Corby Stephens

Here are my teaching notes from Daniel 6.

I saw this bumper sticker the other day that said, “Who would Jesus bomb?” Pardon the pun, but that sticker is about as loaded as you want to make it. Jesus must be a Republican. Jesus came to feed the poor and clothe the hungry (strike that, reverse it). Jesus was gentile and loving and kind. Jesus stood for truth, justice, and the American way. Jesus came to heal. Jesus is going to judge the world.

Actually, those last two are true, though they sound contrary one to the other.

The truth of the matter is Jesus is going to judge the world. Jesus is going to bomb the world with His words, “I never knew you.” That is, to those whom He never knew. To those He knows He is going to say, “You have been faithful in little things, I will put you over many things. Enter into you reward.” There are those who would say that the Book of Revelation is history from our perspective, that those events have already taken place. Others would say it’s allegorical at best. The fact of the matter is that it has yet to be fulfilled.

Who would Jesus bomb? Read Revelation 19 to find out. If that’s you, it doesn’t have to be.

Here are my teaching notes from Daniel 5.

Words have what is called a “semantic range”. It means that any particular word can have a range of different meanings. Those meanings depend on context. For example, the word “day”. “What day do you want to meet?” “Back in my day…” “It’s the end of a long day.” One word, three different meanings.

A thought occurred to me a week or so ago and I’ve been chewing on it for a while. As I was thinking it through and how I might convey this thought, I felt it important to point out that the use of two specific words might be outside of their usual semantic range. These words are “grace” and “faith”. Were they read with the typical meaning, that having to do with salvation, what I’m trying to say might come across as heresy. It isn’t. As you read this, just bear with me and I think you will see the Biblical truth in it. It may even inspire some change in your own life as it has in mine. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are my teaching notes from Daniel 4.