Romans on Righteousness (Part One)

Ken Brown | October 3, 2009

“Righteousness” basically means “rightness.” The earliest English versions of the Bible used the word, “rightwiseness.” When Romans speaks of one’s righteousness, or rightness, it refers to one’s rightness before God. It is the condition of being before God as one ought to be. This is not a side note when it comes to right believing. What constitutes being right before God, and why, is as fundamental as it gets.

The Unity of the Spirit

Ken Brown | September 26, 2009

The key to maintaining the unity of the spirit is not to endeavor to become more like one another. It is to continually recognize that our differences are relatively insignificant compared to what we share.

Belief and Logic

Ken Brown | July 4, 2009

In our introduction to Biblical research, the first two principles given for approaching God’s Word were: (1) Believe what you read and (2) think and be reasonable: you can’t throw logic out the window just because you are reading the Bible. Those who can stare a clear scripture in the face and deny what it obviously says because it disagrees with a previously held belief have ceased learning. Likewise, those who can accept two or more contradictory views at the same time will never come to an accurate understanding of God’s Word (or of much of anything else for that matter). On the surface, this seems so obvious to most of you (I hope) that you are probably scratching your heads, wondering why I am making an issue of it. As it plays out in practical application, however, relatively few people are completely consistent about this as it pertains to Biblical exegesis.

As one example, let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:20, a familiar verse for many of us, but have you ever considered the fundamental problem with how the King James and a number of other versions translate this verse?

No More Conscience of Sins

Ken Brown | April 25, 2009

The Israelites could get forgiven of their sins, but they had to keep coming back to the temple year by year to get forgiven again. If they had had a sacrifice that made them perfect (teleios: lacking nothing necessary to completeness), the Children of Israel would not have needed to offer any more sacrifices; and having been “purged” (cleansed), they should therefore have had no more conscience of sins. The record goes on to say that we DO have such a sacrifice, a one-time sacrifice that perfects us forever.

Who is the Old Man and What is He Doing?

Ken Brown | April 20, 2009

There have been at least two problems with some past common teachings regarding the “old man” referenced in the Scriptures. One has been teachings that have been contradictory: teaching from Romans that the old man is dead, and teaching from Ephesians that we must continually and vigilantly put off the old man. Both cannot be true. The other problem has been a misunderstanding of who or what the “old man” is or was. A common teaching has been that the “old man” is your old sin nature, and the “new man” is your new spirit nature. The Scriptures, however, don’t say that. The purpose of this article is to provide Biblical documentation as to what the story is with the “old man.”

Two Natures? (Part One)

Ken Brown | April 20, 2009

Are there two “natures” alive and well in each child of God, an old sin “nature” and a new Godly “nature”, each actively pulling the believer one direction or the other? E. W. Bullinger (1837-1913) thought so, though the other great “E. W.,” E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948) disagreed. (See pages 153 and following of The Father and His Family.)

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