The PuritanBoard - Exegetical Forum http://www.puritanboard.com/ some things hard to understand, which the ignorant twist to their destruction (2 Pe. 3:16)]]> en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:31:00 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.puritanboard.com/images/retro/misc/rss.jpg The PuritanBoard - Exegetical Forum http://www.puritanboard.com/ Slavery in the Bible http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/slavery-bible-55668/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:47:57 GMT If slavery is not explicitly condemned in the Bible, on what basis and authority do we sola scriptura people have to condemn it in our day? If slavery is not explicitly condemned in the Bible, on what basis and authority do we sola scriptura people have to condemn it in our day? ]]> Exegetical Forum steadfast7 http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/slavery-bible-55668/ The Still Small Voice http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/still-small-voice-55605/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:08:09 GMT I have been engaged in a bit of a controversy with some family members that believe that Christians ought to be waiting on the Lord in such a way that they should expect the Lord to speak to them- even audibly! I hope to engage them in... I have been engaged in a bit of a controversy with some family members that believe that Christians ought to be waiting on the Lord in such a way that they should expect the Lord to speak to them- even audibly!

I hope to engage them in conversation but I would like to do so having done the exegetical work that I am betting that they have not done. One of the key passages that they are leaning on is 1 Kings 19:12 when the Lord told Elijah to go up to Horeb and then the text says:

"the Lord passed by...and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." (ESV)

Based on this text, do you guys/gals believe that we are or should be waiting
for God to speak to us in a the "sound of a low whisper." If not, how would you interpret this passage? What commentaries or helps have you found useful when interpreting this passage?

Thanks ]]> Exegetical Forum Grafted In http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/still-small-voice-55605/ Genre of Genesis 1 and Statistical Analysis http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/genre-genesis-1-statistical-analysis-55064/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:27:28 GMT The Biblical Hebrew Creation Account: New Numbers Tell The Story

Steven Boyd from the Master's College has published some statistical analysis on the genre of Gen 1-2:3 based on verb distribution. ]]> Exegetical Forum CharlieJ http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/genre-genesis-1-statistical-analysis-55064/ Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/biblical-foundations-small-group-ministry-54656/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:51:46 GMT I need some help fleshing out some thoughts. Gareth Weldon Icenogle in Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry writes, ---Quote--- From another perspective we could say that, from the beginning, God existed in community as group being... I need some help fleshing out some thoughts.

Gareth Weldon Icenogle in Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry writes,

Quote:
From another perspective we could say that, from the beginning, God existed in community as group being in creative action. From a historically classic trinitarian view of God, the divine group existed as three persons in conversation and mission. The Genesis account does not initiate an immediate trinitarian understanding of God, but does affirm a community of God in action through creation. Since this community is reflected in "image" and "likeness" on the human side as male and female together, we can extrapolate that God exists in plural being of at least two persons. Classic theological history understands God to be revealed as three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Ray Anderson, in On Being Human, clarifies this historical temptation of theology to move too quickly from the plurality of God to a classic trinitarian model. Talking about Genesis 1:26-27, Anderson says:

Quote:
It is instructive that the plural pronoun is used with reference both to God and to "man" as created in the image and likeness of God. One must be careful about inferring from the plural pronoun here a trinitarian concept of God as "three persons," but there is at at least an intentional correspondence in this text between the intrinsic plurality of human being as constituted male and female and the being of God in whose likeness and image this plurality exists... Quite clearly the imago is not totally present in the form of individual humanity but more completely as co-humanity. It is thus quite natural and expected that God himself is also a "we."
The small group is the ideal microcosm in which to explore the simplicity and delicacy of the full God-human community (which includes both male and female) in action. The human community exists foundationally as small group, that is, at least one man and one woman in relationship with God. Three persons were together in the Garden "in the cool of the day" (Gen. 3:8). The foundational theological community is man, woman and God together.
Further on he writes,

Quote:
The small group is the base community in which men and women can meet God and one another to be, to plan, and to act for the careful nururing of relationships with created things.
Icenogle is asserting a ontological and teleological foundation for men to gather in small groups, inferring from the plurality of the being of God and the initial paradigm of the Garden. Because God is a "community" of being, so should we.

First, what do you guys think about this?


Second, Icenogle basically traces examples or instances of community developed in both Old and New Testament and extrapolates a sort of systematic study of small groups in Scripture. From his preface,

Quote:
It (the book) is an exploration of Christian community in the very nature and character of God. The general thesis is that God has set in motion from the beginning certain divine and human realities that are uniquely "imaged" and "reflected" where two or more persons come together in the presence of God.
So my issue then, is an exegetical one (hence the forum choice). Would it be a stretch to be reading "small group dynamics" from passages of Scripture?

For example, positing that Jesus must be the centre of every group, Icenogle cites the example of the disciples scattering after the crucifixion as "they had lost their common identity." Only after the Pentecostal experience did they come back together again.

How much of redemptive history should be taken as normative examples for us?

Putting it another way, how much should we "learn" from narratives without departing from either a redemptive historical or grammatical historical interpretation? ]]> Exegetical Forum ewenlin http://www.puritanboard.com/f17/biblical-foundations-small-group-ministry-54656/