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Top-Notch Overview of Mark’s Gospel

May 31, 2017 By Peter Krol

Kevin Halloran recently posted a few resources to give you “Everything You Need to Read the Gospel of Mark With a Friend (Or On Your Own).” These resources include an infographic outlining the book’s structure and main themes, study guides, and a few short videos explaining the book.

The resources Kevin shares are of the highest quality. They don’t waste time on irrelevant trivia or lengthy academic debates that skim off the text. They will give you a profound understanding of the structure, themes, and main point of Mark. This understanding will enable you to study the book or teach it to someone else in a way that connects each episode back to the main idea.

Mark’s is a beautiful, clear, and focused gospel. May these resources equip us to meet Christ there and reveal him to others.

Check it out!

Why Should We Read the Bible?

May 24, 2017 By Peter Krol

Why should we read the Bible? David Mathis answers the question simply and beautifully: to know Christ. If that answer doesn’t jazz you up, consider what Mathis has to say in this short video.

Check it out!

The Hottest Thing at Church Today

May 17, 2017 By Peter Krol

Tim Challies refers to a new trend:

According to a new study by Gallup, the hottest thing at church today is not the worship and not the pastor. It’s not the smoke and lights and it’s not the hip and relevant youth programs. It’s not even the organic, fair trade coffee at the cafe. The hottest thing at church today is the preaching. Not only is it the preaching, but a very specific form of it—preaching based on the Bible. And just like that, decades of church growth bunkum is thrown under the bus. As Christianity Today says, “Despite a new wave of contemporary church buzzwords like relational, relevant, and intentional, people who show up on Sundays are looking for the same thing that has long anchored most services: preaching centered on the Bible.” Praise God.

Challies goes on to commend this trend, delighting in the reality that God’s children do, in fact, desire the pure milk of the word. However, he also wisely cautions:

I’m glad to read these results. I’m glad that God’s people are choosing God’s Word. But I don’t want pastors and their churches to jump on the biblical exposition bandwagon. Instead, I want them to search the Scriptures, to see what God says about the relationship of his people to his Word, to understand the purpose of the weekly gatherings of the local church, and then to commit from this day forward to preach God’s Word to God’s people.

Here’s the thing: Eventually Gallup or Barna or someone else will come up with a new poll that will display new results and mere bandwagoners will veer to this new course. Their deep-rooted pragmatism will drive them to the next big thing. But people who are convinced from the Bible that there is nothing better than to preach the Bible will stay the course. Even when Bible-based preaching is the very last thing people want, these pastors will know it is the very first thing they need.

His reflections are well worth considering. Check it out!

I’ve Consumed Commentaries But Can’t Study My Bible

May 10, 2017 By Peter Krol

David Murray recently posted a sobering question from a reader of his blog:

I have an M.Div and have read hundreds of books and still feel that I don’t know my Bible. My knowledge has been all second hand as I have consumed commentaries during my devotional times. And yet my faith feels hollow and lifeless. I don’t know how to read the Bible and study it for myself. I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown…I try and start and I get so frustrated that I turn back to commentaries and the lifelessness continues…I can’t do this anymore.

Please help me…I know you don’t know me…but please help me…..

Murray begins his response addressing the immediate mental health needs for rest and recovery to this burnt out soul. And then he moves on to address “what got you into this situation”:

What’s really important is that you do not rely on yourself or on your commentaries but that you rely on God to give you light. Ask God for his Holy Spirit to enlighten your eyes and to shine light on His Word. He has promised to give wisdom and his Holy Spirit to those who ask for it (James 1:5-8; Luke 11:13). And remember, that knowing the Bible is not the end either. The ultimate end is knowing Christ personally, and the Bible is a means to that end. So is going to church; so make sure you are doing that also.

If you do these things and there is still no life in your soul or love for the Scriptures, then you will have to consider the possibility that you still need to be converted. If that is the case, there is still hope for you to repent and put your faith in Christ. There are many M.Div. students who have been converted after graduation and even in the ministry!

Please avoid allowing commentaries to do your Bible study for you. And by all means, don’t miss Christ. The end of that road is not a pleasant one.

Check it out!

We Need More Bible in Youth Ministry

April 26, 2017 By Peter Krol

Seventeen-year-old Katherine Forster has some important words for the youth ministries in our churches: We need more Bible. Teenagers themselves see the need for better grounding, greater challenge, and more biblical instruction. Forster gives 4 reasons, from the teen perspective:

We desperately need the truth.
We need to see these truths for ourselves.
We need to be challenged.
We need the fellowship in God’s word.

