kennchipchase.com

We are currently teaching through Revelation on Sunday mornings at our church. As we started working through the seven churches, I quipped to our church that it is like a dispensational rite of passage to create a chart of the seven churches. Though others have created similar charts and someone else will create a fresh chart in the future, here's what I think are my somewhat unique contributions to the world of charts on the seven churches: Color coding Churches with "mixed reviews" are blue, those with no positive qualities are red, and those with no negative qualities are green. Positive attributes and promises are green, negative attributes and warnings are red Simplified columns Many charts split the Condition column into two (typically, Commendation and Condemnation ). I merged these, but color-coded them. Many charts split Christ's Commitment  to the churches into two columns (typically something like Warning  and Promise). Again, though I've merged the two...

The last blog post in this mini-series laid the groundwork for how I initially began using the ESV, but then began having issues with the translation. I recognize that there is no "perfect" translation and that all translations have to make interpretive decisions to maintain some level of coherence. The issues I began seeing with the ESV, however, rose to such a level that it caused me to begin considering other options. This blog post will discuss one such text. Ephesians 5:32 In the fall of 2023, I took a class titled "Scripture Citing Scripture" at Shepherds Theological Seminary with Dr. Michael Vlach. In this class, I had the opportunity to research four cases of Scripture referencing Scripture and note how the later authors used earlier texts. One of the texts I selected was Ephesians 5:31 and its use of Gen 2:24. I was not aware of the depth of issues when I selected this text, but I was amazed when I started diving in. The context is Paul instructing husban...

My Journey Through Translations I began my initial draft of this mini-series on Bible translations last summer. As I was finishing the article, I began to see the ESV pop up in online discussions because of changes being made (again) and now more people are walking away from the ESV as a result. My reasoning for my decision to change away from the ESV differs from why others are doing the same, and I officially transitioned away from the ESV back in August of last year. I do think the textual changes are a significant issue, but I believe what I will discuss in these posts may be even more significant. I grew up on the NKJV, and I have to say, I still feel very at home when I open and read from it. Most of my memorization work was in the NKJV, and it remains an elegant translation (many of those currently abandoning the ESV are going with the NKJV, and understandably so). I still consider it a top 3 translation. I started exploring other translations when I went off to college, and pro...

The following article was initially drafted shortly after the 2020 election. I don't know why I never published it. I finished editing it and am publishing it now. Prior to the 2020 election, the vast majority of the charismatic "apostles" and/or "prophets" were claiming to have a word from the Lord, and that word was that that President Trump would secure re-election. When that didn't happen (and let's just set aside the all the voting issues for the moment), I thought this could be the perfect opportunity to challenge some of my charismatic friends on the seemingly and glaringly obvious issue that these individuals made very public, very specific prophecies, and it didn't happen. What gives? However, that was when I learned that charismatics have a fail-safe. They have an escape hatch. Every time a prophecy fails, there is an out. I was told that the reason Trump didn't return to the office was because we, as the church, didn't have enough ...