“While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
In what follows here we see an almost Game of Thrones style transition of power from Saul to David. The two houses are at war, there’s trouble within one house, jealousy leads to accusations that may or may not be false but which lead to permanent rifts, there are sides being swapped, old wounds being nursed, long-simmering hatreds being acted upon, and the list goes on from there. The question it leads me to ask is what on earth is this kind of stuff doing in the Bible?!? Read the rest…
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
As far as their historical worth goes, the Scriptures have a value that exceeds any other work of literature. They have had more of an impact on human history in terms of shaping and forming the guiding assumptions of people than every other book combined. The King James Version alone has had more of an impact on the English language than Shakespeare did. Simply knowing and understanding the Scriptures without caring two wits about the God they reveal is important if you want to be a well-cultured individual. But, if you want the real blessing they have to offer, you have to go beyond that to committing yourself to doing what they say. Read the rest…
“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Just a little note here on the defense of the Bible. Some critics have argued that the writings of the New Testament “became” Scripture gradually. It was the result of a power play by men seeking power for themselves and these writings were a convenient way to get it through the levers of religion. But, when they were written no one considered them Scripture. Except for this… Read the rest…
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Do you read the Bible? You obviously do at least a little bit since you’re reading this. Reading the Bible is pretty enormously important, but not by itself, as James makes clear here and throughout his letter. If we do not also “do” the Bible, it has profited us exactly nothing. Read the rest…
In this second part of our series, Reason to Believe, we take some time to examine the primary source for our knowledge of the truth: The Scriptures. The Bible is a tough book made even tougher by the things it says. Yet, making a full and comprehensive case for its reliability and trustworthiness is well beyond the scope of a single sermon. In what follows we examine the problem together, talk about what we do believe as followers of Jesus, and build a small case for the reliability of the Gospels. If we can prove those are trustworthy, making the case for the rest of it becomes all the easier. Keep reading for more and stay tuned for next week as we wrestle with the challenge present by the doctrine of Hell.
How We Know It
How many of you spiritual souls would count the Bible as your favorite book? I have a lot of different favorite books depending on the genre. For example, my favorite kids’ book (and author) is The BFG by Roald Dhal. I once considered stealing the library’s copy because I read it so many times. When it comes to history, Larry Schweikart’s A Patriot’s History of the United States is top of my list. In the world of fantasy, I greatly enjoyed Robert Jordan’s immense series, The Wheel of Time. If you want to talk fiction more generally, I would probably rank C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce at least near the top of my list. I would count each of these books as my favorites because of the impact they had on me when reading them. I could read them over and over—okay, that’s not entirely true; Schweikart’s history was a pretty intense time commitment, but you know what I mean—and enjoy them every time. There was no part of them that I didn’t like. I suspect most folks who can identify one or two books as their favorite would use similar guidelines for their choices. Read the rest…
The Nexus 