Friday, March 9, 2012

Translations of Old Testament

I found this out at Servant Pathway last month...

There are no complete original manuscripts of the Old Testament text. What we have is:

1) the Masoretic text (in full) which is in Hebrew.
2) the Septuagint "LXX" text (in full) which is in Greek.
3) the Dead Sea Scolls (in part) which are in Hebrew.

"What Should A Local Church Look Like?"

I listened to the following talk on my drive to and from work recently and was encouraged.

It's from the 2011 Gospel Coalition conference and is a topic close to my heart. The panel discussion between Mark Dever, Crawford Loritts and Tim Keller was titled "What Should A Local Church Look Like?"

At Philpott Memorial Church we're working through what membership looks like, what members are accountable to and how one is added to and removed from the membership roll.

Mark Dever stated that his church (Capitol Hill Baptist) has 6-1 hour membership classes spread out over 6 weeks. Then if new prospective members complete the classes, they are interviewed by an elder. The elder takes his summary of that interview to the rest of the Board of Elders and then in turn that recommendation for membership is taken to the congregation. At a "members meeting" (which is held 6x per year) the congregation would then "vote in" the new members. Mark Dever says this is in keeping with 2 Cor 2:6.

Tim Keller stated that his church (Redeemer Presbyterian) has 5-1 hour sessions and then the elders will interview and the vote to bring in new members. The congregation does not vote to accept new members. Keller did state he thinks that at some point the congregation is involved in church discipline (not just the elders only).

Currently at Philpott we have 3-1 hour membership classes (called Philpott DNA) and then if needed an interview is held with a "senior staff member or an elder". Then the recommendation for new membership is brought to the Board of Elders and a vote occurs. The congregation does not vote to accept new members.

That's all for now... more thoughts will come. :)

Tim Keller stated he has a 5