Is there anything wrong with having a church be the social center for members’ families as well as a place to worship God? Many churches believe this configuration is totally wrong but in reality most, if not all, churches are to one degree or another clubhouses as well as churches.  Some believe the church/clubhouse is the core of the 21st century religious establishment. Should having fun be unrelated to doing church or to what extent should they be related? That is the basic question to be answered and it seems to have many different answers. I don’t see anything wrong … Continue reading The Church Clubhouse?

I will let the last post represent those parallel verses that are very similar to each other. In my studies those were somewhat typical of the conflicts of words. I know there are many places in the Old Testament that people report conflicting verses. I did not attempt to cover any of these but instead concentrated on Gospel accounts.  What I found were all somewhat like the previous posts.  The overall message was consistent but the words varied. One final area of parallel verses that give me some reasons for concern is the last supper. Let’s look at those parallel … Continue reading Parallel Gospel Verses … Part 3 (The Last Supper)

Before we look at a few of the parallel verses in the Gospel accounts let’s see where there are no parallel accounts. John Chapters 1 through 4 have many of Jesus’ words that are not reported anywhere else. I don’t know if part of that is because John’s Gospel was written several years after the others so John could read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, before he wrote his. Of course the theologians over the years have noted that difference and have not included John as a synoptic gospel. Enough of that; let’s look at some typical parallel verses. Matthew 8:1-4 … Continue reading Parallel Gospel Verses…. Part 2.

Due to having frequent discussions with my “inerrant and literal” bible friend lately the Gospel messages have been on my mind. I know there are several places in the bible that supposedly report on the same event. If, as my friend, believes, every word in the bible is literally true and directly from God’s mouth (through the totally obedient hands of men’s pens) then why do the places that supposedly report the same thing use different words and sometimes seem to convey quite different meanings? I, personally take this to enforce my belief that the words are from men who … Continue reading Parallel Gospel Verses… (Part 1)

Today being Memorial Day here in the U.S. I thought I would spend this post mourning all the children of God who have died in the world’s wars. This includes both the soldiers and those innocent civilians called “collateral damage” by the military complexes. Unfortunately wars and killing have been a fact of life for all of our existence. But this killing each other complex did not come from Jesus. He made it clear that we are to love even our enemies. I totally mourn all the times that people have rushed to war instead of trying all the other … Continue reading Remembering Memorial Day…

Ok, I have probably spent too much time lately looking at the differences between us Christians and not enough time with personal revelation around the red letters. To ameliorate this condition I will try to spend more time reflecting on particular words of Jesus and what they mean to me. Of course along the way I will also have many questions. Some, given my current relation ship with Christ, I will be able to answer but many I will probably have to leave as a question. Let’s get at it. Let’s start with Jesus talking about dying for our sins. … Continue reading Red Letter Messages….

In doing this study on the Holy Spirit I am not convinced that I really know how to envision him even now. To me it sounds like he dwells in each of us and always has but came into the theological forefront after Jesus bodily left us to go back to the Father. There are numerous instances of the “Spirit of God” talking to even the Old Testament writers. It is hard to think of the Holy Spirit as a being instead of just a spirit. I still imagine him as that little angel in movies that sometimes appears on … Continue reading The Holy Spirit – Part 7 – Some Concluding Thoughts

Lets continue with our study of the relationship between the Holy Spirit and baptism. Acts 11:15-17 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” Here is another one: Acts 19:1-5 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the … Continue reading The Holy Spirit – Part 5 – Baptism and the Holy Spirit (con’t)

My wife and I watched a DVR copy of the recent TV movie entitled “Amish Grace” last night. This is the movie about the man who shot ten girls in an Amish school house a few years back and then took his own life. Six of the girls died. The main theme of the movie was about forgiveness and not letting hate overpower you. The Amish community in Pennsylvania where it happened quickly forgave the man who committed the act and even helped the family of the murderer cope with the tragedy. As I have mentioned in the past the … Continue reading If God is Love Where Does Hate Come From?

