The Spirit sanctifies the gentiles by bringing them into a state of faith and hope in the crucified Jewish Messiah—both in regards to his death which makes them righteous in God's sight and in regards to His Parousia which delivers them from this present evil age. - John P Harrigan 

It is quite vital to understand the various literary genres in Scripture and to bear them in mind when studying. It is unfortunately common, however, among those who recognize the genres, to exaggerate their importance and focus on them in such a way that actually disfigures the purpose of certain God-breathed passages.

This happens very often when men study the biblical books which tend to fall under the "apocalyptic" category. It happens in such a way that excessive allegorization takes place in the treatment of Daniel, Ezekiel, or Revelation. 

For many, apocalyptic invariably necessitates the expectation that in reading a passage like Matthew 24-25, for instance, you will be pummeled on every side with imperceptible symbols and wild-eyed and elusive visionary pictures. There is little hope for understanding it at all. 

While no one would deny that apocalyptic books and prophetic passages often contain types and symbols, there is much that should be taken at face value that gets sidelined in the name of allegory, and this often produces a kind of exegetical agnosticism. Such cases produce men who make light of biblical eschatology, for if the scholars count virtually all of it unclear, what hope is there for the man in the pew?

It happens also in the treatment of narrative portions of Scripture, to such a degree that some men posit that there is virtually nothing in terms of application that can be drawn from the books of Genesis, the Kings, Samuel, the Chronicles, or Acts in the New Testament. Virtually nothing therein could be prescriptive for a Christian or for the Church.... after all, these books are in the narrative genre! If only you were a scholar, those books might somehow be of help to you! "I speak as a fool."

To be sure, a lack of understanding genre has led to foolish proof-texting on the other end, but I'm addressing the other side of the pendulum, one which can be just as problematic. 

This is what it looks like when you take otherwise helpful hermeneutical principles, stretch them to the point of breaking, and make them chief and decisive factors in Bible interpretation, without holding them in tension with other vital hermeneutical practices.

The man who does this will invariably end up with a threadbare grasp on the whole of Scripture, and the analogy of the Bible -- it's profound unity and unique glory -- is thereby smeared. One may be able to impress a few friends with lofty language regurgitated from scholars.... but it may also be that in the last analysis he has no true knowledge of God at all. That would be a tragedy.

Let us see to it that we labor to get to the bedrock and heart of authorial intent -- what the biblical human authors really intended their recipients to understand. And let us not forget along the way that "all Scripture is God-breathed," and profitable for salvation, for the knowledge of God, and for an understanding of His holy will. Therefore, whoever has the Spirit of God may be helped greatly (even salvifically!) by it, whatever his level of education may be. And he may be helped yet further by some good hermeneutical practices.

Let us walk the long road of "pressing on to know the Lord" in the manner of our reading, study, and meditation upon His Word. 

Read the whole Book. Read it humbly, hungrily, and hopefully. Couple your reading with much prayer. Learn from able teachers, and "train yourselves for godliness."

The Word of the Lord is precious beyond compare, after all, brothers and sisters.

"More to be desired are they (God's Words) than gold,

even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey

and dripping of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is Your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward." -David (Ps. 19)

-BA Purtle

One precious reality about the age to come, rarely considered, but which I very much anticipate: The people of God will never again harbor mistrust for one another.

No more bearing false witness. No more coldness. No more envy or insecurity. Never again. What a day that will be. -BA Purtle

The logic of [1 Cor. 15:50-53] is fairly straightforward: if creation is going to be purged of all sin, death, and corruption, then those who will participate in the new creation must also be without sin, death, and corruption. - John P Harrigan 

This closing invocation remains as a rare Aramaic outcropping in Paul’s Greek: “Marana tha! Our lord, come!” Surviving as it does in the vernacular of the original community, this summons again gives us a glimpse of these people’s apocalyptic mind-set. Imagining ourselves back into the weeks following Jesus’ execution, when his apostles repeatedly experienced him as raised and present, we can still catch a sense of their focused anticipation in the urgent query that remains in Luke’s mannered narrative: “So when they had all come together, they asked him, ‘Lord’—addressed to the risen Christ —‘will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” The imminent restoration of Israel, soon, that defining eschatological event, was for his community the original significance of Jesus’ resurrection. - Paula Fredricksen, When Christians Were Jews, p.88

That Christians of every generation since the first century have eagerly anticipated the future, physical, personal coming of the Lord is clear and unambiguous. - Dr. Micheal Svigel, Fathers on the Future

Many Christians dismiss God's many, clear, literal promises to give Israel the land. Instead of accepting God at his word, they spiritualize these things into meaninglessness. Jesus is not the land of Israel. He is the King who will fulfill the land promises to his people Israel. -Joel Richardson 

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." (Luke 6:27-28)

The words of Jesus. The way of life. May we be quick to obey them. - Joshua Hawkins

Gratitude is such a powerful tool to lift our gaze off of the disappointments and discouragements of this age and to remind ourselves that the world is not going to be this way forever. - Joshua Hawkins

Many of Jesus' teachings only make sense to obey if we believe that a great reversal is coming - when the last will be first, and the first will be last. - Joshua Hawkins

"One-third of the Bible does what most of us pastors won't do: Preach on prophecy." - Dr. Walter Kaiser Jr. 

