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March 23, 2012

New Poll: How’s Your Bible Reading Plan Going?

How are you doing with your Bible reading plan so far this year?

If you’re following a Bible reading plan this year, how’s it going?

  • I’m keeping up with it (39%, 481 Votes)
  • I’ve fallen behind but am still doing it (33%, 404 Votes)
  • I'm not doing a Bible reading plan this year (19%, 232 Votes)
  • I’ve given up (10%, 120 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,237

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We’re well into March now, nearly a quarter of the way through the year—odds are, if you’re still keeping up with your Bible reading plan, it’s becoming a habit and getting easier. Are you starting to notice any positive changes in your spiritual walk as a result?

If you’ve fallen behind a bit (or a lot!), don’t despair! Remember, a Bible reading plan isn’t about simply meeting an arbitrary goal or establishing bragging rights. It’s about training yourself to spend some time—even just a few minutes, if it’s all your schedule allows—in God’s Word each day. Instead of giving up on your Bible reading, consider scaling back the amount you read each day. Even just a handful of verses read first thing in the morning can make a big difference in your spiritual focus.

For those of you who are reading straight through the Bible but are getting bogged down, there’s light at the end of the tunnel: you are nearing the end of the five Books of Moses, a section of the Bible that, while important and certainly worth reading, is notorious for being challenging to read straight through. Soon you’ll be into the Historical books of the Old Testament, which contain many familiar and well-loved stories.

In last week’s poll we asked you about who you’d like to take to dinner: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Nearly 4000 of you extended a virtual dinner invite to one of the Gospel writers, and most decided on John (2,499 votes). Mark (176 votes), on the other hand, should stop checking his inbox.

Here’s the breakdown of votes:

If you could, which one Gospel writer would you most like to have dinner with?

John: 65%
Luke: 21%
Matthew: 10%
Mark: 4%

Total Voters: 3,852

Andy Rau
March 22, 2012

Questions About Easter: Do the Resurrection Accounts in the Four Gospels Contradict Each Other?

This is part of a series of posts during Lent that answer common questions about Easter. These Q&A’s are drawn from our library of devotionals and other partner content. Today’s is from the “Investigating the Bible” devotional, which you can read online or sign up to receive via email.

Before reading this answer, it might help to first read through the four different accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels. Do you spot any differences or discrepancies?

Do the Resurrection Accounts in the Four Gospels Contradict Each Other?

A cursory reading of the resurrection in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John reveals a few differences in the recorded facts. While these supposed discrepancies sometimes alarm modern readers, they tend not to concern historians because any differences are merely relegated to secondary details.

In each Gospel account the core story is the same: Joseph of Arimathea takes the body of Jesus and puts it in a tomb, one or more of Jesus’ female followers visit the tomb early on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion, and they find that the tomb is empty. They see a vision of either one or two angels who say that Jesus is risen. Despite the differences concerning the women’s number and names, the exact time of the morning and the number of angels, we can have great confidence in the shared core story that would be agreed upon by the majority of New Testament scholars today.

Even the usually skeptical historian Michael Grant, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and professor at Edinburgh University, concedes in his book Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels, “True, the discovery of the empty tomb is differently described by the various gospels, but if we apply the same sort of criteria that we would apply to any other ancient literary sources, then the evidence is firm and plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was, indeed, found empty.”

The differences between the empty tomb narratives are indicative of multiple, independent affirmations of the story. Sometimes people say, “Matthew and Luke just plagiarized from Mark,” but when one examines the narratives closely, the divergences suggest that even if Matthew and Luke did know Mark’s account, they also had separate, independent sources.

So with these multiple and independent accounts, no historian would disregard this evidence just because of secondary discrepancies. Consider the secular example of Hannibal crossing the Alps to attack Rome, for which there are two historically incompatible and irreconcilable accounts. Yet no classical historian doubts the fact that Hannibal did mount such a campaign. Hannibal’s crossing is a nonbiblical illustration of a story in which discrepancies in secondary details fail to undermine the historical core accuracy of the event.

While that may be enough to satisfy historians, also consider that many of the alleged contradictions in the Gospel accounts are rather easily reconciled. For example, the accounts vary in the reported time of the visit to the tomb. One writer describes it as “still dark” (John 20:1), another says it was “very early in the morning” (Luke 24:1), and another says it was “just after sunrise” (Mark 16:2). But if the visit was “at dawn,” (Matthew 28:1), they were likely describing the same thing with different words.

As for the number and names of the women, none of the Gospels pretends to give a complete list. They all include Mary Magdalene, and Matthew, Mark and Luke also cite other women, so there was probably a group of these early disciples that included those who were named and probably a couple of others. Perhaps when the women came, Mary Magdalene arrived first and that’s why only John mentions her. That’s hardly a contradiction. In terms of whether there were/was one angel (Matthew) or two (John) at Jesus’ tomb, have you ever noticed that whenever you have two of anything, you also have one? It never fails. Matthew didn’t say there was only one. John was providing more detail by saying there were two.

