If it can’t walk out into the street, it ain’t faith, it’s just furniture.
I love studying people. Anthropology, philosophy, the parts of psychology that get at why we are the way we are: all of it is the study of the human condition, and I’m convinced Christians need to study it too. The Bible was written to real people about real life.
We’re told to be in the world but not of it, and to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You can’t do either if you don’t understand people. The enemy has had thousands of years to study us, and the same old tricks still work, because people haven’t changed. We’re all sinners, and even Christians still carry that old nature. If mankind left to itself only goes one way, and the Bible shows that way is down, then whatever worked on people thousands of years ago still works today.
That’s why I don’t buy the idea that we’re more civilized now. We have fancy toys and gadgets, but some of the tribes and nations we can’t even pronounce are more civilized than the West. Gadgets don’t make us wiser. Most of the time they just make us smarter fools.
So I come to Scripture as an anthropologist who is a Christian. I read it the classic way: dispensational, premillennial and pre-tribulation, with the traditional, orthodox reading the church has always held. The plain sense, in its context, with Scripture explaining Scripture. On election I’m about a four-point Calvinist. The rest is on Our Beliefs.
These booklets are years of notes, questions and an open Bible, written for you and given away.
Hannah
Questions people ask
Do you agree with everyone you quote in the booklets?
No. The teachers I lean on most are Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, A. W. Tozer, Harry Ironside, Warren Wiersbe and Dr. Jerry Vines, among others, and I’ll keep adding to that list. Now and then I quote someone outside it, because a line of theirs says something true and says it well. A quote isn’t an endorsement: it doesn’t mean I agree with all, or even most, of what they believe. If a name isn’t on my list, take that as you will.
Why are the booklets free, and why can’t they be sold?
Because I don’t need to make money from any of this. I’ve always believed anyone doing ministry should be bivocational, whatever kind of ministry it is. That’s how so much of it has always been done: you have a skill or a trade that pays the bills, so you never make money from the ministry itself.
Why do you use the King James Version?
Because it’s the closest to the original Hebrew and Greek. It doesn’t matter which one you compare it to; it’s not even a long shot, and frankly that’s not up for debate. Everything else waters it down.
Who taught you to study the Bible for yourself?
Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries, and Dr. Jerry Vines, who has a commentary too. Most of these teachers have since gone on to be with the Lord. But the most important teacher I’ve had is the Holy Spirit. That’s what He’s been given for: He will teach you. That’s what we’re told.
Quick ones
- Coffee or tea
- Tea, and it better be sweet tea. Come on, y’all.
- Morning or night
- Night owl, obviously. Early birds can keep their worms.
- On the desk
- Whatever Itty Bitty or movie collectible I’m loving lately.
- Watched 10+ times
- The Big Bang Theory. Bazinga.
- Favorite place to read
- Bed. Night light, twinkle lights, book light. Perfect.
- If not writing
- Movies and TV, all day. Total geek here.
