No Easy Task

For my birthday last year, Jo gave me a great gift. She volunteered me to help Sherlock Holmes, which I gladly did. And you can, too. When you subscribe to “DearHolmes.com,” Sherlock will send you a letter each week from someone in need. Your job is to find the clues in the correspondence and solve the mystery. At the end of every month, Sherlock himself writes to the victim and reveals who did what and why so that you can check your suspicions. I solved three cases. I caught the vacuum cleaner crook, closed the case of the abducted attaché case, and discovered why desperadoes were digging in the dining room. It was great fun, but I like deciphering what clues mean, solving problems and understanding how things fit together. Perhaps, that is why I am so driven to talk about how to interpret and “piece together” the Bible’s meaning.

Sola Scriptura

Today’s topic: things that sounded great until afterwards. Here are some actual newspaper headlines that meant well, but went badly. Diana Was Still Alive Hours Before She Died Police Say Man with No Arms and No Legs is Armed and on the Run Bugs Flying Around with Wings are Flying Bugs Homicide Victims Rarely Talk to Police Statistics Show that Teen Pregnancy Drops off Significantly After Age 25 Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons One of the great doctrines of the Reformation was Sola Scriptura. It sounded like such a good doctrine, but then something went askew. Sola Scriptura says that we are bound, not to councils, traditions or any opinions of men, but only to Scripture. Hence, Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1:6) says it this way (I’ve underlines the important parts): The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own

Perspicuity Could Be Clearer

Let me be clear, comedian Steven Wright is either very clear or very confusing. At least, I think so. But maybe you better decide for yourself. Here are some well-known Steven Wright questions/queries that I think are clearly important. For instance: “Why isn’t the word ‘phonetically’ spelled with an ‘F’?” “What’s another word for ‘Thesaurus’?” “If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?” “Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?” “Why are there five syllables in the word monosyllabic?” “How come abbreviated is such a long word?” Let me be clear, The Westminster Confession of Faith’s doctrine of Scripture is either very clear or very confusing. You decide. Here is the Confession’s statement in 1:7: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet, those things that are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are

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