Fear and Trembling

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) Our most recent series of articles for Soli Deo Gloria has looked at the basic rules of interpretation and some practical suggestions to help understand the Scriptures.   We will close the series with a brief exhortation to read the Bible more. We have abundant evidence to prove that the Bible is God’s Word given to us.   The books of the New Testament were written by eyewitnesses of the events they describe and their message has been accurately communicated to us through the centuries of copying and translation.   (See : Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by Richard Bauckham and The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F. F. Bruce)   Those eyewitness testimonies tell us about Jesus’ teaching that the Old Testament was true (Matthew 4:4, John 17:17) and His teaching that the New Testament would be true (John 14:25-30, 16:12-15).   They also tell of the...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all…” – WCF Chapter 1, Section 7 This phrase from the Westminster Confession of Faith has been a great comfort to me as I approach one of the most difficult areas of the Bible to interpret: predictive prophecy.   Predictive prophecy is about the claims that the Bible makes about what will happen in the future.   It especially focuses on eschatology, the study of the end times and what will transpire at the end of the world.   This brief article will discuss the ‘ground rules to use when confronting this difficult area. R. C. Sproul made a classic understatement when he said, “We must approach prophecy very carefully with a sober attitude.”   Sproul makes some interesting points, either directly or indirectly: First, avoid two extremes.   The first is the “skeptical, naturalistic approach” that does away with pr...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) Our current series of Soli Deo Gloria articles is exploring Bible study.   This article will look at a very important tool used to understand the Bible: the Study Bible. A Study Bible contains articles and notes that explain the meaning of particular verses and phrases in the Bible’s text.   I have used several of these Bibles over the years, and I have found them to be most helpful.   The first Study Bible I ever used was the Thompson Chain Reference Bible in the King James translation.   This Bible contained listings of Bible verses that addressed particular subjects.   These lists could be easily followed because they were labeled in the margins of this Bible along with the next reference in the list.   The insights into theology I gained from studying the verse lists in this Study Bible have stayed with me for a long time.   Systematic Theology is the careful study of what the e...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) As promised in our last Soli Deo Gloria column, this article will take a look at three tools that are available to help us understand and study the Bible.   Any book that claims to be the very word of God to man is worth understanding, and we should take the time to carefully explore the Bible’s meaning. Good Bible commentaries are essential.   A ‘commentary’ is exactly what it sounds like: a book that contains a person’s comments or thoughts on a part of the Bible.   No one person is an expert on everything the Bible says, and it helps to consult with scholars who have spent time studying the particular book or passage they are commenting on.   Commentaries on the entire Bible are a good place to start.   These give an author’s or a team of author’s ideas on the entire Bible.   Examples are The New Bible Commentary published by Intervarsity Press and Eerdmans and the excellent Encou...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) Our last Soli Deo Gloria article talked about the original languages of the Bible, and it promised a longer look at English translations.   This article will attempt to guide the reader toward a Bible translation that is just right for a given situation.   A book that gives us information on how to get to heaven and how to live our lives on Earth the way God wants us to is a book that should be translated carefully. There are two basic approaches to Bible translation: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence.   Formal equivalence attempts to translate each word in the original language by an English word whose meaning is very close.   This is a ‘word-for-word’ translation approach that places the importance on the meanings of each individual word.   The dynamic equivalence approach attempts to translate the thoughts of the authors into English.   This ‘thought-for-thought’ approach ...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) In our current series of Soli Deo Gloria articles, we have been examining the greatest of books, the Bible.   The Bible was originally written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.   So the Scripture must be translated into our language in order for us to know what God has told us in its pages.   This process can be a difficult task.   Aramaic is a ‘dead language,’ which means that it is no longer spoken.   The Hebrew of the Old Testament is very different from the Hebrew language spoken today because all languages change over time. In fact, the Old Testament text did not have vowels, and vowels had to be added in order to be able to read the passages of Scripture. The same tendency for language to change over time applies to the New Testament, which was written in Greek.   This Greek is different from the language spoken today but also different from the Greek written in an...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) In our last article, we looked at the reason for and the permanence of our adoption in Christ.   If we have true faith in Christ, God is our Father in heaven.   This week we will look briefly at some of what that means.   As J. I. Packer says in Chapter Nineteen of Knowing God , The prospect before the adopted children of God is an eternity of love.”   Our adoption is permanent, and it depends on the love of God for us and the grace of God to save us.   God will not let us go.   We are his.   We can also have hope.   Christianity is “a faith that looks forward.”   For Christians, “the best is always yet to be.”   We have the hope of an everlasting inheritance in Christ.   That was the reason children were adopted in the Roman Empire during Christ’s time: “to have an heir to whom one could bequeath one’s goods.”   In just that way, our adoption as God’s...