What does the Bible ACTUALLY say about divorce and remarriage? How do we as pastors adhere faithfully to God’s revelation and minister that truth to the mess and pain of real relationships that are broken? What are the real grounds for divorce, and can Christians remarry after divorce?

The church has been polarized by these questions and, I think, often less than Biblically faithful, erring either to a hyper – “no divorce/remarriage” approach or a pragmatic and mushy appeal to “grace and mercy” that is often not grounded in the text itself. Instone-Brewer, with his background in Rabbinics, IMHO, does by far the best job of explaining what the Scriptures/Moses, Jesus, Paul, etc, actually say about the topic, stripped of church tradition. The results are at once refreshing, shocking and embarrassing.

This book is the non-academic, practical and pastorally focused version of his scholarly work, “Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context” which I have read and have several copies that I loan out.

I like Instone-Brewers style- flitting in and out of pastoral concerns and academic/hermeneutic precision, and I’m intellectually and pastorally satisfied with his hermeneutics and practical applications. Highly recommended.

How do we earnestly and honestly deal with the clear teachings of Scripture that show that God is truly sovereign over the entire universe, over people and over the salvation of individuals, and those that show that humans have real responsibility before God for moral choice and the power of libertine freedom? Calvinism and Arminianism have been the two opposing camps of genuine scripturally grounded believers trying to answer these questions, for better or for worse. Keathley does a fine and approachable job of presenting a Biblically faithful alternative: Molinism (Luis Molina) and the middle knowledge of God.

I appreciate how he tells you right up front what he’s going to propose, and then sets about the task of doing it without preamble. I’m enjoying his very readable and useful way of sticking with what the Bible actually says about these topics, not building a view of God’s sovereignty or human freedom on artificial logical implications or presuppositions or human traditions. I also appreciate his humility and generosity toward folks in other camps. Highly Recommended as to style as well as theological content.

As a child of the Watergate era, I devoured Colson’s book, “Born Again”. Colson’s path tracked that of the apostle Paul, from pragmatic political hard-case willing to do most anything for his party, to loving and serving Christ and his body and the “least among us.”
We’ll miss you Chuck, until we meet. Requiem en pacem in paradisum.Откъде да купя икона

They respond with something like:

• “God is bigger than his word.”
• “God is bigger than your systematic theology.”
• “If you think you’ve got a handle on God then you don’t have the real God in mind.”

First, these phrases are not original with them. I’ve heard these phrases before. Second, I think the idea behind them reflects a profoundly deficient view of the ability of God to express Himself intelligently.

Now, although all the minds of men and of angels stand in wonderment in admiration of this mystery, that God has begotten a Son and that the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, proceeds from the Father and the Son, yet we must concur in this, because, as has already been said so many times, we must believe concerning God as He has revealed Himself. The heathen wander about in their hearts seeking a god according to their own speculations; but the church knows the eternal and almighty God, our Creator, as He has revealed Himself. Although we cannot probe this mystery to the depths, yet in this life God has willed that there be at least a beginning of knowledge of this subject and that our worship be distinguished from the worship of false gods. He has given in His Word a revelation by sure testimonies. In this Word, like a fetus who draws nourishment in the womb of the mother through the umbilical cord and the organs of reproduction, we sit enclosed, drawing our knowledge of God and of life from the Word of God, so that we may worship Him as He has revealed Himself. (Loci Theologici, Vol. 1 Chap 2)

Jerome, author of the Latin Vulgate, wrote in his introduction to the book of Isaiah,

{I obey} the precepts of Christ who says “examine the Scriptures” (John 5:39) and “seek and you will find.” (Matt 7:7)  Let me not hear with the Jews: “you are wrong because you do not know scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matt. 22:29)  For if, according to the apostle Paul, Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24) and who does not know Scripture does not know the power or the wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

Did you track with Jerome? This brief snippet is among the most profound and concise in the history of the church, “… ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

Jesus consistently held the nose of his questioners and accusers to the grindstone of the Word…”What do the Scriptures say?” “How do you read it?” “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Jesus took a high view of the understandability and precision of Scriptures. Can we, in good conscience, do any less?

In a followup, Dr. Henebury describes examples of these rules in their Positive Applications.

The Halloween that is celebrated today in the United States is a day when children and adults alike dress up and collect candy. Some people create “haunted houses” to thrill teenagers. People dress as princesses, insects, “witches”, zombies and aliens. Some teens play pranks, throw rotten eggs at one another, etc. Its one of the larger commercial holidays with sales of candy, costumes, decorations, etc. So, what does that have to do with paganism? Very little, really. Actually, pagans don’t even celebrate Halloween as a spiritual holiday.