The last post I attempted to report the basic differences between the two major views of the Bible. This time I am going get a little artsy and make a meager attempt to try to compare these views to the concept of the “Bread of Life”. The Literal and Inerrant View see the Bible as a completed loaf of bread coming directly from God. There is nothing to be added and every part is equally nutritious. No crumbs are any more valuable than any other. The bread is already baked and sliced so there is nothing left for them to … Continue reading The Bible is like….

Given the recent blog discussions between myself and a person who takes the literal inerrant view of the Bible I want to spend a few minutes on that subject. There are basically two views on how to interpret Biblical text: Literal and Inerrant Approach – People who espouse this view believe that absolutely every word in the Bible is written by God through human authors. Therefore everything in the Bible is absolutely and literally true as God is not capable of anything else. To those people, among other things, the earth is around 5,000 years old and was created in … Continue reading Biblical Views…

Although the overwhelming majority of comments that come into this blog are words of encouragement some say I am too critical of current church establishments and are therefore actually doing harm to the Body of Christ. In some ways I take pride in those type of comments. They are telling me that I am doing what I intend to do and that is to make people uncomfortable about not paying enough attention to the words of Jesus especially in our daily actions. By my postings it is not my intent to judge any particular person or organization. I thoroughly understand … Continue reading Some Say…

This is going to be one of my “ranting” posts so be hereby warned! I try not to do them often but….   Some say institutional maintenance has become the prime work of the “church”. As a whole we Christians spend anywhere from 80% to 100% of our collections maintaining our buildings and paying our staff. The rest is either saved for a “rainy day” or dribbled out for other causes. After spending the last month blogging about the Quakers and their focus on simplicity I thought it would be appropriate to apply some lessons learned to other Christian organizations. Quakers … Continue reading Institutional Maintenance?

There are a significant portion, perhaps as much at 15%, of the world’s Christians who believe in the concept of Sola Scriptura. That is that the Bible alone is all they need to understand and relate to God and that it is literally and absolutely totally true in every aspect. Although he personally did not believe in biblical inerrancy the ones who currently follow the teaching of Martin Luther are the most prominent in this group. They believe that God put everything he ever wanted us to know in the assembly of documents that were put together under the leadership of … Continue reading It’s in the memo…

I thought the last post was going to be the end of this round on Quakers but thanks to eriu49’s comments on my previous post I came across the following at  http://firstfriendswhittier.org I think I can say I agree with every item on this list. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> You Might Be a Quaker if: You think listening is at least as important as talking. You think justice means more than just locking up criminals. You are more interested in being like Christ than in being like Christians. You want to read the Bible but you don’t want to be beaten with it. You think … Continue reading You Might Be a Quaker…

The following is actually a comment attached to my April 5 concluding post on Quakerism.  I think it is important enough to pull it out and include it as a separate post.  Thanks eriu49 for sending it. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I am very interested in your thoughts about Quakerism. I have been attending Meeting since 1995 and find it meets my needs very well. I found a piece that spoke to your question about why Quakers do not perform Baptism, and it makes a lot of sense to me, so I hope you will find something in it. It is from whittierfirstfriend.org: Meaning … Continue reading Quakers and the Sacraments…

  One this day let’s celebrate our risen Savior and starting tomorrow concentrate on living our lives as He taught us. Continue reading A Joyous Easter to Everyone

Before I close out this series with some personal thoughts I wanted to do a quick post here to give you the list of books I have read in order to do these posts. There were also literally hundreds of websites/blogs I visited; too many to mention or name here.   Here is the list of books and their authors and some websites. This is by no means a complete list but I believe it is a good sampling of the topic. Title Author An Introduction to Quakerism Pink Dandelion A Living Faith Wilmer A. Cooper A Quaker Book of Wisdom … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 10) Some Source Books and other Miscellaneous things

