The Ethics of Baptism - Col 3.1-17

The following is part of a seminar I did for a congregation in the midwest a few years ago on the Epistle to the Colossians. Prior to this lesson I reviewed our lessons on chapter 1 & 2. I offer it here in the prayer that it may bring a blessing. When reading this remember it was an oral presentation. ------------Briefly review how Paul moves from the Supreme Savior in ch. 1 and the Sufficient Savior in ch.2 to how we are to respond in our lives:...

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Legalistic Grace

For some time now I have been concerned about "our" (perhaps only my own) understanding of the "doctrine" of grace. It is true that we, as a people of God, have sometimes not grasped the depth of grace in our preaching and teaching. Preaching often tended to focus on a handful of subjects (i.e. not passages of Scripture per se but topics): right church, baptism, instrumental music, Spirit dwelling through the word. These lessons tended to emphasize...

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Gospel Racial Reconciliation: Compass Points for Beginnings

This past week in our class "Restoration Theology," my friend, and mentor, John Mark Hicks and I introduced the students to the history and theology of black Churches of Christ and race relations. This is always a challenging section because the history of race relations can be dismal. I do not apologize for making students wrestle with this material ... indeed we could easily spend the entire semester on it and still not come close to covering the...

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Gordon Fee on "How To Read the Bible For all its Worth"

Today I was perusing my friend Darin Scott Little's blog, Casting Nets. He offered a video from one of my favorite authors, Gordon Fee. Fee has impacted my thinking from the moment I opened his book with Douglas Stuart, How To Read the Bible for All its Worth, in 1988. It is, in my opinion, a book that not only every minister should study deeply but every Christian as well. Below are two videos, one longer as you can see, of Fee made many years apart. The first is a portion of a series of lectures he did for ministers and the second is a recent...

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Ancestry of the King James Version #8: Old "English" Scripture

Setting the StageHere are previous contributions in this series on the Ancestry of the KJV: Ancestry of the KJV #1: A Literal Translation?; Ancestry of the KJV #2: Mythology, Archeology & Translation; Ancestry of the KJV #3: Making Books in the Ancient World; Ancestry of the KJV #4: ABCs of Biblical Languages; Ancestry of the King James Version #5: More Greek Thoughts & Literal Translation; Ancestry of the King James Version #6: The Septuagint;...

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