Here are some things I've learned as I review for my Midterm in the Bible Intro class. You'd think intro means basic, but I've learned SOOOO much and while it is basic on one level... I wish I'd have learned these things earlier in my walk. Remember these are only pieces of information from the 8 lessons I'm studying. I just chose things that stood out to me or are just cool to know. Many times we learn by teaching so here you are...
Our duties in regard to the Bible:
1. Know it
2. Obey it
3. Disseminate it (spread it)
The word that means Testament, hence OT and NT can also and may be more accurately translated as "Covenant."
How did we get our Bible? Revelation: God gave it, Inspiration: Man received it, Illumination: Man continues to study and understand it (focus on understand)
The Greek word for "God-breathed" is Theopneustos. The "Word of God" is exactly that.
10 Ways God communicated in the OT: Dreams, Visions, Audibly, a Whirlwind, the Tabernacle, Types/Anti-types, Law, Burning Bush, Catastrophes, Still small vioce, a Donkey
Oral Communication is 1. Vulnerable to error 2. Vulnerable to forgetfulness
Written Communication is 1. Precise 2. Durable 3. Objective 4. Easy to disseminate
History of writing: Pictograms, Logograms, Phonograms, Alphabet... materials: stone, clay tablets, waxed wooden tablets, papyrus, parchment, potsherd (broken pottery pieces - commonly used for grocery lists)... tools: chisel, stylus, pen, penknife, ink, ink horn, sponge, pumice stone >>> Writing was def. available in the time of Moses for him to have written the first 5 books of the Bible (The Law).
The OT period of the Judges can be described by the verse quoted saying, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
2 Types of Covenants: Syntheke: Bilateral covenant where 2 parties particiapte and have input... Diatheke: Unilateral covenant where 1 party draws it up and the other accepts or denies. The OT is a Diatheke from God. He makes the rules :)
The Hebrews language is at least as old as 1500 BC due to evidence of the Gezer Calendar, Moabite Stone, Samaritan Ostraca, and Siloam Tunnel Inscription. While the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek... Greek is the most precise of these languages.
The OT is divided into 4-5 categories... LAW: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deut., HISTORY, POETRY: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs/Solomon, MAJOR PROPHETS: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekial, Daniel, and MINOR PROPHETS. If you memorize the ones I did mention and use good judgment when asked... you'll have no prob with the rest.
The OT is called the Tanak by modern Jews because T for Torah, N for Nebiim (Prophets), K for Ketubim (Writings) are their divisions. This = TaNaK
According the Jewish historian Josephus, the Hebrew Bible is divided into only 22 books. It's condensed (for ex. 12 prophets are made into a book called The Twelve and 1 and 2 Kings are combined)
The OT is "Plenary" or fully inspired (2 Tim. 3:16). Inspiration extends to all of Scripture, not parts of it. That being said, the Bible does record (not teach) lies told my Satan and others. These things are obviously not true statements and given as historical record. Also, it is the writings of the Bible that are inspired, not the writers. This is why we say it is inerrant in the original documents (Autographa). Manuscripts (copies) only have derived inspiration and must be studied and compared to give the most accurate translation that we can use today.
Theories of inspiration: Orthodox - ALL of the Bible is fully inspired, Liberal - The Bible CONTAINS God's Word, Neo-Orthodox - As it is meaning FOR YOU, it becomes God's Word
The OT alone has more manuscript evidence than any 10 pieces of classical literature combined. The NT has 5 times that of the Old. The Bible is still the world's bestseller. The Bible was written in different literary genres, had about 40 different authors with different attitudes when writing, covered a period of about 1500 years, and yet it all holds firm in unity.
The word "canon" originated from the word "stalk/reed." It evolved to mean "rod, rule, or measuring rod." Canonicity is not men deciding which books would go into the Bible as if human beings were in charge of it. Canonicity is when men recognized what God already inspired. It originated with God, not men.
5 Criteria for canonicity of Bible books: Prophetic? Authoritative? Authentic? Dynamic? Recognized?
Last book of OT written 400 BC, OT canon closed 300 BC. We are no longer to add anything to the OT.
3 extra-biblical sets of Jewish writings: the Lost Books, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha. Lost books are not "lost" because they should have been included, but rather because they are written to give the appearance that they belonged. Apocrypha literally means "hidden." Pseudepigrapha literally means "false writing." Some of these books are good for historical purposes and some use them for devotional material and funerals. The Catholic Church includes the Apocrypha in their Bibles.