Do you believe teenagers can learn to handle God’s word? Is there any other way we can equip them to face life’s challenges?

If you’re not sure how to start teaching your youth group to study the Bible, I’ve heard from many youth pastors who have found my book a helpful place to begin. Please consider Ms. Forster’s gracious appeal.

Check it out!

Translating God’s Name

April 19, 2017 By Peter Krol

To build your confidence in your English Bibles, we don’t often get into issues of translation from the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. But Jesse Johnson wrote a recent article at the Cripplegate about why English Bibles should translate God’s personal name as Yahweh instead of the typical “the LORD.” Johnson walks through each argument presented in the prefaces to most English translations about why they keep the superstitious Jewish tradition of not using the name God revealed to us. And then he gives his own reasons why the personal name, and not the title, should be used.

My favorite part is when he answers the objection—often considered the trump card—that we don’t actually know how YHWH would have been pronounced, since its vocalization has been long lost.

This misses the point. We don’t know with “certainty” how any of the Hebrew words were pronounced. I’m not even sure Yahweh spoke Hebrew to Adam in the garden anyway. How did Adam pronounce Eve? Is it the same way Americans do it? We can’t even agree on how to pronounce Isaiah, much less Yahweh. But the solution is not to render Isaiah as “ISH,” and it is certainly not to replace Isaiah with “The PROPHET.”

One commenter on the post asks why Johnson is okay with “Jesus” over the original “Yeshua.” Johnson replies:

At least “Jesus” is a name, not a title. Imagine replacing every use of Jesus with “The SAVIOR.” Wouldn’t that undercut his personhood? I think so.
And, btw, your point about Yeshua — Jesus is exactly the argument that should be made for Yahweh. Nobody says Jesus was pronounced that way, yet we don’t blink about using it. But then we change a name that is thousands of years older than that? Ba humbug.

Johnson’s arguments explain why I repeatedly refer to God as Yahweh in my Exodus series, and why I will continue to do so when I read the Old Testament out loud.

Check it out!

How to Analyze a Psalm

April 12, 2017 By Peter Krol

On the Ligonier blog, W. Robert Godfrey does an outstanding job analyzing Psalm 69. He shows how to break the psalm into sections, outline the structure, follow the train of thought, and draw practical implications. Along the way, he addresses the New Testament’s use of the psalm, Jesus’ experience of the psalm on the cross, and the question of whether Christians should pray down curses on their enemies.

I highly recommend this clear and careful example of how to read a psalm. Check it out!

Reflections on Rapid Bible Reading

April 5, 2017 By Peter Krol

I love challenging people to read the Bible like they’d read any other book. And when folks have been trained their whole Christian lives to read just a few verses at a time, such rapid reading can be thrilling. Here’s what some of you have said about your Bible reading in the last few months:

I was pleasantly surprised to find how much more enjoyable I found reading larger chunks of Scripture as opposed to the choppiness of reading smaller sections. It was also nice not to get bogged down in the typical sections but to sprint through them as part of their larger story.

Though I have been a believer for years, I have never successfully finished a cover to cover reading plan. I learned in this challenge that a short term goal is easier for me to attain. I found that consuming large portions of Scripture increased my understanding and led to wonderful discussions with my husband. This Bible reading challenge was life changing.

Previous to this I struggled with actually wanting to read the Bible, since to me it was kind of boring in places. When I heard about your challenge, I was originally just doing it for the prize. However reading through the Bible in such a short period of time was very enjoyable for me. Never staying in the same book for more than a couple days kept me interested through the whole Bible.

I felt spiritually so much more alive diving into Scripture evert single day for three months, and getting a broad overview of Scripture. I would not trade this time in God’s word, as He really used it to strengthen my faith and give me a fuller picture of who He is.

I have read through the Bible using a one-year plan many times, but reading it in 90 days was life-changing. God knew I needed this challenge, as He has used this concentrated time His Word to humble me and increase my awe of Him. Glory to God!

When you read 16 chapters in a row (many times whole books all at once) you can truly grasp and remember the context of the situation a whole lot more.

After spending weeks in the prophets with their largely unheeded calls to repentance, getting to Matthew was like a breath of fresh air! This helped me appreciate various parts of scripture for explaining different things clearer and more vividly.

