Sacred Word, Broken Word
Sacred Word, Broken Word

Author: Kenton L. Sparks

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2012-04-04

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0802867189

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The Bible is a religious masterpiece. Its authors cast a profound vision for the healing of humanity through the power of divine love, grace and forgiveness. But the Bible also contains "dark texts" that challenge our ethical imagination. How can one book teach us to love our enemies and also teach us to slaughter Canaanites? Why does a book that preaches the equality of all people -- male and female, slave and free, Greek and Jew -- also include laws that permit God's people to trade in slaves and to persecute those of a different faiths or ethnicities? In Sacred Word, Broken Word Kenton Sparks argues that the "dark side" of Scripture is not an illusion. Rather, these dark texts remind us that all human beings, including the biblical authors, stand in need of God's redemptive solution in Jesus Christ.

The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures
The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures

Author: D. A. Carson

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 1256

ISBN-13: 0802865763

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In this volume, thirty-seven first-rate evangelical scholars present a thorough study of biblical authority and a full range of issues connected to it. Recognizing that Scripture and its authority are now being both challenged and defended with renewed vigor, editor D.A. Carson assigned the topics that these select scholars address in the book. After an introduction by Carson to the many facets of the current discussion, the contributors present robust essays on relevant historical, biblical, theological, philosophical, epistemological, and comparative-religions topics. To conclude, Carson answers a number of frequently asked questions about the nature of Scripture, cross-referencing these FAQs to the preceding chapters. This comprehensive volume by a team of recognized experts will be the go-to reference on the nature and authority of the Bible for years to come. -- Amazon.

Paul and Power
Paul and Power

Author: Bengt Holmberg

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2004-09-27

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1725212137

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The study of the evolution of church structure and order has been subject to considerable research and debate, often with theological presuppositions determining the direction taken. In this highly original work, Bengt Holmberg separates historical groundwork from theological analysis by reviewing the issues from a sociological point of view. What emerges is an unusually lucid study of the network of power relationships which can be traced in the decades of St. Paul's ministry. The principal actors and situations in the Pauline Epistles suggest what the organizational and leadership realities of the times were like and how Paul, his co-workers, and his churches related to one another. In Part One, Holmberg provides a historical description of the distribution of power at three levels in the primitive church: that between the church in Jerusalem and the apostle Paul; at the regional level where Paul operates in local churches personally, through co-workers and by letters; and at the local intrachurch level. In Part Two, Holmberg develops a sociological analysis of the shape and location of authority in the church. He examines the New Testament literature for evidence and then interprets it in terms of categories derived from modern theoretical sociology, and in particular from Max Weber's sociology of authority. Holmberg describes the nature of authority in the early church and concludes that a charismatic authority was continuously reinstitutionalized through interaction of persons, institutions, and social forces within the church. This persuasive and provocative study combines serious New Testament interpretation with sociological analysis of a crucial issue in earliest Christianity. It advances the case of sociological exegesis by offering a model for further investigations of the entire structure of church leadership and authority in emergent Christianity.

Canon Revisited
Canon Revisited

Author: Michael J. Kruger

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1433530813

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Given the popular-level conversations on phenomena like the Gospel of Thomas and Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, as well as the current gap in evangelical scholarship on the origins of the New Testament, Michael Kruger's Canon Revisited meets a significant need for an up-to-date work on canon by addressing recent developments in the field. He presents an academically rigorous yet accessible study of the New Testament canon that looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited provides an evangelical introduction to the New Testament canon that can be used in seminary and college classrooms, and read by pastors and educated lay leaders alike. In contrast to the prior volumes on canon, this volume distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. Rather than simply discussing the history of canon—rehashing the Patristic data yet again—Kruger develops a strong theological framework for affirming and authenticating the canon as authoritative. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.

God's Governmental Authority Structure
God's Governmental Authority Structure

Author: Jim Pugh

Publisher:

Published: 2021-02

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781034375821

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First Book in God Is Government Series. Focuses on reason for creation, His Covenant with humanity, His Constitution and Statues, and the Authority Structures of the home, church, workplace and government. Provides a biblical perspective about the role of civic government in God's Kingdom here on earth.

If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?
If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?

Author: Angela N. Parker

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1467462535

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A challenge to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy that calls into question how Christians are taught more about the way of Whiteness than the way of Jesus Angela Parker wasn’t just trained to be a biblical scholar; she was trained to be a White male biblical scholar. She is neither White nor male. Dr. Parker’s experience of being taught to forsake her embodied identity in order to contort herself into the stifling construct of Whiteness is common among American Christians, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. This book calls the power structure behind this experience what it is: White supremacist authoritarianism. Drawing from her perspective as a Womanist New Testament scholar, Dr. Parker describes how she learned to deconstruct one of White Christianity’s most pernicious lies: the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility. As Dr. Parker shows, these doctrines are less about the text of the Bible itself and more about the arbiters of its interpretation—historically, White males in positions of power who have used Scripture to justify control over marginalized groups. This oppressive use of the Bible has been suffocating. To learn to breathe again, Dr. Parker says, we must “let God breathe in us.” We must read the Bible as authoritative, but not authoritarian. We must become conscious of the particularity of our identities, as we also become conscious of the particular identities of the biblical authors from whom we draw inspiration. And we must trust and remember that as long as God still breathes, we can too.

The Believer's Authority
The Believer's Authority

Author: Andrew Wommack

Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers

Published: 2009-03-16

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1606830821

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The controversial subject of the spiritual authority of the believer in Christ is widely discussed in the church today. Now, Andrew Wommack, host of the #1 fastest growing ministry on television, gives us a new perspective that may challenge everything we've been taught including: If believers have been given authority, then when, how, and...

Authority, Headship, and Family Structure (According to Moses)
Authority, Headship, and Family Structure (According to Moses)

Author: Peter G Rambo, Sr

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-10

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13:

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Western culture has been on a steady moral decline for at least the last fifty years. The causescan be debated, however the collapse of the family structure and the rise of radical feminism isunquestionably a major factor. Today, masculinity is regarded as toxic and anything that hints atpatriarchy is immediately attacked with a vigor that can only come from the fires of hell.It is this extreme venom against masculinity and patriarchal structure, coupled with theincreasing collapse of society, that should clue the average person in to the fact that there mustbe a deeply spiritual reason why the Enemy of our souls hates the authority structure God put inplace even before the Garden of Eden. Clearly, God has a purpose for ordering family and Hispeople in a certain way.This book is a study through the Books of Moses, coupled with the much broader message ofScripture, to demonstrate that God is very intentional and very consistent in His design for theroles of man and woman. Further, specific attention is given to His structure for clans and tribesin the prophesied restoration of the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, the whole house of Israel. Indeed, for those who desire the coming of the Messiah and long to see the Messianic Age, this bookserves as a sort of field guide to building family, clan, and tribe as we await the full recovery andrestoration of Israel.Join me on this journey of discovery as we connect dots in Scripture, recover lost truths, anddelve into topics that challenge the false paradigms we may have inherited from our fathers.Ultimately, it is to our fathers of old - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - that Malachi the prophet bidsus return when he counsels,4:4 "Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, even the statutes andordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. 5 "Behold, Iam going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of thegreat and terrible day of the Lord. 6 He will restore the hearts of thefathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."Do we know the statutes and ordinances, particularly as they relate to authority, headship, and family structure? If these are the Days ofElijah, we had better be grasping the Torah ofMoses and all it says about how the sons anddaughters of Israel are to act and inter