The Septuagint was the first translation of the OT in history. It was translated from Hebrew into Greek. This happened 250 BC.
Transmission is the process of handing down the biblical text to other people.
Textual Criticism is studying the manuscript copies to discover the original wording when the original documents are lost.
There are about 1300 manuscripts for the Ot and 5300 for the NT.
And... done!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
As The Hour Glass Turns...
I got a good grade on my Midterm in the Discipleship class last week. I haven't even begun studying for the upcoming one this Monday. I've had a lot of thoughts running through my brain lately and I felt I needed to pause my studying to write and pour it out. I've been doing a lot of reflecting... where has God brought me? what has God taught me? When have I sought Him? Where will He bring me? I've been struggling with a number of things recently... lustful thoughts and haunting memories, bodyache from work (I feel like I'm 50 or something), and even a bit of "Lord, when will I meet my wife?" Blues. I spoke at a CSM meeting yesterday. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't highly annoyed (internally anyway) at having the schedule change some. Maybe there's something observable to this sanctification thing afterall. As I saw new faces it struck me that God used me to play a part in a ministry that looks like it will continue to survive. I'm blessed to have ministered to people... whether I was a good or at times a bad example. Hopefully they've learned something from my service.
We're a week away from Moody sending out acceptance letters. Every time someone says Chicago or asks about it, an excitement chill runs through me. It's exciting in many ways, but may His will be done in that and all things of life. Because I'm so sentimental... if I'm accepted, I'm considering having a goodbye dinner or something. It wouldn't be for people to say goodbye to me (while they sure could), but for me to say bye to them. I'm still wrestling with whether or not there's pride in throwing a party because I'm leaving...? IF... I'm leaving.
Construction is coming along well at work. Things are taking shape and the mgr. and I seem to be maintaining it and catching up. I heard the other store in the same situation looks terrible by comparison. Our Store Director said she felt good knowing we we had our department looking better under similar conditions than our partners down the street. I guess that's good considering how slow I think I've been. It's taken a toll on my body though. yesterday I felt so exhausted and thoroughly drained. I ended up having to stop studying so i could go to bed and save strength to come in at 5am today.
Morgan and I seem to be on speaking terms again. It looks like she's feeling better about a friendship. It's comforting for me because it's felt like a Matthew 5:23-24 situation for months. It's not pleasant being out of fellowship with a believer when you can see no overriding reason there should be a wall. Without the fruit of the Lord's patience, I am certain bitterness would have grown its weeds tall in my heart and mind. I can confidently say I hold no bad feelings and continue to submit my occasional requests to God that He further sanctifies Morgan's steps, protects her, and prepares her for the husband He has in mind. Though all this is wonderful and I praise God for it, it might have created an adverse effect on me. While this is a joyous probation of reconciliation, it has reminded me that I still do not know whom the Lord will have for me to take as a wife. Every now and then I pray for her, whomever she is. I've focusing so much on my studies I've had little time to be stirred by "who will I marry?"
It's not a question I'm planning on or possibly prepared to seek an answer for in the near future and the surely Lord knows what He's doing... that alone is enough for me lay any burden of this at His feet. I pray that it passes soon. I have too much to be concerned with at the moment.
We're a week away from Moody sending out acceptance letters. Every time someone says Chicago or asks about it, an excitement chill runs through me. It's exciting in many ways, but may His will be done in that and all things of life. Because I'm so sentimental... if I'm accepted, I'm considering having a goodbye dinner or something. It wouldn't be for people to say goodbye to me (while they sure could), but for me to say bye to them. I'm still wrestling with whether or not there's pride in throwing a party because I'm leaving...? IF... I'm leaving.
Construction is coming along well at work. Things are taking shape and the mgr. and I seem to be maintaining it and catching up. I heard the other store in the same situation looks terrible by comparison. Our Store Director said she felt good knowing we we had our department looking better under similar conditions than our partners down the street. I guess that's good considering how slow I think I've been. It's taken a toll on my body though. yesterday I felt so exhausted and thoroughly drained. I ended up having to stop studying so i could go to bed and save strength to come in at 5am today.
