(Matthew 22:37) "And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (ESV)
We are to love God with all of our being including our mind. Unfortunately modern evangelicals have downplayed the role of the mind in loving God. Modern evangelicalism has an anti-intellectual streak preferring to focus more on feelings and experience. Loving God with our minds involves having a great concern for doctrine and theology. Unbelievably many evangelicals have a negative view of doctrine and theology.
The liberals of old said that Christianity was life and not doctrine. Unfortunately this seems to be the motto of many modern day evangelicals. Christianity is life based on doctrine. Liberalism denied the authority of Scripture, hopefully evangelicalism will not go down the same path.
If we truly love God we will desire to know more about him. You have heard it said that I don't need theology to know God loves me. Well I hate to break this to you but saying God loves me is theology. Theology is basically the study of God and every Christian should be interested in him. Of course thinking about God and the things of God requires some effort. This may be part of the reason why evangelicals are weak in their thought life.
God has revealed himself to us in the Bible. To be a thinking Christian one must read and study the Bible. It needs to be read as a whole and not just in bits and pieces. We have to learn to see the big picture and develop a Christian worldview. We will then have sound doctrine upon which to base our lives.
We must learn to love God with our minds. Being anti-intellectual is simply disobeying God. The church will not be strong until we recover our minds. We must have good theology and sound doctrine in order to honor and love God.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Monday, July 10, 2017
Which Bible Translation Should I Use?
Since the Bible is the Word of God, his revelation to us it is important to use a good translation. There are three basic types of translations. They are literal, dynamic, and paraphrase. A good Bible translation needs to be readable and most importantly accurate.
The first translation category is literal. It seeks to translate word for word as much as possible from the Hebrew and Greek. Literal translation also tries to maintain the original sentence structure. The idea is to be transparent to the original text. Examples of literal translation are: ESV, NASB, CSB, and NKJV.
The next translation category is dynamic equivalence. It is more of a thought for thought translation not necessarily trying to maintain word for word translation. Dynamic translation tries to steer a middle ground between literal and paraphrase. The original sentence structure is often changed for greater readability. Examples of dynamic translation are: NIV, NLT, and NRSV.
The other translation category is paraphrase. This type focuses on readability mainly. Paraphrases deviate greatly from the original Hebrew and Greek, basically just giving you the gist of what the original text said. Examples of paraphrase include: The Message and The Living Bible.
I do not really recommend dynamic translations or paraphrases. Dynamic translations are just thought for thought and not word for word. They deviate somewhat from the original text giving you the translators interpretation instead of what it actually says. Also dynamic translations often tend to be politically correct. Paraphrases are probably best avoided all together. They stray too much from the original text and are not very accurate or precise.
I strongly recommend literal translations. They try to translate from the Greek and Hebrew as closely as possible. There goal is to be transparent to the original text, giving you what it actually says. A literal translation is much more accurate and reliable than a dynamic translation or paraphrase.
Here are what I consider to be the best translations.
1) (ESV) English Standard Version
2) (NASB) New American Standard Bible
3) (CSB) Christian Standard Bible
4) (NKJV) New King James Version
The first translation category is literal. It seeks to translate word for word as much as possible from the Hebrew and Greek. Literal translation also tries to maintain the original sentence structure. The idea is to be transparent to the original text. Examples of literal translation are: ESV, NASB, CSB, and NKJV.
The next translation category is dynamic equivalence. It is more of a thought for thought translation not necessarily trying to maintain word for word translation. Dynamic translation tries to steer a middle ground between literal and paraphrase. The original sentence structure is often changed for greater readability. Examples of dynamic translation are: NIV, NLT, and NRSV.
The other translation category is paraphrase. This type focuses on readability mainly. Paraphrases deviate greatly from the original Hebrew and Greek, basically just giving you the gist of what the original text said. Examples of paraphrase include: The Message and The Living Bible.
I do not really recommend dynamic translations or paraphrases. Dynamic translations are just thought for thought and not word for word. They deviate somewhat from the original text giving you the translators interpretation instead of what it actually says. Also dynamic translations often tend to be politically correct. Paraphrases are probably best avoided all together. They stray too much from the original text and are not very accurate or precise.
I strongly recommend literal translations. They try to translate from the Greek and Hebrew as closely as possible. There goal is to be transparent to the original text, giving you what it actually says. A literal translation is much more accurate and reliable than a dynamic translation or paraphrase.
Here are what I consider to be the best translations.
1) (ESV) English Standard Version
2) (NASB) New American Standard Bible
3) (CSB) Christian Standard Bible
4) (NKJV) New King James Version
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