We are now in France and Spain for ministry where we have been for two weeks. Last week we had our Revival Europe Training Conference with about 700 Chinese from the whole of Europe and many from China. Among the speakers was Pastor Niko of Bethany Indonesia, who has 250,000 in his churches in Jakarta alone. He came with a team 35 people. Also, Lawrence Khong of Faith Community Baptist Church (10,000 strong) in Singapore, and of course, Brother Yun (Heavenly Man) and many others, including my son-in-law Samuel Law, daughter Sharon and myself. It was in conjunction with the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation beginning 31 October, and all the Chinese churches in Paris, about 29 in total, joined together and we had a united choir that sang “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, a Reformation song.

Next year the Revival Conference will be in Frankfort, Germany, and Heidi Baker has already promised to come. We might have up to 1,000 if we find a suitable meeting hall, which they are looking for now. We are also hoping to invite David Pawson, the renowned Spirit-filled Bible scholar from England. Chinese around the world know about him and his powerful teaching has helped so many people. But he is very old, 87, and not in good health. But since Germany is very close to England, we hope he can come.

I was in Spain where 300,000 Chinese live, and work with a ministry that produces many Bibles in many languages, and has provided us hundreds of thousands of Chinese Bibles. It is called Bibles par Internet, as they provide free Bibles in many languages when people contact them on the internet. It is under the direction of Alex Lukasik, a Swiss brother. They have a good website at http://www.bibles.ch/, but there is no English. They are French speaking people.

Also, I met with Gilbert Lindsay and team, who have a huge modern printing press in Belarus, Russia. They have, over the many decades, provided many millions of Bibles in many languages and recently have printed thousands of copies of the Abundant Life Study Bible (also known as the Fire Bible). His father and mother, Gordon and Freda Lindsay, were famous faith healing evangelists in the 20^th century and started Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas.

On my trip to Spain, I met with a Chinese pastor whom I have known for a couple years, Pastor Xuan. He works primary among refugees, orphans, and handicapped people in Spain and is very active in ministry in Morocco. They must be very low-key, but by using social outreach they are able to bring the Gospel to many Muslims there.

You might be surprised to learn that there are 8,000 Chinese visitors to Morocco every month, and Pastor Xuan is developing a ministry to share the Gospel with them. It is difficult and even dangerous to bring Bibles or Christian literature in Arabic or French to Morocco, but absolutely no restrictions on Chinese Bibles and Chinese tracts.

I just shared the above for there is a lot happening here in Europe that you in the USA are most likely not aware of. It is both a great mission field in which most of the people in Europe and the Middle East don’t know the Lord, but also it is a base to bless Europe and other nations with the Word of God, and there are many people now involved in mission work here.

Thanks for all you have done to make the church worldwide aware of the working of the Holy Spirit.

God bless you,

Dennis Balcombe
包德寧牧師
November 11, 2017

Carolyn Osiek, Charles Fischer Catholic Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University, and Margaret Y. MacDonald, Professor of Religious Studies at St. Francis Xavier University, have created a work that examines the day-to-day life of the women in the early church. They cover a variety of topics that would have affected every woman: marriage, birth, child rearing, childhood, motherhood, wet nurses, nannies, slaves, wives, widows, and grandmothers. Chapter 1 introduces three views that are commonly used to examine women in the early church: patriarchy vs. the discipleship of equals, public vs. private, and ascetic vs. domestic life. They also discuss basic activities of the house church such as hosting the assembly, education, communication, socialization, charity, evangelization, and mission.

Chapter 2 focuses on wives noting that the Biblical ideal was not often reality. Evidence for this period regarding Christian women is fragmentary. Despite this, the authors insert this evidence into an “imaginary scene (18) based on what we know of a typical Roman family.” The chapter examines Colossians and Nympha’s role, on Prisca, Ananias and Sapphira as well as other ancient texts. Chapters 3 and 4 cover birth, childcare, and raising children in the house church. Topics include abortion, infanticide, exposure, nursing, and mortality rates for both mother and child. Besides using Roman medical texts the authors also, use the writings of Plutarch, John Chrysostom, The martyrdom of Pertpetua and Felicitas, the life of Macrina and the infancy gospel of Thomas.

Chapter 5 deals with the female slave and builds on the work of Jennifer Glancy (Slavery in Early Christianity) and J. Albert Harrill (Slaves In The New Testament: Literary, Social And Moral Dimensions) to illustrate the problems of Christian female slaves and the church’s problem with them. This chapter is loaded with Roman law, rabbinic writings and non-Christian authors. The sixth chapter examines Eph. 5:22-33 using two points of view: the first as a document against Roman ideology and the second as an apologetic ideal representing the church. Asking if the injunction to marry as an option could have been a way for women to wield influence in the house church is the topic of chapter 7.

Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
—Psalm 119: 18

I. Introduction

In every generation there remains a perennial concern for all conscientious pastors, teachers and Christian workers. The question arises how can we, who have been entrusted with the ministry of expounding God’s word make it clear and relevant while at the same time maintaining fidelity to the author’s original intent? Furthermore how can we, coming from the framework of a Pentecostal or Charismatic tradition, integrate our distinctives in the exegetical process? More specifically with our emphasis on the Holy Spirit, what can He be expected or not expected to do in the preparation of our messages?

To date, the task of this integration process has not always produced legitimate results. Many theological aberrations abound in our circles, which cause a great deal of heartache and confusion among our people. The suggestions that follow are an attempt to help full-gospel ministers proclaim the Word of God with greater clarity and possibly curb careless abuses from our pulpits and lecterns.

The general thesis of this article is: In order to be relevant and responsible we need to subscribe to a legitimate hermeneutic: One that maintains the integrity of the author’s meaning via grammatico-historical exegesis, while at the same time, one that elicits a real, personal and “experiential” (or “existential” some may prefer) response on the part of the reader or hearer via the illumination of the Holy Spirit. With this in mind let us explore how the Holy Spirit interacts within the matrix of the text and reader and faith and reason.

II. Interpreting I Corinthians 2:14

Basic to any discussion of the Holy Spirit’s role in illuminating the Biblical text is one’s view of inspiration. What is the nature of God’s revelation to man? Is it verbal prepositional truth embodied in the Biblical record or is it an experiential encounter with God independent of the author’s intended meaning? Does one discover God’s meaning via the grammatico-historical method or by direct illumination by the Spirit? Has God superintended the writings of Scripture to the extent that the “author’s view” is God’s view? What is the nature of Scripture itself? One’s view of the Holy Spirit’s role in the interpretive process will be greatly determined by how one answers these questions.¹