By Peter Krol
Here is a terrific example of observation and interpretive investigation. Ian Carmichael revisits what he always thought to be true about Nicodemus, the kingdom of God, and being born again. This leads him to look more closely at the text, and consider what it has to say in light of the context of John’s argument.
This is some terrific Bible study, with weighty application. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
Here is a post where Tim Challies walks through his routine for preparing a sermon. Whether you preach regularly or not, you may find it helpful to see how he intertwines the OIA method into his preparation to teach the Scripture.
By Peter Krol
Garrett Kell writes of “The Most Epic Bible Study of All Time,” where Jesus explained to two disciples on the road to Emmaus all the things contained in the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
Kell walks through every Old Testament book, summarizing what Jesus may have had to say concerning himself in each one. He concludes:
Reading the Old Testament to find Jesus isn’t meant to be like playing “Where’s Waldo?”—looking behind every tree for a cross or every chair for a throne. We do, however, find both explicit teachings and also implicit themes that push us to know that something, or someone, greater must come to fulfill them. Jesus proved this true that day following his resurrection.
This is worth a few moments of your time. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
Talbot Davis makes a helpful point about the process of divine inspiration with respect to the letters of Paul:
Muslims contend that the Koran is straight dictation — all Allah, with no Mohammed filter at all.
The Christian conception of the bible is quite different. We
believe the God-breathed message of the Word gets delivered most
compellingly through the passions and personalities of the various
authors.Because if God can take a curmudgeon like Paul and turn him
into a composer of inspired texts, imagine what he can do with you and
me.
Davis explains Paul’s use of a scribe, to whom he dictated his letters. Along the way, Davis shows us that this in no way undermines the doctrine of inspiration, but rather upholds it and makes it uniquely Christian.
By Peter Krol
Kevin Carson wrote a piece in response to my recent posts on Ecclesiastes, offering further explanation of the meaning of “vanity.” Carson believes the Preacher uses the term not so much to refer to the “unsatisfying, endless repetition of old things…” (as I defined in my second post), but to refer to the frustratingly enigmatic nature of life in a fallen world. That is, that though we try to understand why life happens the way it does, we simply can never know.
Carson is on to something here, and he does a great job exploring the argument of the entire book (while I was limiting myself in my post only to the explanation of vanity in chapter 1). Carson proposes his definition in stark contrast to mine, though I’m inclined to see us as exploring the topic from different angles. I focused on the day-to-day experience of vanity, while Carson gets at the ideological underpinnings of the concept.
His insights are well communicated and worth considering. Check it out!
By Peter Krol
Kevin Halloran lists 9 reasons the Bible is difficult to understand, along with what we can do about it. His reasons:
After explaining these five hurdles, Halloran continues with reasons to rejoice in the resources God has given us. And he offers suggestions for growing in handling the Word.
This is great, practical instruction, which I highly commend.
By Peter Krol
Matt Smethurst wants you to “Approach Your Bible Desperately,” and I heartily concur.
Have you ever ruined your appetite for an epic dinner by snacking all day? You wish you could work up an appetite, but it’s too late. The steak is on the table, and you’re not hungry.
This is how we often treat God’s Word. Is it any wonder that nibbling long enough from the table of the world would leave us with little appetite left for God?1 If we’re snacking on cheese puffs, we shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t have room for steak.
The charge:
Shortly before his death, after rehearsing God’s law one final time, Moses looks at the people of Israel and says, “These are not just idle words for you—they are your life” (Deut. 32:47). The stakes could not be higher.
Your soul will wither and die without your Bible. Approach it desperately.
By Peter Krol
Unlocking the Bible has a great introduction to the prophecy of Hosea. If you’ve ever been confused by this book, here is a great place to start.
The article walks through Hosea as a living parable and unpacks what we can learn from the book. In particular, the authors land in three areas:
May this brief intro to Hosea equip you to read this book well, and to desire your Lord more than ever.
By Peter Krol
Bryan Chapell briefly describes four ways the Old Testament points to Jesus.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a great start to consider when figuring out how to see Jesus in any Bible passage.
By Peter Krol
We’ve written much over the last few months about the importance of context. And Michael Heiser has an important article at the Logos Talk blog entitled “What is the Proper Context for Interpreting the Bible?”
Historical, cultural, and literary context all matter. And the context of orthodox Christian interpretation over the last 2,000 years matters. But more than any of that, Heiser argues that the most important context to which we must pay attention (and with which historical, cultural, and literary context only “flirt”) is the context of the biblical writers.
We must do all we can to get into their heads, to understand their worldview, to grasp what factors led to the production of the literature contained in the Bible.
Heiser writes:
As certain as this observation is, there is a pervasive tendency in the believing Church to filter the Bible through creeds, confessions, and denominational preferences. That’s not a bad thing. It’s a human thing. Creeds are useful for distilling important points of theology. But they are far from the whole counsel of God, and even farther from the biblical world. This is something to be aware of at all times.
Lest I be misunderstood, I’m not arguing that we should ignore our Christian forefathers. I’m also not saying that we’re smarter. They were prodigious intellects. The problem isn’t their brain power—it’s that they were simply too removed from the world of the biblical writers and had little chance of bridging that gap.
It might sound odd, but we’re actually in a better position than any of our spiritual forefathers in that respect. We live at a time when the languages of the major civilizations that flourished during the lifetimes of the biblical writers have been deciphered. We can tap into the intellectual and cultural output of those civilizations. That output is enormous—millions of words. We can recover the worldview context (their “cognitive framework” in scholar-speak) of the biblical writers as never before. The same is true of the New Testament writers because they inherited what had come before them and were part of a first-century world two thousand years removed from us.
In conclusion:
I know firsthand this is a hard lesson. It isn’t easy to put the biblical context ahead of our traditions. But if we don’t do that, we ought to stop talking about how important it is to interpret the Bible in context lest we be hypocrites. I can honestly say that the day I decided to commit myself to framing my study of Scripture in the context of the biblical world instead of any modern substitute was a day of liberation. It’s what put me on a path to reading the Bible again—for the first time. You can do that, too.
Check it out!