Quakerism has generally had no creed. George Fox dismissed theologians as “notionists”, and modern Quakers are generally less concerned with theology, and more concerned with acting in accord with the leading of the Spirit than are many other faiths. Quakers have historically expressed a preference for understanding coming from God’s Spirit over the knowledge derived from objective logic or systematic theology. This lack of a single set of authoritative doctrines has resulted in the development of a broad range of doctrines and beliefs among Friends, ranging from fundamentalist Christian to universalist. This in my mind is one of the few … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 9) The Richmond Conference of 1887

I want to open this post with some words from http://www.quakerinfo.org/quakerism/Qreligm.html Quakerism depends on neither the Bible nor on priestly tradition. However, Friends do value the Bible and recognize the “priesthood of all believers. Genuine belief cannot be second hand. Quakers believe that the writers of the Bible were inspired by God but the Bible is not the “Word” of God but instead are words of God. Quakers say that those who make an idol of the Bible, calling it the Word of God, giving the title of our living and present Lord, do miss the mark (John Chapter 1). … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 8) The Bible

Quakers place a great premium on practicing what they believe. That puts service to others as front and center in their lives. A favorite saying of mine is to “show the Lord’s love in your life”. Quakers definitely live by that motto. Jesus made it abundantly clear that he came to serve and not to be served. He expects each of us to follow his example and Quakers, for the most part, certainly do that. Many Christian denominations, including the one I currently belong, seems to minimize works and living in the world. They seem to prefer concentrating instead on … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 7) Service

Silence is a very strong part of most Quaker beliefs. They very much believe in the bible verse “Be still and know that I am God”. Ps 46:10 This belief is at the very foundation of their weekly worship. Many Christians and non-Christians think that Quaker meetings are very strange indeed that Friends sometimes sit silently during their weekly meetings waiting for God to speak to them. Some weeks go by without a word being spoken! Given the propensity for most churches to do numerous readings and hymns, sitting silently is a very foreign concept to them. It is very … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 6) Silence, Personal Revelation and Worship

Integrity is another quality that Quakers are universally known for; in particular their refusal to swear to an oath. Of course this is rooted in their total respect for truthfulness. Truth, always spelled with a capital T is a very special word in their vocabulary. The essence of Quakerism is in the demand for complete integrity of the individual in relation to God, and other people, and to one’s self.  Early Friends realized that an important part of the message of Jesus was how we treat our fellow human beings. They felt that honest dealing with others meant more than … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 5) Integrity

Let’s start out this post with a document released by Quakers in 1611:   We do testify to the world that the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all truth, will never allow us to fight a war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdoms of this world.  Because Friends, and particularly George Fox their founder, place such emphasis on the dignity, the peace testimony became a cornerstone for their beliefs. When you read the words of scripture you will find the above testimony deeply rooted there. Thus, Quakers believe that … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 4) Peace

We will continue our study of Quaker Testimonies with the one on Equality. Friends believe that all people are created equal in the eyes of God. Since all people embody the same divine spark all people deserve equal treatment. Friends were some of the first to value women as important ministers and to campaign for women’s rights; they became leaders in the anti-slavery movement, and were among the first to pioneer humane treatment for the mentally ill and for prisoners. Unlike many other Christian sects who will not allow women to preach, teach, or lead others, Quakers have had women … Continue reading Study of Quakers – (Part 3) Equality

This is a continuation of my study of Quakers and their beliefs. As I have already mentioned I am by no means an authority on these topics. I am just a guy trying to understand the various views of being a Christian. With that in mind let’s continue our study   My wife is a person who occasionally wants to antique. I know, I hear many of you out there saying “antique is not a verb!” And you are right but I do feel a little playful today so I thought I would just jerk your chain :) . While my … Continue reading Study of Quakers (Part 2) – – Simplicity

I have had people tell me about Christian websites and blogs that they visit frequently. Most often I try to give them a look to see what they are about. I do have a lengthening list of blogs that I frequent. The main priority for me when it comes to adding to this Christian blog list is the following: The blog must be Christ centered The blog must espouse “Christ crucified”; that is it must recognize our need for a savior but not be fixated on that as a sole reason for Christ coming into our worldly realm. The blog … Continue reading About those “Christian” websites and blogs….

