Musings of a Snickerdoodle

This is an excellent look into the transmission of God's Word.   Instead of starting out with material proofs or by appealing to ones feelings regarding the inspiration of the Bible,   Geisler and Nix hold the Holy Scriptures as the ultimate authority and use the Bible as the main and first proof of its own inspiration and authenticity.   Their method reminds me of a quote I read once that went something along these lines: "The Scriptures revolve on their own axis.   They do not disdain indirect assistance, from secular investigations; but they mainly depend on their own inexhaustible resources and treasures." (E. W. Grinfield)   The authors of this examination use the prophets and apostles own references and quotations of each others God given Scriptures as evidence.   And in regards to the Old and New Testaments they use Christ's quoting and referencing it as special proof.   They first emphasize belief in the God of the Bible and in Jesus' div...

One Perfect Life is a 'Harmony of the Gospels' type of compilation.   MacArthur notes in his introduction that, " The Holy Spirit gave us four Gospels and, specifically, three of them are synoptic …so that the truth concerning our Lord and Savior might be established on the basis of two or three witnesses." Using Matthew as a base text, MacArthur uses these four witnesses to piece together their complete picture of the life of Christ.   Instead of putting the Gospels in parallel columns, the accounts are morphed together forming one account.   For instance, sentences from Luke fill in spaces that are not recounted in the same account given by Matthew.   To keep a distinction between the accounts, listed beneath each 'chapter' heading are the chapter and verse numbers of each of the Gospel accounts blended in that particular chapter.   In the chapter itself, tiny superscript abbreviations of the names of the Gospels are used to mark the transition of one...

Christ's Prophetic Plans is an excellent introduction to Dispensationalism or as the authors also entitle it, "Futuristic Premillennialism".   John Macarthur, Michael Vlach, Richard Mayhue, Nathan Busentiz and Mathew Waymeyer team up to defend the grammatical-historical hermeneutic in the interpretation of prophecy.   They start by removing misconceptions about Dispensationalism, such as the idea that Premillennialists believe that there are two-ways of salvation, and they define what Dispensationalism/Futuristic Premillennialism really is.    " … dispensationalism shapes one's eschatology and ecclesiology.   That is the extent of it.   Pure Dispensationalism has no ramifications for the doctrines of God, man, sin, or sanctification.   More significantly, true Dispensationalism makes no relevant contribution to soteriology, or the doctrine of salvation." They then go through and show that their eschatology is exegetically derived from Script...

"Every truth claim is narrow.   Why?   Because truth itself is narrow.   If you jump off a tall building with no ability to remain aloft, you will fall to the ground, yet no one would say belief in the law of gravity is being narrow-minded."     The authors of this book are very good at demonstrating the exclusiveness of truth, and our need to know the 'true-truth'.   Answering 10 questions about Christianity, the authors build their argument, 'closing in' on the truth as the book moves on.   Starting very basic, they demonstrate the logic of there being truth and that truth must be exclusive.   Then, after pointing out the obviousness of the existence of   a god, they narrow down to what god that is and if there is only one.    The rest of the book demonstrates that the God who exists is the God of the Old and New Testaments and upholds those Scriptures as the truth by answering questions about their composition and co...

What is the best remedy for the issues in the Church today?   What will be the best means to focus Christians upon what really matters and who they really are?   Do we have grand, 1 hour period of inspiring music and   then a 30 minute exposition of the Bible? What is the best way to worship God in our Church 'services'?   How can we get a new reformation started?    As Lawson says, "there are no new remedies for old problems.   We must come back to old paths.   We must capture the centrality and pungency of biblical preaching once again." In this book, Lawson uses Calvin as an example of the right way to edify, grow, and convict Christians, by his preaching of the complete Word of God.   He puts forth Calvin's book-by-book, verse-by-verse method of preaching as the best way to exposit the Scriptures and to teach Christians.   "This verse by verse style - lectio continua, the 'continuous expositions' - guaranteed that Calvin would p...

Want a book that compares nearly all(or perhaps all) New Testament quotations of the Old?   Old Testament quotations in the New Testament by Gleason L. Archer and Gregory Chirichigno does that in a chart form.   Made up of nearly a hundred and seventy pages of charts made up of four columns on two large pages. The first column gives the Masoretic text of the verse, the second gives the Septuagint rendering, the third gives the New Testament quotation of the verse and the fourth offers commentary on   the differences.   Now, keep in mind that each of these texts are given in their original languages, not in English.    English is used in the introductions ,instructions and commentary(which also translates some of the texts).   Now, I don't know Hebrew and am just learning Koine Greek, but I still find this book very useful.   Since all of the text references are given in English, I can look up and compare the English verses in the Old and Ne...

I keep hearing about, and seeing, books that imply(or directly state) that suffering in the life of a Christian is abnormal.    Actually, suffering is one of the most normal things in the life of a Christian.    That suffering may be physical(persecution, disease, handicap, etc...) or mental(caused by self-denial, struggles to keep focused, slaying of lusts..etc.), but it certainly isn't strange.    Peter writes to the Churches,   " Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. Instead, because you are participating in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that you may be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. " (1Pe 4:12-13 ISV)   And thus the title of Sproul's book, 'Surprised by Suffering', in which he strives to take away the element of 'surprise' and points out that we should not be surprised by suffering, but rather,...