Bookish Fellowship Forum

It’s been up for a while now, but I haven’t really promoted it. I thought with Plummer’s declaration of May being “Read a Historical Theology text month,” it might be a good time. If anyone will be reading the Historical Theology text by Gregg Allison and wants to discuss, please come sign up. Even if you decide to read another text, or not to participate in the historical theology reading at all… still come sign up! The Bookish Fellowship Forum has been created primarily for Christians who love to read (though everyone is welcome), whether it be fiction or non-fiction… or even just the Bible. If you love books half as much as I do then you should come join. You can head straight over to the forum by clicking here, or you can get to it from the blog’s menu. I’m also open to suggestions, as I’d like this to become a community for all to enjoy.

Hope to see you there!

Who Loves Bible Study? I DO!

Professor Rob Plummer has declared the month of May  “Read a Historical Theology text month.” What is historical theology? Plummer describes it as, “the academic discipline that looks at the development and articulation of Christian doctrine throughout church history.” He has decided to read about 30 pages a day from Gregg Allison’s “Historical Theology.” This book has been on my radar for a few months now, so I’ve decided to read along with Prof. Plummer. I ordered the book from CBD, which has it on sale for $28.99. I should get it next Thursday, and I’ll probably start it right away to give myself a little extra time as I am also using other textbooks right now to help in my Bible study.

Today I will finish the last assignment in Chapter 3 of “Grasping God’s Word,” a textbook that helps you learn how to really dig into the Biblical text, drawing out the meaning that was actually intended instead of reading meaning into the text. I also plan to read through Chapter 4 and do at least one assignment from that chapter. I’m using the second edition (which I also purchased from CBD), mostly because I got impatient and couldn’t wait for the third edition that is being released in May. There is also a workbook that goes along with it, which I highly suggest to you get if you use the textbook. So far, the material has been about practice, practice, practice… but I’m loving it, and I can’t wait to get to the deeper stuff.

I’ve also started over with Greek. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that I have retained even a little bit of what I had learned before. I am using Bill Mounce’s Greek Grammar and workbook (second edition… there is also a third edition available now) which I purchased a couple of years ago. I really want to learn this, but it’s very hard doing it alone. One of my goals for this year was to pick this up again, and I have… and I’m determined to stick with it.

I’m all-in right now. I purchased a few other resources as well, but I may not get to those for a while as I’m still doing other reading as well. Busy, busy, busy. But loving it!

Hateful Christianity?

Why is it that so many non-Christians see Christians as hateful and judgmental? We have to ask ourselves this question. The world of the internet, especially, opens up a large variety of views, but one that seems to be at the forefront is that Christians are hateful. Why is that? My answer may not be easily taken, but I believe it’s the truth: the most vocal people of the Christian world are the people who are hateful and judgmental. There are certain organizations that give all Christians a bad name. I won’t call out anyone in particular. I am not judging them. I don’t know why they act the way they do. I don’t know what causes the hatred they feel. All I know is it is not scriptural. It saddens me that Christians are so hated, not because people hate us, but because it causes them to hate Jesus, hate God, and close their ears and hearts to anything we might have to say.

The problem with organizations like the ones I mentioned above, and the people who share their thinking, is that they tend to focus on one sin as more sinful than others. Sin is sin. Anything that separates us from God is sin. This comes across as hatred of a particular group of people.  Another problem that arises is that instead of sharing the Gospel with love, they spew hatred and judgment. Judgment is not ours to hand out, and Christ called us to love everyone, even our enemies.

Does God hate sin? Yes! Why? Because sin separates us from Him and we were created for fellowship with Him. Does God punish sin? Yes. He forever separates us from Himself and, in the end, we go to Hell. I’m not going to focus on sin and Hell too much here, because this is not a call to the unsaved. It’s a plea to anyone who calls themselves “Christian.”

The Bible does NOT say “Go and tell the world I hate them.” No, the Bible says “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Cor 5:18-21). If we are speaking for Christ we need to ask ourselves, would Jesus have said what I am going to say?

Keep Your Greek (a preview)

Keep Your Greek by Constantine Campbell is a book I will be posting a review for next week, but I have finished reading it and since I’ve added it to my 52 books challenge page I decided to do a quick post to say “the review is coming” and maybe give you a few things to check out.

This won’t your average book review, because this isn’t your average book. It is for students of Biblical Greek. Students who fear they will LOSE all the Greek they’ve learned once they are no longer students. That’s all I’ll say for now, but you can check out the book with the Zondervan widget in the sidebar. Stay tuned for my review next week.

Eternal Hell or an Unconscious Death?

