but God does.

Yes, yes, all those things are true. But do you see what happens when I move too quickly from the single passage to all that the Bible says about prayer? Jesus’ words lose their power and punch. The sharp, soul-cutting edges get worn down into harmless nubs. Jesus spoke these words in order to inspire me to ask great, earth-changing things of God. Jesus was well aware of the fact that there will be times when my prayers won’t line up with God’s will. He knew that there will be times when I ask out of selfishness. But he doesn’t qualify his words. He simply tells me to ask, seek, and knock until the door is opened. He tells me to beat on the door of heaven until my knuckles are bloody.

Should we study systematic theology? Of course! It’s invaluable. But when reading God’s word, let each passage speak for itself first. Let it cut you and heal you, bind you and break you. Each word of scripture is sacred, and was written for a very specific reason. Don’t let your overall knowledge of God’s word dull the power of specific passages.

Read the rest.

That's Just Your Interpretation!

Alan Shlemon interacts with this recent article from the Huffington Post.


Some good resources on the interpretation of scripture:

• Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible 
• How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth 
• Let the Reader Understand: A Guide to Interpreting and Applying the Bible

Finding a Book To Help You Know What You Are Reading

Many people are gearing up to read the Bible through the year in 2013.  As you do, it might be good have a book to accompany you to help you understand.   Trent Hunter provides some good suggestions.

How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour, Gordon Fee, Douglas Stuart

For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, Volume 1 , D. A. Carson

For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word, Volume 2 , D. A. Carson

According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, Graeme Goldsworthy

God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, Vaughn Roberts

The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story, D. A. Carson

The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made, Mark Dever

The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept, Mark Dever

The ESV Study Bible

Don't Believe The Newsweek Hype About Jesus

Melinda at STR.org writes:

Bart Ehrman wrote the cover story in this week's Newsweek magazine.  It's classic Ehrman, raising points that many Christians and non-Christians may not be familiar with, suggesting there is a problem that calls into question the historical reliability of the biblical text, and failing to mention that these are long-recognized observations that have straightforward answers.

Ehrman opens his article mentioning the Coptic fragment revealed this past Fall that mentions Jesus' wife.  (You can read about it here and here.)  He uses its mere existence (not its authority) to point out that there are a variety of extra-biblical documents that give information missing from or contradictory to the Bible.  Many of these have been known since the early centuries of the church.  None date as early as the Gospels.  None can be traced to an eyewitness.  The church knew this and rejected them as non-authoritative for those reasons.  So what?  Ehrman hopes to sow the seeds of doubt with old news.

As Michael Kruger documents in his excellent books and blog, none of these alternative accounts dates earlier than the late second century.  Most are later than that, far removed from Jesus' time and the writing of the authoritative Gospels. (You can find radio interviewswith Kruger on April 10, 2011, and July 25 2010.) 

Ehrman also cites the differences in Matthew's and Luke's genealogies of Jesus, calling them "apparent contradictions."  But he doesn't indicate that there is a pretty simple explanation for this and it isn't a contradiction.  They are easily reconcilable differences, not "discrepancies" and "contradictions."  Matthew and Luke are citing different lines of Jesus' ancestry because they were writing to different audiences for different purposes.  You can read an excellent explanation here.

Ehrman also talks about the features of the Nativity story we all think we know that aren't mentioned in the Gospels.  Once again, so what?  Many times, questions about the Bible can be resolved simply by reading what the text actually says, rather than believing what we think it says.  An example of this Ehrman raises is the birth account in Luke and supposed historical problems with it.  I've got a post about that tomorrow.

Here's a Solid Ground Greg wrote a couple of years ago about the misinformation Ehrman has given on the historical reliability of the New Testament.

This is a good site providing answers to Ehrman's mistaken claims.

How Do We Read or Preach a Text Like Psalm 15 in a Gospel Way?

Dane Ortlund gives a great lesson on how to understand the OT in light of the NT using Psalm 15. 

