Josh Benner

Tag: Bible

  • The Greatest Commandment: the love of God

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    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5).
    We shouldn’t follow God’s ways because we think that will make him love us. That’s not the basis for God’s love for us. We shouldn’t follow God’s ways because we feel that God will forgive us. Our forgiveness is rooted in our faith in the gospel. We should follow God’s ways and live for God because we have a love for God.
    Jesus said:  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15)”
    There are a lot of rules that we can force ourselves to follow, perhaps even if we don’t want to do them.

    (more…)

  • Never think you’re too young to make a difference

    Some of the most significant people in the Bible did great things at very young ages. David was just a young man when he defeated Goliath. It was a young woman who was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. Even the twelve disciples would have all been pretty young. They were following a Rabbi. In that culture, they were probably as young as 15 years old (though Peter seems to have been a bit older). And there are many more examples we could find in the Scriptures.

    I think teens have a tendency to look at faith as something for older people.

    But the reality is that you’re never too young to start developing a relationship with God and making that your own. You’re never too young to serve God. You’re never too young to share the love of Jesus. You’re never too young to stand up for your faith.

    That last one can be a hard thing to do. It can be easy to be influenced by our friends. Influenced by kids we perceive as cool. Influenced by the culture. Influenced by people we follow on Instagram and Snap Chat. (more…)

  • Christians too often settle for less

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    In Numbers 32, the Israelites are pursuing the Promised Land when some of the tribes decide that they would prefer to stay outside the land.

    The chapter begins with: “Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock (Numbers 32:1).” The passage goes to their request to stay in the land: “And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan (Numbers 32:5).”

    They didn’t want to go to the Promised Land!

    What they wanted was unwise.  What they wanted was settling for less than God’s best, settling for a land that wasn’t the Promised Land.

    It’s an interesting situation.

    They do offer to support the other tribes in the pursuit of the land. So it’s not that they’re totally abandoning their brothers and sisters. But this is still them making a decision that undermines the wisdom and goodness of God. (more…)

  • Pope Francis decrees that capital punishment is an “attack on the dignity of the person” – The Bible disagrees

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @Jeffrey Bruno

    Pope Francis is reversing the teachings of the Catholic Church in saying that capital punishment is inadmissible.

    One of the significant differences between Catholics and Protestants is the approach to scripture and tradition. Tradition is weighted more heavily in Catholic than Protestant theology. Tradition is significant to dogma and interpreting the Bible.

    However this reversal of Catholic teaching by Pope Francis is not in line with scripture OR tradition.

    There have been 266 Popes, and none of them ever publicly opposed capital punishment, categorically. Pope Francis’ interpretation runs counter to almost 2,000 years of Catholic teaching.

    But more importantly, it runs contrary to the Bible.

    Pope Francis says that the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of all persons.

    It attacks the inherent dignity of persons?! The Bible permits it!

    There can be disagreement about whether or not the practice should be permitted outside of an Old Testament context (I believe that it is permitted), but given the numerable texts which allow for capital punishment in the Bible, it clearly is not seen as being something that is universally impermissible. And people in older times had just as much dignity as we do today.

    I’m never a fan of the argument against the death penalty that “it undermines their dignity.”

    It’s just as logical to order that the death penalty affirms the dignity of the victim.

    For generations, faithful Catholics would have been in step with the teachings of the Catholic Church to favor the death penalty, at least in certain situations. But now, the head of their church has decreed something new.

    A few weeks ago, one view was fine. And now, that same view contradicts the Church.

    This could have ramifications on republican Catholics in congress, among state legislatures, and on the courts. Undoubtedly, opponents of capital punishment will utilize this new teaching as a club to bash proponents of capital punishment with.

    Even before the Law was given to Moses, the Bible warranted capital punishment for murder: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • The danger of bad Biblical teaching

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    Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
    -James 3:1

    Words matter.

    We can use words to bless, words to harm, words to boast, words to give instruction, and words to deceive. Through words we can tell a person that we love them, or that we hate them. Through words we can compliment or tear a person down.

    When the Prophet Isaiah had a heavenly vision of the throne room of God, and beheld the holiness of God, he said in Isaiah 6:5: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

    Words were part of the original sin. In the garden, the serpent, twisting God’s words: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    God had never said that. He said they could eat of any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:2-3).

    Eve also gets it wrong. God had never said they couldn’t touch the tree. Twisting God’s words. Further provoked into sin by the devil In Genesis 3:4-5, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

    When Adam and Eve are confronted with their sin, they use words to blame in Genesis 3:12, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

    Words matter.

    In the first part of James 3, James zeroes in on teachers. He gives a warning to teachers that they will be judged with greater strictness. The reason why carries into verse 2 that we all sin in many ways, but one of the ways common to us all is that we stumble and sin in what we say.

    There is danger in bad Biblical teaching. It can lead people astray. It can teach people falsities, because the God who is revealed in scripture is the eternal, immortal, wise God. He’s the King of the universe, the creator of all things, he spoke the universe into being.

    There’s not a canvas where we are painting and where we can make something look however we want it to look.

    God is God. He has revealed himself in his scripture, his nature, his holiness. And so sound teaching about God matters. Teaching truth about God matters. Understanding God -in terms of how he has revealed himself in the Bible – matters.

    And not all churches do that. And not all teachers do that.

    Not many should be teachers because teaching necessarily involves words. Teaching about God’s word, teaching about God’s gospel necessarily involves words and language, and in talking, it makes it easy to say things that are untrue.

    We can’t be fast and loose with God’s gospel. We can’t make God who we want God to be if that’s not true about how God reveals himself in scripture.

    Unbiblical teachings that resort more to our feelings than to truth.

    Doesn’t God just want me to be happy? Not at the expense of sin!

    Words matter. How we approach the word of God matters. Like the serpent in the garden, twisting the very words of God.

    So it is true that there is a warning given to those who teach. And anyone who does teach from the word of God should question his motives, should be humble before God, and prayerful about the text. It should be taken seriously.

    We should be careful in our approach to God’s word.

    But regardless of if someone is a teacher or not, all of us should still use discernment in listening to what our teachers say. In listening to that which is in accordance with scripture. Of being fed by sound Biblical preaching. And that’s true here, and thats’ true if you ever move to a new community. And that’s true of any teacher who you might watch on tv or who you might podcast. We should be discerning with the Bible teachers we listen to.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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