Hermeneutics in Everyday Life

From the Beacon Deacon Web Site

Suppose you’re traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you exegete the stop sign.

1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign (knocks it over with his car), ending forever the tyranny of the north-south traffic over the east-west traffic.

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Modern Reformation

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

R. C. Sproul

Shortly after the Reformation began, in the first few years after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, he issued some short booklets on a variety of subjects. One of the most provocative was titled The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In this book Luther was looking back to that period of Old Testament history when Jerusalem was destroyed by the invading armies of Babylon and the elite of the people were carried off into captivity. Luther in the sixteenth century took the image of the historic Babylonian captivity and reapplied it to his era and talked about the new Babylonian captivity of the Church. He was speaking of Rome as the modern Babylon that held the Gospel hostage with its rejection of the biblical understanding of justification. You can understand how fierce the controversy was, how polemical this title would be in that period by saying that the Church had not simply erred or strayed, but had fallen-that it’s actually now Babylonian; it is now in pagan captivity.

On sweet and bitter apples

Our faith isn’t intellectual; it is experiential. We don’t know about God, we know Him. At the University of Chicago Divinity School, each year they have what is called “Baptist Day.” It is a day when the school invites all the Baptists in the area to the school because they want the Baptist dollars to keep coming in.

On this day each one is to bring…… a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area. Every “Baptist Day” the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the theological education center. One year they invited Dr. Paul Tillich. Dr. Tillich spoke for two-and-a-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the Church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any questions.

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Christians vs Non-Christians

Sakkie Spangenberg & Hansie Wolmarans (non-Christians)

Prof. William Lane Craig and Prof. Michael Licona (Christians)

Faith & Reason Conference – Christians vs Non-Christians

By Grant Swart.

Faith & Reason Conference Gauteng debate took place on Wednesday evening, 12 May 2010 at the University of Pretoria.

TOPIC: “How should we understand the narratives about Jesus’ resurrection?”

Participants:

Prof. William Lane Craig and Prof. Michael Licona  (Christians)

Prof. Sakkie Spangenberg and Prof. Hansie Wolmarans  (Non-Christians)

The Americans are learned, and obviously very adept and experienced at this type of debate. They are unphased by inferior arguments, especially when such arguments are completely unsustainable, undefendable and ridiculous. Their knowledge of the Word and the power which it has in Truth, puts them into a different league on the floor, naturally. Praise His Omnipotence.

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What is the river of life?

Placed by Avalon 

The precise phrase “river of life” does not appear in the Bible. However, Revelation 22:1-2 does refer to “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The Apostle John, in his vision of the New Jerusalem, describes the river as flowing “down the middle of the great street of the city.”

The “water of life” referred to here cannot be physical water as we know it because Revelation 21:1 tells us there is “no longer any sea.” He goes on to say that there is no need for sun or moon because the glory of God and the Lamb give it light (Revelation 21:23). This would indicate that the hydrological cycle as we know it on earth does not exist in the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the water flowing from the throne is literally the water of eternal life, crystal clear to reflect the glory of God in a dazzling, never-ending stream. The fact that the stream emanates from the throne tells us that eternal life flows from God to His people.

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Everlasting Gospel from Atheist Central

Ray Comfort

But those 100 or so celebrities were just the tip of the iceberg of those who died in the past year. If statistics hold true, more than 54 million died in 2010, and 54 million will die in 2011. If my number comes up, I’m ready. Are you?

Here then is the “everlasting gospel” one more time for 2010. I hope you will listen. I would be so delighted to hear that you have given up battling against God, and surrendered to His will:

Each of us will die because we have broken God’s moral Law. Let’s see if you have broken

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New Years Resolutions for the Christian

“What sort of New Year’s Resolution should a Christian make?”

The practice of making New Year’s resolutions goes back over 3000 years to the ancient Babylonians. There is just something about the start of a New Year that gives us the feeling of a fresh start and a new beginning. In reality, there is no difference between December 31st and January 1st. Nothing mystical occurs at midnight on December 31st. The Bible does not speak for or against the concept of New Year’s resolutions. However, if a Christian determines to make a New Year’s resolution, what kind of resolution should he or she make?
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A Good Soldier

John MacArhur from Grace to You

On June 12, 1944, just six days after D-Day in World War II, a young lieutenant named Richard Winters led his men to the outskirts of Carentan. As the officer in charge of Easy Company, of the 101st Airborne, he was tasked to clear the large French town of its German defenders. It would be a small battle, but it played a significant role in the massive effort to rid the world of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

As Winters led his company up the road toward town, the company started taking machine gun fire from a German MG42. The men instinctively dived for cover into ditches on either side of the road, and stayed there–they froze. Not only was the success of the mission in jeopardy, but the men were easy targets for enemy machine gun and sniper fire.

What happened next proved to be the turning point in the battle for Carentan–it’s the stuff legends are made of. Lt. Winters went into the middle of the road and, with bullets hissing past him, started yelling at his troops to get up out of the ditches and engage the enemy. His words, coupled with his heroic action, motivated the men to get up, get in the fight, and gain a decisive victory over the Germans.

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While I’m Waiting

John Waller – While I’m Waiting

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait

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Delight Yourself in the Lord (and Do Whatever You Want!)

John MacArthur- blog

Delight Yourself in the Lord (and Do Whatever You Want!

From the transcript:

God’s will is that you be saved, spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and saying thanks all the time. That’s God’s will.

You say, “Ah, come on. You’re cheating me. I thought I was gonna get an answer about the girl I’m supposed to marry.” Oh, I’m gonna give you that. I’m gonna tell you exactly what to do. You say, “I want a specific answer.” Well that’s good. There’s one final principle and you’re gonna like it. You’re gonna like it.

If you’re saved, spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering and thankful – you ready for this? Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Marry whoever you want. Go wherever you want. Work wherever you want. Choose whatever you want. You say, “Whoa. Are you sure?” Absolutely. Because if this

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The Power of the Gospel.

This is an extract from Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen that describes the power of the Gospel. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Doctrine  Page 48:

From the beginning, Christianity was certainly a way of life; the salvation that it offered was a salvation from sin, and salvation from sin appeared not merely in a blessed hope but also in an immediate moral change. The early Christians, to the astonishment of their neighbors, lived a strange new kind of life–a life of honesty, of purity and of unselfishness. And from the Christian community all other types of life were excluded in the strictest way. From the beginning Christianity was certainly a life.

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The “Age of Accountability”

From : Grace to you blog

What is the Scriptural basis for an “age of accountability” regarding a child’s salvation?

I think the best way to answer that is to say this: There is no “age of accountability” identified in Scripture, as such. There is nothing in the Bible that says, “Here is the age and from here on you are responsible!” I think the reason for that is because children mature at different paces. That would be true from culture to culture, and from age to age in history.

So the Lord in His wisdom didn’t identify a specific moment. God knows when each soul is accountable. God knows when real rejection has taken place; when the love of sin exists in the heart. When enmity with God is conscious and willful. God alone knows when that occurs.

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The Rejection of Christian Doctrines

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The Dangers of Postmodernism

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An Interfaith Movement is Taking Root Worldwide

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