Before
going on, in my series on Spirit baptism, to deal with the lynch-pin of
universal church dispensationalism, 1 Corinthians 12:13, which I will, Lord
willing, begin to discuss next Friday, I wanted to make blog readers aware of
two other matters.
going on, in my series on Spirit baptism, to deal with the lynch-pin of
universal church dispensationalism, 1 Corinthians 12:13, which I will, Lord
willing, begin to discuss next Friday, I wanted to make blog readers aware of
two other matters.
1.) The evangelistic website
“What Must I Do To Be Saved?” at http://sites.google.com/site/faithalonesaves/salvation
has had, for a while, material dealing with large numbers of specific false
religions, from Roman Catholicism, to Lutheranism, to Reformed paedobaptism, to
Islam, to the classic cults, etc., as well as pamphlets for charismatics and
evangelicals. The site has now
recently been updated with links to material in a significant number of foreign
languages. Material in Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, French, Russian, and Polish, has been added. If you have to call your bank, get a
telemarketing call, etc. you can ask the person you are speaking to over the
phone the following question: “If
you would like to be 100% sure that you have eternal life and fellowship with
God, I can give you a website that can let you know how you can be sure you
have these things. Would you like
the web address?” Some people will
want it, others will not, but it is a way to give out a gospel tract, as it
were, over the phone. Furthermore,
if you are going door to door or are in some other setting and you don’t have
anything with you in one of the languages linked to on the website, you can
give the web address so people can get material in their language. The pamphlets for the various false
religions are also very useful. I
have two bumper stickers on my car, one that says “What must I do to be saved?”
(Acts 16:30) and another one with the web address, so that people can find out
about salvation simply by being near your vehicle. These bumper stickers can also be acquired via a link on the
website. Links for conversion
testimonies, the way of life literature church directory, and sermons from
Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante, CA are also present, and a “contact us”
link is also present. You can get
the gospel to people in India who call you to telemarket without ever having to
buy a plane ticket. That phone
call may be the only time the person who calls you will ever speak to a Christian—you
should use every opportunity you have to get out the gospel.
“What Must I Do To Be Saved?” at http://sites.google.com/site/faithalonesaves/salvation
has had, for a while, material dealing with large numbers of specific false
religions, from Roman Catholicism, to Lutheranism, to Reformed paedobaptism, to
Islam, to the classic cults, etc., as well as pamphlets for charismatics and
evangelicals. The site has now
recently been updated with links to material in a significant number of foreign
languages. Material in Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, French, Russian, and Polish, has been added. If you have to call your bank, get a
telemarketing call, etc. you can ask the person you are speaking to over the
phone the following question: “If
you would like to be 100% sure that you have eternal life and fellowship with
God, I can give you a website that can let you know how you can be sure you
have these things. Would you like
the web address?” Some people will
want it, others will not, but it is a way to give out a gospel tract, as it
were, over the phone. Furthermore,
if you are going door to door or are in some other setting and you don’t have
anything with you in one of the languages linked to on the website, you can
give the web address so people can get material in their language. The pamphlets for the various false
religions are also very useful. I
have two bumper stickers on my car, one that says “What must I do to be saved?”
(Acts 16:30) and another one with the web address, so that people can find out
about salvation simply by being near your vehicle. These bumper stickers can also be acquired via a link on the
website. Links for conversion
testimonies, the way of life literature church directory, and sermons from
Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante, CA are also present, and a “contact us”
link is also present. You can get
the gospel to people in India who call you to telemarket without ever having to
buy a plane ticket. That phone
call may be the only time the person who calls you will ever speak to a Christian—you
should use every opportunity you have to get out the gospel.
2.) In my opinion, the best Bible
software program in the world, in terms of search capabilities for the inspired
original language texts, is Accordance link here.
Accordance is designed for a Macintosh, but it can run on a PC. Bibleworks is also valuable as a PC product link here. I own both Accordance and Logos,
a program that works on both the Mac and the PC. It is not as easy on Logos link here to do the most complex original
language searches, but it has a tremendous search capability and can give you a
tremendous Bible study library for a small fraction of the cost—and with far
greater ease of use—than physical books.
Let me give you an example of its library capability. Recently, as I was doing some research
into the Welsh revival of 1904, I ran across a reference to the National
Eisteddfod. Not having a clue what
a National Eisteddfod was, I typed “Eisteddfod” into my Logos program.
Four books in my library had the word, the most useful link being to the
Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals where I found out it was a Welsh poetry festival and also obtained
other useful information. Do you
want information on Ignatius of Antioch, the early patristic? In my library, he is discussed or
mentioned in 139 different books, with a total of 486 articles. Furthermore, one can buy commentary
sets for prices far lower than print volumes, and in a format that is far more
easily searchable and accessible than print volumes, and far less of a hassle
to carry around—you can have the entire commentary with you on your cell phone
or other electronic gismo. On the
way to work and back, I have enjoyed having my electronic device read to me a
variety of systematic theology books on soteriology I have on Logos (McCune, Hodge, Geisler, Bavinck, Chafer, Strong,
Berkouwer, Ryrie, Packer, etc. are on my program), as I am currently teaching a
class at Mukwonago Baptist Bible Institute on the topic. Furthermore, with Logos all one’s commentaries on a particular passage are
available to examine with far greater speed than one could employ with physical
books. Finally, Logos has recently made available, free, hundreds of
searchable books in classical Greek and Latin, many of them with English
translations. This resource is not
available for Accordance or Bibleworks. How is
this useful? For example, some
have affirmed that Ephesians 5:18 should not be translated “be filled with the Spirit,” alleging that the Greek phrase is not
used for the idea of content in the Greek of the day, and so the verse does not
refer to being filled with the Spirit.
