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

Solitude, Silence, Contemplation? Please!

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Personal notions always appear impeccable when protected in the solitude of our imaginations.

Sustained Conversation
Curbs Brashness

“Solitude, silence and contemplation?”

A friend recently sent me an email sharing a few snippets from material he had been encouraged to read by a friend who was into a religious leader, whose name I won’t mention.

One of the snippets promoted “solitude, silence and contemplative prayer.” It was somehow interwoven with “loving one another” and being connected to Jesus.

I’m paraphrasing because, quite frankly, all the ideas, though very acceptable separately, came across as mumbo jumbo. It was like the alphabet soup of religious, idiomatic jargon swirling together in a suspended state. The order of the ideas could shift with no change in meaning.

My friend wrote me wanting to know my thoughts.

To be honest, I don’t get it. Besides confusing, it is all so yesteryear.

The terminology harks back to a time when solitude was fairly common, silence was required and contemplation was allowed only in prayer, the silent kind. No audibles allowed.

I don’t know why we still use these terms.

The words were popularized when religion was owned and operated by the powerful few, centuries ago. The Spirit was entirely regulated.

Whatever ideas individuals developed through personal contemplation had to be kept a secret lest they be accused of heresy.

Today we’re smarter. We understand that these words describe the very issues that deprive people of feeling alive. Jesus commented on this very thing, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!”

“Free” being synonymous with “Alive!”

And He said this to the most rigidly religionized people of the day. He didn’t say anything about solitude, silence or contemplation. According to Jesus, all they needed do was “continue in His Word.”

That sounds like action to me.

Should we still be using such words? Let’s look a bit closer. [Read more…] about Solitude, Silence, Contemplation? Please!