Nazarene Caffeine

  For the past couple of years, I have done a year in review in which I take a look at the most popular articles from the previous year. Most of the time, I am surprised to find that the articles that I think will be the most popular are not usually the most popular. It is also fun to compare the rankings between the previous year and the current year. The way these rankings work is simple: We are counting down the top 10 posts based on the number of times they were viewed over the course of the previous 12 months. This does give an advantage to the posts that are written earlier rather than later. However, it is also interesting to see which posts remain in the top 10 year after year. If you would like to compare this year's ranking with the rankings from 2023, you can find last year's post here . 10. The Holy Spirit Taking the number 10 spot this year, having been viewed around 100 times, is an incredibly early article on the Holy Spirit. This article has replaced 2023's ...

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...

  There are different beliefs within the King James Only Movement. I would like to explore two of them in this introduction. It is important to understand some key distinctions between these two groups, or else it may seem that I am attacking a position that I am not attacking. Therefore, I will draw a distinction between two different groups within the King James Only Movement. The first camp simply asserts that the King James Version is the best English translation. This claim could be labelled the "Classic KJV-Only" position. This is the position that was held by what appears to be the majority of people who advocated for the King James Version's superiority to other translations up until about the middle of the 20th century. Typically, a person in this group will hold to the idea that the Textus Receptus is divinely preserved, and the King James Version is the best translation from the Textus Receptus. Or, in some cases, that the Textus Receptus is the best Greek basi...

  I have previously  about the topic of repentance. In my previous post on the topic, I was mostly providing a short commentary on the Church of the Nazarene's Article of Faith on repentance. Repentance is not something that is optional. God calls everyone, everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). It is not only for a few, and it is not something that is optional if we want to follow Christ. In fact, it is something that everyone is not only offered, but something that everyone needs . If all have sinned, and repentance means turning away from sin, then everyone needs repentance. I did not anticipate writing a follow-up post on this topic after my article on the Nazarene Church's Article of Faith, since I kind of assumed that most people would have understood the concept of repentance based on the previous post that I made. However, it seems that there are still some myths surrounding the topic of repentance. It is the purpose of this post to address one of the biggest misunderstand...

  (Due to the length of this post, I have made it available via PDF for those who would prefer to read it in multiple sittings. The PDF can be found here .) In the previous post, we examined the three arguments that are often used by KJV-Only advocates to provide an affirmative answer to the question, " Does Psalm 12:6-7 support the view that God has divinely preserved Scripture in such a way as to create a perfect and flawless English translation in the King James Version?" As we examined each of these arguments, we found that they each have major weaknesses and, as a result, come up short. In this post, we are going to examine some arguments for what we have labeled the "contrary" position. That is, we are going to examine some arguments that have been put forward for the position that Psalm 12:6-7 does not provide support for the KJV-Only doctrine of preservation outlined above and in the previous post. Specifically, the contents of this post are an outgrowth of ...

One of the passages that has been central to the discussion of the King James Only position has been Psalm 12:6.-7 This passage, in the KJV, reads, " The words of the   Lord   are   pure words: as   silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O   Lord , thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." The reason that this passage is central to the debate comes from the claim that stems from specific understandings of this passage. The KJV-Only advocate often sees in this passage a Doctrine of Preservation. There are different nuances taken by different individuals in the King James Only camp. There are some who see a Doctrine of Preservation whereby God divinely preserved the Greek and Hebrew texts in such a way that the King James Version that came from them was pure, like a piece of silver or gold that has been refined in fire. Others see in this passage an allusion to the King James Version itself. Some, such as Pet...