    Do I come to Jesus because I am a sinner or because he is Lord and has agape love for me? That question is central to me at this point in my life. Another way of saying this is should I cling to Jesus because of all the bad things I have done in my life or because Jesus, being Lord, has much to teach me about living and about love from this day forward. I just don’t see much point in constantly harping about what a miserable person I am. That seems to be the central theme … Continue reading A Look at Sin (Part 4). My Personal Testimony on Sin.

Ok, the last couple of posts we went through a very condensed history of God as related to sin. We stopped with Jesus telling us personally what sin is. That was I believe the last time God told us very directly just what sin is but of course he does tell us everyday in our hearts when we sin. But it was not the last time that people would try to give their own definitions. Those we will cover now. Somewhere between six and seven hundred years after Christ’s resurrection the Catholic church, which was for the most part the … Continue reading A Look at Sin (Part 3).

Let’s continue on with our journey on the history of sin. Adam and Eve had offsprings who had offsprings who had offsprings… Just how that happened I don’t care to speculate. As the population increased they kept digging their hole deeper and deeper. Finally about 1600 years went by and God just decided to kill everyone but Noah and a handful of others and start again. But it seems that man’s genes, or whatever, were polluted by Adam and Eve and Noah’s descendents pretty much went down the same road as before. God sent personal messages to them several times during this … Continue reading A look at Sin (Part 2)

Most of the Christian churches today spend quite a bit of time focusing on the fact that we are all miserable worthless sinners. But just what is sin? I will spend the next few posts on that topic. Of course the first thing that comes to mind for Christians and Jews when the topic of sin comes up is the ten commandments. These came from the Torah and the Jewish tradition. Other lists of sins have popped up from time to time throughout human history. Jesus even gave his version of the ten commandments. I will investigate these different lists … Continue reading A Look at Sin and the history of the world….. (Part 1)

        Anyone who has even skimmed the Gospels knows that one of the major themes of Jesus’ words is love. Jesus tells us it is not enough to love your friends; you must even love your enemies. Wouldn’t it be nice if only we Christians and other God believing people took those words to heart. I recently was directed by a friend to a blog post about a book about a book I have recently read entitled Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom. The blog that had the post was from The Institute on Religion and Public … Continue reading Have a Little Faith

     I don’t know how many times I have heard the words in the title of this post when it comes to the Bible. The pastor of my church even says them rather frequently. It also seems to be a major theme of some of the blogs I occasionally frequent. They seem to say that if you just read the original text it will be obvious that all the current English translations of the Bible have got it totally wrong! They typically take one word and say it does not mean xxxx but instead means something completely different. I must admit … Continue reading If you just read it in the original language…..

    There are numerous accounts of Jesus driving out demons in people. Some of them even talked to him before their exorcism. So here comes my question of the day. Where are all the possessed people today? I saw the movie The Exorcist many years ago and I do think, but don’t know for sure, that the Catholic church still performs them. But why aren’t they somewhat common as they appeared to be in Jesus’ day? The one exorcism that Jesus did that I remember the most was where he drove the demons out and put them in to … Continue reading Where are the Possessed???

    Last time we studied the authors of Mark and Luke and in this post we will finish up with Matthew and John. As those who have been regular visitors to this blog know I believe that the Gospels are the absolute center of the Bible and the words of Jesus are the absolute center of the Gospels. I realize that for many of you do not choose to believe as I do. You may not see the words of Jesus as having any more significance to your daily life than any other words in Scripture. It seems that … Continue reading Authors of the Gospels – Part 2

Let’s spend a couple of posts investigating the believed authors of the four Gospels. I have to say “believed” because as with most of the Bible the authorship of the Gospels are often in dispute among various authorities. It is generally believed that Matthew and John were both part of the original twelve. Mark and Luke were not. They were much like Saint Paul in that they came along after Christ’s ascension. In this post we will discuss Mark and Luke and save Matthew and John for the next.   It is believed that Mark was the first Gospel written sometime … Continue reading Authors of the Gospels