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A Fascinating History of the Failure of Prisons
Being a Christian, I’m always interested in cultural issues. One of the most controversial cultural conversations centers on prisons and whether the United States’ system of incarceration is a good system. I first started thinking about this issue in earnest when, a few years ago, I was listening to Al Mohler, and he noted New York’s 2019 plan to spend $9 billion on building new prisons. Mohler included a brief discussion of the history of prisons, which inspired me to do a little more research on the issue. This brief article is a summation of the history of prisons and how we ought to think about them as Christians. Throughout most of human history,prisons were meant to be a temporary arrangement. Prisons in the ancient world were places where suspects were held while waiting for their cases to be heard. For example, Leviticus 24:10-12 mentions the imprisonment of an individual…
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Some of the Errors in the King James Version
One of the reasons people hold to the King James Only viewpoint is that they are under the mistaken impression that the King James was a translation that was made without error by the translators. In this article, I want to look at the historical development of the KJV and make some specific notes about the verifiable errors that existed in the original 1611 translation, and how those were changed in future editions. Pretty fascinating stuff! The Need to Update the King James Version The KJV was originally published in 1611 by translators who followed 15 principles of translation. However, as the years passed, the KJV (also known as the Authorized Version) was in serious need of an update. Because English grammar and spelling had changed, in 1762, a Cambridge printer, Joseph Bentham, made many revisions. These revisions updated the spellings, punctuation, and the like. However, this version never caught…
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Train up a Child in the Way He Should Go: Promise or Warning?
Many Christians view Proverbs 22:6 as a promise to parents that if they do their jobs right, their child will never abandon the faith. However, this in turn has resulted in many parents feeling as if God has broken His promise to them when their child turns from the faith. Train up a child in the way he should go:And when he is old, he will not depart from it (Prov 22:6, KJV) Although this verse has been used by many parents and church leaders as a promise, it is important to slow down and read this verse carefully. I think we can understand it a little bit better. A Proverb is a Principle, Not a Promise First, a proverb is not a promise! Proverbs are axiomatic (self-evident) sayings about how life normally works. But there are plenty of exceptions to proverbs, because life is complicated by many factors. For…
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Are Apostles for the Church Today?
Although it is becoming more and more popular to argue that there are Apostles in the church today, this is far from a majority position. Rather, it is generally recognized that the Greek word used for apostles in the New Testament can be used in both a generic sense (simply meaning “sent one”), or in a specific sense. Romans 16:7 is an example of a generic sense where Paul uses the term “apostle” to refer to individuals who are sent out from a church for some purpose. But there is also a more specific category of apostleship that relates specifically to apostles who represent Jesus Christ as His authoritative ambassadors. In other words, these Apostles were viewed with the authority of Jesus because He commissioned them himself. Note, for example, that Paul, an Apostle of Christ, had the authority to give instruction which was on the same level of Christ…
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Communication Principles from Proverbs
Communication is important. More importantly, how communication is done is important. Jesus himself said that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt 12:34b). It is underappreciated in our culture that what we say—whether verbally, over text, or on social media—reveals our hearts. It is a good and important exercise to evaluate our own communication and see how we line up. The ancient world prized wisdom, specifically the discussion of how to act in daily life. Unsurprisingly, Proverbs provides some of the most pithy and helpful statements on how a righteous man or woman ought to communicate. In many cases, Proverbs will contrast the righteous and their communication style with that of the non-righteous. What follows are a few evaluatory questions we can draw from Proverbs. Does my communication bring good benefit to others? The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,But the mouth of…
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The 15 Rules Behind the Making of the KJV
I have great respect for the King James Version (KJV)—many of the verses I quote still come from the regal English. Yet I have also met sincere Christians who have been taught that the KJV itself, not merely the Hebrew and Greek beneath it, is inspired in a unique sense. Is this true? Was the KJV inspired? Did the translators of the KJV think that they were creating a new inspired product? The 15 Guiding Rules for the Translators When King James commissioned the work in 1604, Bishop Richard Bancroft drafted fifteen rules to govern the project. Revisiting those rules helps us appreciate the KJV’s achievement without mistaking it for a miracle or misunderstanding its purpose. Here, then, are the fifteen principles that shaped the making of the King James Bible. Interesting Observations on the Rules Translation rules 1, 6, and 14 are interesting. Rule #1 mandated that their translation use the Bishop’s Bible as…
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How God Used John MacArthur in My Life
John F. MacArthur passed away on July 14, 2025. Along with his passing have come personal testimonies from countless individuals whose lives his ministry has impacted. I recognize that it is somewhat out of the ordinary for me to write a personal testimony about an individual, but if you will indulge me, I would like to share how God has used John MacArthur so significantly in my life. Generational Beneficiary When my parents became new believers, they were in desperate need of discipleship and growth. Early on, one of my dad’s pastors introduced him to the tape lending library of Grace to You. This was before the presence of MP3s and podcasts. My dad would regularly send for tapes and listen to them on his bike rides to work at a government job in northern Minnesota. Occasionally, while we were driving to our grandparents’ in Wisconsin, or if we were…
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Is New Covenant Prophecy Fallible?
Is there any aspect of life where the New Covenant’s existence is inferior to that under the Old Covenant? This may seem like an odd question, but it actually is significant. Most of the time, we focus on the superiority of the New Covenant in relation to the Old Covenant under Moses. And rightly so! After all, the Old Covenant never had the provision to save anyone (Heb 10:4). It was never able to perfect anyone (Heb 10:1). And whereas under the Old Covenant, God’s relationship with the people was located spatially in the temple, now believers in the New Covenant are regarded as the temple of God where He lives (cf. 1 Cor 6:19; Eph 2:19-22). The New Covenant is vastly superior in every way. The surpassing value and greatness of the New Covenant is a major theme in the New Testament. Paul describes the comparison of the Old…
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What is Dispensationalism? A Concise Explanation
I have written elsewhere about the beliefs that are often linked with dispensationalism, yet should not be associated with the theological system itself. There are many things people accuse dispensationalists of that are not inherent to the system of dispensationalism. In this brief article, I want to look at which beliefs define dispensationalism specifically. In other words, what must each and every dispensationalist believe in order to be a dispensationalist? We can define dispensationalism broadly as a set of doctrinal beliefs that stem from a specific hermeneutical viewpoint. Dispensational ideas primarily concern hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and eschatology. This means that within those three spheres, a dispensationalist must hold to a specific set of beliefs concerning how one understands Scripture, the role and function of the church, and the end times. Even within these areas, there is room for disagreement. In what follows are the four essential beliefs that each dispensationalist must…
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Dispensationalism and the Interesting History of Date Setting
Opponents of dispensationalism like to accuse dispensationalists of being overly sensational and overly specific about when Jesus will return. To be sure, there have been many dispensationalists who have done just that. For example, Edgar C. Whisenant, a self-taught Bible student and former NASA engineer, wrote the problematic book 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. Since we are still here, such a book has proven to be quite comical and has provided endless fuel against those “crazy dispensationalist date-setters.” The Ironic History of Date Setting What is often overlooked by those engaging in modern dispensational debates is that dispensational premillennialism was founded in response to the date-setting historicist premillennial position. For example, in his elucidating historical analysis, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875-1925, Timothy Weber notes that it was the former versions of premillennialism that were the date setters: Once provided with…