Bible Passages

Psalm 8 is quoted four times in the New Testament showing that its message is important for understanding the Bible’s storyline.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” These words are the John 3:16 of American cultural Christianity. Watch how often they show up on the Bible verse plaques sold in Bible Belt mall kiosks or posted on Facebook walls, even on tattoos.

The primary crisis in America and the West is the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values, or, one might say, the dismissal of the Bible. Virtually everyone on the left thinks America would be better off as a secular nation. And virtually all conservative intellectuals don’t think it matters. How many intellectuals study the Bible and teach it to their children?

Doug Wilson: The New Jerusalem is not a figure of Heaven, the final eternal state, but is rather a glorious image of the Christian Church.

Theology in 3D: … Although the believer’s transition into the presence of the Lord in death is certainly a precious event of inestimable worth to the believer and, by God’s grace, to the Lord himself, it does not appear that this particular verse, Ps 116:15 is referring to that event.

This rather complicated story is an attempt to “read between the lines” and sort out several letters (which we do not have) and visits (which Acts does not report). To a certain extent this is speculative, but it is the traditional view of the relationship between Paul and this particularly difficult church.

William Mounce: Do we really believe that the angry words, the slanderous words, that so often come out of the human mouth truly make that person unacceptable to God, make him or her a defilement?

Theologyin3d: There is reason to believe that in the story of the Good Samaritan is a veiled reference to an event in the Jews’ own history, namely the account in 2 Chr 28:5–15 of the Syro-Ephraimite coalition in which 200,000 people from Judah were taken captive to Samaria, but shown mercy by the Samarian leaders.

Michael Heiser: One of the more vexing problems in the Old Testament is how to parse the parallel accounts of 1 Chronicles 21:1–17 and 2 Samuel 24:1–25.