Musings of a Snickerdoodle

As the title evinces, this book tells the 'story' of the Bible.  It gives a basic overview of how the Holy Scriptures were preserved, discerned and compiled into one book.  It includes full sized pull out copies of pages of important Greek and Hebrew manuscripts(such as the Dead Sea Scrolls), as well as scans of pages from important Bibles(such as the Tyndale Bible and Luther's translation). I think that this is a great resource.  It is easy to understand, explaining the various technical terms used(like 'codex'). It takes you on a quick trip through history, from the writings of the Old testament in Hebrew translated to Greek, and also the writings of the New Testament Apostles being copied and gathered together and translated into various languages.  It is fascinating to see how God preserved His Word down the centuries, and to see the various ways He chose to protect, spread and validate it.  For instance,  I didn't know that the Dead Sea Scrolls were s...

Instead of rejoicing that God is going to keep His covenant, His promises, with His sanctified people Israel, many Christians are trying to change the identity of Israel to be themselves. It may seem insignificant whether one views Israel as the same thing as the church, but in reality, it is MAJOR.  What are some of the consequences of this?  Let us take a quick overview: Modern Day Judaizers As Charles Feinberg has said, “ The spiritualization of Israel’s blessings has meant the carnalizing of the church [1]”. Or to put it another way: the spiritualization of Israel’s blessings has meant the ‘tangelizing’ of the church. Believing that the church is Israel may result in ones becoming a ‘Judiazer’. Several ‘Reformed’ churches seem to be rather ‘Judaized’/Mosaic in their practices. Advocating church services based upon Mosaic practices, having ‘Temple’ inspired worship, and a New Covenant sign replacing the so called Old Covenant sign, circumcision. The structure of the c...

As the book's title suggests, it is a book about the Christian's relationship to God as His slave.  Macarthur explains that the Greek word 'doulos' has not been accurately translated in many(or rather,most) Bible versions.  'Doulos' is usually translated as 'servant'.  But Macarthur points out that 'doulos' actually means 'slave'.  Passages like "well done, good and faithful servant" (Mat 25:23)and, "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ..." (Tit 1:1)should actually translated, "well done thou good and faithful slave ."  and "Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ..." Macarthur shows that the difference between a slave and a servant is significant.  A servant does a job, has a choice as for whom he works for, what work he will do and ultimately works to support himself.  A slave is owned by someone else, does not have a choice for whom he works, but is chosen...

The New Covenant was in existence at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, it had been in existence ever since the Messiah’s death and resurrection. One may ask, ‘ why , if the New Covenant was in existence, didn’t the Jews repent, stop rebelling and be saved?  Why did God ordain that they be destroyed and scattered among the nations?  Wasn’t the New Covenant supposed to take care of the Jews’ inherent stubbornness by changing their hearts?  The answer is that the New Covenant was not being applied to Israel as a people.  Yes, there were lots of believing Jews, but they were only a ‘remnant’ of the people of Jacob. The nation as a whole was rejecting the Gospel; instead we find, in looking at the book of Acts, that the Gospel was being offered to the Gentiles, and a great number of them were accepting it. The Christian Jews were surprised at what was happening, that Gentiles were being included in the New Covenant (Acts10;11;15).  Why were the J...