In the 4th chapter of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is struck down by God for claiming glory that did not belong to him. Nebuchadnezzar's final confession praised God, debased humanity, and lifted up God as ultimately sovereign over all things (Daniel 4:34-35). Two lessons should be gleaned from this experience.

Churches should strive to be both but can often miss the mark in one area without knowing it. Welcoming is simply understood as giving a welcome. Think of the traditional church usher as being a good word picture for how welcoming typically looks. A smiling face and a hand to shake. Yet, inclusion goes past that principle.

Originally written December 5, 2018

Paul had a manner (Acts 17:2). Simply stated, Paul had an evangelistic habit that he typically performed when he went into a new town. As Paul traveled, his general plan was to first visit the synagogues and preach to the Jews from the Old Testament. He then would use this resource to branch out to the Gentiles. Even his messages seemed to form a basic pattern. This can be evidenced in his many epistles as he typically transitioned from doctrine to devotion.

One of the more crucial passages at the core of the debate over which family of manuscripts should be the basis for any Bible translation in any language is 1 John 5:7, also called the Johannine Comma. While it's true that the passage is absent from the two older, Alexandrian manuscripts (dating to the 4th Century), the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, it's also true that those two manuscripts disagree with each other in thousands of places which makes them highly suspect. Regardless, the historic and sound position on manuscripts is that the church is the "pillar and ground of the truth." This means God preserved His word among believers, not in caves (Dead Sea Scrolls), trash bins (Sinaiticus), or the Vatican library (Vaticanus). Furthermore, God preserves His word through copying and duplicating it, not by preserving the original. No original copies of any portion of the bible exists. This is why the preferred manuscript family comprises what is called the "Received Text." The text is "received" because it is what our forefathers passed on to us.

We trust God preserved His word. This is a matter of faith. Knowing this has been God's consistent method of preserving His word throughout both testaments ought to affect our thinking on disputed passages, such as the Comma, the longer ending of Mark, or the woman caught in adultery. We trust the word was kept pure throughout all ages, a claim which cannot be made by textual critics.

Below is an excerpt from John Gill's commentary on the Comma, in which he issues a brief defense of it as authentic. We concur.