a nobody trying to love somebody...

Someone in your congregation reads in a popular prophecy book that Ezekiel 38 is a prophecy about a Russian invasion of Israel. Her primary piece of evidence for this is the translation of Ezekiel 38:2, 3 that Israel is attacked by “the prince of Rosh.” You look the passage up in several translations and find that other translations render the phrase “chief prince.” How do you discern which is correct based on your grammatical knowledge of Hebrew nouns?

EZEKIEL 38:1-6 (HEBREW BIBLE)

Ezekiel 38 (AFAT) 38 1 וַיְהִי דְבַר־יהוה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר׃ 2 בֶּן־אָדָם שִׂים פָּנֶיךָ אֶל־גּוֹג אֶרֶץ הַמָּגוֹג נְשִׂיא רֹאשׁ מֶשֶׁךְ וְתֻבָל וְהִנָּבֵא עָלָיו׃ 3 וְאָמַרְתָּ כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יהוה הִנְנִי אֵלֶיךָ גּוֹג נְשִׂיא רֹאשׁ מֶשֶׁךְ וְתֻבָל׃ 4 וְשׁוֹבַבְתִּיךָ וְנָתַתִּי חַחִים בִּלְחָיֶיךָ וְהוֹצֵאתִי אוֹתְךָ וְאֶת־כָּל־חֵילֶךָ סוּסִים וּפָרָשִׁים לְבֻשֵׁי מִכְלוֹל כֻּלָּם קָהָל רָב צִנָּה וּמָגֵן תֹּפְשֵׂי חֲרָבוֹת כֻּלָּם׃ 5 פָּרַס כּוּשׁ וּפוּט אִתָּם כֻּלָּם מָגֵן וְכוֹבָע׃ 6 גֹּמֶר וְכָל־אֲגַפֶּיהָ בֵּית תּוֹגַרְמָה יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲגַפָּיו עַמִּים רַבִּים אִתָּךְ׃…

So I don’t read Hebrew, nor greek.  But am learning how to understand the basics of the language structures, forming of sentences, nouns, verbs, conjugations, and more.  Knowing this changes everything. I’m using the Logos Bible Software Reverse Interlinear as the beginning of all the word study, it’s so helpful!  Knowing basic english grammar structuring helps so much as well. I’m thinking of taking a college level english grammar course soon.

Anyone want to take a stab at answering this question?

I want to thank all of you for your questions you added to my list for my new friend Bill.  The original purpose for me meeting with Bill was to fulfill an assignment given to me by one of my theology professors.  Dr. Wayne Grudem gave us an assignment for this terms paper.  The assignment was. 

Make an appointment and interview a pastor from your local area who has different views or a different background from you regarding miraculous gifts today. This could be a pastor from a Pentecostal denomination (such as Assemblies of God, or Foursquare). Or it could be a pastor who follows the anti-charismatic views of John MacArthur (usually in an independent Bible church or a Baptist church), or a pastor who holds an anti- charismatic Reformed or “cessationist” viewpoint (this might be a pastor in a Presbyterian Church in America church, or an Orthodox Presbyterian church, or a United Reformed church, or a Reformed Baptist church). Or it might be a Southern Baptist pastor who would disagree with you about miraculous gifts.

• Your goal in the interview is not to argue with this other pastor but to seek to understand his position fairly and to represent it honestly and accurately in your paper.

• If you interview a pastor with a cessationist perspective, your goal in the paper is to write up and summarize his viewpoint fairly and accurately, and then, after you have done that, to explain how you would respond to these arguments.

I am very thankful for the assignment, more so the time I spent today with Bill, a Southern Baptist, Dispensationalist Cessationist.  Although I have labeled him for this brief blog, he is first and foremost my brother in Christ whom God has simply labeled as “his own”, a child of God.

I had my own list of questions formed, as well as the ones many of you had sent me, I was excited to sit with someone different from myself.  For it’s one of my favorite things to do.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I was anxious to learn!

What was the greatest lesson I learned?

When you sit down with someone whom you disagree with, go with honest questions to learn, not rocks to throw. Always approach the conversation with the intention to listen, not the intention to speak. Then watch the Holy Spirit breath love, compassion, understanding and unity between the brotherhood of Christ. We both left encouraged, and I in tears as we closed our time together praying for one another.

I will not share publicly what I discussed with Bill, for the sole purpose that it would be a greater learning experience for you to seek out someone whom you know you disagree with and sit down with them to earnestly listen and learn for yourself.  Hear their heart, their background, their suffering, and listen for how God is maturing them along their his own journey in their life.  I know you will soon realize, no matter how different you are, you actually have more in common than you do differences.

God speed, man up, learn to love.

INSERT YOUR HERESY (I mean thoughts!) HERE:

It is exceedingly difficult to get into another habit of thinking in which we clearly separate faith and [works of] love…. Even though we are in faith … the heart is always ready to boast of itself before God and say: “After all, I have preached so long and lived so well and done so much, surely he will take this into account.” But it cannot be done. With men you may boast … But when you come before God, leave all that boasting at home and remember to appeal from justice to grace. [But] let anyone try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter it is for a man, who all his life has been mired in his work righteousness, to pull himself out of it and with all his heart rise up through faith in the one Mediator.