Monthly Archives: July 2012
About the Author…
Who the heck is “Kevin Bennett”? The information below is included so that you can know who is behind all the rambling and opining on this blog site, and that someone is prepared to stand up and vouch for it. The focus of this blog is the notion that there is hope. That hope relates to Jesus Christ, […]
- July 26, 2012
- / Category About the Author
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Should Christians Swear Oaths?
Should Christians Swear Oaths? Some Christian traditions refuse to swear an oath on the Bible, in court or anywhere else. Their feelings are based in words from Scripture, but are they a valid understanding of those words?
- / Category Commentary, swear (oaths)
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Infant Baptism: Yes, or No?
Should we Baptise infants or not? My view on Infant Baptism attracted some interesting feedback from a lecturer: “Some original and neatly articulated theological reasoning”. If I’m right, of course, it’s not “original” in the sense of being a new invention, but in the sense of being the reasoning which produced the Scriptures in the […]
- July 24, 2012
- / Category Baptism, Believer-Baptism, Commentary, Paedobaptism, Total Depravity
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
What is a “Statement of Beliefs”, anyway?
“What we believe…” – Is that a creed? Is it a doctrine? Or is it just “What we could agree on at the meeting”? In this article I’m examining one specific article in one particular “Statement of Beliefs” to see what function it fills. I’ve been bothered by both the presence and the absence of […]
- July 22, 2012
- / Category Creed, Research
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Brisbane Dental Hospital
Brisbane Dental Hospital Brisbane Dental Hospital Cnr Turbot and Albert Strreets BRISBANE QLD AUSTRALIA 4000 Telephone: (07) 3231 3777 Facsimile: (07) 3221 7517 The South Brisbane Dental Hospital offers general dental services free of charge to people with a Commonwealth Health Care Card or those in receipt of a pension.Operating Days & Times Monday to Friday
- July 21, 2012
- / Category Community Service Provider, Free Dental Services
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
What is the “Authority” of the Bible?
The Nature of the Bible’s authority So if the Bible comes from the “people of God”, rather than falling out of the sky directly from God, how can it be said to be authoritative? The Process As we have seen, the Bible came together as a process over countless generations, and human beings were most […]
- July 20, 2012
- / Category Apologetics, Authority (of the Bible), Bible References, Commentary
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Where did the Bible come from?
So where did the Bible come from? Rather than describing the process theologically, that is, in terms of how God spoke or what the role of humans was in the process, we can talk in terms familiar to the non-believer: Sociology. What is the sociological process involved in the formation of the Bible?
- / Category Apologetics, Bible References, Commentary
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Is the Bible actually “the word of God”?
In what sense is the Bible, “the word of God”? This sounds like a simple question to answer, but it is actually a long-running and very heated debate amongst Christians. Many claim that the Bible is “the word of God”, but they often mean different things by that statement.
- / Category Apologetics, Bible References, Commentary
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
The Holy Bible: Offering An Explanation for the Atheist
What can an Atheist be offered about why the Bible is important to Christians? Shouldn’t we (Christians) be able to describe the Bible in terms that an Atheist can understand and appreciate, even if they don’t share our view of it’s spiritual authority? The pithy, “the Bible is the word of God” really won’t do […]
- July 19, 2012
- / Category Apologetics, Bible References, Commentary, Ministry
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
The Big Biblical Covenants and their Relationship to Hittite Suzerainty Treaties
Summary The four “major covenants”, with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David are reviewed with a particular eye to their possible relationship with the Hittite suzerainty form of treaty, in the ancient Near East. The formal features of the four covenants are compared to the Hittite treaty form, and also considered without that constraint for their […]
- July 18, 2012
- / Category 2 Samuel 7, Covenant, Exodus 20, Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, Genesis 6, Genesis 8, Genesis 9, Jeremiah 31, Research, Suzerainty, The Book of Jeremiah
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
God and the Law in Queensland – A Juror’s Perspective
Summoned I’m on jury service at the moment. I’ll preface my remarks by reassuring everyone (including your Majesty), that I won’t disclose details of defendants, cases, witnesses, etc. I was mildly surprised, in my initial introduction to the Queensland Criminal Justice system as a juror, to find so many mentions of God in the functioning […]
- July 14, 2012
- / Category Commentary
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
A modern epistle: from the mouths of babes
Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matt 13:52). I was going through some old files on my computer and I stumbled on this one. It’s kind of an epistle, written to my own church community. At […]
- July 13, 2012
- / Category Reflection on Ministry
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
The Ministry: “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom…”
What possible value can come from simply “being there”? I’ve begun a habit of sitting in the Ipswich Mall every Tuesday. Several people join me regularly, a wide array of people I know come past during the day, and sometimes I also make new friends. I believe this is what God has for me at […]
- July 10, 2012
- / Category Marketplace Evangelism, Reflection on Ministry
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / 1 Comment.
Tithing: Unbiblical. Shouldn’t we prevent believers from doing it, then?
Is it Permissible to Tithe? Tithing is not a New Testament principle, and despite endless attempts to make it sound like Christians are obliged to tithe, the Good Book simply doesn’t say so. But does this mean that we must stop people from tithing? Is it spiritually dangerous? Is it like circumcision, about which Paul […]
- July 8, 2012
- / Category Commentary, Tithing
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
Jesus and the Wineskins: What does it mean?
Nobody seems to understand what the wineskins are about! A friend asked me what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned sewing patches onto garments, and putting wine into wineskins. I didn’t know the answer, and a quick overview of the commentaries revealed that nobody else does either. Most theories produce problematic answers Whereas there […]
- / Category Commentary, Luke 5, Mark 2, Matthew 9, Wineskins
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / 2 Comments.
Mass confusion as theological jargon creeps back in
The new “Plain English” Missal: Easier to understand… if you know Latin. Last year, the English Missal of the Roman Catholic Church wording was “updated”. In one place, the words “of one substance” were replaced with the far less well-known term, “consubstantial”. Consa-what? Even my spell-checker doesn’t reckon that’s a word! But don’t worry – […]
- July 5, 2012
- / Category Commentary, Consubstantial, Vulgar
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
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- If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you – Matt 12:28
We are his “hands and feet” because we are the “body of Christ”? Oops, mixed metaphors!
As a member in the “Body of Christ”, am I His “hands and feet”? I was interested to hear someone recently suggest that we Christians are the “eyes”, “hands”, “mouth”, etc. of Christ. It’s a neat metaphor which indicates our responsibility to act, perceive and speak on God’s behalf, and to that extent I have […]