Geography is part of historical context. Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn!!!!! No! Not just maps and boring stuff, but real places and the experience of living and moving and having one’s being there. Like the wise one said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”~ Mark Twain… ooops wrong quote…...
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December 29, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies
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When I talk about Biblical Theology I usually intend an approach to Scripture that envelopes many things. Like ordering a car and understanding that it will come with a lot of parts already put together… hopefully. Some of my friends prefer kits. Biblical Theology’s subject is specific. It’s...
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December 15, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
How hard could it possibly be to find agreement on the meaning of a phrase as simple as biblical theology? In truth… harder than I’d like. Biblical theology is not, after all, merely theological ideas that are “biblical,” and the history of the phrase biblical theology is, unfortunately,...
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December 8, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
In our own western culture the connection between names and meaning is rather slight. I know this, in part, because I am one of those annoying, but well meaning, people who goes about attempting to engage others in witty conversation, only to discover 7 times out of 10...
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August 14, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Uncategorized
Doing biblical theology requires one to lay aside even precious biases in order to hear the message of Scripture speaking from foreign lands in foreign tongues out of foreign cultures. The Phenomenological method, so vital to biblical theology, demands that we listen to each text as believers wholly...
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August 9, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
One of the advantages, or disadvantages as the case may be, of being a biblical theologian, in which my phenomenological (i.e. believer’s) approach to the text within a historical grammatical and literary context through inductive method holds sway, is that I am excused within my heart from having...
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August 4, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies, Theology
In considering the meaning of a simple word like concubine one finds an excellent example of the challenges that face modern attempts to represent many biblical terms. Sometimes we not only lack the words to properly translate, but we also lack the mental categories to emotionally understand. Technical...
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August 2, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies
To those who mainly regard the Bible as a source for answering their every question about God and the world, biblical theologians can be a real pill, and biblical theology can feel more than a little threatening… I get that. We are, however, worth getting to know. Thus,...
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July 26, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies, Theology
Communication at its most basic is the use of symbols to affect the understanding of another. The symbols at a communicator’s disposal are both verbal and non-verbal. Verbal tools are spoken & heard symbols that represent ideas. Non-verbal tools are unspoken symbols that represent ideas. Phonology—uses words (individual...
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July 14, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Communication, HAGALAH
Today I want to consider the 5th of seven paths of investigation that a person should take in an attempt to understand a New Testament author’s USE of an Old Testament text. Some falsely imagine that texts like Matthew 2:15—in which an historical comment in Hosea 11:1 is...
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May 1, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
In this edited sermon, I consider Jeremiah 45 in historical, grammatical and literary context. Baruch has been called away from a life of promise to play second fiddle to a hated prophet… to share in Jeremiah’s suffering and rejection. He is less than excited by the call...
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April 26, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
This is a heavily edited message about the power of poetry as a vehicle for the inspired word of God. Poetry is not a mere vessel for the message of poetic sermons, but is part of the message, holding secrets to meaning, and the power of emotive connection....
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April 24, 2017 Andrew Sargent
HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
If a person sets the various stories of Hezekiah into chronological order a fascinating pattern emerges. Hezekiah is a man of great faith during a time great crisis. He is all the more remarkable considering his father, who was a true reprobate who sold out Judah to...
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April 21, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies
This is an edited sermon about the meaning behind Matthew’s claim that Joseph moving to Nazareth was a fulfillment of Scripture. It explores the meaning of “fulfillment” in the New Testament, the history of the city, the nature of Matthew’s use of the prophets, the problem with spelling...
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April 19, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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In this edited sermon, I address the common misinterpretation of the line in Isaiah 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish. First people fail to quote the whole proverb. It goes, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy...
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April 17, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
I am pleased to welcome Othello Mugugu back as a guest blogger today. He originally hails from Zimbabwe, has a Bachelors from Northpoint Bible College, Serves in the American Army, has completed his Masters in Religious Studies from Providence College in Providence Rhode Island. Today he has allowed me to...
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April 14, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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This is the heavily edited 6th narrative sermon in the Gospel of Mark. Here Mark uses a repeating story structure to portray Jesus as a deified man who overcomes the impossible in bigger than life miracles after the experts of the day have done all that the...
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April 12, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
This is the 8th narrative sermon in the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus’ confrontation of the Pharisaic regulations called “The Traditions of the Elders,” which are a body of 18 new oral laws passed by the religious leaders in order to drive a wedge of hatred...
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April 10, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies
This is a highly edited sermon on the 5th narrative sermon of the Gospel of Mark. In it I address Mark’s depiction of Jesus’ parable telling. It is the first record of Jesus’ actual teaching since the short snippet recorded in chapter one concerning the time of...
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April 5, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies
Matthew 2:15 is one of those passages that bothered me a lot when I was a young Bible college student. After reading the original passage from which this “fulfillment” was quoted, I asked a prof in class one day, little realizing the historical significance of my wording, “How...
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March 8, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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