The Narrow Path Ministries

The view I take is that the book is (alone with Luke) some kind of legal brief or defence, either for Paul's trial in Rome, or as an explanation to powerful aristocratic elements within Rome. This would account both for the abrupt ending, and for the emphasis upon trials and powerful Roman official...

Here's my top favorite "apologetic" authors, though I'm sure not all would consider themselves apologists in the proper sense. I've starred my absolute favorites. C.S. Lewis* N.T. Wright* G. K. Chesterton Peter Kreeft Craig Blomberg Ben Witherington III Hugh Ross Blaise Pascal Michael L. Brown An ec...

A great illustration, Homer!

18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. Psychomike: 1 John 2:18 actually still puts the antichrist's coming in the future. It puts the coming of precursors of the antic...

Bristow, whose book I referred to earlier, says that the word Junian as it is in the original text is the accusative form of the feminine name Junia... but others say it's a contraction of the masculine Junianus. Also, he notes that John Chrysostom had no doubts that this passage was referring to a ...

True, true.

If the "right environment" for mutual confession is usually found in a small group or one-on-one, then, getting back to Rae's original question- is there ever a place for personal confession (of so-called "private" sin) in the large group meeting?

I'm sorry if that's been your experience Lazarus. I know it has been for many. I have seen how God can use honesty about sin between Christians to bring incredible healing in the right environment. I think that's part of what James was speaking about in his admonition that we "confess our sins to on...

The situation Rae's describing does seem ill advised mainly because of the nature of the sins being confessed and the impact of that confession on the hearers. Though such confession could be an opportunity for the community to extend grace, in a mixed crowd such confessions will probably have an ad...

Thanks so much, Steve. From a pastoral perspective over the last several years in my life, these issues are a lot more pertinent. When we started as a church, Aletheia created a statement of faith with the intention of focusing it on what we considered the bare essentials. So many of us have had to ...

I'm going to post this here as it's a follow up to a question I asked Steve during his visit to the Portland area. Steve (or others), I was privileged to meet you in person for the first time last Saturday night in Camas. I want to thank you for visiting- it was an enjoyable and interesting evening...