March 20, 2012

Link Roundup, March 20

Here are a few interesting links and notes from the past few weeks:

Andy Rau
March 17, 2012

Frequently-Asked Questions About the Bible Gateway Mobile App

Since we launched the Bible Gateway app for iPad, we’ve been thrilled by all the excitement! We’ve also gotten a number of good questions about the app. Here are some answers:

How much does the app cost?

Just like the website, the app is free! It’s our thank-you to all of you who visit and support Bible Gateway and our mission to help more people read and understand the Bible.

Do I need internet access to use the app on my iPad?

Yes, internet access is required to use the app. In a future release, we will make an offline mode available. Certain Bible translations will be available for download, and then you’ll be able to use certain features of the app without being connected to the Internet. We are working on that upgrade right now, and hope to release it very soon. To sign up to be notified about our app launches and updates, click here.

Is the app available for the iPhone?

An iPhone and iPod Touch version will be available very soon – within the next few weeks. We’ll announce it as soon as it’s ready. Click here to sign up on our notification list and be the first to know.

How about Android? Kindle Fire? What about other platforms?

Yes, yes, and yes. Android phone and Kindle Fire versions are in the works right now. We’ll also consider making the app available in other formats in the future depending on what we hear from you, Bible Gateway’s visitors.

We’re hearing great things about the iPad app from people who have downloaded it! If you haven’t downloaded it yet, get it now. In the meantime, we’re working to make the app available in as many formats as we can. Thanks so much for your patience and support—and don’t forget to sign up if you’d like to be kept in the loop on our app launches and updates.

Rachel Barach
March 16, 2012

Announcing Bible Gateway for iPad

It’s here! We’re excited to announce the launch of the Bible Gateway App for iPad. You can get it right now by clicking here.

You’ve been waiting patiently, and we’ve been working hard. Everything you love about BibleGateway.com and more is now available on your iPad. We are so proud of the simple but full-featured design of the app. It makes easy to:

  • View the Verse of the Day, in the translation of your choice
  • Read Scripture in any translation, and jump quickly anywhere in the Bible
  • Listen to Bible audio
  • Highlight and “Favorite” the verses you love
  • Take notes on any verse or passage
  • View 2 or 3 different Bible translations in parallel
  • …and much more!

But wait—there’s more!

We’re also honored to be partnering with the multi-Dove Award winning band, Tenth Avenue North, on the launch of the Bible Gateway App for iPad. The first 10,000 people to download the app will receive a free download of the new Tenth Avenue North song “Times.” So click here to get the app now!

For those of you who don’t (yet!) have an iPad, don’t fret. The Bible Gateway App for iPhone and iPod Touch is coming very soon (within the next few weeks), and we’re already working on the App for Android phones and the Kindle Fire. And we’ll have some very special promotions for those launches, too! Sign up to receive updates when we release the app for iPhone, Android, and other platforms.

Thank you for being a part of God’s work through Bible Gateway! We are honored to serve you and give you access to God’s Word in ever more convenient ways. The Bible Gateway app is a long-awaited labor of love, and a token of our gratitude to all of you who have used and support Bible Gateway through the years. We hope that this app helps you to deepen your engagement with God’s Word!

Andy Rau
March 14, 2012

Announcing the Bible Gateway Bookperk of the Week

Bible Gateway has teamed up with Bookperk to bring you a special deal each week on a Christian book or Bible! Bookperk is a program that connects readers with exclusive merchandise and deals related to the books and authors they love.

To participate, all you need to do is sign up for Bible Gateway Bookperk alerts, and you’ll get inside access to a new deal each week. Each week’s deal is different–it might be an autographed book or a bundle deal on several related books.

The first Bible Gateway Bookperk is for Brian Hardin’s Passages, a book that will help you learn to read through the Bible and immerse yourself in God’s Word. As a special perk, the first 45 orders receive a signed copy.

Sign up today to receive the weekly Bible Gateway Bookperk alert!

Andy Rau
March 12, 2012

Monday Morning Scripture: Acts 4:1-21

Before returning to heaven, Jesus instructed his followers to go out into the world preaching his message of forgiveness. It wasn’t going to be easy! The early Christian church faced an uphill struggle to spread its message and survive under the constant threat of oppression and persecution from the government and religious establishment.

This passage from Acts 4 describes a tense and important encounter in the earliest days of the Christian church. The apostles are confronted by the ruling religious order of the day (not for the last time) and must defend their beliefs and actions. Here’s how the scene played out:

Acts 4:1-21

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,

‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.

“What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years. — Acts 4:1-21 (NLT)

Questions to Ponder

  • The Gospel message being preached by the early church was one of grace, freedom, and forgiveness—it even involved the healing of sick and crippled people. Why do you think the religious rulers felt so threatened?
  • As this and other Bible accounts note, early Christianity’s message seemed to spread fastest during times of persecution. Why do you think that was?
  • Can you sympathize at all with the religious rulers in this story? What do you think keeps them from accepting the truth of the Gospel?
March 8, 2012

New Poll: Which Gospel Writer Would You Most Like to Have Dinner With?

