Entries Tagged 'Bible' ↓

Rev. William Cwirla offers some provocative and oddly encouraging thoughts about why divisions within a congregation or church body are, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “necessary.” See Blogosphere Underground: Devilish Distractions. A sample:

Dissensions and divisions have their root in our old Adamic flesh (Gal 5:20; 1 Tim 6:4; Titus 3:9). The old Adam loves to stir up trouble wherever he can find it. Dissensions and divisions in the church arise from false teachings and false teachers who subvert the Gospel (Rom 16:17; Jude 19). Paul’s desire for the Corinthian congregation is that it be united, of the same mind and judgment (1 Cor. 1:10). Yet Paul goes on to make this remarkable statement: “It is necessary that there be divisions (Gk: heresies) among you so that those who are proven might be manifest among you” (1 Cor 11:19). In other words, the soundness of a teacher is tested in the face of controversy, and divisions serve the purpose of showing who is proven.

Rev. Cwirla goes on to apply what this means and why. He does not praise church divisions, mind you, seeing them as sinful; and yet God uses them nonetheless.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been taking every opportunity to share her favorite Bible passage:

“The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’ On this Earth Day, and every day, let us honor the earth and our future generations with a commitment to fight climate change.”

Apparently, it’s a favorite verse of hers. She has used it in official statements on global warming, the budget, Martin Luther King Day, Christmas, and why she’s a Democrat.

A Touchstone article criticizes children’s Bible story books that take out the scariness that is in the Bible, looking particularly at the treatments of Jonah and the whale. The author, Ronald F. Marshall, argues that the scary parts are necessary for the child to realize the Gospel in those stories. See Eaten Alive.

Here is an interesting story about the revival in contemporary Judaism of the Mikveh, the ritual bath that goes back to Biblical times. Even today someone converting to Judaism must be immersed in the water. It was also used to deal with various kinds of “uncleanness.” Today, Jews are using it more therapeutically, to deal with times of transition, to symbolize new beginnings, etc.

For a Christian, of course, the Mikveh speaks to us of Baptism. I’d like to see some scholarship relating the ordinary Mikveh–and apparently most houses of that time had a pool for this–and the Baptism of John and then of the Church.

At church yesterday the Old Testament reading was about the Temptation of Adam (what Milton wrote about in “Paradise Lost”) and our New Testament reading was about the Temptation of Christ (what Milton wrote about in “Paradise Regain,” a great work hardly anyone reads).   Our pastor pointed out that Satan’s most serious temptations are not to encourage us to commit individual sins but, as he does in both of these pivotal Biblical events, to attack our faith: to lead us to distrust God, to disbelieve His Word, to stop looking to Him for our needs, to put our faith in ourselves instead of in Him.  For Pastor Douthwaite’s profound sermon on these temptations and how our sins reveal our underlying unbelief, go here. 

Speaking of our old evil foe, a Catholic priest, in co-operation with the church of Rome is opening an
exorcism center in Poland to deal with the upsurge in demonic afflictions in Europe. The article quotes an exorcist:

“People don’t pray anymore, they don’t go to church, they don’t go to confession. The devil has an easy time of it,” Amorth said in an interview. “There’s a lot more devil worship, people interested in satanic things and seances, and less in Jesus.”

What do you think about this?

The Epistle reading for Transfiguration Day yesterday is quite remarkable, an account from St. Peter himself about his having witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels:

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:16-21)

Do you catch the magnitude of what this is saying? “We have something more sure” than personal experience, “more sure” than visions. “More sure” than Peter’s own life with Jesus. “More sure” than actually witnessing on that mountain Moses and Elijah with Christ in all His glory. Namely, THE WORD OF GOD!

Archeologists in Jerusalem have discovered a seal from a family mentioned in the Bible. See here and here.

On the seal is inscribed the name of “Temech,” described in Nehemiah 7:55 as one of the families who returned from exile to rebuild Jerusalem.

It was certainly good to get back to our own church after weeks of holiday travel, and we came back to an excellent Epiphany sermon.

The Wise Men, we were told, did not get very far using earthly wisdom: They came to Jerusalem, logically enough but wrong, looking for the new King. Worse, they naively asked the old king for information about the new king who would replace him. It was when they started to follow God’s Word (the prophecy in Micah about the Messiah coming from Bethlehem) that they made progress. [My aside: Notice how the Bible helped them interpret the star, not the other way around. We get so caught up with trying to interpret the Bible that we neglect that the Bible is what interprets us!]

When the Wise Men found the Christ child, who was against all appearances of what worldly wisdom would say a king should be, they worshipped him. As Pastor Douthwaite put it, “they returned wiser than they came.”

Read the sermon for yourself here.