Bible Study Lessons
John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of the most prolific and influential Bible interpreters in Christian history. He wrote a commentary on almost every book of the Bible and he systematized his understanding of the Bible in his magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion. I was interested in what Calvin had to say about two … Read more
In a previous post, I gave an overview of how elements of the Christian faith led to slavery’s demise in the western world. Here are a few key references to slavery in the New Testament along with a brief analysis below each reference. (Biblical quotations are from the NIV, 1984.) Mark and John Jesus said, … Read more
“Why do I have to go to school?” “Why do we have to study this?” “What’s the point?” These types of questions put me on a long-term search to understand the origin of compulsory schooling. The Search Begins My search was fueled by bold critiques of traditional schooling written by John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018), author of Dumbing … Read more
I’m upset. How could I have been reading the Bible for so long and missed something so obvious? I think I know how. I read Protestant commentaries. Some of those commentaries are especially good at listing various interpretations of a passage but never coming to a decisive conclusion. The passage I’m talking about is 1 … Read more
Last week I attended my first Orthodox service. Along with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Orthodoxy is one of the three main branches of Christianity. Since Orthodoxy and Catholicism both have longer historical roots than Protestantism here’s a brief contrast of the two. Catholicism and Orthodoxy First, Catholicism is based in Rome where Latin was spoken, … Read more