Morgan and I seem to be on speaking terms again. It looks like she's feeling better about a friendship. It's comforting for me because it's felt like a Matthew 5:23-24 situation for months. It's not pleasant being out of fellowship with a believer when you can see no overriding reason there should be a wall. Without the fruit of the Lord's patience, I am certain bitterness would have grown its weeds tall in my heart and mind. I can confidently say I hold no bad feelings and continue to submit my occasional requests to God that He further sanctifies Morgan's steps, protects her, and prepares her for the husband He has in mind. Though all this is wonderful and I praise God for it, it might have created an adverse effect on me. While this is a joyous probation of reconciliation, it has reminded me that I still do not know whom the Lord will have for me to take as a wife. Every now and then I pray for her, whomever she is. I've focusing so much on my studies I've had little time to be stirred by "who will I marry?"
It's not a question I'm planning on or possibly prepared to seek an answer for in the near future and the surely Lord knows what He's doing... that alone is enough for me lay any burden of this at His feet. I pray that it passes soon. I have too much to be concerned with at the moment.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found between 1947 and 1956 when a young Arab shepherd boy was searching for a lost goat. He threw a rock into a cave only to hear the sound
of breaking pottery. Ancient manuscripts were found in that vase, leading to an excavation that
would carry this discovery. Among other manuscripts (hymns and some pseudopigrapha) were found many
OT and some NT manuscripts that are dated around 200 BC. These were some of earliest found of their time and they validated the AD 900 manuscripts that we used for our Bible of the time. It was a joyful discovery
for evangelical Christianity!
It may also interest you to know that we have over 1,300 manuscripts that helped to construct the OT we use today and over 5,300 for the NT, yet some secular works that are read often in public schools across America have only 3 manuscripts and those are accepted as truth (or at least reliable) over the Holy Bible. The sad truth of it all is that even though this is irrefutable evidence for the thinking mind, it's not enough to penetrate the hearts of a fallen humanity. Only God's gospel used by God's Spirit can rescue the souls of men and women.
So I've been noticing trouble in the area of personal discipline in my life and it bothers me quite a bit. I remember the days when I would pop right out of bed when the alarm clock went off and couldn't understand those people who hit the snooze button 2-4 times. Now I've become one of them, although I'm getting better I suppose. More than that though, I used to be so much more disciplined in many areas of life.
I'm wondering if this whole grace perspective thing is unbalanced in me somehow.
Anyway, no news from Moody yet. I'm still in prayer regularly about it. I've pretty well decided that if I'm accepted and just put on the waiting list that I won't take online classes next semester so I can just work my butt off to save money instead. I would regroup and see where I was at at the end of next semester. It doesn't make
sense to spend over $600 and have to work less (therefore save less) when, if I do get in at some
point, I'll be able to take almost as many classes as I want for free. The challenge is paying for
room and board, so I think my efforts should focused there. Although I could take 1 class...?
We almost have an entire other family living with us now (a mom and 2 teens). I've witnessed to the son and plan on witnessing to the others in the near future. While it's nice to have ministry opportunities at home, it's also challenging. I'm wondering if my dad may be being taken advantage of as well. There
of breaking pottery. Ancient manuscripts were found in that vase, leading to an excavation that
would carry this discovery. Among other manuscripts (hymns and some pseudopigrapha) were found many
OT and some NT manuscripts that are dated around 200 BC. These were some of earliest found of their time and they validated the AD 900 manuscripts that we used for our Bible of the time. It was a joyful discovery
for evangelical Christianity!
It may also interest you to know that we have over 1,300 manuscripts that helped to construct the OT we use today and over 5,300 for the NT, yet some secular works that are read often in public schools across America have only 3 manuscripts and those are accepted as truth (or at least reliable) over the Holy Bible. The sad truth of it all is that even though this is irrefutable evidence for the thinking mind, it's not enough to penetrate the hearts of a fallen humanity. Only God's gospel used by God's Spirit can rescue the souls of men and women.
So I've been noticing trouble in the area of personal discipline in my life and it bothers me quite a bit. I remember the days when I would pop right out of bed when the alarm clock went off and couldn't understand those people who hit the snooze button 2-4 times. Now I've become one of them, although I'm getting better I suppose. More than that though, I used to be so much more disciplined in many areas of life.
I'm wondering if this whole grace perspective thing is unbalanced in me somehow.
Anyway, no news from Moody yet. I'm still in prayer regularly about it. I've pretty well decided that if I'm accepted and just put on the waiting list that I won't take online classes next semester so I can just work my butt off to save money instead. I would regroup and see where I was at at the end of next semester. It doesn't make
sense to spend over $600 and have to work less (therefore save less) when, if I do get in at some
point, I'll be able to take almost as many classes as I want for free. The challenge is paying for
room and board, so I think my efforts should focused there. Although I could take 1 class...?
