Bible and Theology on Assumptions

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John 6:15, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 15:1-9, Matthew 16:13-17, John 18:36, Luke 4:18-19, Acts 9:1-9, Psalm 1:

Jesus is understood in the light of the assumptions which control our culture. When “reason” is invoked as a parallel or supplementary authority to “Scripture” and “tradition,” what is happening is t...

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Author

Anne Rice

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Job 38:1-7, Isaiah 29:13-16 , Proverbs 14:12, Luke 1:1-4 , 2 Peter 1:16-21, Psalm 19:1-4

Some books were no more than assumptions piled on assumptions…. Conclusions were reached on the basis of little or no data at all…. The whole case for the nondivine Jesus who stumbled into Jerusalem a...

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Author

Krister Stendahl

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Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 26:12, Matthew 23:12, Luke 18:9-14, 1 Corinthians 8:2-3

Our vision is more obstructed by what we think we know than by our lack of knowledge.

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One False Assumption

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Simon Sinek

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Exodus 32:null, 1 Timothy 4:16, 1 John 4:1-4, 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, Proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 7:1-2, James 1:19

On a cold January day, a forty-three-year-old man was sworn in as the chief executive of his country. By his side stood his predecessor, a famous general who, fifteen years earlier, had commanded his ...

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Author

Source Unknown

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Luke 9:23, Luke 6:37, John 7:24, Ephesians 4:31-32, Proverbs 18:13, 1 Peter 4:8, Ephesians 4:2-3

Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, anti-gay, anti-choice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and th...

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It Goes Without Saying

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E. Randolph Richards and Richard James

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John 14:27, Matthew 2:2, Revelation 19:16, John 18:36-37, Revelation 17:14, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 24:7-10, Colossians 1:15-20, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-40, John 12:12-16

In a culture, the most important things usually go without being said. We Westerners don’t talk all the time about being individualists or about the importance of efficiency or why we prefer youth ove...

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When Helping Hurts: An American in the Philippines

Author

Duane Elmer

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Proverbs 28:26, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 14:12, Philippians 2:3-4, John 9:2-3

An American woman visiting the Philippines, observed an elderly woman on the outskirts of Manila. She looked poverty-stricken and walked with the help of a cane down into a ditch alongside a main road...

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Theories about Jesus

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N. T. Wright

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Isaiah 9:6–7 , Micah 5:2, Isaiah 53:3–5 , John 1:1–3, 14, Colossians 2:8–9 , Psalm 2:1–2, 7

We hear of wild new theories about Jesus. Every month or two some publisher comes up with a blockbuster saying that he was a New Age guru, an Egyptian freemason or a hippie revolutionary. Every year o...

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Stories We Tell Ourselves

Author

The Cruzman

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Matthew 7:1-2, John 7:24, Proverbs 3:5, Ecclesiastes 7:9

A man named Jack was driving on a dark country road one night when he got a flat tire. He saw a cabin in the woods and began to walk towards it. He told himself that the person who answered the door w...

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Am I Fighting the Right Battle?

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Ruth Haley Barton

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John 18:36, Ephesians 6:10-12, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Philippians 1:27, Psalm 18:32-34, Psalm 37:5-6

In her book Invitation to Retreat , Ruth Haley Barton shares some of the many insights she has had since she began intentionally taking inattentional retreats to re-connect with God and her own d...

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Persuading Ourselves of the Truth

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Isaiah 5:20, Galatians 6:3, 2 Timothy 3:13, Proverbs 12:15, Romans 1:21, 1 John 1:8

When we observe evil, sinful behavior from a distance, the inclination is simply to see people as acting with malicious intent. We assume they are “bad people.” But often the motivations that lead to ...

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“Neil!”

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Acts 17:11, 1 John 4:1, Proverbs 4:7, Ephesians 4:14

Neil Marten was a member of the British Parliament from 1959-1984. One day he was giving a group of constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the tour, the group happened upon the...

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The Controversial Cookies

Author

Reader’s Digest

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Scripture

Matthew 7:1-2, John 7:24, Proverbs 18:2, James 4:11-12, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Proverbs 21:2, Ephesians 4:31-32, Colossians 3:12-13

A traveler, between flights at an airport, went to a lounge and bought a small package of cookies. Then she sat down and began reading a newspaper. Gradually, she became aware of a rustling noise. Fro...

