Antiquity’s Inkwell, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Antiquity’s Inkwell -- “Long before Bic pens began to roll off assembly lines in the 1950s, frontier Texans drew up their official documents and signed their names using a quill pen and iron gall ink.”
• Can we trust mediaeval copies of ancient books? -- “Each time a text is copied, there’s a risk of transmission errors. So how much faith can we have in the texts we have?”
• Correcting Geisler’s scribal errors -- “...while I respect Geisler’s effort in the book for reconciling confusing passages, I find the use of ‘copyist error’ an illegitimate answer which has provided ammunition for Bible deniers.”
• Debunking of Nine Marks Dual Church View: Both Universal and Local Churches, Part One -- “You have to admire the point of consistency from Leeman with the meaning of ekklesia in his definition. He sticks with ‘assembly’ through the essay.”
• Debunking of Nine Marks Dual Church View: Both Universal and Local Churches, Part Two -- “‘Universal assembly’ is an oxymoron, yet still firmly held by Catholics, Protestants, evangelicals, and fundamentalists against its incoherence and contradiction. Why?”
• Debunking of Nine Marks Dual Church View: Both Universal and Local Churches, Part Three -- “Universal church ecclesiology uses neoplatonic language...It finds reality in the ideal or the mystical.”
• Early Christian Opposition to Abortion -- “Honestly, I am not surprised when some people claim to be Christians yet support abortion.”
• Eight Beatitudes of Matthew 5, and Eight Woes of Matthew 23 -- “The eight Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3‑12 are best understood and interpreted by the eight contrasts, or "Woes" of 23:13‑33.”
• How to be Confident in the Truth (Without Being a jerk): Augustine on Love -- “We can correct our children out of frustration or out of love for their well-being. The act of correction might look the exact same externally.”
• Manuscript Destruction -- “The claim that ‘We have so many more manuscripts today than those in the Reformation era’ cannot be proven.”
• Montoro: Preferring the Longer Reading at Matthew 5:21–22 -- “Based on the agreement of 01/03 (and most likely P64), most modern editors (including the THGNT and the NA28) have omitted εἰκῆ in 5:22. The presumed reasoning, explicit in many commentaries, is that the addition of εἰκῆ is a softening and theologically motivated addition to the text, an ‘orthodox corruption’ as it were.”
• Orthodox Church grows into East Texas -- “Fifteen years ago there wasn’t a single Orthodox Church in East Texas. Very soon there will be three...Fewer than 1% of Americans are Orthodox, but the church’s numbers are growing while in this county while many churches are in decline.”
• Should Drinking Alcohol Disqualify a Pastor from Ministry? -- “To be clear...the genuinely weaker brothers are those who ‘through former association’ would have their weak consciences defiled (1 Cor. 8:7).”
• Textual criticism and the spiritual factor -- “The NT gains its importance by being divinely inspired; if it is not inspired, there is no point in wasting time criticizing its text (it would be irrelevant for today). Even so, most textual critics of the NT do not believe in its divine inspiration.”
• The 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora and the Year Without a Summer -- “The merchant said they heard the volcanic explosions even though they were some 800 miles away.”
• The Ghost Town of Powelton, Hancock County -- “At one point, it was said that all roads led to Powelton as it sat at the cross of an important junction of East-West and North-South wagon roads that connected larger cities like Augusta, Greensboro, and Milledgeville.”
• The Particular Baptist Podcast Ep. 20 - DEBATE: Is the Textus Receptus the Preserved Word of God? -- “Sean and Dan debate the issue: ‘Is the Textus Receptus the Preserved Word of God?’, with Sean taking the affirmative and Dan taking the negative. We hope you will be edified in seeing how this topic can be debated in a brotherly fashion.”
• The Word of God Kept Pure for us to Read in our Language -- “...if modern textual critical methods are unable to help us identify the true text, how do we know what it is?”