A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I do not feel I am a good Bible student. I do not know how to conduct a comprehensive study of any subject. Can you recommend a study guide or provide any personal advice for growing in the knowledge of our Lord?"
"How," someone asks, "would you summarize the Bible's message in a few paragraphs?"
encouragement to a seeker (two gracEmails)
A friend who is not yet a Christian but who is joyfully seeking after God tells me of budding faith and of happy anticipation in the spiritual journey. Can I say anything to encourage?"
to my seeker friend (three gracEmails)
A respected friend who does not yet know Christ or the Bible recently asked me what he was missing. These four gracEmails repeat what I shared with him in response.
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "How can we know which interpretations of Scripture are correct, seeing the many doctrinal differences among professing Christians? How can we be sure which teaching we ought to receive?"
A gracEmail subscriber comments: "You seem to say everything differently from the way I have usually heard it in my church. I think it is because you focus on Jesus. Is that the key?"
A gracEmail reader asks, "What is the Old Testament and why is it in our Bibles?"
A gracEmail subscriber asks how someone can support a literal contruction of scripture but not wish to execute rebellious children as the Old Testament prescribes. Did God decide that the Old Testament was too harsh and replace it with a milder set of rules? Why is the Old Testament still in our Christian Bible?
A gracEmail subscriber writes: “I am in conversation with a Reformed Jew about objections to recognizing Jesus as Messiah. Can you help me understand why Christians interpret Isaiah 7:14 as referring to a “virgin” but Jews do not. I have also heard that the Hebrew Bible has a definite article before the word in question. Is that true?”
Responding to a recent piece about the Hebrew and Greek words which the King James Version translated as "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14 and in Matthew 1:23 respectively, a gracEmail subscriber asks for more discussion about Matthew's use of the words "fulfilled" in connection with Old Testament language and events.
The New Testament Scriptures are the primary witness of Spirit-enlightened men to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the implications of that story for humankind. These Christian writings also are a reflection upon the meaning of the older, Hebrew Scriptures in the light of Jesus Christ. All the Old Testament Scriptures ... foreshadow and prefigure the Messiah and the great rescue he would accomplish
Jesus fulfills the Old Testament
Someone asks why Matthew selected and arranged his Gospel material as he did, and why we believe that Matthew was written especially for the Jews.
Several gracEmail readers have asked about the Apocrypha, books found in the Catholic Old Testament but not in most Protestant Bibles.
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I am spiritually confused. If you surf the net, you will virtually see a Holy War between Christians and Christians. [One particular website] contains exposes of most of the better-known Christian teachers both past and present, including established pillars of the faith.... How do we know what is doctrinally safe and accurate?"
A gracEmail subscriber in South Korea asks, "To what degree do we take the Bible literally? ... One example is homosexuality. How do we know what is written from a certain cultural perspective? Another example is women's role in the church. How do I know what still applies to our lives in today's world?"
A gracEmail reader writes concerning faith and understanding. His comments are in italics; mine are not.
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether gospel and doctrine are the same. If they are different, in what way, and how are they related?
A gracEmail subscriber writes, "The last 10 years or so I have benefitted greatly from ... a more dispensational approach to Scripture. I see Acts 9 as the start of the church which Paul proclaims." And a different gracEmail reader asks, "Have you heard of the Berean Bible Society? They seem to say that ... Paul was given the doctrine and the program for a new dispensation."
70 A.D. and Christ's return
Christian differences and the gospel
Acts and Hebrews still need study
A gracEmail subscriber heard a preacher say that Jesus Christ returned invisibly and for the last time when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. This reader asks whether we ought to expect Jesus to return visibly and in person at the end of human history.
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I am concerned that people who claim to follow Jesus Christ do not understand the Bible alike on many topics. Are we right and others wrong, or vice-versa? Whoever is wrong cannot be saved."
Someone studying the literature of Alexander Campbell observed that he quoted most often from Acts and Hebrews, and suggested that "our traditional strengths" in the Churches of Christ and the Christian Churches are those two New Testament books.
A gracEmail subscriber in England asks how we can understand the Book of Revelation, when interpreters differ so widely and when this portion of Scripture itself seems so difficult and foreign to modern ears?
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I see so many churches studying for the 'meat' of the Word of God, showing up Sundays to 'do church,' while not considering that feeding the orphans and widows, clothing the needy and sharing a cold glass of water is what it is all about. How do we make disciples without turning into over-studied yet under-acting professing Christians? How do we build new hearts without turning people into legalistic, arrogant, Bible-thumpers who can only respond with their brains?"