We almost have an entire other family living with us now (a mom and 2 teens). I've witnessed to the son and plan on witnessing to the others in the near future. While it's nice to have ministry opportunities at home, it's also challenging. I'm wondering if my dad may be being taken advantage of as well. There
seems to be all kinds of reasons why no one in the family can work and it's been at least a couple months
now. It's nice to have someone to help cooking and doing household things so I can focus on school and
my dad can have a break, but even that is slowing down.
It's taking some faith to pray and trust God for His provision and I don't wanna "ultimately" trust Him. I want to thoroughly and practically trust Him on
every level. The other day they were interviewing a guy that may be an Asst. Produce Mgr. somewhere.
I don't know if it's at my store or not. If it is, I found myself wondering... what will happen if I'm not accepted?
Also with the family living at my house, will my dad be able to help support me if I'm in Chicago? Then I
remember how big God really is.
Evangelism has been going well. I may have mentioned travis bought a sound system. Please pray God provides for him financially on that. It wasn't cheap and he has a decent sized family. I also picked up some free resources on witnessing to Mormons and JW's. I got a tract booklet from Mount Zion that's better than the one I have now on the Trinity. It just lists many of the verses for support. While some of them are repeated and not direct... it should prove to be a good resource.
There's probably more, but this blog posting thing is SO annoying right now!
Prayer...
-Moody: acceptance for Spring and provision
-Discipline this week and next in classes. I have a Midterm this week and Csm has asked me to do 2 Evangelism training sessions. Both will require double timing on my normal studying.
-Witnessing courage and easy open doors w/those in my home
-Discipline overall in life
-Mental struggles and temptation
IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX MY PROBLEM OF THE WORDS RUNNING
OFF THE PAGE... PLEASE HELP! i DON'T HAVE TIME TO FIX IT...
now. It's nice to have someone to help cooking and doing household things so I can focus on school and
my dad can have a break, but even that is slowing down.
It's taking some faith to pray and trust God for His provision and I don't wanna "ultimately" trust Him. I want to thoroughly and practically trust Him on
every level. The other day they were interviewing a guy that may be an Asst. Produce Mgr. somewhere.
I don't know if it's at my store or not. If it is, I found myself wondering... what will happen if I'm not accepted?
Also with the family living at my house, will my dad be able to help support me if I'm in Chicago? Then I
remember how big God really is.
Evangelism has been going well. I may have mentioned travis bought a sound system. Please pray God provides for him financially on that. It wasn't cheap and he has a decent sized family. I also picked up some free resources on witnessing to Mormons and JW's. I got a tract booklet from Mount Zion that's better than the one I have now on the Trinity. It just lists many of the verses for support. While some of them are repeated and not direct... it should prove to be a good resource.
There's probably more, but this blog posting thing is SO annoying right now!
Prayer...
-Moody: acceptance for Spring and provision
-Discipline this week and next in classes. I have a Midterm this week and Csm has asked me to do 2 Evangelism training sessions. Both will require double timing on my normal studying.
-Witnessing courage and easy open doors w/those in my home
-Discipline overall in life
-Mental struggles and temptation
IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX MY PROBLEM OF THE WORDS RUNNING
OFF THE PAGE... PLEASE HELP! i DON'T HAVE TIME TO FIX IT...
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Moody, Work, and Witnessing
I may or may not have mentioned it, but I got my first check from someone to help w/college. God is good. The last reference was received last Thursday morning... 4 days before the deadline of Oct. 1st. It's time to pray. Also, I'm finding it difficult to study and memorize for school at the moment. I spent about 2 hours studying for a 10 question quiz and still missed 2 questions! It was rather frustrating. As I studied, I noticed that some of the support verses for certain things either weren't direct or didn't seemingly have a lot to do with statement next to them. It also gave a huge list of references to memorize with certain contexts. I was studying how the Bible is supported through Archeological findings and documentation as well as through prophecy. These are interesting topics, but something told me there were probably better examples than the ones given. Remember... I had to memorize the references, not the verses themselves. Johnny tried to quiz me on them and it was so much that I would forget after 10 minutes of quizzing! Is it even worth studying that much? Maybe it was just the references...