The reality is that “Christianity” or more properly, Roman Catholicism, actually created Halloween! Well before the year 1,000AD, as true, Biblical Christianity as well as Roman Catholicism was spreading throughout Europe, the Roman Catholic clergy had difficulties convincing the general populace to stop celebrating all of their pagan holidays. In most cases, the Church made up holidays that occurred around the same time of year as the old pagan festivals in attempt to seduce away and force outward compliance with Catholic rituals. This failure to get people to stop pagan celebrations on their own came from the Clergy’s ignorance of the Scriptures and subsequent failure to communicate the Word of God to the people in their own tongue. To the people who participated, the pomp and rituals of the Church were just another “holy” set of spiritual activities and they added them to their pagan “holy” rituals to cover all the spiritual bases. True Christians, though more rare, indwelt by the Spirit and informed by the Word of God walked a more moderate  and thoughtful path.

The earlier pagan holiday that was celebrated in the Fall was called by the Celtic and Brythonic cultures, Samhain (Celtic, pronounced “so-wain” or “saywin”), and it meant “Summers End” – Sam - summer, fain-end, and was celebrated on the first three days of November. Some scholars think this is when their new year began.

Samhain was a holy time when pagans thankfully celebrated the bounty of the harvest and gave their thanks to the goddess of the harvest, Mongfind. (Much like our Thanksgiving). It was also a holy time when it was thought that the veil between this world and then next was thinnest and that their beloved deceased relatives and ancestors could come back and visit for a brief time, giving their advice and guidance to the living. They would hollow out turnips and put candles in them so the spirits of their loved ones could find the way home. It was also a time to contemplate the brevity of life and life on the “other side”.

I should point out that the Apostle Paul was a lot easier on people that did this in his time than he was on the Jews/Pharisees of his day who believed all the right things about God, and who would never participate in such pagan rituals. He commended the pagans for their thankfulness for the harvest, and pointed them to the one True and living God. See Acts 14 for one example. Certainly Scripture condemns communication with the dead, but right thinking on this comes about by fellowship with the living Christ through the Spirit in the Word, not by making up rules and alternate Church celebrations.

In any case, in typical reactionary fashion, the Clergy told the people to dress up with scary costumes in an alternative holiday to scare away the spirits of the dead relatives, and thus was born, “All Hallows Eve”…Halloween.

Neopagans (renewed modern paganism) are baffled by the fear by many Christians of Halloween as a pagan festival. Halloween is not a pagan festival historically, it was a long time ago a Catholic holiday. Pagans are of two minds toward it. Some put on the costumes along with the rest of America and go out and have fun collecting candy, then they go home, change and go to celebrate their own pagan Samhain. Other pagans are deeply offended at what they see as a total perversion of their high holy days by the commercialism and sacrilege of the scary costumes, etc, just as we are offended by the Easter bunny on Resurrection Day. But in most cases pagans do not celebrate Samhain on October 31st in any case.

In America, Halloween is generally not connected in people’s minds (and that’s the key: intention) to “All Hallows Eve” the Catholic holiday, and it certainly is not a pagan holiday. It is a secular holiday with many different expressions. Is it wise for Christian children to dress up like ghosts, or monsters? I’d think not simply because they can frighten even younger kids, but we shouldn’t make the argument it is pagan and therefore “evil,” or even a celebration of the Catholic holiday. Is it ok to dress up like prince or princess or an apple or other fun thing? I think its great. Can adults dress up as a monster and go to a scary party? That’s a matter of personal conviction. For me it’s not a problem, but I’d rather hang out with my kids anyway.

I don’t know of a single person who got sucked into paganism by celebrating Halloween. I don’t know of a single person who got sucked into Roman Catholicism by wearing a scary mask. I do know many people who got sucked into self centered materialism by being told that getting a college degree was wonderful and the key to succeed in their careers, just to give just one example of things we take as morally good but may not always be. (I’m not against college, but I’m challenging the knee-jerk reaction of:  Halloween is evil and college is good.) Which is really worse: To acknowledge that there are real spiritual realities that affect our everyday life, and an afterlife, but be mistaken about its source and “Who” is out there, or to be a functional naturalist/materialst, effectively denying by one’s daily life that there is a personal, intrusive God who actively sustains all things and who judges the thoughts and intents of the heart? I would submit that many kids raised in Christian homes actually possess the latter worldview.

To the vast majority in our culture Halloween is a secular holiday with no spiritual significance. As Christians we can enjoy the bounty of the true and living Lord of the Harvest, carve up His pumpkins and have some fun too, with age appropriate wisdom.

If Paul could tell his gentile readers (former idolators) to eat meat that was offered to a real idol (and Paul said a real demon was receiving such worship) 5 minutes ago, “without raising questions of conscience”, then we should be able to carve a pumpkin that is separated from pagan harvest festival practices by a thousand years. As Paul says,

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,  for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” 1 Corinthians 10:25-26

Christians should be winsome, not fearful. We need to take our security and salvation with great seriousness, and ourselves not so seriously. There are hills to die on and hills just to light a fun bonfire and roast marshmallows on, and we ought to have the wisdom and good humor to know the difference.