Nazarene Caffeine

The book of James is one of the most practical books in the New Testament. James was written early in the life of the church and focuses primarily on practical issues in the Jewish-Christian communities that he wrote to. Issues such as pride and humility, faith and works, the tamed and untamed tongue, trials and temptations, and the proper treatment of the poor were issues that James felt compelled to address in these new communities of believers. The timeless nature of James addresses these issues that still need to be addressed in some corners of the church. This letter is both thoroughly Jewish, yet distinctly Christian. James has rightly earned the title "The Proverbs of the New Testament." This book reads less like a theological treatise and more like a sermon. Perhaps because of this, the book of James has been notoriously difficult to outline.  Dr. J. Michael Walters  notes, "For centuries, the conventional approach to the book of James was to view it as a loosely...

.  Peter Ruckman is best known for his view that the 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the perfect Bible in English. He held the view that the 1611 King James Version was so perfect that it could be used to correct the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. We have explored some of this in a previous post . In short, Ruckman believed in a type of "re-inspiration" of the King James Version such that it was rendered superior to even the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts from which it was translated. Ruckman's work consistently makes it clear that it is the 1611 KJV that he believes was "re-inspired," and not a later update to the KJV (we will look at these in a minute). It is the 1611 KJV that he defends with his arguments from crown authority and lack of copyright. 1  It is the 1611 KJV that Ruckman argues was re-inspired when he claims that the Holy Spirit urged the King James translators to write. 2  It is the 1611 King James Version that Peter Ruckman defended through...

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States. One of the most well-known facts about his life is that he taught Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. I am not sure that he still teaches Sunday School there, given his current health. However, his teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church spanned several years. While I respect Jimmy Carter, he is not immune from error, even when it comes to interpreting the Bible. A statement from Jimmy Carter has been circulating around Facebook. The statement comes from a 2012 interview Jimmy Carter gave to the Huffington Post. This statement is shown below: This argument didn't originate with Jimmy Carter. It was around before Jimmy Carter's interview. We will examine in a subsequent post whether or not this argument is accurate. For the purposes of this post, I think it is necessary to share why the interpretive method used by Jimmy Carter here is not solid. Despite its lack of merit, this interpretive method is...

  One of the most significant developments during my lifetime has been the rise and popular use of the internet. The internet has provided us with a great amount of good, and an equal, or perhaps even greater, amount of bad. While the internet provides a way for us to have an endless supply of good information at our fingertips, it also provides a way for us to have an endless supply of bad information at our fingertips. The problem arises when the bad information becomes more accessible than the good information. To quote the philosopher Bertrand Russell: "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." Biblical interpretation is no exception to this rule. Each day, I see people make silly statements about the Bible and how it should be understood. The vast majority of these come from non-Christian ...

If you have followed this blog for some time, you will have heard me mention that I went to a Christian high school. While I have my disagreements with the theological position of this school on some issues, I am grateful for some of the things that the school instilled in me. As I am grateful, for example, for the fact that we opened each day with Bible classes, which instilled in me a love of Scripture and a practice of making Scripture study a regular part of my life. I am also grateful for the fact that we would be required a verse of Scripture each week. However, this is part of the problem. The issue is that we were required to memorize A VERSE of Scripture each week. While the memorization of Scripture is a positive practice that all Christians should engage in, there is an issue with memorizing a single verse of Scripture to the exclusion of the passage as a whole. The issue is simply this: When we memorize a verse of Scripture, we often miss the literary context in which we fi...

  I went to a Christian high school. They provided about what you would expect from a Christian school. We had Bible class every morning. We were expected to memorize Scripture each week. We had a time of worship every Friday. They even had a Church service on the School property each Sunday for those who did not otherwise have a Church home. Overall, this was a wonderful school. I loved my instructors, and I loved my fellow students. However, as I have become older and more mature in my faith, I have come to find myself in disagreement with what the school taught on some non-essential issues. One of these issues is the best translation of the Bible. You see, my high school was a King James Version Only high school. We were taught that every translation except the King James Version was corrupted. The NIV was especially called out on a regular basis as being compromised. When we memorized Scripture, it had to be from the King James Version. While I used other versions in my study o...

  I went to a Christian high school called Eastwood Christian School. It was located in Opelika, Alabama. I had plenty of great experiences at this school, and I am grateful for the impact they have had on my life. As I have grown in my understanding of the Bible and Christian theology, however, I have come to notice several disagreements between myself and what was taught at the school. It may help to mention that I am Wesleyan in my theology. The school was different. Imagine, if you will, what would happen if an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church married an Assemblies of God Church. Now imagine if there was a baby from this marriage. Eastwood Christian School would have been that child. They had some distinctive views, affirming both speaking in tongues and the inspiration of the King James Version of the Bible. That is, they believed that the King James Version was the only inspired English version, and that every other version was a corruption. This confused me, because a...

  If you are a commentary lover like me, you love to collect and read good commentaries. However, if you are like me, the one thing that consistently drives you away from commentaries is the price. Some of the commentaries out there are fairly affordable (such as Warren Wiersbe's "Be" Commentary Series ). Other, often higher quality, commentaries can cost a pretty penny (such as the New International Commentary Series or the Word Biblical Commentary ). Fortunately for us, there are some places that offer commentaries for free, with no strings attached. In this post, I want to show you where to find some of these FREE  commentaries, as well as where to find some cheaper commentaries to make use of.  1. Logos Bible Software For those of you who do not know, Logos Bible Software gives away a free book each month. In fact, they give not only one free book each month, but three. They also give away a book through Faithlife , their parent company, as well as Verbum , which is...