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Tiana Sensenig
3 concepts that improved, clarified, or adjusted my knowledge from this week’s reading
· The law are the first five books of the Bible. When studying the law, remembering three details is important. The laws found in the Bible today are part of Israelite life and the story. The laws are tied to Mosaic or old covenant; giving the people of Israel how to live in the promise land and enjoy the gifts from God. The last piece is to remember what the law reveals is humans’ guilt before God (Cartwright, et al. pg. 182-184). This concept gave me new insight and adjusted my knowledge.
· The three steps to study the Old Testament narratives. Observation, identify the basic story structure, where your story fits into the full narrative, identifying the general content of the narrative and any historical and cultural matter you will need to understand. The next step is interpretating and correlating, showing versus telling. Step three is application, with a four-question diagram to determine how the story addressed application questions. The questions are duty, character, goals and discernment (Cartwright, et al. pg. 190-194). This concept improve and clarified my knowledge of the Old testament and how to study more actively.
· The book of Acts is part of Luke’s Gospel and is a record of the ministry of the New Testament church. There are however three cautions when studying the book of Acts. Don’t make the descriptive prescriptive, meaning that it necessary isn’t normal for the church today. The second caution is to not miss the forest for the trees, meaning studying Acts is seen in light of the rest of the Bible because it directly follows the earthly life and ministry of Christ. Lastly, don’t assume the good. Not all behavior is something we should imitate. (Cartwright, et al. pg. 227). This concept gave me more clarification, as I go through the book of Acts with my community group.
2 ideas that are crucial from this week’s reading.
· The sole role of a prophet wasn’t just to predict the future. They play an important role in Israel. They were called by God, confronted by him to fulfill a commission to address the specific audience with a specific message or action. This allows all who study the prophets, that they were only full of the wisdom and knowledge, or the power to perform the action by God. A prophet’s initial reaction to Gods commission f or them was often negative but ultimately was prepared by God for the ministry. Prophets are often mixed with the roles of the priests, like their roles weren’t inherited, they all came from different backgrounds (Cartwright, et al. pg. 206). This idea was crucial to me from this week’s reading because I feel like learning about simple things like a prophet goes underlooked.
· Revelation is not a straightforward narrative. It is considered a letter to the seven churches in Asia in chapters 1-2. Revelation is also prophetic, meaning it predicts future events. Lastly is a apocalyptic literature; events concerning the end of the world. However, Revelation needs to be seen with a view of God’s offer to salvation in eternity with him not just the end of the earthly world. Characters in Revelation are referred in a more symbolic term and imagery is so important also referring to characters.
(Cartwright, et al. pg. 234-235) I believe this idea is crucial because many Christians avoid reading Revelations because their scared, but it is so important to read it and learn how to study it.