Ambiguity and exegesis: confusing English words

My last blogpost highlighted the mistake that early Christians made between 'soon' and 'suddenly'.  It continues to the present hour, even among academia, with serious practical consequences both to the early Christian church 2Th 3:11 and to current Christianity. There are other examples of ambiguity in English words leading to confusion in exegesis.  Such an …

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The many Comings of Christ

It is common to hear debates about the Second Coming of Christ, but not many people identify His other comings. It reminds me of those charismatics who speak about the 'second blessing' as something to be sought after. If they have had only two blessings, I encourage them to seek some more. Similarly, there are …

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Secular morality and sex

Secular morality is replacing Christian morality in public life, and not for the better. It is often said that the Christian church is 'hung up' on sex.  The reality is that human beings are hung up on sex, whether they are Christian or not. The historical attitude has run its course Fifty years ago, it …

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Dishonest dialogue

Everyone forms their own opinions but most are very poor at defending them.  They assert their opinions but if debate becomes too awkward for them, they simply walk away.  They do not want to change their opinions nor to have them exposed, even to themselves. This is because they do not engage in honest dialogue.  …

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The false doctrine of secularism

Secularism is a false religion preaching many false doctrines. Not least among them, and one of its foundational false doctrines, is the natural goodness of man. This false doctrine of man's natural goodness is contradicted by the content on every news channel of the mass media.  Daily the world's news bulletins tell us about man's …

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Christian scribes

I am a scribe but not a Pharisee – that is, I am a Christian scribe. In Jesus' day, the scribes and Pharisees were opposed to His teaching. Jesus accused them of hypocrisy: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you close the kingdom of heaven against mankind: for you neither go in yourselves, …

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How far does shame go?

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said that he has "learned to be ashamed again of the Church (of England)" after three weeks of studying the accounts of sexual abuse by Church of England clerics. How does this compare with Roman Catholic cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who regularly studied the accounts of abuse by Roman Catholic priests …

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Secular puritanism

Secular puritanism is on the rise and it is aggressive, unlike Christian puritanism.  In the wake of recent sex scandals, secular commentators are expressing their concern at the suspension of due process with trial by media, by social media and the assumption of guilt till proved innocent. ‘The new puritanism’ was discussed in the 15th-anniversary …

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