If our travels ‘Back to the Bible’ were a road, I would call it the “Old Jerusalem Way.”
In my 40-year journey on the “Old Jerusalem Way,” I have sometimes walked with other travelers and had sweet fellowship for a while – only to find that we merely happened upon the same spot on the same road at the same time, and were actually headed in different directions.
In his lesson More On The Work Of F.S. Parris, at about 39 minutes, Bryan Ross mentions changes in letter formation. Yes, this is a change technically, but I wonder if we would even be talking about it if it weren’t for folks in the Bible version debates looking for minutiae to grab ahold of on one side or the other. (I mean folks in general, not in reference to Bryan simply mentioning it in his lesson.) Differences in letter formation is more noticeable in older Bible printings, I suppose, because we are talking about letter formations that are not common today. Yet in our own contemporary reading, I suspect most folks read right over differences in letter formation and never give it a thought. For example, most all type fonts use the “double-story a” and many use the “loop-tail g,” while others use the “open-tail g” and some the “single-story a.” Very few folks actually print their letters in the more common typed letter formations (“double-story a” and “loop-tail g”) when they doing writing it by hand. (See picture above.) (The fonts at places like Google and Facebook usually have the “double-story a” and the “open-tail g.” Who pays any attention to that? Had you noticed?)
This is just an odd thought that jumped out at me as I was listening through Bryan’s video. Letter formation should be a topic of information, and not a debate on something that is right or wrong that has changed in the Bible.
Paul relates his experience to the crowd at Jerusalem, Acts 22.
Verses 6-11: “as I made my journey…” Now here is what happened.
The book of Acts contains three accounts of Paul’s conversion. The writer, Luke, records the first account as history (Acts 9:1-8). Paul himself gives the second and third accounts, when addressing a mob (22:4-11) and when testifying before Agrippa (26:12-18). Critics make time to mine the accounts for contradictions. They claim that Paul gives two different memories of his conversion, and that his memories contradict each other as well as Luke’s record.[1]
It is a simple fact that there are differences in the accounts. Differences, however, are not necessarily contradictions. All the complaints, save one, are merely that one thing not mentioned in one is mentioned in another. Rather than contradictory, the accounts are complementary and supplementary. A true account told need not include every detail every time. See Appendix T next week for more details.[1] For example, skeptic and text critic Bart Ehrman writes, “the three accounts differ in numerous contradictory details.” For some critics, this is just a matter of searching for random contradictions to generally discredit the authority of the Bible. For others, it fits into a larger pattern of claiming that Paul, not Jesus Christ, was the founder of Christianity – and then proceeding to try to debunk the reliability of Paul.
I take this opportunity of saving a record of a baptistic body in the United Kingdom, which appears to now be defunct. The Jesus Fellowship Church, also known as Jesus’ Army, grew out of the Bugbrooke Baptist Church in Northamptonshire. The Bugbrooke Baptist Chapel was built in 1808. The church over the years participated in the Baptist Union of Great Britain and and, much more recently, the Evangelical Alliance. Around 1986, the groups withdrew from the Evangelical Alliance, and was excluded from the Baptist Union of Great Britain over differences in policy and in practice. It appears that this church has ceased to exist, possibly around 2023. See Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme report for more details. “Worship Time: The Journey Towards the Sacred and the Contemporary Christian Charismatic Movement in England,” a PhD thesis by Esther Elliott, provides an extensive look at this group.
The Jesus Fellowship Church self-described as: “an orthodox Christian group which is reformed, evangelical and Charismatic.” Elliott reports their history, faith, and practice this way:
“As a group it was once a member of the Evangelical Alliance and its activities are frequently mentioned and advertised within the pages of Renewal, a popular magazine of the Charismatic movement. One-time members of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Jesus Fellowship consider themselves to be rooted in the Baptist way of faith and practice. Born out of the congregation of Bugbrooke Baptist Church in Northamptonshire the Jesus Fellowship number their participants to date at approximately two thousand five hundred [circa 1998, rlv]. The Fellowship practise communal living, aggressive evangelism, full immersion baptism, speaking in tongues, foot washing and a weekly Eucharistic rite which they call ‘agape’ or the love feast. They believe in God the Father, Son and Holy spirit, the full divinity of Christ, his atoning death and bodily resurrection, the availability of justification by faith to all, Baptism in the Holy Spirit and believe the bible to be the fully inspired word of God.” (“Worship Time,” Elliott, PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 1999, p 96)
Jesus Fellowship Church is also mentioned in Baptists Around the World edited by Albert W. Wardin, Jr. (Nashville,TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995, pp. 182, 186).
It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity. It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.
Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1896), in Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1894, p. 361) This quote is very commonly but incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther.
In the song book in the church where I grew up, this following song had this note: “Foote Bros., not copyrighted. Let no one do so. May this song ever be free to be published for the glory of God.” As a child, I was always impressed by that note. I still am. The song, had it been copyrighted, has long since passed into the public domain. Therefore, most newer books no longer carry that notice, and folks are unaware of this bit of song history
The “Foote Bros.” were John Grier Foote and James William Foote (1860-1952), who were Presbyterian singers and evangelists. They did a lot of evangelistic work around Chicago in the 1890s. In addition to being an evangelist, John also pastored; for example, East End Presbyterian Church in Ottumwa, Iowa. He wrote both the words and music for this song. Then the evangelist brothers marked it as a song not be copyrighted, as they did with other songs written by John. This indicated they believed in freely giving what they had freely received.
John Grier Harper Foote was born in Jefferson County, Iowa, October 4, 1854, the son of John Baldwin Foote and Mary Elenor Harper. His father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Salina, Iowa. John G. married Janet Ann Macindoe circa 1894 and they had two children, Mary Elizabeth and John Paul. He died at the young age of 46, on January 4, 1901. He and his wife are buried at the Evergreen Cemetery at Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa.
In 1892, the Foote brothers established a quarterly periodical called Bible Talks.
Since the song was not copyrighted, it is a bit harder to determine exactly when it was written. It appeared at least at as early as 1892, in Honey Out of the Rock, published by Meyer and Brother of Chicago, Illinois. Underneath the song is the note: “By Foote Bros, not copyrighted. Let no one do so. May this song ever be free to be published for the glory of God.” The Foote brothers wished to freely glorify God in his redemption and death, his blood shed on the cross, as our passover sacrificed for us, the chiefest of sinners.
Also two Bible verses were referred to underneath the title:
“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Exodus 12:13
“Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7
