Posted on July 26th, 2008 by Mr. Mark Naylor Are literal translations more accurate?
When Today’s New International Version (TNIV) was first published, I walked into our local Christian bookstore and asked the sales person, "Do you have the new TNIV?" A wary look came into his eyes and he said, "Why do you ask?" Puzzled, I replied, "Because I would like to purchase a [...]
Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Dr. Larry Perkins The Psalmist declared “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me” (Psalm 71:17) and he desires that God continually would teach him to do his will (Psalm 143:10). His experience and expectation is that God does instruct him, with the result that he knows God and his ways. While this [...]
Posted on April 15th, 2008 by Dr. Larry Perkins Paul’s choice of words in his letter to Christians in the province of Galatia reflects careful intention. The issues he confronts are extremely serious, the opponents powerful and persuasive, and his audience somewhat befuddled. Strong warnings mingle with cries of frustration as he encourages these believers to keep running well the [...]
Posted on February 18th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske You can’t get away from it. Everyone’s talking about profits and losses.
The global economy is moving into a deep recession–perhaps even a depression–some say. Others are just as convinced that the markets are moving through a period of "turbulent correction" trying to find "a bottom" from which they will eventually "power upward" again to new [...]
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Dr. Kenton Anderson My friend and mentor, Grant Lovejoy, sent me a link this morning to the new website for Chronological Bible Storying. The website offers the methodology, research, and reports from the field into this powerful way of preaching to oral and indigenous cultures.
According to the website, "Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) is the process of encountering [...]
Posted on January 29th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske This Sunday marked the second installment in a four part series that our pastor is preaching through entitled "LO$T." The dollar sign in the title is purposeful. The series is all about the dangers of becoming lost as a result of things and the pursuit of them.
He began with a question, "Why do you have [...]
Posted on January 11th, 2008 by Dr. Brian Rapske Over the Christmas holiday, Rita and I received a long distance call from our eldest daughter Trish in Aberdeen, Scotland . With great excitement she announced, "Pete and I are engaged!"
The journey to this moment of family joy has been nothing if not exciting and a challenge to faith.
From their very earliest years, we as [...]
Posted on January 10th, 2008 by Mr. Mark Naylor section headings … can be misleading
I like section headings in Bible translation. They are not part of the original text, but added by the translation team to assist the reader in three ways: “1. to help those already familiar with the Bible to find a passage they know; 2. to help those unfamiliar with the [...]
Posted on January 7th, 2008 by Mr. Loren Warkentin I would like to present you with a tough but exciting challenge for 2008 . . . but let me back up a little!
This past two months I have been somewhat restricted in my activities because of a ruptured achilles tendon. After 4 weeks in a fiberglass cast and now another almost 4 weeks in [...]
Posted on December 21st, 2007 by Dr. Lyle Schrag There seems to have been a revival of interest in ancient forms of spiritual discipline, notably in the area of prayer. From the early Church, the day was marked by regular hours. As early as the Didache in 60 A.D. Christians were encouraged to pray with regularity – the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, [...]
Posted on November 14th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor Three ways to understand the Bible
My wife, Karen, heard a message by a young woman with no theological training on Jer 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you….” The young woman spoke of the verse as if it was addressed to us today and talked about the plans God has for us. Although [...]
Posted on November 5th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor I am slow. I have come to the realization – at least a full decade after more perceptive and observant thinkers – that we are no longer in the information age; we are in the networking age. Facebook is not about information, but about connecting. Due to the ease of access and overwhelming quantity of [...]
Posted on October 22nd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske It’s that time of the semester once again. The Registrar’s office has asked each professor to indicate whether they are requiring an examination that needs to be scheduled into the examination week for their courses. The schedule is out and professors and students are all now aware of when each examination will need to be [...]
Posted on October 17th, 2007 by Mr. Loren Warkentin There is, today, a proliferation of articles, books and speakers discussing the topic of “hearing God”. Several well known evangelical preachers and leaders have weighed in with their contributions. I did a web search on the words “hearing God” and was fascinated by what came up. Page after page listing web sites, books, articles and other [...]
Posted on September 26th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor For the past couple of years I have been leading a Bible study on the theme “touching the robe of Christ.” This was adopted as a paradigm for the desire to break past misleading interpretations, religious terminology and church traditions and trappings in order to connect with God through Christ, to experience the reality of [...]
Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins No, this is not an attack on any Bible translation. But it is a serious question — how do our translations of the Bible influence the forming of our Christian worldview? We believe that God intended his Word to be translated into every language. Yet as we make the transition from Greek or Hebrew text [...]
