Category: Faith

Read the Bible Yourself and then Decide

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In the Bible by Leland Francisco

Believers and unbelievers alike make mistakes in reading the Bible. People rely on certain passages and certain viewpoints to the exclusion of others. People miss the forest for the trees, as they say.

Within the “Church”, the number of denominations is partially a result of different emphases on different aspects of God, the Bible and other things. When this proclivity tends to the extreme, it results in things like witch hunts and cults. Many of the dark periods of church history are, in part, examples of an inflexible adherence to specific certain truths, doctrinal, political or other views of Christianity to the exclusion of others.

Any overemphasis on specific passages or positions or facts can lead to an unbalanced view of God and error. Continue reading “Read the Bible Yourself and then Decide” →

What about People Who Never heard of Jesus?

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Dramatic Aerial view of Rio De Janeiro

One of the most asked questions about Christianity goes something like this:

If Jesus is the only way to heaven, what about the people who lived before Jesus was born?

A corollary question is: What about the people who have never had an opportunity to hear about Jesus? I am no biblical scholar, but I have wondered about these things myself. Continue reading “What about People Who Never heard of Jesus?” →

Where Spiritual Growth Happens

The view from the mountaintop reveals the lush growth that takes place only in the valley.

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Photo by Chris A. Fraley at Bonticou Crag

Mountaintop experiences are great. We wish we could stay there forever, but we can’t. We have to come done where mundane, everyday life always follows, and we find ourselves trudging along in the valley.

Let’s face it: we spend most of our time in the valley, but we yearn to be on the mountaintop. If someone could bottle that mountaintop experience, it would sell!

In fact, people do try to buy it. People try drugs, alcohol, sex, thrills and other things looking for mountaintop experiences. I have done that too, but I have found that there is no substitute for experiencing God’s presence – even in the valley.

I would buy it if I could! But, God’s presence can’t be bought. Mountain top experiences are not something that we can experience all the time. That isn’t the way it works. It didn’t even work that way with Jesus and his disciples.

Continue reading “Where Spiritual Growth Happens” →

Words have Power

Both faith and science instruct us that words have power

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The phrase Words Have Power on a Blackboard

I find reminders of God in science. This article, Scientific Evidence Thoughts & Intentions can Alter the Physical World Around Us, provides another link between science and religion, demonstrating the creative and destructive force of words/thoughts. Christians talk about the power of prayer, and science backs it up.

I do not believe that these scientists have any religious inclinations; at least none that I am aware. The experiments do not necessarily mean that God is behind the phenomena. The experiments do show, however, a positive correlation between positive words and positive thinking; and they show a correlation between negative words and negative thinking and decay and degeneration. Continue reading “Words have Power” →

Slavery in the New Testament

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When I first tackled the subject of slavery in the New Testament, I missed many of the references and the larger context, so I have taken some time to revisit it and expand on what I previously did.

kevingdrendel's avatarNavigating by Faith

hieroglyphics of slaves in Abu SimbelA recent conversation with one of my sons spurred me to consider slavery as it is addressed in the New Testament. The Bible is criticized by skeptics by pointing its treatment of slavery. Indeed, there are instructions given to the nation of Israel that seem to endorse slavery as an accepted practice. In the New Testament we do not see any statement condemning slavery. What does the Bible say about it?

Slavery was common among all nations through most of history. We tend to view slavery through the lens of racism in the United States, but servitude has taken many forms over the centuries (captors in war, indentured servants, etc.). Slavery was also common in the culture in the 1st Century AD.

For Christians, Jesus is the lens through which we view all of the Scripture. Jesus introduced a fundamental paradigm change, and so, for a Christian take on slavery, we need to…

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