The Rambling Disciple

We currently live in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. Western civilization is no longer nominally Christian. While I would argue that no culture on earth can claim to be truly Christian, for a long time the western world claimed Christianity and generally followed its morals. That is simply no longer the case. While we haven't seen any persecutions like what happens in other parts of the world we are seeing a type of social persecution take place. People who take time on Sundays to attend a local congregation often must sacrifice to do so. Their child may not make the best sports team or they may miss out on social events. Being a Christian is no longer seen as a respectable thing in a lot of places, but is instead seen as backwards and even bigoted at times. Our society, in general, tends to see Christians as simple-minded, reactionary bigots who want to impose their outdated morality and anti-scientific worldview on others. The first century Ch...

Imagine, if you will, living as a Jewish Christian in the first century. You grew up following the Mosaic Law and have studied the Old Testament backwards and forwards. The life of the synagogue, that shared community of faith, is precious to you. It was, for the longest time, the cohesive core of your walk of faith. You grew up waiting on the promises of God to be fulfilled. Now you've heard the good news you've been waiting for; the news the entire Jewish people have been waiting for. God has acted decisively! The covenant promises made to Abraham have at last been fulfilled! The Messiah has come! Eagerly you listen to those proclaiming the Messiah, a man named Jesus from the town of Nazareth. You listen and are astounded at his life and teaching. Truly this man was a great prophet, just as Moses promised. You listen in awe as your entire concept of royalty is turned on its head, as this Jesus assumed the throne as the promised king of Israel not by war or riches but by a...

In many modern American churches there is a tendency to ignore the Old Testament. Sometimes this is done because people believe that we don't need the Old Testament anymore. After all, God did give us the New Testament to replace  the Old, right? Still others ignore the Old Testament because they simply don't know what to do with it. It is written in a culture so far separated from our own that it can be difficult to understand what is going on. There are probably many other reasons why Christians today don't study the Old Testament. In any case, this habit we have of ignoring the first two thirds of the Bible hurts us more than we realize. The New Testament is not a stand alone collection of books. It is designed to build upon and follow the Old. When we don't know the Old Testament we then misconstrue or simply misunderstand the New. There is almost no better example than the book of Hebrews. Background The letter to the Hebrews is the only New Testament book t...

Betrayal is hard to deal with, especially when it comes from those you hold most dear. Most of us have dealt with a betrayal in some way or another. It is one of the worst experiences anyone can go through and it can be very hard to continue to show love and compassion towards the betrayer. By the time of writing 2 Corinthians, Paul has faced a betrayal. The church in Corinth, at some point, turned against him and his teaching. This occurred sometime between the writing of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. We see hints of this complicated history throughout 2 Corinthians, where Paul spends a great deal of time defending his role as an apostle. While at the time of writing 2 Corinthians a reconciliation had occurred, the wounds still ran deep and opponents of Paul remained. They were challenging his authority and the message he carried. The claimed that there was no way Paul was a Spirit-filled man because of all the suffering he endured. Surely if the Spirit were in Paul then Paul w...

All congregations have issues. They are, after all, made up of people who sin and don't always look like Jesus. In fact pretty much every church mentioned in the New Testament had issues. The church in Jerusalem had a race problem (they didn't like those pesky Gentiles following Jesus). The Roman church had some power struggles. We see in the church at Ephesus a steady progression throughout the New Testament towards Jesus's charge against them in Revelation that they have "forgotten their first love." They all might have issues, but none of them have the reputation as the church in Corinth. Background The letter of 1 Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul during his three year stay in Ephesus, around AD 52 - 54. The way the letter is written it is quite evident that Paul was responding to some very specific questions. 1 Corinthians seemingly jumps between topics without warning, so these were probably all issues the Christians there asked Paul about. ...

We're back! After illnesses, a very busy April, and a long semester of school the blog is back. Thank you to everyone for being so understanding about it. We should be back to normal now posting every Wednesday with our continued overview of the Bible. In a couple of weeks Historical Fridays will start up again too. This week we will be discussing something a little different than normal before we get back into over viewing the Bible. This is an observation about the culture we live in and how it might affect the way in which we read Scripture. We live in a culture of extremes. Everything is highly polarized. There is no middle ground, no room for compromise. It's Marvel comics versus DC comics, Star Wars versus Star Trek, Cubs versus Cardinals, liberals versus the conservatives, the Republicans versus the Democrats, the rich versus the poor, white people versus black people, the north versus the south, the USA versus the world. Everything in our culture nowadays is us vers...