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Realizing We are Biased

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

James 2:1-9, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 1:17, Romans 2:1-11

When I went to seminary to prepare for the ministry, I met an African-American student, Elward Ellis, who befriended both my future wife, Kathy Kristy, and me. He gave us gracious but bare-knuckled me...

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A Trinitarian Deficit Disorder

Author

James Bryan Smith

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Scripture

John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, John 10:30, 1 John 4:8-16, Romans 8:32

A student of mine, Josiah Brown, oversees the student outreach team. He and some of our students go to youth groups to teach the youth about Christian spiritual formation. They talk about what formati...

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Restoring Love for Scripture

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Adam S. McHugh

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Deuteronomy 6:4-9 , 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Nehemiah 8:1-12, Luke 24:13-35 , Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:9-16

After I graduated from seminary, I stopped reading the Bible. It’s been said that for all the gain that comes from dissecting a frog, all the hands-on knowledge one amasses from cutting out the organs...

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Getting Behind the Myths

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Thomas Keating

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Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:22-35, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 13:3-8, Matthew 20:1-16, Matthew 13:24-33, Matthew 13:44-50, Mark 4:26-29

The thrust of the parables is to subvert the distorted myths in which people live their lives. To understand what we mean by “living in a myth” just think of a couple of our own contemporary myths. Ta...

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God of justice and mercy, we come

Author

Austin D. Hill

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Thanksgiving (General)

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Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 23:23, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 2 Chronicles 7:14

God of justice and mercy, we come before you tonight in humility. We consider the first Thanksgiving meal, a time of celebration and unity, yet our country is filled with division. All too often, we d...

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The Death of Christendom

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Tod E. Bolsinger

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In one generation, the place of Christianity within culture dramatically shifted as we experienced what theologians and sociologists of religion call the “death of Christendom.” Christendom isn’t Chri...

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Traversing a Timeless Biblical Demand & Our Particular Place and Time

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Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer

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During the 1992 presidential election, I (Rick) was directing the small group ministry at our church. Bill Clinton was running against George H. W. Bush, and given that many evangelicals found Bill Cl...

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Thinking Biblically about Work and Ownership

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Ben Witherington III

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In modern Western culture we place a high value on work, which is fine, but one of the philosophical assumptions that can come with such values is that we assume that we own what we earn or buy. From ...

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Reflecting on Shusaku Endo’s Novel and Film, Silence

Author

Nikki Toyama-Szeto

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1 Peter 2:12, Galatians 3:26-28, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, John 13:34-35, Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 28:19-20, James 2:17-18

In Silence, Shusaku Endo writes of the journey of Portuguese Jesuits journeying to Japan. It is a conversation about those who intend to take the path of Jesus, only to find they are on the path of Ju...

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Smiling & Giving a Big Okay

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E. Randolph Richards and Richard James

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When we tell a story, a lot goes without being explained. For example, I might say, “After I finished speaking, I looked at the audience. They were all smiling. Someone in the back shot me a big okay....

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Becoming a Tiller of Soil

Author

Mark D. Roberts

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Galatians 6:7, John 15:5, Matthew 13:23, Isaiah 28:24-26, Proverbs 12:11, Genesis 2:15

One of my favorite sections of Home Depot is the power garden tool department. Even though I have all the tools I need, I still like browsing through Home Depot’s collection of power mowers, chainsaws...

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Getting to the Image

Author

Brian Zahnd

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Romans 12:2, Galatians 6:1, Proverbs 9:10, James 1:4, Isaiah 61:3

Think of an ancient icon of Christ. Imagine that a thousand-year-old Christ Pantocrator painted on a wooden panel is discovered in some forgotten monastery. The image of Christ is there, but it’s cove...

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Innovation or Heresy

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Ecclesiastes 7:10, Colossians 2:8, Matthew 9:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Romans 12:2, Mark 7:8-9, Isaiah 43:19

It’s funny how sometimes members of the church can associate anything new with “heresy.” We often make the mistake of confusing technological innovations or scientific discoveries for changes to the g...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

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It is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder, to another. It’s the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can’t be...

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Mike Cosper

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I am programmed to expect that the world is what I can see, touch, and measure.

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Author

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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James 4:13-15, John 9:41, Romans 11:33, Isaiah 55:8-9, Ecclesiastes 11:5, Job 38:2-4

“I know” seems to describe a state of affairs which guarantees what is known, guarantees it as a fact. One always forgets the expression, “I thought I knew.”

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