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New Testament

Most Read This Week Tagged "New Testament"

The Chosen: I Have Called You By Name (The Chosen, #1)

Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter

Revealing Revelation: How God's Plans for the Future Can Change Your Life Now

Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church

Becoming God's Family: Why the Church Still Matters

Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling

Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament

Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like

Tell Me the Stories of Jesus: The Explosive Power of Jesus’ Parables

Why the Gospel?: Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose

Pauline Theology as a Way of Life: A Vision of Human Flourishing in Christ

The Herods: Murder, Politics, and the Art of Succession

Lists

Paul Was Not a Christian by Pamela Eisenbaum

Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

The Apostle Paul: His life and writings

115 books — 5 voters

The Bible is Black History by Theron D. Williams

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman

The Bible is Black History: Black Theology and Books that Parallel the Bible to the African-American Legacy

9 books — 1 voter

Reading Biblical Literature by Craig R. Koester

Unraveling Creation and Evolution Through Science and the Bible by Paul Bryan

Paul and the Therapy of Desire by Nélida Naveros Córdova

The Book of Revelation by Hegumen Abraam Sleman

Reading Biblical Literature: Genesis to Revelation Suggested Reading

77 books — 5 voters

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus by Lois Tverberg

Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther

Culture Studies of the New Testament

10 books — 6 voters

The Gospel Activity Book of Bible Stories for Preschooler's a... by Ukay J. Ekong

What Is Given from the Heart by Patricia C. McKissack

Picture Books About Christianity and The Black Church by African-Americans

44 books — 3 voters

Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Mark by J.C. Ryle

The Gospel of Mark

53 books — 2 voters

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“ 4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion... shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You 4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion... shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions: 1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven; and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile, or death in fureâ. ...Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you... In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it... I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost... [Letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, advising him in matters of religion, 1787] ...more ”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

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“ God knew man would evolve. People think some of the Old Testament laws are absurd now because we live in a very different culture, a different time period. They had their problems and we have ours. God is constant but man is not, and he foreknew the ever-changing world his people would have to deal with; therefore, and if there is indeed an omniscient God, a Christ-like figure would be our only rational, possible connection to a constant, holy God throughout the evolution of culture and social l ...more ”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

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