I find lists that seek to synthesize large periods of time (such as end-of-year lists) helpful in providing a birds-eye view of cultural development. While it could be said that lists such as this have more in common with the particular author’s viewpoint or bias, I would venture to affirm that a magazine such as Christianity Today holds a larger degree of impartiality.

The reason that I am citing this particular end-of-year list is that the majority of the top issues directly related to an exercise of authority. Only #2 and #6 move away from this distinction. This should come as no surprise to anyone. The issue of what gives a person or a group of …

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This is a question recently submitted for Grace Talk:

How can Mark or any of the gospel writers so accurately record what Jesus said? Was someone writing it down as Jesus said it?

Of course, they wrote in the Queen’s English (or should I say King’s?) Just joking…that blog will be for another day. To answer this question, we must look at the evidence.

Today, there are almost five thousand ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament! Consider this, fifteen hundred years after Herodotus wrote his history there was only one copy in the entire world. Twelve hundred years after Plato wrote his classic, there was only one manuscript of it left. Today, there exists but a few …

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In today’s teaching (11.09.08), I recommended that you end your conversation with those who adhere to the teachings of Mormonism with a “Gospel ultimatum.” The “ultimatum” is simply this: “Please realize that one of us is wrong.” I have found that this helps treat the overall discussion as something that is critical and weighty. When the truth of the Gospel is on the line, we must remember that the the souls of those individuals engaged in the conversation are on the line. Could there be a bigger deal?

It is here that the LDS (Latter-Day Saints) help us out by clearly indicating that they believe we are wrong and that they are the …

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The story of how the Book of Mormon came to be is a long one…

Mormon was an ancient prophet born in 310 AD Central America. He spent his life observing and participating in warfare. His people, the Nephites, defended themselves against the Lamanites. In 385 AD, the Lamanites annihilated the Nephites in one great, last battle.

In addition to leading men into battle, Mormon, as instructed by the Lord, made a historical compilation of His people, mainly of the house of Israel, whom He had led out of Jerusalem to inhabit the regions in and around Central America. By referring to many volumes of records, which were engraved upon thin gold or brass plates, Mormon engraved his own narrative style history …

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Today, as part of our teaching regarding the Reformation, begun in 1517, we took up the broad question of Church authority: “How did the Roman Catholic Church come to wield the level of authority it did in the day of Martin Luther?” Related to this issue there were other questions as well: “When and where did the early church go wrong?” Also, “Why is the Church called the “Roman Catholic Church?” Etc.

Since a majority of the questions I received related to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, I thought it would be helpful to take a run at the answering this issue over several posts. The following is an overview of spiritual concentration of power …

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Today we continue focus on understanding the reasons for the Reformation by answering questions which were posed after Part 1 of this series. What is the difference between the way Roman Catholics and Protestants view salvation (justification), santification, sacraments, and Matthew 16:13-20? How do I talk with a Roman Catholic about these differences? How did the Roman Catholic church grow out of the early church to wield the level of authority that it did in the day of Martin Luther? How did Rome become a religious center and where did the name “Roman Catholicism” come from? Was Martin Luther the only one to uncover the problems of the Roman Catholic Church? …

 

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We are in the middle of working through a very helpful video training training class called Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes… in You and Your Kids on Wednesday nights. The course centers around the idea of what it means for us to honor one another and how we can train our children to live out Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’”

As good as the course is, I feel

…

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Our God Question from this past Sunday dealt with the questions:

How do you know the Bible wasn’t written by men pushing their idea of God? Also, why should we take the Bible literally?

During the discussion we fielded questions regarding how exactly were the books in the Bible determined to be authentic? I mean couldn’t we have gotten a book in the Bible that was just rubbish? In order to consider the questions let’s take a look at the specific tests for a book to be included in the Bible.
Note: This blog relates to information for inclusion in the New Testament part of the Bible. The evidence supports that the Hebrew canon (The …

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The Doctrine of God: Week 14
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, by Wayne Grudem.
Chapter 1, The Character of God: “Communicable” Attributes (Part 2)

This week we start to examine the “communicable” attributes of God (those which He has shared in part with us) which are clasified as ‘attributes of purpose’.  We begin by discussing an often controversial topic – God’s Will.

 

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