Savedthroughfaith.com

I’m pleased to announce a new section on benchilcote.com.  I now have a book section to share the books that are impacting the way I think and live.  There are more to add which I’ll do when I have some more time.  Click on the BOOKS  link at the top of the page. ...

Recently, when reading about the Jewish influence on the early church, I came across this interesting paragraph: For the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, however, the issue [of circumcision of Gentiles] was not so clear. The inferences were obvious to them; the ramifications were potentially damaging to the Jewish traditions. That God had poured out his Spirit on the Gentiles was amazing in its own right; but the subsequent inference that the Jewi...

Today’s ordinary Catholic mass or mainline Protestant communion service bears little resemblance to what we can glean from the New Testament about the first celebrations of Jesus’ presence in the breaking of the bread. Arguments that have divided denominations over the question of the relationship between the blessed bread and the whereabouts of Jesus would certainly have seemed strange and irrelevant to the first ekklēsiai. The New ...

New Testament Introduction is primarily that information concerning the New Testament that deals with authorship, date of authorship, recipients, etc. But, while this information may not be primarily about interpretation, the decisions made always impact our interpretation. For example, consider a post that I wrote 2 1/2 years ago called “1 Timothy and Titus and the development of church structure.” —————...

While discussing the current state of research into first century synagogues, Stephen Catto makes the following observation: There would appear to be two major difficulties in addressing the area of worship practices in the first-century ‘synagogue’. The first is the lack of detail that we have on the subject, which should make us wary of overly confident assertions on practice. The second is defining what should or should not be considered w...

Since a theology of the New Testament must both (1) bring the thought world of the New Testament writings into clear focus and (2) articulate this thought world in the context of a contemporary understanding of reality, it has to work with different temporal planes. Its task is to envision the past in view of the present, to explicate it in such a way that its future relevance can be seen. New Testament theology is thus linked into the question o...

I came across an ad for this in Relevant Magazine and had to share it. If you are a Christian active in church, or a pastor, then you will find it funnier than others might. You can find out a lot more about the book and the blog which it came from at [...]...

I have been reading a book by Richard Cherok entitled, Debating For God, which covers the life of Alexander Campbell’s defense of Christianity during the 19th century against various attackers but the most famous being Robert Owen, the man who launched the socialist revolution in England that spread to become modern-day Europe and communism in general. Campbell was a master debater. To use a phrase familiar to Southerners, he took Owen t...

Here are the titles of books that I received for Christmas in 2009. I plan on having a review of the books as I complete them but for now I will only give a short synopsis of the title. I have not listed them in any particular order.1. Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach by Kenneth Keathley. Keathley describes himself as a three point Calvinist who rejects Limited Atonement and Irresistible Grace. The book seeks to present a Molin...