Do you want to see if that syntactical claim is true? (It isn’t, by the way.) You can get vast amounts of data from
extrabiblical sources with tremendous ease with Logos. Do you
want more information about what the “tittle” of Matthew 5:18 is? There are only two NT references to the
word, no references in the LXX, none in the apostolic patristic writers, and
only one reference each in Josephus and Philo—but there are 91 hits for the
word in the Logos classics
collection (they call it the “Perseus” collection), giving you references from
Plutarch to Lucian to Appian. This
classics collection is a tremendous resource. If you wish to study the Bible in depth, sell your shirt (or
keep a sweater on but turn the heat down in your house in the winter) and buy
Bible software. At our church we
also recently gave a reasonably sized Accordance package to one of our pastors, and I believe we will
be reaping the benefits in the preaching we hear for years to come, unless the
Rapture happens first.
software program in the world, in terms of search capabilities for the inspired
original language texts, is Accordance link here.
Accordance is designed for a Macintosh, but it can run on a PC. Bibleworks is also valuable as a PC product link here. I own both Accordance and Logos,
a program that works on both the Mac and the PC. It is not as easy on Logos link here to do the most complex original
language searches, but it has a tremendous search capability and can give you a
tremendous Bible study library for a small fraction of the cost—and with far
greater ease of use—than physical books.
Let me give you an example of its library capability. Recently, as I was doing some research
into the Welsh revival of 1904, I ran across a reference to the National
Eisteddfod. Not having a clue what
a National Eisteddfod was, I typed “Eisteddfod” into my Logos program.
Four books in my library had the word, the most useful link being to the
Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals where I found out it was a Welsh poetry festival and also obtained
other useful information. Do you
want information on Ignatius of Antioch, the early patristic? In my library, he is discussed or
mentioned in 139 different books, with a total of 486 articles. Furthermore, one can buy commentary
sets for prices far lower than print volumes, and in a format that is far more
easily searchable and accessible than print volumes, and far less of a hassle
to carry around—you can have the entire commentary with you on your cell phone
or other electronic gismo. On the
way to work and back, I have enjoyed having my electronic device read to me a
variety of systematic theology books on soteriology I have on Logos (McCune, Hodge, Geisler, Bavinck, Chafer, Strong,
Berkouwer, Ryrie, Packer, etc. are on my program), as I am currently teaching a
class at Mukwonago Baptist Bible Institute on the topic. Furthermore, with Logos all one’s commentaries on a particular passage are
available to examine with far greater speed than one could employ with physical
books. Finally, Logos has recently made available, free, hundreds of
searchable books in classical Greek and Latin, many of them with English
translations. This resource is not
available for Accordance or Bibleworks. How is
this useful? For example, some
have affirmed that Ephesians 5:18 should not be translated “be filled with the Spirit,” alleging that the Greek phrase is not
used for the idea of content in the Greek of the day, and so the verse does not
refer to being filled with the Spirit.
Do you want to see if that syntactical claim is true? (It isn’t, by the way.) You can get vast amounts of data from
extrabiblical sources with tremendous ease with Logos. Do you
want more information about what the “tittle” of Matthew 5:18 is? There are only two NT references to the
word, no references in the LXX, none in the apostolic patristic writers, and
only one reference each in Josephus and Philo—but there are 91 hits for the
word in the Logos classics
collection (they call it the “Perseus” collection), giving you references from
Plutarch to Lucian to Appian. This
classics collection is a tremendous resource. If you wish to study the Bible in depth, sell your shirt (or
keep a sweater on but turn the heat down in your house in the winter) and buy
Bible software. At our church we
also recently gave a reasonably sized Accordance package to one of our pastors, and I believe we will
be reaping the benefits in the preaching we hear for years to come, unless the
Rapture happens first.
For
the next few weeks (and I mean few, like a little over two, after which I won’t
be able to do this anymore) I can make available the base packages for Logos, and the large commentary sets (Expositor’s
Bible Commentary; New International Critical OT/NT Commentary; Word Biblical
Commentary; New International Greek Testament Commentary; Hermeneia; Anchor
Bible Commentary, etc.) for 5% off what you
will be able to get them for on the Logos website. That is, if a base package is 15% off on the Logos website,
I can get it to you for 20% off.