   1  A psalm of David. O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?

         Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

   2  He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

         and speaks truth in his heart;

   3  who does not slander with his tongue

         and does no evil to his neighbor,

         nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

   4  in whose eyes a vile person is despised,

         but who honors those who fear the LORD;

       who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

   5  who does not put out his money at interest

         and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

      He who does these things shall never be moved.

How To Read the Bible and How Not To

Ray Ortlund:

There are two ways to read the Bible. We can read it as law or as promise.

If we read the Bible as law, we will find on every page what God is telling us we should do. Even the promises will be conditioned by law. But if we read the Bible as promise, we will find on every page what God is telling us he will do. Even the commands are conditioned by promise.

In Galatians 3 Paul explains which hermeneutic is the correct one. “This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Galatians 3:17-18).

So, if we want to know whether we should read the Bible through the lens of law or grace, demand or provision, threat or promise — if we want to know how to read the Bible in an apostolic rather than a rabbinic way — we can follow the plot-line of the Bible itself and see which comes first. And in fact, promise comes first, in God’s word to Abram in Genesis 12. Then the law is “added” — significant word, in Galatians 3:19 — the law is added as a sidebar later, in Exodus 20. The hermeneutical category “promise” establishes the larger, wraparound framework for everything else added in along the way.

The deepest message of the Bible is the promises of God to law-breakers through his grace in Jesus. This is not an arbitrary overlay forced onto the biblical text. The Bible presents itself to us this way. The laws and commands and examples and warnings are all there, fulfilled in Christ and revered by us. But they do not provide the hermeneutic with which we make sense of the whole. We can and should understand them as qualified by God’s gracious promise in Christ, for all who will bank their happiness on his promise of grace for the undeserving.

Books by Ray Ortlund:

• Proverbs:  Wisdom That Works
• Isaiah:  God Saves Sinners
• A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans
• God's Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery
• When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today

The Relationship Between Hermeneutics and Community

Kevin Vanhoozer:

Biblical interpretation involves performance. Think of a pianist who interprets a Beethoven sonata. We speak of Alfred Brendel’s interpretation as opposed to Glenn Gould’s. Can we really “perform” texts? Can we put prophecy, wisdom, apocalyptic, narrative into practice? Can we perform doctrine? psalm?

Certainly! We do so all the time: the fundamental form of interpretation is the way we live our lives each day. Our behavior is the true index to what we believe about biblical authority. The Bible lays claim to our whole being. Some of God’s words require our intellectual assent, others our pious submission, others our moral obedience, and others our cultural faithfulness.

Christian life and thought alike, then, are interpretations of Scripture. Our doctrine is our theoretical interpretation of the Christian story; our life is our practical interpretation. In the postmodern world, the best way to defend biblical authority may be to create a kind of community life in which the Bible functions as authoritative (and liberating).

No contemporary theory of the authority of the Bible can assume that a person will be convinced of the Bible’s authority apart from participation in the community of faith. To repeat: the fundamental form of Christian biblical interpretation is the corporate life of the Christian church. The church embodies the Word of God—this, at least, is its task, its privilege, and responsibility. In Lesslie Newbigin’s words: the church must be a “hermeneutic of the Gospel.” Think of the congregation as a living commentary. Biblical literacy—“following” the Word—should lead to Christian discipleship, to practicing the letter in our lives.

(Source)

Books by Dr. Vanhoozer.

Cool New Resource Here from Zondervan

Learning How To Understand The Bible

Doug Wilson:

Proper Bible study must always be preceded by thorough reading. Most mistakes in interpretation are caused because the context of the passage is neglected. In most cases, the context is neglected because it is not read.

Often new Christians are introduced to certain "narrow" types of Bible study (memorization, Bible study guides, etc) without having any idea of what the Bible as a whole is all about. This causes several problems. First, someone could "study" the Bible for years in this fashion without ever really learning. Secondly, this ignorance is seldom dealt with because it is hidden behind an impressive array of Bible quotes. When a Christian quotes a passage out of Hosea from memory, it rarely occurs to others to wonder if he has ever read Hosea. If he hasn't (as is frequently the case), he cannot know the context of the passage he quotes. This is because he learned it off a little white card and the card has no context.

