Apologetics Biblical Studies Bible Tools of the Devil? or, What’s the Best Bible Translation? by Craig A. Smith, Ph.D. I remember a campus minister friend of mine who once had a family offer to support his ministry entirely, meaning that he could forget the time-consuming task of raising support and keeping in regular touch with…
So, how do we know when to read the Bible literally vs. reading it figuratively? Well, again, as we’re going to see over and over again: we make that decision the same way that we do it in normal conversation. And basically, the way we do it in normal human conversation is that we assume…
One of the things that sometimes divides what we might call “conservative” Christianity from “liberal” Christianity has to do with whether or not someone claims to believe in the “literal” meaning of the Bible. This is an incredibly misleading concept and we all need to stop getting hung-up on it. The real question is not…
In the last installment of Bible Basics, we made the point that a passage means only what its A(a)uthor[1] intended it to mean. A right interpretation is one that matches up with what the A(a)uthor of the passage meant when H(h)e wrote it. However, while there is typically only one meaning of a biblical passage…
3. Reading the Bible Doesn’t Require Special Skills Let’s get one thing very clear right up front: I believe in the inspiration of Scripture. What that means is that I believe that God Himself is the ultimate Author of every word in the Bible. No word is in the Bible that God didn’t want there…
2. The Bible was written for us, but it wasn’t written directly to us. [box_dark]Got less than 5 minutes to get your truth-fix? View the condensed video version of this article at our new Sound Bites channel: [button link=”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo9VpYZgLXjGMKYqT3mhD3g” variation=”blue”]View Channel[/button][/box_dark] God never changes, but the world that God speaks into changes constantly. The world…
Dr. Craig Smith walks through some basic tools that anyone can use to understand the Bible. This is live footage captured at the Pure Truth Pastors Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in May-June of 2013. If you would like the handouts that go along with this training session, download them here: Foundations 1 Part 2 coming…