Why his (Jesus's) followers had this experience is an interesting question. After all, many other Jews in this period followed other charismatic, prophetic figures (John the Baptizer comes readily to mind); but none of their movements outlived the death of their founder. Why was this group different? - Paula Fredricksen, When Christians Were Jews. 

The first-century C.E. Roman orator Quintilian nicely described the social function of this Roman mode of execution: “Whenever we crucify criminals . . . [we place them] where the greatest number of people can watch and be influenced by this threat; for every penalty is aimed not so much at the offense, as at its exemplary value.” - Paula Fredricksen, When Christians Were Jews. 

My commentary: Agreed, the cross of the Christ has exemplary value for all of his followers. 

Theology 101: As a general rule, not everything about the church you grew up in was right, and not everything about the church you grew up in was wrong; graciously correcting the bad and gratefully embracing the good—these are marks of spiritual maturity. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

My teaching on Jesus's use of parables. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

Many debate whether we should interpret the biblical more literally or more spiritually. I'd suggest it should be understood through the same lens that we understand most human communication—the lens of simple, rational literalism. Those who lean too heavily on a spiritualized lens may be likened to someone with schizophrenia who sees imaginary code words everywhere. Those who lean too heavily on a hyper-literal lens like someone with autism, often unable to recognize the world of subtle inferences. - Joel Richardson

"...salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed." -Paul the apostle

"...the time is near." -John the apostle

"Surely I am coming soon." -The Lord Jesus Christ

-BA Purtle

My teaching on the resurrection of the dead from 1 Corinthians 15. Notes. Slides. Audio 1. Audio 2. Video. 

Theology 101: The more firmly I embrace the catholicity of the church, the less likely I am to leave my church tradition for another. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

Most religious writings from the Second Temple Period are categorized as either Gnostic or Jewish Apocalyptic. Today, much of the Charismatic AND Reformed worlds are increasingly becoming far more Gnostic than Jewish or Apocalyptic. - Joel Richardson 

Theology 101: The Bible isn’t a guide for dieting, a manual for leadership and management, an outline for economics, a playbook for politics, a textbook for science, or an anthology of frame-worthy quotes to hang in your office. It is an account of God’s story of redemption to make us wise for salvation and to lives that glorify him. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

To study the scriptures, and neglect the Spirit, who ‘searcheth out the deep things of God’, leaveth us in darkness about God’s mind. —Thomas Manton, Works 8:76

Jesus never warned his audience to change their way of thinking. He likely spoke in Aramaic and sometimes in Hebrew. Greek word studies when looking at the words of the master are only indirectly helpful. He wasn’t speaking in Greek.

Rather, he (like John before him) warned men that they must change and turn (a common idiom for behavior and actions in the Hebrew Bible) in light of the coming Day of God. - Bill Scofield

Theology 101: In two centuries, the church grew from a single room in Jerusalem to countless congregations in Africa, Europe, and Asia without government power or acts of violence. - Dr. Micheal Svigel

Once typology drifts from its Jewish apocalyptic moorings, its flights of fancy know no end. - John P Harrigan 

If we ask, What is God ultimately doing in this age? then we must answer: He is showing love and offering mercy to his enemies in light of his coming severity and eternal recompense. Redemptive history is cruciform-apocalyptic, and consequently the mission of the church is to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). - John P. Harrigan

It is the prerogative of Christ alone to break the knees of those who refuse to bow down before him. - Aaron in Writing

My teaching on Genesis 3:15 as the metanarrative to the Bible. Slides. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

Everything begins, and events unfurl, from Zion, that is, from God’s “holy mountain,” Jerusalem. 

Further: it would be to Jerusalem that all the families of man, at the End time, would flow. Biblical tradition had long distinguished the human family as comprised of two groups. The first, by far the smallest, was Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their plenum number, at the End, corresponding to Jacob’s twelve sons and grandsons, would be all twelve tribes. “The nations,” by far the larger group, were themselves divided into seventy “families” or “peoples,” the biblical number derived from the total count of descent-groups from the three sons of Noah in Genesis 10. These seventy nations are distinguished from each other according to their kinship groups, their lands, and their languages. All humanity, in brief, is summed up in this eschatological arithmetic: the twelve tribes of Israel and the seventy nations. - Paula Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews.

"A saint is often under a cross, but never under a curse." — Charles Spurgeon