In the Beginning

November 1, 2015

Our Spiritual Senses The Apostle Paul indicates that our spiritual senses are an important part of our Christian walk and sanctification.  (Hebrews 5:14). However, he does not provide any further detail or even name them for us. Traditionally, we think of our spiritual senses in only vague and general terms, without specifics. This issue of the Herald proposes that we have five distinct spiritual senses. Furthermore, it proposes that the words of God, Jesus, the Apostles, and the Prophets name our spiritual senses through metaphors. Our expectation in dedicating an entire issue to […]

Our Spiritual Senses

November 1, 2015

Overview “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:11-14). Todd Alexander The Apostle Paul teaches us that spiritual maturity is required to understand the deep things of God. To help us get there, he indicates that we use a mental faculty called “senses” to discern the difference between good and evil. In his message to the Ephesians, he speaks of this mental faculty as the “eyes of […]

Sight

November 1, 2015

Beginning to Apprehend “And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:24). Jonathan Gray Growing up in the 1970s there was an LP Record Album in my parents’ small record collection that I especially liked to listen to, “The Gospel Road Soundtrack.” At the time, the name Johnny Cash did not mean anything to me, but the song, “I See Men as Trees Walking,” had a profound effect on my perception of the story of Jesus healing a blind man. Healing a Man Blind Since […]

News and Views

November 1, 2015

Religious Few countries treat religion in the same neutral way found in the United States. Even among liberal democracies, governments often play favorites by giving support to some religions and restricting minority religions. As a result, only one-in-five people around the globe live in a country that treats all religions equally. This statistic is based on work by Jonathan Fox from Bar Ilan University. His Religion and State Project has combed through constitutions around the world, taking note of the scores of ways that governments support or restrict religion. — RNS, 7/22/2015 There […]

Hearing

November 1, 2015

Absorbing the Truth “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:43,47). Regis Liberda Jesus delivered this hard-hitting rebuke to the Pharisees by using the metaphor of their physical sense of hearing to point to their lack of understanding. They were spiritually deaf to the word of Jesus because they were not in tune with God. Jesus also used this metaphor earlier in […]