I came cross a Christian website that seemed to be very good. I looked around, and it seemed to hold to Biblical truth. So, I downloaded a couple of their free bible studies and began to read. That’s when my stomach sank. They made two claims that threw me for a loop:

1) When we die, there is nothing. We are simply in an unconscious state until the day of judgement when we are raised from the dead and are sent to either Heaven or Hell.

2) Hell is not eternal. In Hell, the body and soul are destroyed and cease to exist.

After reading this study, I had that nagging doubt – that little voice saying, “You were wrong in what you believed.” Especially since this study used scripture to back itself up, and it seemed to make sense. Then I remembered, even the Devil knows the scripture and can quote it for his own purposes. He did it with Jesus in the wilderness, trying to tempt Him. So, today I did my own study. What I found was that while many of the statements made in the study were simply misguided, some where flat out wrong. You’ll notice that I have not (and will not) mention the website or the sect this study came from. My purpose is not to call out anyone or to judge them. My purpose is simply to find out what the Bible says is true. So let’s start by getting the first claim out of the way:

1) When we die, there is nothing. We are simply in an unconscious state until the day of judgement when we are raised from the dead and are sent to either Heaven or Hell.

The claim was that there was no evidence in scripture to show that an “imaginary” soul (yes, they said “imaginary”) was whisked away to Heaven or Hell immediately after death, but there is only one scripture needed to show the error of this statement, and it comes from Jesus himself. Luke 23:43. Two other men were hanged on crosses next to Jesus. One mocked Jesus, but the other stated that he knew he was getting his just reward for his deeds, and asked Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Now look at verse 43, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Verily I say to you, today shall you be with me in paradise.’” This man on the cross was the first to admit his sinful nature, proclaim Jesus as Lord, and enter Heaven through the salvation of Jesus Christ. And he entered that very day when he died, as Jesus said. He is not somewhere in an unconscious state waiting to be resurrected and judged.

2) Hell is not eternal. In Hell, the body and soul are destroyed and cease to exist.

This one is a bit harder, but what I found convinced me that this statement is also false. Two places in particular.

Revelation 20:10 – “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone… and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Sounds like eternity, doesn’t it? Let’s do a quick word study just to be sure. The word “ever” in the original Greek text is “aion.” This word is used several times along with other words in the Greek to portray “forever.” Webster’s dictionary defines “forever” as “eternally” and “continually.” That word grouping is used here in Revelation 20:10 – “for ever and ever.” And others end up in the lake of fire too: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). They too will receive judgement for ever and ever.

Revelation 14:11 – That same word grouping from Revelation 20:10 is used here. “And the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night…”

So why do the author of this study and the members of this sect believe these things they claim. Their reason is that our loving God could never torture people for eternity just for not believing in Jesus. They also say that it is not justice because a man who died 5000 years ago with only one sin would be tormented almost 5000 years longer than someone like Adolf Hitler who tormented and sent millions to their death. But is this really the situation? Let’s go back to the garden of Eden:

Man knew no sin. He was God’s perfect creation. Man was created to be an eternal creature, made for fellowship with God. God’s only command was that man not eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But man had free will (God wants us to love Him willingly), and was tempted into eating the forbidden fruit. Man was no longer perfect, and sin (disobedience to God’s law) and death entered the human world. Now a fallen creation, like Lucifer, man could not stay in God’s presence.

So we now have sin and death. Death is inevitable. We will all die. There are only two places to go when we die, Heaven or Hell. What is it that keeps us from Heaven and sends us to Hell? Sin! Disobediance to God’s law! And we are all sinners. The claim I mentioned before about the man who had commited only one sin is beyond unlikely. God’s law is not just the Ten Commandments, but all the law laid out by Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus took the law even further saying that if you hate a brother you have already commited murder in your heart. And that is just one example. By God’s standard we should all be in Hell. Would we all suffer the same torment? No. While Hell would be eternal for everyone, the punishments would not be the same. We are told in Acts 17:31 that God’s judgement will be according to righteousness. We will be judged by our deeds, based on how they measure up to the righteousness of God. Do you see why we all belong there? No fallen creation can live up to God’s standards. God knows this! That is why he came to us as the man Jesus Christ, and died on a cross. He was the only man to live a sinless life, which he traded to take on all of our sins. He  took our sins upon Himself and became the sacrifice needed for atonement (which was part of the Jewish law). By repenting of our sins and proclaiming Jesus as Lord, we are saved from Hell! But that salvation is in our hands. We still have our free will. We can either accept or deny Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. If we choose to deny Christ, then our sins are still our own, and those sins send us to Hell, which is eternal.