Posted on September 12th, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Many media pieces featured some aspect or other of the tragedy. Some were retrospectives of the event itself. Others covered planned commemorations. I watched one that discussed the engineering implications of 9/11 for high rise building safety.
Among them, two reports in particular struck me. One was a radio [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2007 by Dr. Kenton Anderson We have a new lead pastor at our church (Parkland Fellowship) and we couldn’t be happier. Yesterday, Brian Stewart offered us a dramatic recitation of the entire book of Philippians, from memory! I had memorized the book of Philippians some years ago, but I had never had the courage (or the wisdom) to offer it [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor As a missionary involved in Bible translation for the past 18 years, I was disappointed with the tone of the article “‘Packer’s Bible’ now bestseller” appearing in the BC Christian News, August 2007 Vol 27 #8 < http://www.canadianchristianity.com/bc/bccn/0807/01bible>. During the course of celebrating the growth in sales of the English Standard Verson (ESV) – a welcome [...]
Posted on August 9th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor “That’s just NOT right!” exclaimed a woman in a Bible study I was conducting. The object of her disapproval was Naomi’s instructions for Ruth to approach Boaz while he was sleeping (see Ruth 3). She was correct in that she recognized the inappropriateness of such an action within our society. She was incorrect because she failed to recognize [...]
Posted on August 2nd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Yesterday, August 1st at 6:05 pm, an extended section of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota suddenly collapsed, sending dozens of vehicles, together with their drivers and passengers, plunging into the Mississippi River. The images yesterday were of emergency personnel and citizens on the scene scrambling amid the tons of twisted metal and broken concrete [...]
Posted on July 31st, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins Eugene Boring in his new commentary on Mark’s Gospel published in the New Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006) proposes that the first word in Mark’s Gospel (archÄ“) signifies both beginning or origin, and norm, which he proposes should be translated as "the norm for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ" (32). There [...]
Posted on July 24th, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Our house has been a-hum with guests most of this month. But as busy as we’ve been, the joy has been greater. Sitting around the crowded dinner table laden with good things this week, I’ve been reminded of how many times in the past my family and I have been the beneficiaries of God’s great [...]
Posted on July 13th, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske Last night our family had a dinner and DVD night at home. After a delicious taco salad, we settled in to watch Miss Potter, about the famed children’s author Beatrix Potter who gave the world Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-duck and a host of other characters and their various adventures. A significant sub-theme in the movie [...]
Posted on July 3rd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske While there is a debate on about the extent of global warming, there are a few things that are sure: Storms will come and we all experience them. We may lose a few shingles off our roof. On the other hand, we may lose the whole house! This is also true in a metaphorical sense. [...]
Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Dr. Brian Rapske This past week, I’ve been teaching a course on the letter to the Philippians. Written by the apostle Paul out of the troubled circumstances of an imprisonment, it is addressed to one of his most beloved congregations who themselves were going through much trouble and persecution.
Do you know the good and the great embodiments of [...]
Posted on June 18th, 2007 by Mr. Loren Warkentin For the past several weeks our care group has been studying the topic of godliness. We have looked at a number of passages of Scripture that speak to the subject. The theme question we have posed for this study has been, “What does godliness look like in everyday shoe leather?”
The apostle Peter, speaking [...]
Posted on June 11th, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins In the infancy stories of Jesus recounted in Luke and Matthew God actively directs events to preserve his Son and to inform participants about the significance of these occurrences. For example twice in Matthew 2 God reveals (chrÄ“matizÅ) “by dream†his divine decree to the Magi and to Joseph. In the [...]
Posted on June 8th, 2007 by Mr. Mark Naylor My wife, Karen, and I belong to a Bible study connected with our church with participants who are extremely diverse in their Christian faith. One person saw God as a finite being who came into existence at the Big Bang. Another refers to himself as a “lapsed Catholic” who views God as an impersonal force. [...]
Posted on May 31st, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins It was the beginning of the third century before Christ. Alexander the Great had died and his empire divided among four generals. Greek language and culture swept through the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Palestine. Large numbers of Jewish people were relocating to the emerging metropolis of Alexandria in Egypt. Caught up in all [...]
Posted on May 11th, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins In his final segment of extended teaching to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus outlined their mission beyond the cross and urges them to be faithful to the end. In response to his prophesy that the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed, his disciples asked “When will these things be and what will be the [...]
Posted on April 6th, 2007 by Dr. Larry Perkins Discussions about the way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate within the Trinity use the term perichÅrÄ“sis to define their constant interpenetration. In several recent publications, however, various authors have suggested that this Greek noun perichÅrÄ“sis (cognate verb perichÅreÅ) signifies dance or dancing. For example, George Cladis states that “Perichoresis [...]