There are several books in the Bible that make us feel uncomfortable. The most prominent of these is the Song of Songs, which we've already discussed on this blog. Another book that makes us uncomfortable is the book of Philemon. Background The book of Philemon was written by Paul to a man named Philemon. Now it usually assumed that Philemon was written while Paul was in prison in Rome, around AD 62. Some scholars, however, think that this was written earlier while Paul was in Ephesus.  Now the book of Acts does not say if Paul was ever imprisoned in Ephesus, but that doesn't mean it never happened. Paul did stay in the city a long time. It also makes sense that Paul would meet Onesimus in Ephesus as opposed to Rome. Onesimus was a slave that escaped from Colossae, which is in Turkey. Slaves were marked as slaves. It is very unlikely that he made it all the way to Rome without being apprehended.  Another thing to consider is Paul's promise to visit Philemon soo...

The Roman Empire was, in many ways, not so dissimilar from America. Much of our legal system is based on that of Rome. Our appetite for entertainment and sports is quite similar to the Romans. They loved their races and fights in the Colosseum, while we love movies and football.  One way that the Roman Empire was very different from America is how they viewed their leader. We are generally split right down the middle when it comes to the President of the USA. Some people like him, others don't. No one, however, would go so far as to claim that the President is God.  The people of the Roman Empire worshiped their Emperor as a God. While viewing a leader of a powerful nation as a god was not unusual in ancient times (the Pharoahs of Egypt, for example) few held to the notion so fiercely as the Romans. In fact the most common title for the Emperor's divinity was the Son of God. Background The book of Mark was written by John Mark, a travelling companion of Paul and t...

As we have done many times before, imagine that you are living during the mid-first century. You have just been converted to this new religion some are calling Christianity. You came to believe in Jesus because of the testimony of Christians living in your town. They recount how they heard the stories of Jesus from the likes of Peter, Paul, and others who actually met Jesus. They do their best to repeat the stories they have heard, trying not to forget any detail. Still, as they admit, there is nothing quite like hearing the story of Jesus from someone who was there. As you go about your life trying to tell others about Jesus, you realize that people are asking questions you genuinely don't know the answer to. After all you only heard about Jesus from some one who heard it from an eye witness. You search the couple of letters your congregation has from Paul and James, and while those provide some answers they are more concerned with how to live the Christian life than relaying fa...

The book of Romans is quite possibly the most read and studied book in the entire New Testament, if not the whole Bible. It is the longest epistle and covers a wide variety of topics so there is something for everyone, to use a phrase. The first great Reformers, such as Martin Luther, based the majority of their theology off of Romans. In fact it was by reading Romans that Luther came to realize what he did about faith and salvation. Given the sheer amount of importance placed upon this letter, it should be no surprise that countless volumes of research of every kind has been done on Romans. In fact I wouldn't be shocked if there were more Romans specific scholars than Old Testament scholars! So let's take a look at Romans and see what some of the major themes are and if there is a unifying point to the whole book. Background The book of Romans was probably written in AD 57. This, however, is disputed. We do know for sure that Paul wrote it in Corinth. The question is wh...

1 and 2 Thessalonians largely deal with the same issues. This is largely due to the fact that they were written to the same group of Christians at about the same time. Paul, who is staying in Corinth, is sending these letters with Timothy as he journeys back and forth to report on the status of the churches. While they deal with the same overarching theme, the second coming of Jesus, they are still both unique. 1 Thessalonians was generally more positive and gave more advice on how to live the Christian life. 2 Thessalonians, as we shall see, addresses how the return of the Christ will solve the problems of persecution afflicting the believers. Background The background of 2 Thessalonians is very similar to 1 Thessalonians. Paul was in Corinth for over a year and a half, and during that time he sent Timothy and Silas out to the congregations they had previously founded. They returned with reports and Paul would write letters to the churches. 2 Thessalonians was written shortly a...

