Vacation Bible School

The scholarly community generally describes the letters Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus as the “pastoral” epistles. This is not really an accurate description because it derives from the denominational concept of a preacher as being THE “pastor” of a congregation. The new testament shows a distinctly different picture of the church, with each congregation having multiple “pastors” (i.e., shepherds, elders, overseers), not the “one-man-rule” so common in modern denominationalism. (Acts 14:23 shows clearly that each individual congregation had plural…

Second Thessalonians 2:12-15 presents the simplest explanation of the doctrine of “election” in the bible. “Election” describes how God chose who will be saved and who won’t. This may be THE most misunderstood biblical concept in all of christendom’s various denominations. Protestant denominations mainly base what they teach about election on what John Calvin wrote about it. Calvin wrote that the way God predestined (“elected”) people for heaven or hell was completely random and arbitrary. (We might compare it to…

Mother’s Day Mother’s Day in Scotland happens in March. We try to organise something for them and present our mothers with a small gift and recognition for all they do for us. As we still had some restrictions in the building because of Covid, they had more time in the afternoon with their own families. Ladies’ Appreciation Day Every year we like to spoil our ladies with a special day just for them. Not all the ladies chose to attend…

The companion Paul mentions in verse 1 as “Silvanus” was almost certainly the Silas of Acts 17:1-10, as this is a shortened form of the longer name (a “nickname,” as Jim is to James). In chapter 1:5, Paul mentions that the Thessalonian Christians were suffering for their faith. Their suffering had begun with persecution by the local Jewish community, mentioned in Acts 17, and Paul makes the point that they should view their trials as an evidence that they were…