What then is the first step in learning what the Bible has to say?

Read the rest.

I would recommend this book as well.

Summary of the Bible in 300 Words

Trevin Wax writes:

LifeWay often prints a plan of salvation on the inside cover of our printed resources. When we began working on The Gospel Project, we decided to create something new that would go along with the curriculum’s focus: the grand narrative of Scripture. In the end, we summarized the Bible in roughly 300 words and finished with a call for people to repent and believe. Here’s how we did it…

In the beginning, the all-powerful, personal God created the universe. This God created human beings in His image to live joyfully in His presence, in humble submission to His gracious authority. But all of us have rebelled against God and, in consequence, must suffer the punishment of our rebellion: physical death and the wrath of God.

Thankfully, God initiated a rescue plan, which began with His choosing the nation of Israel to display His glory in a fallen world. The Bible describes how God acted mightily on Israel’s behalf, rescuing His people from slavery and then giving them His holy law. But God’s people – like all of us – failed to rightly reflect the glory of God.

Then, in the fullness of time, in the Person of Jesus Christ, God Himself came to renew the world and restore His people. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law given to Israel. Though innocent, He suffered the consequences of human rebellion by His death on a cross. But three days later, God raised Him from the dead.

Now the church of Jesus Christ has been commissioned by God to take the news of Christ’s work to the world. Empowered by God’s Spirit, the church calls all people everywhere to repent of sin and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. Repentance and faith restores our relationship with God and results in a life of ongoing transformation.

The Bible promises that Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the conquering King. Only those who live in repentant faith in Christ will escape God’s judgment and live joyfully in God’s presence for all eternity. God’s message is the same to all of us: repent and believe, before it is too late. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.

Please Stop Having Your Quiet Time

Guest post by Jeff Medders



Please, stop having quiet times.

Read your Bible. Meet with God. Take up your coffee and sit with the Word — but realize this is not a quiet time.

Twice our Sacred Book calls itself a sword (Hebrews 4:12, Ephesians 6:17). Swords are not quiet instruments. Swords cut, pierce, defend, kill, and advance — quite loudly. Clang is the sword's soundtrack.

A sword is only quiet when it's not being used.

It may be quiet as we open the Bible in the wee hours, but inside of us — it should resemble the Battle of Mordor. Either a war is raging or a solider is readying (Ephesians 6:15).

Gospel soldiers don't read and memorize the Bible like one collecting antique swords; they collect to wield them — to fight. An arsenal is being built because the Enemy prowls (1 Peter 5:8). The cosmic forces haven't gone quietly (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, we train. We wield. We fight.

Imagine the spine of your Bible. Picture grooves, like the handle of a sword, from where your hands have been. Envision pages littered with pen-tina — not rust — but circles, underlines, notes, comments, prayers. Signs of use.

The spirits of the age are nasty but they aren't our only nemesis. Our ever present foe remains — the Old Man, the Flesh. He loves to pick a fight and that creep is not quiet. Memorize and read to become a quick-draw with that which cuts to the quick. Our hearts should be filled with the screeching echoes of the Old Man and his little hobgoblins, our sins, being taken behind the woodshed. As the saying goes, our hearts aren't big enough for the both of us.

The Sword of the Spirit takes no prisoners. It cuts through the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). It calls our bluff. It swacks through the jungle of fig leaf weeds and shows what's really there — what's hidden, phony, self-righteous, and where the gospel of grace is needed. Reverberations of the Sword's presence spill out on our lives. Nuclear bombs envy the force of the Word.

Pick up the Word to meet with the King and enjoy His reign and rule. Then put down the coffee, walk into the world and say, "Long live the King!" (1 Timothy 1:17).

Have an intentional time with the Word — and may it be anything but quiet.