If you qualify for an academic discount, I can get the product you want
for less than what you would pay with the academic discount. If you are interested in taking
advantage of any of these deals, you can contact me by e-mail at: t r k j v 2 (“at” symbol; @) y a h o o
. com (I spread it out this way to avoid, hopefully, becoming a spam
target). Unfortunately, I don’t
have any special way of getting discounts on Accordance or Bibleworks. (I asked them shortly
before I began teaching Greek this Fall, so I could let my students know, but
they would not give me any special offer.)
the next few weeks (and I mean few, like a little over two, after which I won’t
be able to do this anymore) I can make available the base packages for Logos, and the large commentary sets (Expositor’s
Bible Commentary; New International Critical OT/NT Commentary; Word Biblical
Commentary; New International Greek Testament Commentary; Hermeneia; Anchor
Bible Commentary, etc.) for 5% off what you
will be able to get them for on the Logos website. That is, if a base package is 15% off on the Logos website,
I can get it to you for 20% off.
If you qualify for an academic discount, I can get the product you want
for less than what you would pay with the academic discount. If you are interested in taking
advantage of any of these deals, you can contact me by e-mail at: t r k j v 2 (“at” symbol; @) y a h o o
. com (I spread it out this way to avoid, hopefully, becoming a spam
target). Unfortunately, I don’t
have any special way of getting discounts on Accordance or Bibleworks. (I asked them shortly
before I began teaching Greek this Fall, so I could let my students know, but
they would not give me any special offer.)
If
you believe getting a Bible software package is a good use of money, but you
don’t want to spend money you don’t have (a very good idea), if you have good
credit you may be able to get $1,000 by opening a Chase credit card that will
give you $500 for fulfilling a few requirements and $500 for getting a Citibank
credit card that will do the same thing. (See link here.) You have to spend $3000 on the cards in three months to get the $500
bonus, but you can make deposits of cash into, say, a Zecco forex (link) investment account using a credit card, and then
take the money out later, so you don’t need to actually spend all that
money. You should not open any
credit cards accounts if you carry balances and pay the confiscatory credit
card interest rates, rather than paying them off in full every month. If you don’t pay them off in full every
month, you should cut up the credit cards you have and use cash or a debit card
instead, and get out of debt. “The
borrower is servant to the lender,” Proverbs 22:7. However, if you are responsible and are able to pay them off
in full each month, getting $1000 for opening two accounts is a great deal, in
my opinion. If you are married,
both you and your spouse can open the accounts, and you can get $2000. (You can also get hundreds of dollars
by opening a few bank accounts; type “$200 bank bonus” or “$150 bank bonus” on
Google and look around.) By the
way, you should not be hasty to spend money. In my family, we never make a purchase above a certain
dollar amount the same day; if we
think something is worth getting above that amount, we wait, pray, and then
either decide to get it or not get it at least 24 hours (for bigger purchases,
48 hours) later, minimum.
you believe getting a Bible software package is a good use of money, but you
don’t want to spend money you don’t have (a very good idea), if you have good
credit you may be able to get $1,000 by opening a Chase credit card that will
give you $500 for fulfilling a few requirements and $500 for getting a Citibank
credit card that will do the same thing. (See link here.) You have to spend $3000 on the cards in three months to get the $500
bonus, but you can make deposits of cash into, say, a Zecco forex (link) investment account using a credit card, and then
take the money out later, so you don’t need to actually spend all that
money. You should not open any
credit cards accounts if you carry balances and pay the confiscatory credit
card interest rates, rather than paying them off in full every month. If you don’t pay them off in full every
month, you should cut up the credit cards you have and use cash or a debit card
instead, and get out of debt. “The
borrower is servant to the lender,” Proverbs 22:7. However, if you are responsible and are able to pay them off
in full each month, getting $1000 for opening two accounts is a great deal, in
my opinion. If you are married,
both you and your spouse can open the accounts, and you can get $2000. (You can also get hundreds of dollars
by opening a few bank accounts; type “$200 bank bonus” or “$150 bank bonus” on
Google and look around.) By the
way, you should not be hasty to spend money. In my family, we never make a purchase above a certain
dollar amount the same day; if we
think something is worth getting above that amount, we wait, pray, and then
either decide to get it or not get it at least 24 hours (for bigger purchases,
48 hours) later, minimum.
I
don’t have any intention of trying to turn this blog into a house of
merchandise, and I am not very likely at all to post anything like the above
about credit cards and banks again any time in the near future. However, I thought that numbers of blog
readers would be interested in the Logos
deal above, especially since the newly added search capabilities are unique to
its Bible software program and are very valuable, and paying for a Bible
software package, or a valuable exegetical commentary set, without busting
one’s budget, by simply spending 15 minutes opening two credit card accounts,
seemed like it was worth mentioning as well, and could be good stewardship.
don’t have any intention of trying to turn this blog into a house of
merchandise, and I am not very likely at all to post anything like the above
about credit cards and banks again any time in the near future. However, I thought that numbers of blog
readers would be interested in the Logos
deal above, especially since the newly added search capabilities are unique to
its Bible software program and are very valuable, and paying for a Bible
software package, or a valuable exegetical commentary set, without busting
one’s budget, by simply spending 15 minutes opening two credit card accounts,
seemed like it was worth mentioning as well, and could be good stewardship.
-TDR
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