Spend much time on the Internet and you’ll seen them. Usually they are marked as a “sponsored” link and they have enticing headlines like, “29 Rare Photos That Will Leave You Speechless”, or “The cameraman Just Kept Recording” and even “Type in your name - This is Addicting!” It’s called “clickbait” and is intended to get you to a website that contains pretty much nothing but advertisements that will draw you further in. It’s one thing to be tricked on the Internet, but when it’s applied to our spiritual lives its called something else: temptation.
Literary Analysis is a way of studying literature in general, not only the Bible. This method is founded on the belief that language works; that is to say that words, sentences and the like have meaning and are capable of communicating ideas to others. This might sound elementary as we demonstrate every day that language does indeed work every time we receive a request to do something at work or instruct a child to do their homework or even read a book or periodical.
If you read Think-Biblically.com regularly, you have an interest in reading and studying the Bible but would you say you love the Scriptures? Do they bring greater delight than your favorite food? Maybe our favorite passages such as those that inspire or comfort us, but how about the law? Does reading Leviticus make you joyful? King David thought it should. He thought so because God’s word is a lot like God himself: reliable, wise, fair, pure eternally enduring, trustworthy and just. If spending time with God brings us comfort and joy, shouldn’t his word do the same?
I am not suggesting some miraculous conspiracy theory about how these cultures developed such similarities around the same time period. There were no “space-men” to assist these cultures; only demons, who wanted to be worshiped by the children of God and to build their own earthly empires. Nor is this a new philosophy; Daniel was given a glimpse of this kind of demonic influence in culture by the angel who appeared in Daniel 10.10-.14. Evidently, demons are considered “princes,” if you will, over major cities, and adhere to a military rank and authority.
We have said it here many times before, that conflict with the world is inevitable for the practicing Christian. This simple truth may not be remarkable, but it seems that from time to time the body of Christ needs to be reminded of it. In this age of Islamic violence, however, it may serve our readers best to define what kind of conflict is permissible by Kingdom standards. Sometimes the best way to define a concept is to illustrate it.
Last week we asked if you love God’s word. We asked if you like reading God’s word more than eating your favorite meal – even the tough to read passages about the law. In the passage above Paul links these two concepts together in an elegant way. Regardless of the number of laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy there is one simple way to obey them all – Love your neighbor. It is a simple, life-giving formula: Loving God leads you to love God’s word, loving God’s word leads you to love others, loving others leads you fulfilling God’s law. Is there a better reason to study God’s word?
Demon possession takes many forms and results from a myriad of practices. The danger is that the practice may not have been with the permission of the one who is afflicted (as is the case in Luke 9, where the “child” was under his father’s authority). If the demonization occurs at an early age, the victim may not ever recall the events that brought them this spiritual inhabitant. The Luke 9 incident strikes a parallel in an account related by Dr. Koch:
Does he lurk in the shadows? Does he reside in basements and cellars and sewers, staying far away from the light of day? Are leaky pipes and fungi his only company? Is the Prince of Darkness to be likened to a Stephen King antithesis of good; an evil force subject to the night, ensnaring the lonely, the curious, the naïve whenever they cross his liar? Quite the contrary.
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming commentary on the book of Jonah to be published later this year. There are many methods of Bible study used to derive the most information and greatest understanding of the text. We have used several forms including traditional hermeneutics, literary analysis and observing other textual cues. To understand the verse-by-verse analysis of Jonah we felt it important to provide the reader with six steps of biblical observation. These steps will teach you the terminology used in the commentary and provide a foundation of biblical study that may be applied to any historic narrative in the Bible.
I was 15-years old and at a Christian camp, sitting around the campfire with others from our church youth group and paying more attention to the girl I was crushing on than to the discussion leader. That is until he read a Bible passage and wanted to go around the circle with each student answering the question, “what does this mean to you?” Yes, red flags went full sail in my Bible-geek mind. I was about half-way around the circle, so my challenge to this exercise should have been delivered tactfully. It wasn’t.
Matthew, Mark and Luke record a great many instances of demonic possession, and is a veritable harvest field of information regarding these spirit entities. John, on the other hand, contains no stories of demons at all. No study of demons could be considered complete, however, unless it contained a study of the demoniac of Garasenes. Doctor and respected author Kurt Koch relates eight symptoms of demon possession as discovered from the passages on this particular case:
Just about a year ago Think-Biblically ran a series on demonic activity in the modern world. We discussed demonic familiars and their “Strong Man” superiors, demonic oppression and demonic possession. Since then readers have asked for a more scholarly series on the topic of demonism. While every culture has a way to participate with or repel demons, there is no better guide to this unseen realm than the Bible itself. The passage quoted above reveals nine foundational occult practices that are abominable to God (and should be to us as well). These include: