by Barney | Feb 25, 2017 | Bible
What are the most fundamental rules for interpreting the Bible? Here are some ways it is often formulated: A passage cannot mean now what it didn’t mean then. We must put a text in its cultural-historical context. The goal is to discover what the biblical author...
by Pui Him Ip | Jan 27, 2016 | Church, Guest Post, Theology
It is difficult to be neutral about the idea of tradition. Either you are attracted to it, or you are repelled by it. This is especially true when it comes to the Christian faith. Many Christians are attracted by the idea of being part of tradition. The liturgy, the...
by Barney | Dec 6, 2014 | Scripture
I want to make an observation about many (not all) of the contemporary controversies surrounding biblical interpretation. I don’t mean historical debates (such as when Paul wrote Galatians or whether John the Baptist was Essene), I mean the application end: what to...
by Barney | Sep 1, 2014 | Scripture, Theology
Evangelical identity, which has always relied on the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, is being threatened by the growing rift in opinions about same-sex marriage. This may force evangelicals to discover something about hermeneutics which their brothers and...
by Barney | Jun 30, 2014 | Scripture, Theology
One of the longest standing problems in Christian history is the question of how to understand/use the Old Testament. Is it nothing more than an interesting, but irrelevant, account of how God used to relate to his people? Or is it so inspired that the New Testament...