Should Believers Avoid Eating Blood (Acts 15:29)?

Ed Vasicek

Poll Results

Should Believers Avoid Eating Blood (Acts 15:29)?

Yes, with rigor Votes: 1
Yes, but only if it is called to our attention Votes: 3
No, this was only a concession for the Jews Votes: 0
No, it was only for that era Votes: 1
It is unclear or I am undecided Votes: 0
Other Votes: 1
Yes, for believers who fellowship with Jewish believers Votes: 2

Discussion

Answering the 95 Theses Against Dispensationalism, Part 10

Paul Henebury

Republished with permission from Dr. Reluctant. In this series, Dr. Henebury responds to a collection of criticisms of dispensationalism entitled “95 Theses against Dispensationalism” written by a group called “The Nicene Council.” Read the series so far.

Thesis 46

Contrary to dispensationalism’s claim that “the Church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament” (J. D. Pentecost), the New Testament writers look to the Old Testament for its divine purpose and role in the history of redemption and declare only that the mystery was not known “to the sons of men” at large, and was not known to the same degree “as” it is now revealed to all men in the New Testament (Eph 3:4-6), even noting that it fulfills Old Testament prophecy (Hos 1:10 / Rom 9:22-26), including even the beginning of the new covenant phase of the Church (Joel 2:28-32 / Acts 2:16-19).

Response: First, one does not have to be a dispensationalist to hold that the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ was not known in OT times (see Bruce, O’Brien, Barth). The adverbial conjunction “as” in Ephesians 3:5 is best seen in a descriptive sense asserting the difference in kind which the mystery discloses, rather than a restrictive way whereby more is known now than was known before. Paul is speaking here of the entity which is the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ which is entered into through the Baptism of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). According to Acts 1:5 (cf. John 7:39) this baptism began at Pentecost. It is this new revelation of the Body of Christ which it is crucial to keep in mind since it is just not found in the OT. Further, the mystery was covered up, “hidden,” or “not made known” (3:5), but is now revealed. This surely supports the descriptive sense! It wasn’t half covered up!

Colossians 1:26, which is more emphatic, again refers to that which “was hidden from ages…but now has been revealed.” So there is a strong case against the view that Paul is talking about the amount or “degree” of the mystery that was known prior to the NT. Paul is rather saying that the Church was completely unknown.

Discussion

Clumsy Coverups in UBS4

Edward Miller
On the subject of undocumented changes, sometimes what was a documented reading becomes an undocumented one. While the motive for alterations in the apparatus of a critical text may be benign, the result is still the same: obscurity, and a decrease in information available and knowledge about the text.

Here’s an example:

This is a remarkable reading, not because it has any credibility as a reading (it is an obvious homoeoteleuton error, acknowledged by most critics and editors), but because of its strange history in the UBS text.

Discussion

How does this article sound?

jwolf6589
Audience- Web audience/christian laymen, pastor, or Bible student doing research on the Internet.

Goal- Application article on the Ten Commandments in under 6,000 words.

Accomplishments- My website gets lots of emails and lots of reports of people that are being helped by the content. Lately I have not been able to keep up with the volume. Refining content is a priority for me and writing well a motto.

Discussion

Fulfilling God's Law by Walking in the Spirit

Pastor Dan Miller

The God of the Bible is presented without apology as a law-issuing God who expects us to be law-keeping people. God does not ask permission to assert Himself as the arbiter of human ethics (Gen. 2:15-17). He determines for His creatures the standard of right and wrong and we are duty-bound to know His commandments and honor them.

Discussion