Book Review: 40 Questions About the End Times

40 Questions About the End Times
By: Echard Schnabel
Series Editor: Benjamin L. Merkle
Kregel Academic and Professional, 2011

Thanks to Benjamin Merkle, the Series Editor for Kregel’s “40 Questions” books, evangelicals now have a quick and concise tool for understanding end times. The book’s author, Echard Schnabel, is an evangelical and takes a very conservative look at all end times scripture throughout the Bible.

Perhaps the most helpful thing he has done is not begin with Revelation. I believe folks are guilty of going straight to the end of the Bible to understand what will happen in the end times which is not beneficial unless you have a good idea of the rest of the Bible’s metanarrative. To understand apocalyptic writing in scripture, one must understand the genre in general, but also understand the book of Daniel.

Why Do Protestants and Catholics Have a Different Bible?

Reasons for Rejecting the Apocrypha or Deutero-Canonical Texts

Prior to reading further on in this post it is important that you first read this. Protestants and Catholics disagree on a number of doctrines, most of which are secondary in nature. While these issues are strong enough to cause a number of denominations to develop out of the Reformation, it should only be for the purpose of kindling better relationships with the one true catholic church which is all Christians united under Christ. Doctrines such as the canon of Scripture which I am about to discuss are of major importance, but they should not take priority over our fellowship and unity with brothers and sisters in Christ. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread,” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17, ESV). We are all united under Christ into the body of believers which make up the one true church. 

The True Meaning of Sola Scriptura

I have recently been involved in discussions with Catholics about the Protestant belief in Sola Scriptura. In case you are not familiar with the phrase, it translates from Latin as “scripture alone.” There is a misconception held by Catholics of what this means for Protestants.

First, it does not mean that the only truth is Scripture. What do I mean by this? There are plenty of truths found outside of Scripture. The Bible is concerned about revealing God (Jesus) and who he is. Scripture’s primary concern is not science, math, psychology or any other field though it touches on every subject one could imagine.

Book Review: Torn by Jud Wilhite

BOOK REVIEW

Torn
Trusting God When Life Leaves You in Pieces
By Jud Wilhite
Published by Multnomah Books

Pastor Jude Wilhite of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada has written his book, “Torn” from the perspective of how to respond to evil. In the beginning of the book, he makes a claim I am not comfortable agreeing with, but beyond that, the book is a great edition to the many books covering the problem of evil and suffering.

Day 1: Wroclaw, Poland

Yesterday (October 17, 2011) we took off from the Bluegrass Airport around 12:45p, arrived in Charlotte, then to Munchen (Munich), and finally to Wroclaw (pron. Vrotzwav) around 11:00a. We lost a day due to traveling, were extremely tired since it was about 5:00a in the U.S. Last night (October 18, 2011) we finally went to sleep at 8:30p (2:30p in the U.S.).