Can the original Greek NT be copyrighted?

The answer to this question effects many things in regard to the usage of the Greek text, especially on the internet.  There are different versions of the Greek text, taking what they believe to be the best reading from the many manuscripts that are available and compiling them into one.  But there have been some copyright issues that have come up I thought we all should be aware of:

A Greek Bible web site used by lovers of God’s Word around the world has been shut down by the German/United Bible Society. Why?

Because they are intent upon defending the stream of money they’ve lived off for many years, now, provided by the Greek text of God’s Word they’ve assembled. They claim their text is the closest anyone can possibly get to the original autographs inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So think about this. The better they do their job, the closer they will be to claiming copyright for the very word of God.

Check out the full post here: Copyrighting the Holy Spirit’s words, then living off the profit…

Global Warming: Did We Do It?

An interesting post over at “Watts Up With That?”

“There does not appear to be any time difference between the hemispheres. This suggests that the annual increases [in atmospheric carbon dioxide] may be coming from a global or equatorial source.”

Check it out here: Study of Hemispheric C02 Timing

Quote of the Day

“Rather than expending all our energies explaining why we cannot attain absolute holiness, let us set our sights on the target of being holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16).”[1]

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[1] Robert L Thomas, Evangelical Hermeneutics: The New Versus the Old (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2002), 57.

The “New” Calvinism

I saw this article today over at Time Magazine about the top 10 ideas that are changing the world right now, and thought number three was of interest.

Calvinism is back, and not just musically. John Calvin’s 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism’s buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism’s latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination’s logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time’s dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.

You can check it out here: Time Magazine – “The New Calvinism”

Was the Reformation “Missional”?

Was the Reformation "Missional"?

Ed Stetzer, in his book Planting Missional Churches writes that, “After the Reformation took hold, the evangelistic mission of the church was often neglected….The Reformers were trapped within geographical Christendom while their Catholic counterparts were engaged in colonial expansion….Protestant ‘mission’ became missions to Catholics” (pp. 28-29).

But isn’t this exactly what Stetzer is claiming a missional church is?  It is a church that is “doing missions” right where they are (p. 19).  And again, “missional means being a missionary without ever leaving your zip code” (p. 19).  Is that not exactly what Stetzer accuses the Reformed church of doing?  That they focused so much on their own culture (their own zip code as it were), and the lost among them (the Catholics), and therefore lost sight of their mission?  At the very least, Stetzer is being inconsistent.

One of the reasons I hesitate whenever someone uses the word “missional” is because its “mission” is just too small!  God did not call us to only reach our own zip code!  He called us to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20).  There is nothing inherently wrong with the term “missional” but we need to base our practice, and define our terms on the Word of God, not just on new terms that sound cool.