Scripture, page 2

What the Bible is, and how it is read here: plainly, in context, letter for letter.

32 questions answered, showing 16 on page 2 of 2. About this doctrine · All topics

• Whosoever WillWhat does agorazo ("bought") mean in 2 Peter 2:1?Agorazō (ἀγοράζω) means to buy, to purchase in the marketplace, a completed transaction at a price. In 2 Peter 2:1 false teachers deny "the Lord that bought [agorasanta] them," and perish, purchased men who are still lost.
• Whosoever WillWhat does hilasmos (propitiation) mean in the Bible?Hilasmos (ἱλασμός) means propitiation, the turning away of wrath by a satisfying sacrifice, not merely expiation (the wiping away of sin). "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
• Whosoever WillWhat does hupomone (patience, endurance) mean in the Bible?Whosoever Will, Remaining Under: Break it in half. Hupo means “under.” Menō means “to remain, to abide, to stay.” Put them together and hupomonē means, with almost aggressive plainness, remaining under. Staying put beneath a weight instead of crawling out from under it. That is a completely different picture than “patience.” Patience is passive. Hupomonē is a man with a loaded bar across his shoulders refusing to let his knees buckle. The lexicons fight to get this across. One of the great ones, Trench, says it is not mere endurance but the brave patience with which the Christian contends against hindrances and persecutions. Another, Barclay, put it best: it is not the patience which sits down and accepts things, but the patience which masters them, a determination, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which refuses to be deflected. Obstacles do not daunt it and discouragements do not take its hope away. So burn the waiting-room picture. Hupomonē is not what you do when there is nothing to do. It is what you do when there is everything to do and no strength left to do it, and you stay under the load anyway, and you keep moving.
• Whosoever WillWhat does it mean to be "sealed" (sphragizo) with the Spirit?Sphragizō (σφραγίζω) means to seal, to mark as owned and secured. "In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Eph 1:13). The seal is placed at faith and marks the believer as God’s.
• Whosoever WillWhat does nephesh ("soul") mean in the Bible?Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ) means soul, life, the living being. "Man became a living soul [nephesh]" (Gen 2:7). It is the whole living person, not a ghost inside a body, and it is what God breathed life into.
• Whosoever WillWhat does olam ("everlasting," "forever") mean in Hebrew?Olam (עוֹלָם) means a long duration, an age, "forever" or "everlasting" as far as the horizon can see. "The everlasting God" (Gen 21:33); "from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (Ps 90:2). Of God it means truly eternal.
• Whosoever WillWhat does predestinate (proorizo) mean in the Bible?Proorizō (προορίζω) means to mark out a boundary beforehand, to determine in advance. "He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). It is a destiny appointed, and Scripture always names the destination.
• Whosoever WillWhat does proginosko (foreknow) mean in Romans 8:29?Proginōskō (προγινώσκω) means to know beforehand. "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" (Rom 8:29). It is God knowing in advance, and Scripture never explains its mechanics.
• Whosoever WillWhat does repentance (metanoia) mean?Metanoia (μετάνοια) means a change of mind, from meta (change) and nous (mind), a turning of the mind that turns the man. "God... commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).
• Whosoever WillWhat does shuv (turn, repent) mean in Hebrew?Shuv (שׁוּב) is the Hebrew verb "to turn, to return," the Old Testament’s main word for repentance. "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ezek 33:11). To repent is to turn back to God.
• Whosoever WillWhat does the Bible say about creation and evolution?God created the heavens and the earth and all life in six days (Gen 1), each "after his kind." This platform holds young-earth creation: a recent, direct creation, not evolution over deep time.
• Whosoever WillWhat does the pitch on Noah's ark (kopher, Genesis 6:14) have to do with atonement?Whosoever Will, Broken Open: God tells Noah, Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch (Genesis 6:14). The Hebrew for that pitch is kopher, and kopher comes from kaphar. Kaphar is the atonement word. It is the root under the Day of Atonement. Everywhere else in the Old Testament, kopher means a ransom, the price that covers a life. Genesis 6:14 is the one place it means the tar you smear on a hull. So the only thing standing between Noah and the wrath of God was a covering, and the word for that covering is the word for a ransom. Inside and outside, sealed. Noah did not survive the flood by being buoyant. He survived it by being inside something that had been covered. That is the whole doctrine of being hidden in Christ, drawn in tar on a boat, two thousand years before Paul wrote a word of it. The judgment came. It fell on the ark. Every wave that should have hit Noah hit the covered wood instead. Scripture, King James Version: Genesis 6:14, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.".
• Whosoever WillWhat does thelo (God's will) mean? Does God will all to be saved?Thelō (θέλω) means to will, to want, to desire. "Who will [thelei] have all men to be saved" (1 Tim 2:4). It is God’s genuine desire, not merely His permission, and its object is all men.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the difference between formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence Bible translations?Whosoever Will, The Weight of a Single Letter: There are two ways to translate. You can render the words, or you can render what a committee believes the words meant. The first is called formal equivalence. The second is called dynamic equivalence, and it is the reigning philosophy behind most Bibles printed in the last sixty years. It sounds harmless. It is not. Once you grant that a translator may deliver the thought instead of the word, you have placed a man between the reader and the text, and he is doing your interpreting before you ever see the sentence.
• With Chuck SmithWhat should I do when the Bible seems to contradict itself?Chuck Smith, The Claims of Christ, chapter 1: I have encountered many people who have tossed out the faith based upon some supposed contradiction or error they have found in Scripture. Many of these problems can be avoided by an understanding of certain rules of biblical interpretation that we need to know and follow. First of all, let me say that I don't pretend to understand everything that is in the Bible. There are a lot of things in the Bible that I quite frankly will confess to you that I don't understand. If I were smarter, I might. However, if my interpretation of a passage is blatantly contradictory to another verse of scripture, then my interpretation is wrong. The scripture isn't wrong, my interpretation is wrong. So many people are ready to say, "Well, the Bible is wrong, because look..." No, the Bible isn't wrong. The interpretation is at fault. From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWhy does Paul say "seed" and not "seeds" in Galatians 3:16 when the Hebrew word is collective?Whosoever Will, The Weight of a Single Letter: First, Paul knows the word is collective, because he uses it collectively himself thirteen verses later. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29). Same word, used of a multitude, same author, same argument. A man does not forget the meaning of a word between verse 16 and verse 29. Second, the collective sense is exactly what makes the singular form significant. Zera is morphologically singular. Hebrew has ways of saying plural offspring outright, and Greek has spermata sitting right there available. God did not use them. He chose a word that holds the many and the one in the same syllable, and He used it in a promise that logically cannot apply to the many. Paul is not claiming the word must be singular. He is claiming it is permitted to be singular in a promise that requires it to be, and that this is precisely what God intended. That is not sloppy exegesis. That is reading a text the way its Author wrote it. Scripture, King James Version: Galatians 3:29, "And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."; Galatians 3:16, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.".