The Peter Principles: Peter’s Formula for Using “Spiritual” Gifts
Peter presents the purpose of the gift and the employment of the gift in 4:11b: “so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Again, this is very simple. The purpose is theocentric and doxological – centered on Him and for His glory. Peter’s principles, then, for gifts are as follows…
A Recommended Biblical Statement on Gender, Sexuality, and Marriage
From evolving societal perceptions of gender and sexuality and from newly adjusted legal definitions of marriage emanating from SCOTUS emerge significant complications for churches and other faith-based organizations. As a result, there has recently been a wave...
How to Measure Pastoral Success
For some unidentifiable reason I enjoy tormenting students with an important albeit slippery theological and philosophical question. What is good? As you might imagine, the answers I get are quite diverse. One student recently responded by citing an online dictionary...
“The most effective leadership, management, and efficiency models share traits common with each other, and traits that are ultimately traceable to the pages of the Bible. While these models are often not intentionally rooted in Biblical concepts by those that promote the models, the models illustrate how applying Biblical principles can set a trajectory of success in enterprise and in life. Led By a Lion is designed to introduce some of these leadership, management, and efficiency models, but goes a step further in identifying the Biblical genesis of many of the core traits that fuel the success of these models.”
Why Am I Planting a Church in San Diego?
After much prayerful labor by many people, on July 25, 2015, as God allows, San Diego Fellowship of the Bible (SDF, for short) will launch. But why and with what distinctives? One characteristic shared by many areas in the United States is the number of local...
Some Definitions Related to God’s Program and Administration
Understanding the Biblical usage of terms such as dispensation, covenant, and kingdom of God can go a long way in helping is recognize what God's big picture is, and how He intends to fill in the details. Let's take a look at some definitions and explanations of these...
Israel and the Church: Are We Not All Descendants of Abraham?
Galatians 3:29 explains that, “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” The passage leads some to conclude that those who are in Christ are ultimately grafted into Israel, and receive the covenant blessings promised to...
“This approach has the advantage of seeking to view all knowledge through the lens of Scripture, and to subject all knowledge to the authority of Scripture. It encourages science and research within the field of psychology. It offers a Biblical balance of description and prescription. Of course, if the Bible is unreliable, then the refractive power of Scripture is distortive rather than corrective, but the epistemological premise of this approach is that God’s word is authoritative and sufficient for our understanding, for our equipping, and for our practice. There are many extra-biblical resources that we can employ, but in seeking out how and when to do that, we mustn’t lose sight of the one reliable constant that God has provided for us – the Bible.” –Chapter 9
Reader Review: Integrating Exegesis and Exposition
by Greg Perry – Integrating Exegesis and Exposition was an unexpected pleasure for me. Literally, while reading the first page of the first chapter, a sentence struck me as extraordinary insight into Scripture so I stopped right there on the first page and went to...
The Plurality Principle: How Many Pastors Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
The Grounding of Monocratic Leadership Just as the people of Israel could not stand to be without Moses for even forty days, so the church has allowed itself to become dependent on icons and to fall prey to the cult of personality. It seems that Israel, failing to...
Biblical Ethics For Those Who Don’t Believe
The perception that the Bible is simply a collection of do’s and don’ts is not new, and is a conclusion easily drawn by those who haven’t actually read the Bible. But an attentive reading of the Bible helps us understand quite a bit about who God is and what He...
“The Green Tree is an exceptional work…provides a vital tool for every Bible interpreter…Just as the root system is the foundation of a tree and directly impacts the health of a tree, hermeneutic method is at the root of one’s worldview. This illustration demonstrates that the hermeneutic method that an interpreter of the Bible employs will significantly affect the outcome. The tree will either be healthy, or it will not be healthy…The authors provide a unique examination of Revelation, Genesis, and Job that demonstrates that the LGH hermeneutic is derived from within Scripture, something that other hermeneutical methods fail to demonstrate. This is perhaps the most crucial principle demonstrated in The Green Tree, and it effectively demonstrates that the LGH hermeneutic is also the Biblical hermeneutic.” – Andrew Friend (Amazon Review)
The Genesis Account as Early Model for Scriptural Hermeneutics
Presented to the Symposium on Scripture, Hermeneutics, and Language, San Diego State University, April 13, 2015. "...From the opening of Genesis to its conclusion, the book records roughly two thousand years of history. Further, Genesis alleges that these two thousand...
Three Days That Changed Everything
A man named Jesus hung on a cross. To that point this man had endured the rejection of his people, arrest on false pretenses, an illegal trial in which he was falsely accused, beaten and abused, and ultimately condemned to die because of the spiritual arrogance of his...
Priority in Communicating to Mixed Audiences in a Church Setting
In any number of settings, a Bible communicator will not be aware of the spiritual/positional status of the listeners. In fact, only the Lord has the capacity to truly understand what is in the heart of man (1 Cor 4:5). Consequently, while we do observe a clear...
Patterns in Exposition: Biblical Dynamics for Preaching and Teaching
Biblical Rationale for Dynamics in Communication Just as we seek to discover our hermeneutic method from the pages of Scripture, and just as we seek to apply those principles consistently, we also need to recognize that Scripture has much to say regarding how we...
The Hermeneutic and Exegetical Implications of Descriptive and Prescriptive
The short-form process of discerning and appropriating the meaning of a Biblical passage includes the four basic steps of (1) observation, (2) interpretation, (3) correlation, and (4) application. The more detailed process exegetical process includes nine steps: (1)...
The Biblical Difference Between Preaching and Teaching
The Greek New Testament uses many different words to describe distinct methods of communicating. There are thirteen hundred and twenty-nine references in the Greek New Testament using forms of the word lego, which is to say or speak. Two hundred and ninety-six times...
10 Keys For Church Growth
It is amazing how feverishly we sometimes pursue things that aren’t real. Imagine a church growth conference for pastors in which there is more attention given to a Stanford economist than to the words of the Bible (really happened). Imagine a book outlining keys to...
Logical Errors of Affirming a Disjunct in John 10
The formal structure of a fallacious argument affirming a disjunct looks like this: A or B, A, Therefore not B. This is not a valid form of argument, yet it is a commonly utilized fallacy. Let’s look at two examples often inferred from John 10. John 10:11 reads, “I am...
9 Steps for Bible Exegesis and Exposition, Step #3: Identify Structural Keys
After verifying the text and translation of the passage we are considering, and after examining the background and context, we need to identify the structural keys – or building blocks – of the book so that we can recognize shifts in thought or argument, and...
The Tithing Myth
I recall once visiting a church, and on that morning the pastor said, “If you don’t tithe before you pay your electric bill, then you are sinning against God.” As I eagerly awaited the Biblical evidence, not surprisingly he produced none. On the contrary, a simple...