Text Examinations
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How Many Commandments Are There?
June 21, 2009. How Many Commandments Are There? Recently, I was looking at a website called A Crash Course in Jewish History, and one quote from an article on the Ten Commandments caught my eye: “Because we don’t have the temple, 369 of the 613 commandments are no longer applicable today.” By the First Century, Continue reading
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Cutting a Covenant
It’s interesting how clear God makes it to His people that He will do things in His way as opposed to their way. However, He often communicates His plan in ways to which we can relate. He makes promises. He creates covenants. He uses imagery and forms familiar to hose with whom He is communicating. Continue reading
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Revelation In Brief
Because the book of Revelation has become a playground of interpretations, we in the church tend to avoid studying it, seeing it a book we can’s understand. Revelation 1:1 clearly states that it is a book written in signs and imagery, but to really understand Revelation, we have to look at the book through First Continue reading
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Moses: A Template Of Christ
Colossians 2:16-17 records Paul referring to the customs of the old law as shadows of Christ, and Hebrews 8:4-5 refers to the Levitical priesthood as a shadow of things to come. Likewise, Hebrews 10:1 calls the old law a shadow of good things to come. We’ve examined how the Sabbath days and years are shadows Continue reading
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The Benefit of Genealogies
In Matthew 1, the New Testament opens with a genealogy establishing the lineage of Christ. Anyone familiar with the Bible knows it is full of genealogies. The first is in Genesis 4, and we have a tendency to gloss over these records. There is even danger that we may view these passages as mere padding Continue reading
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A Law Unto Themselves
Sometimes we wonder if there is a double-standard with God based on a couple of passages. One is I Corinthians 5:9-13 as Paul deals within tolerated sin within a congregation. One part of the argument makes it sound like it is okay for some of the world to live one way while Christians are held Continue reading
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Learning from History
In Genesis 14, right after the story of Lot and Abram parting ways, four Canaanite kings join together to conquer the cities that Lot is in the midst of. Abram takes his 300+ men to defeat these kings to free Lot. This is the first recorded battle of the Bible, and a reoccurring theme emerges Continue reading
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Jacob’s Struggle with an Angel
In Genesis 32:24, we have one of the more perplexing stories of the Old Testament in which Jacob wrestles with a messenger of the Lord. Jacob has been living in Haran for the last fifteen years after cheating Esau out of his birthright. He will soon encounter his brother, and he is not sure what Continue reading
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Lessons from the Transfiguration
Mark 9:2 begins a recording of the transfiguration of Jesus before Peter, James, and John. This story is also recorded in Matthew and Luke, and most of us are pretty familiar with this event. This event teaches about Christ’s authority and glory as well as the transformation we should go through as his followers. What Continue reading
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A Quick Gospel Primer
In John 19:19, we read about Pilate’s proclamation on Jesus’ cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” It was recorded in Hebrew (the language of the land), Latin (the language of nobility), and Greek (the language of the masses). In a similar manner, we have four accounts of Christ’s life recorded in our Continue reading
Simply Gospel 