NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

How Did Inspiration Work

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The Bible doesn't mention toilet paper and toothbrushes but it says enough about hygiene to justify the use of both.

Genesis Was Human History
Before It Became Inspired Text

For years Bible believers have taught that the Bible is an inspired book, and for good reason. The Bible says exactly that.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. (1 Timothy 3:16)

But the word inspiration needs clarification. The meaning is very different to what most people think.

It translates the Greek word theopnuestos which is a compound word that literally means God-spirited but recent translations have opted for God-breathed because it is closer to how we express words.

The NIV reads:

All Scripture is God breathed.

And many translations follow suit. The clarification is helpful.

Nice, neat, straightforward, and clear.

What I’ve said so far is generally understood and agreed to. There’s very little debate.

How Did Inspiration Work

However, many questions about how inspiration worked are not explicitly detailed in the Bible and the topic gets very little attention.

  • We know the Bible is special revelation – check.
  • We know the revelation was ultimately from God – check.
  • We know that God used humans from all strata of society to record the revelation – check.

What we don’t know is exactly how the mechanics of inspiration worked.

Tees For Everyone

We accept that the end result of inspiration was words – specific words – on paper.

We accept that human opinions, thoughts, feelings, and preferences have no bearing on the meaning of those words but the answers as to how these words moved from God to/thru humans and eventually onto paper are sound bites at most, and when discussions expand they run in circles and are full of vagaries.

It reads more like a he-said, she-said, they-said back-and-forth full of accusations, disputes, and triple-barrelled words than a fair, even-handed discussion.

Those big words, none of which are in the Bible, are thrown in to make unsubstantiated arguments seem sophisticated and prevent further discussion.

Superintend is a good example. The word is used to explain God’s part in the inspiration process but it is found nowhere in the Bible in relation to inspiration.

It’s a good word but it is neither the beginning nor the end of the story. [Read more…] about How Did Inspiration Work

Why Did Peter Deny Jesus?

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Peter had a good idea that wasn't a God idea and it turned out to be an evil idea.

The Most Important Quality Of Leadership
Has Nothing To Do With Ability

Why did Peter deny Jesus? That’s a good question.

Everything we know about Peter, up to the point when he denied Jesus, indicates he was a stalwart.

Peter was loyal, thoughtful, determined, and faithful. Nothing about him said Flake and yet, he did deny Jesus.

If it could happen to him, could it happen to you and me? Are we better than Peter or should we pay careful attention so we can avoid the same tragic mistake?

Discovering Peter’s Fail Point

In my last post, I compared Peter to both the Pharisees and to Jesus and from the comparison, it became clear that he was different to both, kind of in a no man’s land.

We tend to think of Peter as being on Jesus’ side but if anything, he was more at odds with Jesus than with the Pharisees. Not a good place to be.

Tees For Everyone

We learn a big lesson from that observation. Just because you think you oppose those who oppose Jesus, doesn’t mean you’re in the right. And your thoughts on the matter may be completely wrong.

Thoughts, Thinking, Ideas

Keep that in mind. Thoughts, thinking, and ideas are the focus in this post.

Peter thought he opposed the ideas of the Pharisees but was actually more like the Pharisees than Jesus.

He wasn’t on either side. He actually opposed both.

The question is why was he like this? How did Peter go so badly wrong? What was his fail point? Can we put a name to his sin?

He was clearly in the middle and that contributed to his failure, but we need to observe closely to determine exactly how and why he failed.

That is my intent in this post. Let’s start with Peter’s bio. [Read more…] about Why Did Peter Deny Jesus?

9 Proofs The Bible Is Authentic

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Defending the Bible feels like arguing the obvious.

Is The Bible Authenic
Or Is It Contrived

This post is not an effort to interpret the Bible. It is focused on the issue of Bible authenticity. Is the Bible really a credible source we can take, read, believe, and live? That’s the question for this post.

Before we answer, there are three things we need to understand:

One, this question has been researched, studied, and discussed in every generation over the last two thousand years.

Which is to say this is not a new question. The Bible has been rigorously investigated by hundreds of scholars ever since it was completed. The topic has been well exercised.

