The Prophetic Presbyterian & His Narrow Way

  I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3  He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5  The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7  The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8  The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.  ( Psalm 121:1–8 , ESV)

  Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6  “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7  I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12  Kiss the Son, le...

Most people read 1 Corinthians 15 & think that Paul’s reference to Cephas is a reference to Peter, “Cephas” is Aramaic for “Peter,” which means “Rock,” & in John’s Gospel, John calls Peter “Cephas” in Chapter 21.    The problem here is that mapping John onto Paul is an exegetically fallacious procedure.   That interpretation of the text suffers from semantic anachronism as well as both semantic incest & semantic inflation.  Those who read the text this way are mapping their theology of Peter/Peter’s identity back onto the text, defining Peter via the lens of John & Ecclesiastical Tradition, & then, while, using the text in a viciously circular manner (since Ecclesiastical Tradition does not supply the necessary & globally sufficient truth conditions to interpret reality correctly), conflating the mere occurrence of the word “Cephas” with an entire doctrine associated with the word (in addition to mapping John’s usage of the term onto Gala...

Some people think that Galatians 2 chronicles a schism between Peter & Paul that exceeded particular practices & indicated a doctrinal schism within the ranks of the Apostles early on.    Let’s look at Galatians 2:11 - 14.  But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  12  For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.  13  And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.  14  But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”  ( Galatians 2:11–14 , ESV) Let’s break this down:  But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to hi...

  Micah 2: 1  Woe to those who devise wickedness     and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it,     because it is in the power of their hand. 2  They covet fields and seize them,     and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house,     a man and his inheritance. 3  Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster,     from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily,     for it will be a time of disaster. 3: 9  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob     and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice     and make crooked all that is straight, 10  who build Zion with blood     and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11  Its heads give judgment for a bribe;   ...