On Paul's second missionary journey he made his way through Greece, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ as he went. He journeyed through such towns of Athens, Philippi, and Thessalonica. Many came to believe in Jesus because of Paul's preaching. The journey through Greece climaxed in Corinth, where Paul ended up staying a year and a half. While there Paul would send Silas and Timothy out to the cities they had visited to check on the churches. They returned from Thessalonica with some interesting reports. Background 1 Thessalonians was probably written by Paul around AD 50, early in his 18 month stay in Corinth. He had sent Timothy to Thessalonica to see how the new Christians were doing. Timothy returned with an interesting report; the believers weren't doing anything.  Now when I say anything, I don't mean the way we typically think of it. Someone may not be doing anything with their life even though they have a job and a family. In our culture this mea...

In the book of James we saw Christians struggling with believing all the right things but not living out that faith. These were Jewish Christians who were used to thinking of themselves as the chosen people who had God's favor (and subsequently salvation) no matter what. James wrote to them to remind them that faith without works is dead and to give them some very practical advice on how to live the Christian life. The next book that was written in the New Testament was the letter to the Galatians, and here we have a very different story. The Christians living in the region of Galatia, which is mainland Turkey, were primarily Gentiles. They struggled with a different issue than the Christians addressed by James; the Galatians thought they had to earn salvation through works. Background The letter to the Galatians was written by Paul, who wrote nearly half of the New Testament books. When it comes to ordering the New Testament books by the date they were written, there will a...

As we get back into the groove with Historical Fridays, I have decided to do something a little different today before we continue our grand survey of Christian history. I have decided to talk about a movie that is out that depicts an interesting time in Christian history. Just a disclaimer: I won't do this very often. To be perfectly honest I am not a fan of many of the Christian movies that come out nowadays. Some, like Risen , are pretty good. Others, not going to name names, are not. They tend to pander to Christians without challenging us in any way to grow in our faith. They tend to face Christianity off against the world as if it were a fight rather than a mission of reconciliation given to us by Christ. That being said, Silence is a film many Christians probably won't see. I think this is sad. It is not an easy film to watch. It is nearly three hours long and deals with very challenging subjects. It does not pander to Christians but rather forces us to examine our o...

Imagine being a Christian in the early first century. It is very possible that you either met or have come into contact with someone who met Jesus in person. You are now trying to live your life in accordance with this new teaching; this good news about Jesus. You look back to the Old Testament, the only Scriptures you have, and now see how the prophets proclaimed the coming of Jesus hundreds of years prior. The other pillar of teaching you have to lean on is that of the apostles and other eye witnesses. If you leave near Judea and Galilee (what we now call Palestine) you may hear Peter or John preaching the good news. If you live further away, you may go and listen to Paul or Philip. Still you may not know entirely what to do. The Old Testament had plenty of rules and guidelines for holy living, but you weren't converted to Judaism. You see clearly how the Law pointed to and eventually was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but you aren't sure what that means in terms of being a C...

Hello all. First off I realize that this isn't the normal day for this. I accidentally hit the wrong day on the post planning app. So that is due to human error. This post is going to be short because I want to outline how we are going to tackle the New Testament. For the Old Testament we went in canonical order; meaning the order the books appear in the Bible. This works really well for the Old Testament as a lot of the books were connected and told one big story. For the New Testament I am going to try something a little different. Instead of going in canonical order, I am going to go in the order they were written in. Why? To make it easier on all of us. Now I am a big proponent of the canonical order. I think it is worthwhile to read the books of the Bible in this order. For the purposes of this blog, where we are going over the major themes, it might get a tad confusing. This is simply because the four gospels are all together and Paul's letters are all bunched toget...

After some technical issues it is good to be back. So long as Google cooperates, this blog will once again be posting normally. Thank you for your patience. The time of the Old Testament is over, but the New Testament has yet to begin. More than four hundred years stand between the two parts of the Bible. These are often called the years of silence, because God did not speak through prophets during this time. That does not mean that God was not active. Through the years different empires rose and fell, each bringing something critical to the world stage. In hindsight it is easy to see the fingerprints of God all over this period of history. God was setting the stage for climax of his rescue plan; Jesus. A Tale of Four Empires The four hundred years leading up to the birth of Christ are quite eventful in the eyes of world history. There were four major empires during this time that came and went. God used each of them to add a vital piece to the world stage. We see these empire...