Chapters

• What is "Theology for the Pew"?
  

  Theology for the Pew is a book written by Joe Bliffen.  Joe says:  "These are intended to be digested theology that I have studied in college, read, preached, taught and contemplated for nearly 50 years."  We hope you enjoy readi...

• Introduction - Where I Am Coming From
  

  Growing older as a Biblical inerrantist (one who believes the original writing of the Bible was without errors) I have discovered that many of the things I had always believed were not in the Bible.

  From birth I attended Sunday School, ...

• The Scriptures
  

  The Bible, both the Old and New Testament, is God’s revelation to us.

  The original writings of the Scriptures are called "autographs”. Written by some 40 authors over a period of fifteen hundred years (1400 B.C. – 100...

• Rules for Bible Study
  

  The Bible is a wonderful book, but it has been misunderstood and misread and has become a tool to theologically mislead sincere believers. This is the reason there are so many divisions among Christians, divisions that have developed into deno...

• Interpretation of Scripture
  

  At the conclusion of the last section I introduced the subject of interpretation, even though I did not use the word “interpretation”.

  The Bible is a masterpiece of literature but the whole thing is not an allegory like John...

• God
  

  The Bible uses many words and phrases to describe the nature of God. In this section, five descriptive words will be discussed: eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and Trinity.

  In this section, we will look at God as He is w...

• Jesus
  

  This chapter begins with nine statements about Jesus followed by an explanation of each.

  1) The central figure of human history is Jesus Christ. 2) Jesus is the primary and most important way God relates to His creation. 3) Through Jes...

• The Holy Spirit
  

  The Holy Spirit is God. Some believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead (Biblical word) or the Trinity (not in Bible). Others think of the Holy Spirit as God interacting with His creation and His creatures and they do not sepa...

• Spirit Beings - Angels, Demons and Satan, the Dead
  

  There are three realms of reality: the divine, the spiritual, and the physical. The Bible, polytheistic (belief in more than one God) religions, mythology, and philosophies speak of beings in the spirit world. These beings in the spirit worl...

• Salvation
  

  “Soteriology” is the study of salvation. It seems every religion and philosophy that believes in a future has an ultimate goal that may be summed up with the word “salvation”. Even the non-believers who wrote Humanist ...

• Baptism
  

  This chapter begins with a brief history of the word baptism and its practice. Then I will move on to the Biblical meaning and purpose of baptism.

  
  According to the Scriptures, theologians and church historians, the church practi...

• The Lord's Supper
  

  The New Testament uses three words or phrases to identify the Lord’s Supper: “Communion”, “Lord’s Table”, and “Lord’s Supper”.
  
  “Eucharist” is another word used b...

• Fellowship (Stewardship)
  

  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42) This brief description tells us a lot about the practices of the first Christians in Jerusalem. ...

• Christian Worship
  

  "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship."  Romans 12:1

   

  "Vines Expository Dictionary of New...

• Prayer
  

  In Matthew 6:9-12 Jesus taught His disciples to pray: "Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as ...

• General Providence, Special Providence and Miracles
  

  "God's providence is his continuous activity of preserving and governing the whole of creation by his wisdom and goodness and power, for the fulfillment of his eternal purpose and for the glory of his name." So writes Dr. Jack Cottrell in his ...

• Predestination
  

  The simple definition of the word "predestination" is "to decide beforehand". But the subject of predestination is far more complicated than that definition. Unfortunately when many people, who live the western hemisphere, hear the word prede...

• Eschatology – The Study of Last Things
  

  During the turbulent 1960's and on to the late 1980's there was tremendous interest in eschatology, especially interest in the signs of return of Christ. The reason for this interest was the preaching and writings of those who believed that ev...

• Church Leadership - The Views of a “Liberal Literalist”
  

  First, a liberal literalist is an inerrantist (the original writers wrote the Scripture without errors) who believes the Bible is God's word revealed to humanity and that the Bible to be taken factually. At the same time the liberal literalist...

• The Church
  

  The Greek word usually translated "church" in the New Testament is "ekklesia" (ek' la see' ah), which literally means, "to call out of". The Greeks used the word to describe the assembly of citizens gathered to conduct the affairs of State (Ac...

• The Church and State
  

  Perhaps there is no other national debate as contentious as what is commonly referred to as "the separation of church and state". Advocates of the separation of church and state applaud the decisions of courts to remove all signs of religion (...

• Legalism
  

  Legalism

  Legalism claims faithfulness to the scriptures but makes deductions, assumptions and conclusions equal to the written words of the Bible.

  One quick example of legalism is the insistence on observing the Lord's Supper ev...

• Liberalism
  

  Liberalism

  Beginning with liberal theology's attempt to reconcile the Bible with the science, philosophy and psychology here is a quote from the authors of a history of the Stone-Campbell movement that characterizes the process of accom...

• The Bible and Modern Science
  

  At the start - some definitions are in order.

  Webster's dictionary defines science as: "a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws".

  Ma...

• The Apostle Thomas
  

  Thomas - Scripture - John 20:24-29

  The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead is such a basic belief of Christian doctrine that the Christian faith literally stands or falls on this one event in history. Everything Jesus taught a...