Chris Sheeter and I were students at BJU and friends in 1981. Chris was tall, handsome, musical, with a great personality. He was a good preacher. Chris was studying to be a pastor. We attended the same church, Southside Baptist Church, and worked as waiters at the same Seafood restaurant, Old Mill Stream Inn. I graduated one semester before he did and started pastoring in N.C. I drove back to Greenville, S.C. just to fellowship with Chris. During his last semester, he was a lifeguard at a local hotel. At the end of a shift, he dove into the pool just to swim across and go home. His friends noticed he stopped about halfway as he was swimming across the bottom. Chris drowned.
Read more“How do you do theology?”
Theological Method answers the question, “How do you do theology?”
This post will utilize the type of systematic theology described by Erickson, in his chapter “The Method of Theology” where Erickson discusses “the process of doing theology.”[1] That process generally moves from exegesis to biblical theology to systematic theology.[2] After discussing biblical theology, Erickson added that he places historical theology after biblical theology: “While the utilization of history may take place at any one of several stages in the methodological process, this seems to be a particularly appropriate point.”[3] Erickson instructed that the process of doing theology is to move from exegesis to biblical theology to historical theology to systemic theology.
Read moreThe Problem of Suffering and Evil, Part 1
Chris Sheeter and I were students at BJU and friends in 1981. Chris was tall, handsome, musical, with a great personality. He also was a good preacher. Chris was studying to pastor. We attended the same church, Southside Baptist Church and worked as waiters at the same Seafood restaurant, Old Mill Stream Inn. I graduated one semester before he did and started pastoring in N.C.. I drove back to Greenville, S.C. just to fellowship with Chris. During his last semester, he was a lifeguard at a local hotel. At the end of a shift, he dove into the pool just to swim across and go home. As he was swimming across the bottom, his friends noticed he stopped about halfway. Chris drowned.
Chris studied for seven years, spent nearly $100,000 to prepare to pastor, and never got to pastor one day. I remember asking myself why did God lead him to go through the rigors of four years of undergraduate work and the even tougher studies of three years of seminary and then allow this tragedy to happen.
Read moreTrustworthiness of the Bible
Bart Ehrman contends that we cannot trust the Bible because we do not have the original autographs but only copies of copies of copies which are riddled with scribal errors or textual variants. Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus [Kindle] HarperCollins e-books. 2005) discusses how this issue plagued him in his Biblical studies at Moody, Wheaton, and Princeton:
I kept reverting to my basic question: how does it help us to say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God if in fact, we don’t have the words that God inerrantly inspired, but only the words copied by the scribes— sometimes correctly but sometimes (many times!) incorrectly? What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don’t have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them, evidently, in thousands of ways (Kindle location 139).
Read moreHow are Salvation history and the Redemptive-Historical Method of Interpretation connected?
Salvation history is a theological history of God saving fallen humanity that includes creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. The Redemptive-Historical Method converts that view of biblical theology into a method of interpretation, which requires each text be interpreted through the hermeneutic grid of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.
Read moreContentment is a Choice (Philippians 4:10-13)
I read a story about a Jewish man in Hungary who went to his rabbi and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted, “Do as I say and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned looking more distraught than before. “We can’t stand it,” he told the rabbi. “The goat is filthy.” The rabbi said, “Go home and let the goat out, and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned, radiant, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat--only the nine of us.”[1]
Read moreThe Doctrine of Propitiation defends Penal Substitution (Part ten)
Book Review of The Limits of Functional Equivalence in Bible Translation and other Limits, Too (D. A. Carson in 2003).
Carson addresses three areas of concern in the area of dynamic or functional equivalence. The areas of translation theory are what Eugene Nida called Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence. D.A. Carson is focusing on dynamic equivalence or functional equivalence.
Read moreReview of One Bible, Many Versions: Are All Translations Created Equal? By Dave Brunn
Dave Brunn states that the church is divided over which standard is right in Bible translations. Should the translation be “Word for Word” or “Thought for Thought”? For example, a literal, word for word translation of 2 Timothy 2:5 is “is not crowned” in the NKJV and ESV. A thought for thought translation is “does not win the prize” in the NASB which is considered a literal translation. Brunn provides a chart with 93 examples where the NASB gives a “thought for thought” translation and the NKJV, ESV, NIV, and HCSB give a “word for word” translation. This is surprising because the NASB has been called the “Most Literal.”
Read moreThe Role of Textual Criticism and Translation Theory in NT Exegesis
The impact of textual criticism on exegesis is demonstrated in the translation theory debate. This involves two translational philosophies: Former and Functional. The translation theory debate also spills over into the gender-inclusive language debate. A third area of concern is the selection of the best translation for the serious Bible student. This paper purposes that the solution to these debates is to find the balance of the extremes and avoid the extremes.
Read moreThe Problem of Evil and Suffering
Chris Sheeter and I were students at BJU and friends in 1981. Chris was tall, handsome, musical, with a great personality. He also was a good preacher. Chris was studying to pastor. We attended the same church, Southside Baptist Church and worked as waiters at the same Seafood restaurant, Old Mill Stream Inn. I graduated one semester before he did and started pastoring in N.C. and I drove back to Greenville, S.C. just to fellowship with Chris. During his last semester, he was a lifeguard at a local hotel. At the end of a shift, he dove in the pool just to swim across and go home. As he was swimming across the bottom, his friends notice he stopped about half way. Chris drowned.
Chris studied seven years, spent nearly $100,000 to prepare to pastor and never got to pastor one day. I remember asking myself, not out loud, why did God lead him to go through the rigors of four years of undergraduate work and the even tougher studies of three years of seminary and then allow this tragedy to happen?
William Safire, in a New York Times editorial, wrote after the 2004 India tsunami in which over 200,000 people were killed from 14 countries, “Where was God? Why does a good and all powerful deity permit such evil and grief to fall on innocent people? What did these people do to deserve such suffering.”
David Hume, the eighteenth century philosopher, connected the problem of evil and the existence of God: “Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”
Read moreDoes God Reveal Himself to us Through an "Inner Light?"
John 1:9 is sometimes called 'the Quaker text,' because the early Quakers, based on the verse, believed that sufficient light was offered to every person" (David J. MacLeod. The Creation of the Universe by the Word: John 1:6-9. Bib Sac 160 July-Sept 2003: 305-320). Some Quakers refer to the “inner light” as an internal revelation if appropriately responded to can save. They use John 1:9 as the proof text: “[That] was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.”
Read more