I had been very far from God for the past several years and hadn’t read the Bible in a while, and now that I have repented and am following Jesus again, I thought it would be good to read the whole thing through. 30 days wasn’t really that hard for me because I read really fast. What was hard for me was not stopping to analyze everything or ask a million questions. As I read I kept a list of my overall impression of what each book revealed about God’s heart and character. Overall it was an amazing experience and I’m super glad I did it.

It was difficult at times, yet it was such a blessing to develop the discipline of consistently reading long portions of the word. I developed a feel for the flow of the Bible.

I have to say that it was a life changing experience. I never considered such a thing as helpful. I had read the Bible many times in the past, but never in such big portions and never in such a short time. It amazed me the impact and insight this practice had on my life. The discipline was invaluable. This practice of reading through the Bible will be part of my daily life from now on.

I feel more like I have “the whole bible” in my mind now than I ever have before. It was also great to get to see all the interconnections, like for example I read Joel and the first chapters of acts on the same day. It has made me think that I want to get the benefits of breadth even while doing deep study.

Reading the Bible at this pace was so much fun. I hadn’t read the Bible in chunks like this since freshman year in college, when I wasn’t a Christian, but figured I should read the whole Scriptures to get a better idea what it was all about. Returning to this approach after 5 years of following Christ was thus pretty neat. Like the first time, I was struck by the unity of the Scriptures from front to back. Jesus Christ truly is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I’ve always loved reading any book like this, and the Bible is unique in the diversity and unity within it. Getting lost in history, or a running argument between Job and his friends, or multiple Psalms all has value it’s hard to get in the morning bursts of drilling into a particular passage. And meditating on the trajectory of God’s work in history is really cool. This is going to be an annual tradition for sure, external incentives or not.

This has actually inspired me to try to read whole books of the Bible in as close to one sitting as possible.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that reading the whole Bible in exactly 90 days or less is not for everyone:

Reading the NT is not so bad, but reading the OT tends to hit a wall somewhere around Psalms/Proverbs/prophets, where there’s less of a narrative to follow.

I do believe that listening to the Bible on a regular basis will be doable, I just can’t stand sit and read through it quickly.

Honestly, it bothered me to read through/listen to the Bible so quickly. I am the type of person that likes to focus on one book for an extended period, about a month for Ephesians, for example.

I started with Genesis, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. But next I went for Job, and really struggled to not let my mind wander. I thought that listening to Matthew next would be ‘easier’. But I still struggled to pay proper attention. So I decided to stop last week, as there didn’t seem much point doing it just to say that I’ve done it. I was listening while walking, so the distractions should have been limited. But I was doing so at the end of a working day. So perhaps I was too tired.

But despite the fact that not everyone was in a position to complete the reading, I’m encouraged by how many came to see the value of reading larger portions of Scripture. Whether it’s a 90-day full read-through of the Bible, or simply an occasional one-sitting read-through of a single book, may the Lord help us to encourage others to read the Bible like a masterpiece of literature. May the Lord use this process to deepen our understanding of him, as we receive his revelation, in context, with deeper understanding and greater benefit for the world.

What We Might Miss When We Discuss the Bible’s Context

March 22, 2017 By Peter Krol

Writing for the Logos Talk blog, Michael Heiser makes an important point about the Bible’s context. When we study the Bible “in context,” we tend to focus on the literary context (surrounding passages) and historical context (what was going on in Israel’s culture at the time).

But another context is just as important, yet often overlooked: The socio-religious context. In other words, what was going on in the surrounding nations at the time? What did those nations believe about their gods and how to serve them, and how does the true God’s revelation to Israel relate or stand out?

The profound contextual overlaps between Israel and her pagan neighbors was a wise theological tactic on God’s part. When divergences in Israel’s theology appear in the text—and there are some dramatic, stark points of contrast—they scream for attention on the part of the ancient reader. Unlike the pagan deities, Israel’s God could not be cajoled like an idol; Yahweh could not be brought down to earth and tamed. Laws about sacrifices were set in specific covenant contexts, giving them a unique theological dimension. Yahweh would rather have faith and loyalty than sacrifice.

We can miss the punch of what the Bible says when we don’t grapple with how it would have sounded to the ancients in their social context. Heiser gives a number of examples of the similarities and differences that help our interpretation.

Check it out!

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