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Showing posts from December, 2018

Determining the Original Intent

When reading a document, it is important to understand the original intent of the authors. The goat rodeo hearings for the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh showed the lengths that some politicians will go to attain prominence for their own political viewpoints. Kavanaugh is an originalist, which means that he considers the original intent of the US Constitution when making his decisions. An interesting parallel can be made with interpreting the Bible. Credits: Left image, Freeimages /  Robert Owen-Wahl ; Right image: US  National Archives and Records Administration It seems reasonable to determine the intent of the authors. Obviously, there are some marked differences because the Bible was written by several people under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the Constitution was written by fallible men with good intentions.  When the original meanings are abandoned, all sorts of bad judgments ensue. In the case of the Constitution, we had the Dred Scott decision and that

The Gospel of Isaiah

When reading the prophets in the Old Testament, it is easy to feel a mite lost without a guidebook or a pastor telling you what's going on. If I want expository preaching on, say, Zechariah, I can listen to Dr. John MacArthur . He also preaches on Isaiah, but I don't feel quite as lost along the trail when reading Isaiah. The prophets talked about time and events that are baffling to this child, what with kingdoms and people that are mostly lost to history. Prophet Isaiah predicts the return of the Jews from exile , Maarten van Heemskerck, 1560-1565 A reader of Isaiah who is also familiar with the rest of the Bible can see some important things happening. Several times, Isaiah reminds Israel and Judah (and us) that God is the Creator. There are places in his lengthy book where he talks about Immanuel (or Emmanuel). We learn about God the Son, the Creator, and his birth, death, glory, and the restoration of all things at the end. In fact, I thought there were some echoes

William Lane Craig and Other Genesis Deniers

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Wisdom itself beings with God (Prov. 1:7), and the Bible is to be the foundation for the Christian's thinking in all areas (Psalm 119:105, 2 Tim. 3:16-17, Rom. 11:33). As we have seen in several articles here and on other biblical creation sites, Genesis is the source of all major Christian doctrines . Some professing Christians as well as atheists, old earth proponents, and other anti-creationists reject the authority of the Bible and attack not only the truth of God's Word, but also the people who take their stand on it. Credit: Pixabay / Jeff Jacobs The Wisdom of the World The Christian's faith is established in God, not in the ever-changing whims of man-made science philosophies. For example, some have joyously stated that proof of the Big Bang validates the Bible, only to have the evidence pulled out from under them. If someone's faith is based entirely on secular interpretations of science, they have little to support their belief

The Reliability of the Chronicle of Adam

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen It is easy to wonder about the accuracy and reliability of biblical history, what with the events happening such a long time ago and all. People disagree about events in much more recent history such as the World War II, for example. How do we know that the oldest narrative it correct? Credit: RGBStock / Billy Frank Alexander Yes, I'll allow that it's been a mighty long time between then and now, and things are very different. People may think of those games where one person tells another down the line, then it turns out that the last person hears something very different from the original story. Well, isn't that how we received the biblical texts? They had oral transmission until someone got the notion to invent writing, so mayhaps the Eden account was a bit fouled up before Moses commenced to setting down the events? That's a fair question. Hold up a minute there, Hoss. 2 Timothy 3:16 NIV tells us that Scripture is God-breathed. (Many