Nazarene Caffeine

Introduction When I read studies and surveys on the state of Christianity, one thing that strikes me as odd is how heavily many of these surveys rely on self-identification. In many cases, if someone says they are a Christian, they are considered a Christian for the sake of the survey. I am not convinced that this is the best way to measure whether someone is a Christian or not. In fact, I am positive that it is not the best way. The fact that a person claims something about themselves does not, in fact, make it true. I can claim that I am a mechanic all day long, and I may be able to handle small repairs and maintenance on my own car. If you were to trust me to make a major repair on your own car, you would not be very impressed with the work that I do. You would need to find a real mechanic to fix your car. If I were to claim to be a mechanic, I would be wrong. My self-identification as a mechanic wouldn't be enough for you to trust me with your car. A person who claims to be a m...

Introduction Today, September 26, 2025, Nazarene Caffeine is proud to announce a new effort that we call The Barnabas Initiative . The Barnabas Initiative is a new effort designed to walk alongside those who are exploring faith in Jesus or have recently taken their first steps as followers of Christ. The Barnabas Initiative is named after Barnabas, an early Christian who was known as the "Son of Encouragement." Barnabas is most well-known as the person who served as the bridge between Saul--who was known for his persecution of early Christians--and the early church after Saul became a Christian. The Barnabas Initiative desires to follow this example by providing initial spiritual care, guidance, and connection for people who are often overlooked or unreached by the church, and those who want more information about following Jesus. Whether someone is curious about Christianity in the wake of cultural events, considering taking the step of faith, or simply looking for a suppo...

Introduction All of us face difficult times in life. There is no one living who will be immune to difficulty. Stop for a moment before you read the rest of this blog post. I want you to think back to a difficulty that you have faced. It doesn't matter what it was. It may have been something that happened 20 years ago, or something that happened last week. The important thing is that we think about something that stretched our faith. It may seem weird for me to ask you to think of something like this, but stick with me. Whatever may be in your mind as a result of my question, there is something that you need to know: Your difficulty was not wasted. We tend to think of difficulties, trials, and temptations as things that we should not have to deal with. But what if God has a purpose behind every difficulty that we face? What if our difficulties are actually intended to make us stronger in our faith? What if God may actually do something good in our lives or in the lives of others b...

  Introduction Some of our regular readers may have noticed that we have not posted in a few months. There is a reason for that and, as readers, I believe that you deserve to know what has been happening. In 2023, I accepted a position as Senior Pastor of the Georgetown Church of the Nazarene in Georgetown, Ohio. I have served there for two years, and we have seen great things. We have discipled people of all ages, from senior adults to toddlers. We have seen people get excited about studying the Bible. We have celebrated baptisms. We have seen 8 people come to faith in Jesus through our work at the Georgetown Church of the Nazarene over the past 2 years. We have seen more than one person rededicate their life to Christ. We have received members into the church. We have celebrated what God has done among us. For those who have done pastoral work in the past, you understand how hectic it can be much of the time. For those who haven't, there may not be a perfect way to describe the b...

.  Peter Ruckman is best known for his view that the 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the perfect Bible in English. He held the view that the 1611 King James Version was so perfect that it could be used to correct the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. We have explored some of this in a previous post . In short, Ruckman believed in a type of "re-inspiration" of the King James Version such that it was rendered superior to even the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts from which it was translated. Ruckman's work consistently makes it clear that it is the 1611 KJV that he believes was "re-inspired," and not a later update to the KJV (we will look at these in a minute). It is the 1611 KJV that he defends with his arguments from crown authority and lack of copyright. 1  It is the 1611 KJV that Ruckman argues was re-inspired when he claims that the Holy Spirit urged the King James translators to write. 2  It is the 1611 King James Version that Peter Ruckman defended through...

  For the past couple of years, I have done a year in review in which I take a look at the most popular articles from the previous year. Most of the time, I am surprised to find that the articles that I think will be the most popular are not usually the most popular. It is also fun to compare the rankings between the previous year and the current year. The way these rankings work is simple: We are counting down the top 10 posts based on the number of times they were viewed over the course of the previous 12 months. This does give an advantage to the posts that are written earlier rather than later. However, it is also interesting to see which posts remain in the top 10 year after year. If you would like to compare this year's ranking with the rankings from 2023, you can find last year's post here . 10. The Holy Spirit Taking the number 10 spot this year, having been viewed around 100 times, is an incredibly early article on the Holy Spirit. This article has replaced 2023's ...

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States. One of the most well-known facts about his life is that he taught Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. I am not sure that he still teaches Sunday School there, given his current health. However, his teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church spanned several years. While I respect Jimmy Carter, he is not immune from error, even when it comes to interpreting the Bible. A statement from Jimmy Carter has been circulating around Facebook. The statement comes from a 2012 interview Jimmy Carter gave to the Huffington Post. This statement is shown below: This argument didn't originate with Jimmy Carter. It was around before Jimmy Carter's interview. We will examine in a subsequent post whether or not this argument is accurate. For the purposes of this post, I think it is necessary to share why the interpretive method used by Jimmy Carter here is not solid. Despite its lack of merit, this interpretive method is...

  There are different beliefs within the King James Only Movement. I would like to explore two of them in this introduction. It is important to understand some key distinctions between these two groups, or else it may seem that I am attacking a position that I am not attacking. Therefore, I will draw a distinction between two different groups within the King James Only Movement. The first camp simply asserts that the King James Version is the best English translation. This claim could be labelled the "Classic KJV-Only" position. This is the position that was held by what appears to be the majority of people who advocated for the King James Version's superiority to other translations up until about the middle of the 20th century. Typically, a person in this group will hold to the idea that the Textus Receptus is divinely preserved, and the King James Version is the best translation from the Textus Receptus. Or, in some cases, that the Textus Receptus is the best Greek basi...