If you could, which one Gospel writer would you most like to have dinner with?

  • John (65%, 2,499 Votes)
  • Luke (21%, 799 Votes)
  • Matthew (10%, 375 Votes)
  • Mark (5%, 176 Votes)

Total Voters: 3,852

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Our last poll was about whether you were participating in a Bible reading plan this year. We’re happy to report that the majority of respondents said that they are regularly reading their Bibles in 2012! Here’s the breakdown of votes:

Are you doing a Bible Reading Plan this year? Which one?

Parts of the Old and New Testaments every day: 28%
Reading from cover to cover: 26%
I’m not doing a reading plan: 19%
Jumping around but reading the whole Bible: 19%
Just the New Testament: 6%
Just the Old Testament: 2%
Total voters: 5,613

Andy Rau
March 8, 2012

Purim: God Brings Deliverance Through One Woman’s Courage

A depiction of Esther, painted by Edwin Long (1878).

“One person can make a difference!” It’s a clichéd phrase that gets trotted out at every national election—the idea that one man or woman among thousands or even millions can have a significant impact. Well, cliché or not, it was certainly true in the case of Esther, the biblical woman who stood up to injustice and saved an entire people from genocide.

Today, Jews around the world observe the holiday of Purim, which commemorates Esther’s bravery and the deliverance that God brought about through her. Have you read the story of Esther? The Bible recounts the story in the appropriately-named Book of Esther. It’s short, inspiring, and very much worth reading. You can start reading Esther’s story here.

Here’s one of the key moments in the story—when the wicked Haman, outraged that a Jewish man named Mordecai refused to bow down before him, plots to destroy all of the Jews in the Persian Empire. When he learns of the plot, Mordecai turns to the young queen Esther for help:

When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage. And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, Haman decided not to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.

In the first month, the month of Nisan, in King Ahasuerus’s twelfth year, Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman for each day in each month, and it fell on the twelfth month, the month Adar. Then Haman informed King Ahasuerus, “There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, yet living in isolation. Their laws are different from everyone else’s and they do not obey the king’s laws. It is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction, and I will pay 375 tons of silver to the accountants for deposit in the royal treasury.”

The king removed his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jewish people. Then the king told Haman, “The money and people are given to you to do with as you see fit.”

The royal scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded. It was intended for the royal satraps, the governors of each of the provinces, and the officials of each ethnic group and written for each province in its own script and to each ethnic group in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the royal signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples so that they might get ready for that day. The couriers left, spurred on by royal command, and the law was issued in the fortress of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, while the city of Susa was in confusion.

When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly. He only went as far as the King’s Gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict came. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so he could take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.

Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people. Hathach came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.

Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to tell Mordecai, “All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned—the death penalty. Only if the king extends the gold scepter will that person live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last 30 days.” Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.

Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” —Esther 3-4 (HCSB)

Want to know what happened next? Keep reading…

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Andy Rau
March 5, 2012

Monday Morning Scripture: Colossians 3:1-17

So you’ve decided to follow Jesus… but now what? Are there rules to follow, tasks to accomplish? What should a Christian’s life look like, practically speaking? In this passage from Colossians 3, we learn that a Christ-honoring life is not defined merely by avoiding wickedness, but by reflecting God’s own virtues in the way we interact with others.

“Since you were brought back to life with Christ, focus on the things that are above—where Christ holds the highest position. Keep your mind on things above, not on worldly things. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you, too, will appear with him in glory.

“Therefore, put to death whatever is worldly in you: your sexual sin, perversion, passion, lust, and greed (which is the same thing as worshiping wealth). It is because of these sins that God’s anger comes on those who refuse to obey him. You used to live that kind of sinful life. Also get rid of your anger, hot tempers, hatred, cursing, obscene language, and all similar sins. Don’t lie to each other. You’ve gotten rid of the person you used to be and the life you used to live, and you’ve become a new person. This new person is continually renewed in knowledge to be like its Creator. Where this happens, there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, uncivilized person, slave, or free person. Instead, Christ is everything and in everything.

“As holy people whom God has chosen and loved, be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Above all, be loving. This ties everything together perfectly. Also, let Christ’s peace control you. God has called you into this peace by bringing you into one body. Be thankful. Let Christ’s word with all its wisdom and richness live in you. Use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to teach and instruct yourselves about God’s kindness. Sing to God in your hearts. Everything you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” — Colossians 3:1-17 (GW)

Questions to Ponder

  1. Have you left your “old self” behind for good? Do habits and impulses from that “old self” still tempt you—and if so, how do you respond when they do?
  2. What do you think the phrase “your life is hidden with Christ in God” means?
  3. Is the final paragraph in this passage a description of your life and attitude right now? What needs to happen in order for this joyful peace to become real in your life?
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    The Bible Gateway Blog features the latest news, announcements, and reflections from Bible Gateway. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible.