Scripture Engagement

I frequently hear Christians say, 'We have an eternal soul!' But is that a) Greek philosophy or b) biblical teaching? It is mainly the former, and we have read it into our Bibles, a process called eisegesis (as opposed to exegesis - reading out what is there). There is no clear teaching in the Bible on this issue. Nor is there clear teaching that humans are tripartite in nature: body, soul and spirit. Grudem quotes Berkhof: 'The tripartite conception of man originated in Greek philosophy, which conceived of the relation of the body and the spirit of man to teach other after the analogy of the mutual relation between the material universe and God.' Grudem, Systematic Theology , p481 The fact that the Hebrew word nephesh is often translated 'soul' does not help. In fact it should be translated something like 'inner being' or 'life-breath'. Though there are some verses that talk about a dead nephesh - i.e. a corpse (Lev 21:11; Num 6:6)....

In this clip from the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark we see the Ark of the Covenant getting archived. Click on the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRP0MBNoieY  (watch from 1.05) Often in Scripture engagement work, the Bible or New Testament is produced, printed and then 'archived' in the cupboard or back room of one denomination's church. Or an audio recording of a gospel (e.g. Luke) is made and the 'archive' is kept on someone's hard-drive in Texas, North Carolina, or wherever. We're good at producing materials, but not very good at promoting them. Nor are we good at helping people engage with them. Producing materials is just the first stage. On top of this we need to distribute, promote, and then relate to those who are engaging with the materials in order to answer their questions. This then helps us refine not only those materials but any future ones we produce. These materials need to be in a variety of media, oral, dig...