On my 16th birthday I received, by request, a new Thompson Chain Reference NIV Bible. As a 16 year old, I had no insights- nor did I consider the need of them- concerning the integrity of the NIV translation. I simply knew that my new NIV Bible was easier to understand than the KJV I had used up to that point.
As it turns out, by God’s grace, the NIV I was ingesting was actually a pretty good translation overall. It is a good “middling” of two interpretational extremes. As a ministry student, which I became just a few years thereafter, one’s translation is never one’s only translation; it is simply the translation one preaches and teaches from. It is the translation one commits to memory. I spent over twenty five years doing just that with my (1984) NIV. Continue Reading
The first church John was asked to address of the seven was the church in Ephesus; a church which received both praise and rebuke from the Lord’s letter.
A new variety of church-growth movement is squarely upon us. It decisively attempts to illegitimize any attempt at “doctrinal wall-building” for fear of excluding those frankly, who are unwilling to believe. This sentiment has found itself at home in an increasing number of churches in recent years; being a boon to church growth (numerically) by removing those pesky doctrinal encumbrances which often cause people to seek membership elsewhere.