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I was at a website the other day that had a daily Scripture at the top of the page. This particular day it had Matt. 4:9 “All of this I will give to you if you will worship me.” Out of context, that looks fine. God will give us many blessings if we worship him. The problem is that this is a quotation from Satan when he tempted Christ!

Ah, the cluelessness of single-verse Twitter Tweeting.

Kind of like that “We Are The World” Celebrity charitable fundraiser song back in the Eighties, with its Biblical reference of “we can change these stones into bread”…

Hey Michael! I’m linking you in my Friday blog post: http://www.infinitlove.blogspot.com. Just wanted to let you know. I didn’t quote anything, just recommended my readers to connect with you, and gave the link.

Matt, I would like to recommend a couple of useful books regarding reading and understanding the Bible and how to interpret it.

1) How to Study the Bible for Yourself by Tim Lahaye
2) Basic Bible Interpretation, Roy Zuck

I’ve also heard really good things about a book called The Hermeneutical Spiral, by Grant Osborne. I haven’t read it but peaked at the contents and it looks worth checking out.

I would also recommend these basic systematic theology books to use as reference as you learn and navigate through basic Christine doctrine:

1) Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem
2) Basic Theology, by Charles Ryrie
3) Mosaic of Christian Belief, by Roger Olson

Hope that helps

Matt, as Paul tells us the purpose iof scripture is to equip the man of God to every good work, we can be sure that thos things which equip the man of God or any other man with excuses to embolden him in his sins or make him pass the buck to Adam or worse blame God and say “God controls all things, so when I sin its because God made me,”–these are clearly not from God and not inspired of God, unless they are perhaps inspired in the sense that God allows the devil to sow such things as a test to see who will greedily snatch such things up and live by them to their destruction, that he might weed out the chaff which he will burn with unquencheable fire (as John the Baptist says) for his winnowing fan is in his hand.

Thanks so much CMP! Sincerely appreciated. I know I’ll be looking forward to sessions 9 and 10 now and eventually getting through the program so I can understand all the terms you just threw out! =)

In the end, keep things on track and no sound bite shots at the faith. We all get a little anxious believing that we need to respond to each on every time. This is not a forum.

Rey, this is getting very off base and filled with emotionally charged cliche arguments against Christianity (some of which are very bizzare).

This is not the place for it.

I can’t interact with old threads as there is simply not enough time for me to do so. However, I do like to keep threads open for good, well-thought, conversation about the topic. Right now, you are not qualifying for any of these.

Your problems with Matthew and the virgin birth are understandabe from a hermeneutical perspective, but they are far from giving a valid alternative in the Christian worldview.

I would suggest you going through sessions 9 and 10 of The Theology Program. In session 9 we deal with Matthew’s use of the Old Testament.

In the end, such prophecies could be part of the sensus plenoir or contained in the original in a far-near paradigm. The virgin birth is not only part of Gospel history, but part of the Great Tradition itself.

Rey,

As a young Christian beginning to learn more about how to properly understand the Bible, I would love to know more about how, beyond our own personal discretion/opinion, we are to decipher which passages are tares? Could you go into a bit more depth as to how an inexperienced Christian such as myself might do so? What criteria do you suggest a believer use beyond their heart? What about two people who’s hearts offer conflicting perspectives?

Also, what non-tare verse or scripture might you use to support this perspective of having to sort through the Bible to find the pieces introduced by Satan beyond the parable mentioned? While I also struggle with some of the prescriptions of God from the OT and hope someone with more wisdom than myself might respond to your comments about genocide and raping foreign women (and why those are from God), could you explain what you meant by “condemns people to hell on a coin-toss or for another man’s sin,”?

Thanks for offering your thoughts as they are definitely new to me. CMP any chance you could weigh in with your thoughts?