The small group with the men from church seems to be going alright. There are already some disagreements on politics. In a way it's good to know they are real people and we have real differences.
Work is getting more and more stressful, while I probably haven't seen the peak of it yet. Yesterday I stayed an hour over just to get the basics done. Sales have been so unpredictable lately that the manager and I face a hit and miss when we order. Sunday was so busy unpredictably that the tables were blown when I came in. I had to take a break from normal stuff to fill up big empty holes. Then came the meeting that lasted for over an hour long. This Thursday there will be another meeting and the Produce Merchandiser said he'll be sitting in on it. He likes things to be done earlier than we ever get them done so I'll likely go in earlier and leave earlier that day. Hopefully that'll be possible. If God decides to send me to Moody, I'll be so grateful because I likely won't have the amount the responsibility and headache at work that I have now.
This past weekend was an awesome weekend for street preaching, while I'm always reminded of what Travis and I tell eachother quite often... every night is a good night. It's not good because we got a good response from the hearers, it's not necessarily a good night because we had a lot of "good" conversations, but it's always a good night because the biblical gospel is sent out. Last weekend Travis was spending time with his son for his son's birthday and I ended up with prayer and my Bible. It's actually been awhile since I was alone out there (in a human sense anyway) and I kinda enjoyed it. I had a conversation with a group of youth and a young couple (but they might have been brother and sister). I also had a skeptic Agnostic "debate" me. He said believing in God was like believing in a Pink dragon. I reasoned with him with logic for a bit and began taking him through the law. It's been a while since I've had someone justify themselves to the degree he did with each commandment. It's amazing the degree depravity runs. He even broke in his own logic and said he had the authority to do so. May God use His law to penetrate the man's heart. As he left, his Lutheran friend shook my hand.
There was PLENTY of encouragement that night as well. I was surprised really. Numerous people shook my hand as they walked by, a teen who used to attend a church near mine was encouraged, a couple gave me a few dollars, and a woman and her daughter said it was a very biblical message and they appreciated it (they were from Michigan and loved Moody), and another woman stopped and seemed to be inspired. It's interesting how God sovereignly brings others to encourage and be encouraged with or without my preaching partner.
Well, time to do some morning study before I hit the homework...
The small group with the men from church seems to be going alright. There are already some disagreements on politics. In a way it's good to know they are real people and we have real differences.
Work is getting more and more stressful, while I probably haven't seen the peak of it yet. Yesterday I stayed an hour over just to get the basics done. Sales have been so unpredictable lately that the manager and I face a hit and miss when we order. Sunday was so busy unpredictably that the tables were blown when I came in. I had to take a break from normal stuff to fill up big empty holes. Then came the meeting that lasted for over an hour long. This Thursday there will be another meeting and the Produce Merchandiser said he'll be sitting in on it. He likes things to be done earlier than we ever get them done so I'll likely go in earlier and leave earlier that day. Hopefully that'll be possible. If God decides to send me to Moody, I'll be so grateful because I likely won't have the amount the responsibility and headache at work that I have now.
This past weekend was an awesome weekend for street preaching, while I'm always reminded of what Travis and I tell eachother quite often... every night is a good night. It's not good because we got a good response from the hearers, it's not necessarily a good night because we had a lot of "good" conversations, but it's always a good night because the biblical gospel is sent out. Last weekend Travis was spending time with his son for his son's birthday and I ended up with prayer and my Bible. It's actually been awhile since I was alone out there (in a human sense anyway) and I kinda enjoyed it. I had a conversation with a group of youth and a young couple (but they might have been brother and sister). I also had a skeptic Agnostic "debate" me. He said believing in God was like believing in a Pink dragon. I reasoned with him with logic for a bit and began taking him through the law. It's been a while since I've had someone justify themselves to the degree he did with each commandment. It's amazing the degree depravity runs. He even broke in his own logic and said he had the authority to do so. May God use His law to penetrate the man's heart. As he left, his Lutheran friend shook my hand.
There was PLENTY of encouragement that night as well. I was surprised really. Numerous people shook my hand as they walked by, a teen who used to attend a church near mine was encouraged, a couple gave me a few dollars, and a woman and her daughter said it was a very biblical message and they appreciated it (they were from Michigan and loved Moody), and another woman stopped and seemed to be inspired. It's interesting how God sovereignly brings others to encourage and be encouraged with or without my preaching partner.
Well, time to do some morning study before I hit the homework...
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