Two, there are many critics who question the Bible and work very hard to disprove it.

In fact, there are just as many people who argue against the credibility of the Bible and attempt to disprove it as there are people who work to substantiate its claims.

This, however, is an argument for the validity of the Bible. As yet, there is no conclusive proof the Bible is anything but authentic.

  • If the Bible did not make a significant contribution to society
  • If there wasn’t a correlation between Bible teaching and the understanding of morality in society
  • And if there wasn’t a lot of evidence substantiating its message already

No one would care.

Tees For Everyone

No one cares if the Koran isn’t a genuine document. No one is attacking the Book of Mormon. Both of these books are significant. Neither carries the same weight as the Bible. They don’t even register on the scale.

Mormon families are even subscribing to Bible-based Sunday School materials for their children. Maybe there isn’t enough meat in the Book of Mormon to capture their interest.

The bottom line is, all the effort to attack the Bible is actually evidence for it.

Three, all we can do in one brief post is scratch the surface. The following outline is just a brief framework around which further study should be encouraged. [Read more…] about 9 Proofs The Bible Is Authentic

5 Difficulties Confront Bible Interpretation

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Bible content is neither alphabetized or categorized.

The Best Way
To Respect Your Elders
Is Challenge Their Beliefs

You don’t have to be Christian very long before you realize how much people differ on various Bible teachings. You also learn quickly that these teachings are generally referred to as Beliefs, and a belief is something you don’t tamper with.

They’re like holy cows. Irreverence is not tolerated.

Just raising a question can be dangerous. Writing about it is heresy. It’s a burnable offense! Heretics rank right up there with witches.

The penalties aren’t so severe today but the attitudes haven’t changed much.

The Lord’s Supper (aka Communion, Eucharist, Lord’s Table) is a good example. There are many different ways this ordinance is observed.

Attend an Anglican church and you feel compelled to take the bread and wine. Attend a Catholic church and you’re prohibited. Attend a Protestant church and you get long-winded explanations, and you’re likely to get a different story with each church.

It’s only natural to ask why all the differences, but it’s not a question you can easily ask. The frequency with which churches observe the ordinance and who they allow to participate, are not topics for discussion. Churches generally have very fixed ideas. [Read more…] about 5 Difficulties Confront Bible Interpretation

Top Ten Biblical Discoveries In Archaeology: Not Recommended

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Top Ten Biblical Discoveries In Archaeology

More A Pamphlet
Than A Book

Disclaimer: Credo House is a great organization. Nothing said here is intended to reflect badly on them. But . . .

I recently purchased Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology, published under the banner of Credo House (which no longer exists), and returned it in less than a day.

Why? Several reasons.

One, I paid over $7 for the Kindle version. Seven dollars isn’t huge but the price does come with expectations.

The book is listed as having 88 pages. That’s long enough to be considered a book but in this case it misrepresents the reality.

There was lots of white space and I do mean lots.

Don’t misunderstand. White space isn’t a bad thing. It helps with reading but in this case it seemed like it was used to inflate the size. Reduce the white space, which could easily be done, and the book is now much shorter.

Making it worse was the fact that there were many illustrations, which weren’t very clear (didn’t add much value), and the text didn’t wrap. Adjacent to each illustration, none of which were very large, was – you guessed it – white space.

There was a lot of white space that seemed to be added for no reason at all, and then each illustration introduced even more white space.

From a volume point of view the book was worth maybe a dollar, not seven.

Two, the discoveries, though significant, aren’t recent. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late 1940’s. Hezekiah’s conduit was discovered in 1867. One of the more recent discoveries was the “House of David” inscription found at the Dan site in 1993. By archaeological standards that’s not recent.

The point is the book catalogs some of the more significant finds but it doesn’t add anything new. It’s very basic. If you are looking for up-to-date, this book won’t satisfy.

Three, you can find all the material scattered throughout the web for free. Because this information is relatively old, you can find it recorded in many places on the web. Just Google the “Top Ten Biblical Archaeological Discoveries” and you’ll easily find the listings and the information.

THINK!AboutIt