The Book of Ezra records Israel’s return to the land after the Babylonian exile. The first half deals with Zerubbabel’s return and its ramifications (Ezra 1–6) and the second half deals with Ezra’s return and its ramifications (Ezra 7–10). Chapter 7 has a decree by Artaxerxes that gives Ezra permission to return, chapter 8 records the return. Then in chapter 9, Ezra learns that Israel had been intermarrying with pagans and prays and chapter 10 shows how Ezra dealt with this sin. The Book of Nehemiah would have originally been part of the same volume, so chapter 10 would actually be part of a 23-chapter book, though the versification was not added until much later.[Read More]
hermeneutics
New Book! Moving Forward
We’ve got a new book coming out! Its title is Moving Forward: Essays on Soteriology, Missiology, and Eschatology.
Moving Forward is a compilation of three essays that I have written for other projects. I brought them into one volume which we will be distributing soon. Here is the preface of the book:[Read More]
How James quoted Amos
At the Jerusalem Council (Acts 19:6–21), James quotes Amos in a way that some have interpreted in a way that sees him spiritualizing promises that God made to Israel and applying them to the church. I do not think that this is what he was doing, though. James was using the plain grammatical-historical method of interpretation, which includes Amos’s original context as well as James’ context in Acts.
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Dispensationalism: What It Is And Why It Matters
Dispensationalism is the school of thought that results from a plain grammatical-historical reading of Scriptures. Ryrie’s threefold sine qua non of dispensationalism includes grammatical-historical hermeneutics, doxological centrality of Scripture, and the distinction between Israel and the church,[1] but these latter two points are merely the result of the first. The doctrine that dispensationalism is most famous for is the pre-tribulational rapture, but this too is just the result of the consistent literal reading of Scripture. Even critics of dispensationalism recognize that grammatical-historicism results in dispensationalist conclusions. Since the legitimacy of dispensationalism stands or falls on the legitimacy of grammatical-historical hermeneutics, a discussion of dispensationalism’s strengths should focus on its hermeneutics.[Read More]
What about Miracle Stories?
The Bible says that we must believe in Jesus alone—not self—for eternal life. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and others say that we must contribute our works—not believe in Christ alone—for eternal life. There are stories about Catholic and Orthodox saints performing miracles, so does that mean that they were saved? The short answer is “no.”[Read More]
Retranslating James 2:14–26
People make James 2:14–26 harder than it should be. I think that the main problem is that man naturally wants to earn his own righteousness, so there is a tendency for men to misread biblical texts to make their salvation dependent on themselves.
There are some particularities to the English language that have become difficult in James, so I am offering a retranslation with a few oddities that I think are justified. This translation is part of a soteriology class that I am taking and I will include a commentary in a paper for that class (in other words, I want my professor to poke holes in the commentary it before I share it publicly).[Read More]