What is the call of the biblical prophet? In today’s post, Brian Russell shares the two primary threats to the people of God, and how idolatry and injustice stand in the way of the future kingdom that God envisions for our world.
The Bible is full of provocative accounts of miraculous healings, signs and wonders that draw people’s hearts back to God. Still, some claim that the spiritual gifts have ceased, or at least the more charismatic gifts have. In today’s Seven Minute Seminary, Craig Keener explores this important teaching.
Listen in as Andy Miller shares about an obscure 19th century Methodist prophet whose passion for holiness sprang from the pages of this powerful text. William Arthur was a man who worked to turn the tide of the slowly declining Methodist movement into a “form of religion without the power,” as John Wesley feared it would.
How does prophecy work? Does it tell us in detail the timing of key future events? In this Seven Minute Seminary episode, Dr. Ben Witherington explains the difference between “forth-telling” and “foretelling,” and suggests that God reveals enough about the future to give us hope, but not enough to not require faith in our every day lives.
Does Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 4 teach the Rapture? Last week Ben Witherington shared on the origins of rapture theology. This week, watch him explain the Bible background and historical imagery behind two popular proof texts for rapture theology.
Ben Witherington maintains that behind Paul’s theologizing in Romans and other letters is not abstract ideas like God’s sovereignty, grace, nor even some order of salvation. Rather, it is stories—including that of Adam, Moses, and Jesus. This is what we might call Paul’s narrative thought world.
In this Seven Minute Seminary, theologian Frank D. Macchia charitably discusses both positions on what can be a divisive topic—the so-called “charismatic gifts” debate. He seeks to understand and accurately articulate the position that the charismatic gifts have ceased, but ends up arguing for their continuation in the church.
In order to interpret prophetic literature, it is important to first understand what it means to be a prophet. Prophets are commonly mistaken with oracles or clairvoyants, those who see and predict the future. While prophets did at times anticipate the future, prediction was not their primary role in biblical times. In the Old Testament, God charged specific men and women to bear supernatural messages to His people.
What makes the book of Revelation unique? How should we begin to understand it’s meaning and message? Dr. Ben Witherington here explains it in its literary genre of apocalypticism. Read our primer, “How to Read
