Tag Archives: Christian Living

Sound Exegesis— Sound Living

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Shaky Exegesis— Shaky Living During the earthquake of modernism that shook and collapsed the orthodoxy of many churches and denominations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, another earthquake was also taking place off the shores of Christianity—the birth of modern secular psychology. This earthquake happened along similar fault lines as the earthquake of theological modernism. Its upheaval ultimately resulted in a tsunami—Christian integrationist psychology—that not only swept over many evangelical churches and parachurch organizations, but also swept into fundamentalism.

Making Church History Relevant for Pastors and Students

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What is the value of church history to us today? Does it have any bearing on how we live and minister? In this issue of the Faith Pulpit, Dr. Ken Rathbun, graduate of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary and visiting faculty member of FBTS, explores why church history is important for believers today, using a model he has developed. In his second article he applies that model to a contemporary area of church life. Most of us took our church history classes1 in Bible college or seminary (or both) because we had to complete another requirement to graduate.

Encouraging the Pursuit of Joy

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In the preceding article Prof. Little presented his conclusion that Qoheleth did not have a cynical view of life but rather was a wise, godly man who encouraged the pursuit of joy in the midst of the vanities of life. “There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God” (2:24).1) This text is the first of seven passages explaining how one should live in light of the vanity in this world.2 In this article Prof.

Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic

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Faith Baptist Theological Seminary adheres to a literal, grammatical, historical interpretation of Scripture. That approach to hermeneutics has guided the school since its inception. Over the years, however, some new approaches to hermeneutics have emerged. In this article, Dr. Douglas Brown, professor of New Testament at FBTS, evaluates the Redemptive-Movement model of interpretation, a recent aberration in Biblical hermeneutics. In the summer of 2007 I had the privilege of leading a group of teens from my church on a missions trip to France.

Toward a Christian Approach to Culture

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How should a Christian understand and relate to the prevailing culture? Ignore it? Accommodate it? Engage? The answer to that question determines a Christian’s effectiveness in life and ministry. In this article, Dr. Paul Hartog, professor at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa, explores the issue of culture and Christianity from a thoroughly Biblical perspective and offers helpful instruction for properly relating to one’s culture. Five Basic Models In 1951 the Neo-orthodox theologian H. Richard Niebuhr authored the highly influential Christ and Culture, in which he proposed five basic models: “Christ against Culture,” “Christ of Culture,” “Christ above Culture,” “Christ Transforming Culture,” and “Christ and Culture in Paradox.”

The Meaning of 1 John 3:9

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Four Views That Appeal To This Verse 1. The works-righteousness view This view teaches that one earns or keeps salvation by good works, and thus that the person who chooses to sin has forfeited any right to heaven. This view contradicts the Bible’s clear teaching on salvation as God’s gift through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), purchased for us not by our works but by the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross (Romans 3:24–25, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24). 2. The instantaneous sanctification/Wesleyan view This view states that it is possible for a believer to have an experience following conversion in which the principle or root of sin is removed and replaced by love for God.

Captain Myles Standish: Separatist Pilgrim, or Roman Catholic Soldier of Fortune?

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The Mayflower set sail from England in 1620 with 102 passengers1 (fifty men, twenty women, twenty-two boys, and ten girls).2 This number includes three crew members who were hired to remain permanently in Plymouth and two crew members hired to remain for one year. Not included in the number are Oceanus Hopkins (a boy born at sea) and Peregrine White (a boy born on the ship while it was anchored off Provincetown, Cape Cod)—making the actual number of “passengers” to be 104.

Rote Memory

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In educational circles for the last half century or so, the words “rote memory” have become almost offensive to many. If the object of education is to teach people to think and to feel deeply, it seems either wasteful or damaging to require them at any level to memorize facts and lists. According to this idea, teaching rules of grammar may block the student’s creativity. Making him learn the multiplication table is a waste of his time when he can play store in school or buy a calculator cheaply in the check-out line.

Don’t Worry

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We are living in an age of anxiety. Not only do older adults have a sense of uneasiness about life, but also young people are afflicted with this feeling. According to one national poll, when asked the question, “What is the basic feeling you have toward life?” sixty percent of the young people polled replied, “Fear.” Jesus commands believers not to be anxious about the future. We do not need to be anxious about what lies ahead because of who we are and because of Who God is.

Biblical Foundation for Victorious Christian Living

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There is a great deal of confusion today regarding what is involved in victorious Christian living and what makes it possible. Some of the answers being given out are plainly wrong, and many others are only partially true. It will be in the teaching of the Scriptures that God’s answers will be found. It is not possible in this brief treatment to mention everything which could be said, but a framework will be developed to note God’s wonderful provisions for us in this area of victorious Christian living.