If we’re going to study our Bibles properly, we have to develop a robust and consistent method of gleaning concise doctrine from the Bible. One fact is clear and needs repeating: you cannot use stories as foundations for a doctrine. Or to use more formal language, you cannot deduce a prescription from a description. Biblical […]
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Jacob wrestling with Angel The word “Israel” first shows up in the Bible when Jacob wrestles with the Angel of the Lord, and the Angel gives him that name. It means “to struggle/wrestle with God” (Gen 32:22-32). Throughout the rest of the Bible, the word “Israel” shows up in the Bible about 2,300 […] Tattoos are all the rage these days. I keep saying that when I get old and retire, I’ll open a tattoo-removal parlor. I’ll make a killing! Somewhere along the line, we have to ask this: what does the Bible say about tattoos? There is an answer, of course: [+] You shall not eat […] 
Every now and then I’ll run into people (usually Dispensationalists) who insist that the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) is a different occasion than Luke 6 (a passage they refer to as “The Sermon on the Plain”). The Sermon on the Mount – Carl Bloch, 1890 When they compare the two, they […] 
What do people in heaven think of people in hell? Can people in heaven see people in hell and vice-versa? While many within conservative Christianity prefer not to think about the question (and who can blame them?), the Bible actually addresses this question with some consistency. Here are a few passages worth considering. On one […] 
Studying Revelation in BSF has kinda put a different spin on Romans for me. Check out these passages [with comments]: [+] … I saw under the *altar* the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a […] I’ve always been a bit leery of the use of the word “friend” in the 22nd chapter of Matthew. That’s the parable about the king who throws a wedding banquet for his son. The invited people refuse the invitation and kill the messenger, so the king kills them and burns their cities. But because he […] Many people teach that the Holy Spirit was “on” the OT saints, but post-Pentecost, is now “in” the NT saints. They gloss over the fact that the Bible never actually teaches this, and frequently mentions the opposite. I find this a little disconcerting: since it’s not actually stated in the Bible, where then did this […] There are some who would pause at the idea of people being able to deny the Master who bought them. What does that mean? Take a look: But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the […] Imprecations are prayers to God to pour out judgment, calamity, curses, wrath and/or destruction on His enemies. Wikipedia has a brief article on Imprecatory Psalms. and lists a few chapters in Psalms where we can find these odd prayers: Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 are major pieces, while Psalms 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, […] |
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