Praise the Lord, everybody! It’s been another blessed week here at The Essential Church, with a lot of research being done and posts being written. We pray that you’ve had a chance to come along and read the work done at the site this week. If you haven’t, keep reading this post. At the end, I will post links to the work written this week and give you all the posts you want to read in one place. This is The Essential Church Week in Review, a chance to provide the posts you may have missed alongside of announcements and prayer requests.

Sunday: The infallibility of Scripture Series Continues

The announcement I have pertains to this coming Sunday. Sunday will continue where we left off in our new series titled “God’s Word and Contradictions: Sworn Enemies.” The series has started off on the right foot, with us examining Jesus’ own view of Scripture. This Sunday, we move into the book of Acts and find out what the early church thought of Scripture and what early Christians believed it to be.

And we continue to drill that God’s Word is infallible and reliable — and that an infallible and reliable text does not have contradictions. Prepare your hearts and minds as we go back into the infallibility of Scripture this Sunday.

Research

As Pastor of The Essential Church, I believe it is my duty to help encourage the Church of Jesus Christ to think about matters pertaining to the faith, research them, and study them, so I’ve devoted great time this week to refuting some of the claims of my former university professor and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bart Ehrman.

A former believer himself, Ehrman has found that the Bible contains “contradictions,” but what he really means is that the copies of the manuscripts we have (not the originals, but the copies) contain discrepancies in grammar and language flow. To find out just what I mean, take a look at this week’s blog posts below:

God’s Word and Contradictions: Sworn Enemies, Part 1

Matthew’s wise men and Luke’s shepherds: answering the claim of contradiction

One young man, one angel, or two angels? Bart Ehrman on the Gospel discrepancies

Seven or Two Pairs? Bart Ehrman on the ark animals in Genesis 7

A simple reordering: reconciling the fifth and seventh plagues in Exodus 9

Not all the posts above are links to Bart Ehrman refutations, but the majority are. The top link will take you to Part 1 of our infallibility series on the Word of God, which I believe you’ll find to be a true blessing to your soul in how you see the Word of God.

There’s more work to come, so stay tuned.

Prayer Requests

We don’t want to end this time without alerting you as to our prayer requests. One prayer request is from me regarding my uncle and the loss of his father this past week. Though his father was 91 years old, his multiple sons and daughters miss him, and we ask that you would pray for Curtis and his family.

Next, we requests prayers for the citizens of Puerto Rico, many of whom still don’t have electricity. We are so far removed from their plight, but we must remember that they are our brothers and sisters (and there are those there who are our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ). While we enjoy our electricity to bake, cook, shower, and watch TV this weekend, let’s remember them in our thoughts and prayers.

The DACA dreamers are also a part of our prayer requests. I was born in this country and my parents were born here, but there are others whose lives haven’t taken them in as fortunate a direction in the US. They need our prayers. Throwing them out of our country isn’t the way to deal with immigration issues, but it’s a sign that our White House is headed in the wrong direction. To be truthful, this country took a wrong turn when we voted in the current administration, but that’s a good word for another good post.

Are there any prayer requests that you have, or that you’d like us to pray for? We believe in the power of prayer, and want to partner with you in your requests before God. If there’s a prayer request, anything from a desire to see your broken marriage healed, or to see your adult son or daughter be saved, please feel free to contact the church and let us know.

We love you, thank God for your support, and are blessed to see the numbers of the church growing. We believe in doing the work of the ministry and want to see the internet masses come to Christ; seeing people saved, lives changed, and the imprisoned set free are of utmost importance.

Have a blessed weekend, and we look forward to another Doctrine Sunday!

In Him,

Pastor D.M. Richardson,

The Essential Church

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