Dr. Lowery will be a featured speaker at Ozark Christian College’s 2010 Preaching-Teaching Convention during Feb. 22-24. This year’s event is entitled “Unveiled: The Surprising Plan of God in Revelation.” Dr. Lowery will be speaking at the opening session at 4:00 PM on Feb. 22 as well as at a morning seminar on Feb. 23. More details and registration information are available at the link above.
Briefly, friends, two things:
Thanks for being a part of this work. Feel free to leave a comment or question at any time.
Volume 1 of Dr. Lowery’s commentary on Revelation, Revelation’s Rhapsody, is now available in paperback format. You can still purchase copies of the hardcover at “collector’s prices” on Amazon. As of today, one new hardcover is available for $193.54. Plus $3.99 shipping. Or you can order the paperback directly from College Press or by calling Mr. Books, the LCU campus bookstore, at 217-732-3168 ext. 2224. The paperback is significantly less expensive than $193.54 and it makes a great Christmas gift.
A faithful reader has recently let us know about some problems with a few links on the site, notably on the Writings page and some of the audio files. These links led to content on the LCU servers which were updated and/or moved off-campus this fall. I’ll take time the next few weeks to get those fixed. In the meantime, remember to wear your hard hat, safety glasses, and steel-toed boots.
Dr. Lowery’s speaking schedule has been updated to include locations and dates through November 2009. He’ll be visiting churches in Indiana, Virginia, Missouri, and Illinois as he continues researching and writing his next book, Revelation’s Rhapsody: Dancing to the Lyrics of the Lamb. Stop by if you’re in the area.
Dr. Bob was recently interviewed for the Inside LCCS podcast (direct link to the interview). The Inside LCCS podcast was announced on this site back in June and seeks to tell the stories behind the story of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. In this interview, Dr. Bob shares his faith story, how his initial fear of Revelation(!) turned into a passion to teach it, and many more interesting aspects of his life and career. Followers of this site will almost certainly enjoy the time spent listening.
Readers of this site may find the new Inside LCCS podcast of interest. The podcast will feature interviews with Lincoln Christian College and Seminary faculty, staff, students, and alumni, telling their stories and how Lincoln has helped to shape them. The first interview features college professor Dr. J.K. Jones.
"The trip of a lifetime," "better than a year in seminary," "something that I have always wanted to do."
These are only some of the expressions that could be used to describe a trip to Israel. If you have not been there, words cannot adequately describe the emotions, feelings, and insights you will "feel and touch" from a trip to God’s "Holy Land."
Standing on Mt. Carmel where Elijah called down the fire of God, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed the night before He was crucified, and riding on the Sea of Galilee in a wooden boat are just some of the things we will be doing on our trip.
We will walk where Jesus walked, pray where Jesus prayed, and feel the power of His Spirit as we encounter the places where Jesus lived and died.
Deluxe accommodations have been secured at an excellent price. We hope you can join Dr. Boatman and me for this exciting trip that is certain to increase our spiritual growth and create memories for a lifetime.
The 11-day trip is being coordinated by Jerusalem Tours International and will take place from December 28, 2008 through January 7, 2009. For full details including pricing and an itinerary, please download the brochure.
We recently discovered that the form on the Contact page hadn’t been displaying properly. This has now been fixed–send your comments freely!
Photo by SqueakyMarmot
In his autobiography, Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography
For more than thirty years, I have been on a quest to teach myself and others how to read the Bible properly, observing time-tested principles and using the best methodologies. I am fearful that many believe in a "dummying down" when it comes to Bible study. It is present in many "seeker-sensitive services." We don’t want to use language that offends or bothers or puzzles. Or in our Bible studies we are fearful of turning people away when we talk about issues like genre, context (both literary and historical), understanding the meaning of grammar and words, the importance of tradition in the history of how a passage has been understood, and other related issues. So we don’t talk about these vital issues. Indeed, after teaching seminary students for more than thirty years, I am alarmed at the declining knowledge of Scripture along with the knowledge of how to study Scripture. There is a connection between what they know (or don’t know) and the how of Bible study.
Of course, there is a connection between failing to know how to study and failing to know God more intimately. I can’t know God very well if I don’t spend time talking with him via prayer and hearing him speak to me via the Written Word.
Perhaps many don’t pray because they don’t know how ("Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." Luke 11:1). Perhaps we don’t study Scripture because we don’t know how (Philip asks, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch responds, "How can I, unless someone explains it to me?" Acts 8:30-31). Now the eunuch did not understand the message of Isaiah 53:7-8 not because he was illiterate! Acts 8:34 tells us that the eunuch did not know if Isaiah was speaking about himself or about someone else. This Bible student did not understand because he needed a teacher to teach him how to study. Using my informed imagination, I think that it is like that Philip said something like the following:
Does this probing of the Acts 8 story remind you of any hermeneutical principles? How about "Interpret the obscure by the clear?" or "Interpret Scripture by Scripture"? How about the "exegetical steps" (steps that help us "draw out the meaning of a passage" like who is Isaiah talking about? What does it mean this person was like a sheep led to the slaughter?"
I am convinced that one of the biggest failures in congregations–no matter what their size–is the failure to teach people to study Scripture on their own. We give them content but not the tools to study on their own. We feed them what we know and fail to teach them how to feed themselves. God forgive us! The heritage I am a part of claims to be a people of the Book when many people are failing to open the book because they don’t know how. And I am using the word "open" on a deeper level, of course.
Here is what I am suggesting. As we do not hesitate to talk computer lingo even to retirees (Who had ever heard of PowerPoint slides or cursors thirty years ago or downloading or e-mails thirty years ago?), so God’s people need to be told how to feel comfortable in talking about context, genre, narrative, etc.
I just pulled off from my library shelf right behind my computer one of the first Bibles given to me, a KJV at that! I turned to II Tim. 2:15 and noted that more than forty years ago I neatly underlined that verse–"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." As I typed the words the words "shew" and "needeth" were underlined in red, highlighting spelling errors. But we know better, don’t we. A computer in the day of KJV would not have underlined them; they would have been part of the dictionary of the day. But if there had been an underlining of a word or a phrase that had been mistranslated, the word "study" and the phrase "rightly dividing the word of truth" would have been underlined. Why? Because I now know that the word Paul used does not mean "study" but it means "do your best." I can see this in how the word is used elsewhere in Paul’s writings (II Tim. 4:9, 21; Titus 3:12). And the phrase "rightly dividing" does not mean "divide the Bible into neat little sections or dispensations," but it means to cut a straight path so that you can hear the Written Word clearly and correctly.
 Let’s do our best to raise the bar not only with regard to knowledge about God’s Word but knowledge about how to read and study God’s Word.
How can people do their best in studying Scripture unless they are taught how so they can know what? Or more importantly, how can they know the Whom behind the words?