Bible
Without Evil, No Christianity!
Do you find this theological proposition startling, even shocking? It was for me when I first began to consider it. So did evil make Christianity possible, indeed necessary? Let’s think more seriously about this possible interrelated interconnectedness. True or False? Without evil, there would have been no progression of covenants. Without evil, no need…
READ MORE →The Easter Quiz — See How You Do
One of the fruitful activities our extended family did for Easter this year was this biblical quiz I concocted. It generated some great fun, fellowship, and lots of conversation. Right answers won tootsie pops. See how well you do on these 10 questions. They start easy and get harder. Correct answers are at the bottom.…
READ MORE →Positive Response Running 10 to 1
Below are examples of some of the positive responses (10 to 1) to my recent ETS theological paper and book both titled, “Unraveling the End: A Biblical Synthesis of Four Competing and Conflicting End-time Views.” For some of the harsh criticism I’m getting from some in the preterist camp see my previous blog “Arrogance or Confidence”…
READ MORE →Best Responses Ever
This past Friday, I presented (read) my seventeenth theological paper at the 59th Annual Midwest Regional Evangelical Theological Society Meeting in Grand Rapids, MI at Grace Bible College. All of my papers, over the past twenty years, have addressed eschatological reform topics and issues. But by far, this paper received the best, most…
READ MORE →Tidbits #5 – “What do you know about the canon?”
Is a Book Missing from the Canon? Most say, no. But I say there may be one—a very important one. The following is excerpted from my book, The Perfect Ending for the World, pp-165-166. Enoch’s ‘70th Generation’ Prophecy During the four hundred year period after the writing of the last Old Testament…
READ MORE →Tidbits #4 – “What do you know about the canon?”
The Criteria for Canonicity? Because the canon represented a collective decision reached by the Christian community at large over a period of centuries, no document exists in which the criteria for inclusion are given in detail—only hints were dropped. So here are four criteria we can surmise for each book: 1) Was…
READ MORE →Tidbits #3 – “What do you know about the canon?”
Don’t imagine this — the twenty-seven books now included in the New Testament, plus a hundred or more others, as lying on a table in a conference room with Church authorities discussing them, one by one, to determine whether or not to include them in the canon. Imagine this: Given the mass of literature…
READ MORE →Tidbits #2 – “What do you know about the canon?”
“Messy.” That’s the best word that describes the context for canonization of the New Testament. Why so? It’s because that during the 1st, 2nd, and into the 3rd centuries many other writings were being produced that were modeled after the earlier Gospels, letters, and Acts. As a result, disagreement among Christians persisted as…
READ MORE →Tidbits#1 — “What do you know about the canon?”
Determining the canon of Scripture is not only part of the “Battle for the Bible,” it’s also a battle for the nature of our faith. Two self-attesting verses re: the authority and validity of Scripture are 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:19-21. The issue here in this discussion series is, what is…
READ MORE →Firing Back – “What do you know about the canon?”
The good, bad, and ugly—selected comments below are from FB posts, emails, and the mega-bestselling book, The DaVinci Code: “Does it trouble you to know that those who determined what is supposed to be Scripture were not necessarily as ‘inspired’ as those who wrote it?” “Sounds really interesting John. I always wondered why…
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