Heirs According to The Promise

Born Again to a Living Hope 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. - 1 Peter 1:3-4 V.3 Verse 3 basically reads like this when using my Greelingish: "Blessed be the monogenes of the Father and Son!" - The Greek word here is  μνογενὴς , which means one of a kind, or something with a relationship to something else that is unique. I could say that our marriage is a monogenes. Other people are married, but no one else is married to you or I. Their status as a married couple might be the same, and they might live almost exactly as we do, but their marriage is not the marriage of Tyler and Sarah Thomas.  Everyone thinks that all people are God's children. It sounds nice and sells stickers, but it's not a Biblical unders...

Greeting "1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,  To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:  May grace and peace be multiplied to you." V.1   Peter opens with an introduction that is standard for most of the New Testament letters. He addresses the people to whom he is writing as he introduces himself. I don't believe there is another book in all of scripture that contains so much theology in the first sentence. Peter goes from introduction to election to doxology and on into the Trinitarian nature of God, and all in around 40 words. Doxology comes from the Greek word "doxa," which means to give God the glory that He deserves. We often get stuck on the word Doxology and think of worship, particularly music. But this isn't a song, it's p...

Any study of a book of the Bible should begin with context. We need to know who wrote it, the person or people it was intended for, what prompted them to write it, and then we need to understand the culture of the time during which it was penned. There are many other factors that help us understand the book better, but those provide the framework for being able to contextualize the words on the pages we will read. Who Wrote It? This seems obvious on the surface, especially considering that the first line of Peter's first Epistle is "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ." Unfortunately the Bible has not been immune to skepticism, and there are multiple challenges that critics use to attempt to undermine the authority of this book. The Final Greetings section says "By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God." - Given that everything we read from the author lines u...