As a constant advocate for Biblical Theology, some imagine that I want Biblical Theology instead of Systematic Theology. I don’t. Systematic Theology does not hold as much interest for me as for others who are more naturally inclined to that type of theological conversation, but Systematic Theology is...
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September 26, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, Theology
Mat 18:20 ” For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” We may as well get this out of the way right up front. Matthew 18:20 has NOTHING to do with prayer, corporate or otherwise. Now, don’t get me wrong. Prayer...
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September 24, 2019 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Studies, Inductive Study Methods, New Testament Studies
One of the transforming insights I’ve gained over the last few years regards the blindness, deafness, insensibility of the human heart. I sit stupefied at the depth of human evil in many who are so untouched by divine light as to perpetrate and defend the vilest acts against...
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April 30, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Communication, Contexualization, Society, Theology
The first Law, planted in Genesis 9:6 like a seed in the human race, sprouting into all just law as the ages have passed, is rooted in that one all important notion about the nature of man. All natural law, thus all natural rights, stem from the idea...
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April 29, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Society
Grammar stinks…. just kidding; I love grammar, but I’m hoping that by pretending not to that you will suck it up and actually read all the way to the bottom of my 800 or so words on “OF” in Mark 1:1. Prepositions are those funny little words that...
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April 26, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Studies, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies
Some have suggested that the “OF” case in Mark 1:1 in the phrase “Gospel of Jesus” is objective… meaning that Jesus is the gospel and not merely the preacher of a Gospel, though Mark 1:14-15 will show that he does preach a gospel as well. Here, in Mark...
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April 25, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies
“I’m a New Testament Christian!” A common boast by those little interested in the Old Testament… I mean… Doesn’t that just sound defunct… OLD… Good old things get the label antique, which is cool, but other old things just get OLD… rhymes with MOLD and for good reason. ...
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April 24, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Meeting the Jesus of Mark, NT's Use of the OT
Even a brief scan of 1 Samuel 15 should be enough to perplex the average reader. Here YHWH commands Samuel to command Saul to utterly destroy a people called the Amalekites. (Sounds like a somewhat bloodier version of most homes… “Sally, tell Tommy to tell Alice to clean...
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April 23, 2019 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies, Text Criticism Issues
So you are reading a prophetic vision story in the Bible, perhaps say, 1 Kings 22:19ff, and God appears sitting on a heavenly throne. Have you ever asked yourself the question… “Who invented the throne… God or People?” For that matter, who invented the chair? Did God sit...
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April 22, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Old Testament Studies
Once upon a time in a far away land, people made covenants. They were very happy with their covenants and everyone understood them. These covenants were so powerful in their message and work that the great God of the land, Yahweh he was called by those who knew...
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April 19, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Old Testament Studies
In our last episode, we introduced the bare bones essence of water baptism as an ancient covenant ratification act saturated with typical death imagery and corresponding OT interests in ordeal (the divinely ordained safe passage through the maws of death, representing divine election and/or divine decrees of innocence). ...
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April 18, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Intertestamental History & Literature, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
If you have a powerful sense of justice like I do, an inner hot spring of raging desire for recompense upon the wicked who abuse, rob and destroy others in a thousand different ways to satisfy their own selfish desires, then I’m sure that you too have routinely...
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April 17, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Society
So you read the whole Old Testament. You read it several times. Having immersed yourself in the literature that your Bible, by its basic structure, seems to promise as the precursor to the rest, you finally turn to the New Testament. This is how it always goes isn’t...
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April 16, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
I will never forget my first Master’s paper at Regent University. I called it, “How They Got This Out of That.” I worked hard in my undergraduate programs (Yes, programs plural… I had a sordid flirtation with more than one Bible College before beginning my graduate studies.) but...
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April 15, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies, Text Criticism Issues
I love the word asymptotic. I’m not a mathematician. No offense intended to all you left brained calculus types, but I actually hate doing math. It seems to me, however, that asymptotic defines my life’s work… and yours too if Christ-likeness, Biblical understanding, theology, and/or any other branch...
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April 12, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Studies, Society
One of the benefits of a being raised in a blue collar environment and receiving academic training is that I tend to experience the full force of learning. This means that no matter how much I succeeded in my education, writing and research, I labored hard for it…...
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April 12, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Inductive Study Methods
No Comment
There is a certain beauty in translation. It is not only a science, but also an art… some would say not even a science. There are all kinds of philosophies that govern how a given translation attempts to render one language into another, and while I don’t have...
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April 11, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
The resurrection of Jesus is not just one grand miracle amid a ministry filled with grand miracles. It stands alone among all the works of Jesus for the magnitude of its significance in the lives of the followers of Jesus, the Christ. It is a unique event not...
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April 10, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, New Testament Studies, Theology
I have a lot of respect for Nelson Mandela on a personal level.[1] He came back from years of imprisonment over his resistance to institutionalized racism and, yet, took an official position of forgiveness and healing over revenge after his release.[2] He said, “As I walked out the...
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May 30, 2018 Andrew Sargent
Society
To the Hebrews context mattered a good deal. Our own struggles to understand the use to which some New Testament writers put certain Old Testament texts may make us doubt that they cared about the Historical Grammatical and Literary context of a passage but we would be wrong....
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May 28, 2018 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
