As for who I am, I am just a man who believes in God, and Jesus, and wants to share my thoughts on the bible. I was an athiest until I actually read the New Testament for myself, and had a conversion experience in my own bedroom prior to attending church. Though I am not Jewish or a follower of Judaism, certainly I use a lot of Jewish source material for my studies on the early books of the bible. I find them quite enlightening, as I am not a fan of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and do not simply disregard a teaching because it is ‘Jewish’ or has its roots in Jewish tradition. If Christians are honest with themselves, they will see the entire basis of their faith is contained in the Old Testament. Do I celebrate Hanukkah? No.
At times my musings may be on the unconventional side, but generally do not stray too far from the mainline beliefs. I try to offer fresh insights when possible, and I strive not to simply regurgitate other teachings. I do feel that mainline Christians are lacking in both tolerance and understanding of the heart of the scriptures. I believe the holy scriptures are truly meant to be pondered, heavily considered as to what they mean, what they imply, not merely what the words on the page say. To just take the words off the page and say them to another in condemnation is to have a log in your own eye, and unfortunately this happens much today.
I did not go to bible college or seminary – I wanted to at one point, but am often put off by people who have been to such, and decided I would rather study on my own and be taught by the Spirit. I attend a non-denominational, bible-teaching church which believes the basic tenets of the Christian faith. I hold the basic same core beliefs, but am also willing to admit that the more I study the bible, the less I am certain of, but the more I learn, and so I keep reading. I hope you will too. I welcome any comments or questions at justinhonse@gmail.com
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
October 30, 2009 at 8:25 am
Shirley B Dean
Thank you and God bless you! Your writing is informative and clear. It seems also to be well documented.
May 13, 2011 at 7:45 am
Christine
Pondering Scripture: I like your ponderings. I was just reading Revelations yeterday, and it struck me, that John- who was on the isle of Patmos, used to know JESUS in the flesh, during his 3 year term of preaching, teaching, dying and rising…
Revelations hits me between the eyes, now, and i’ve read it lots of times before and had no revelation…now the Spirit of God, showed me how Jesus- now holds the Keys, to Hades….Satan has lost his authority, but he doesn’t want us to know, because scripture says that “if Satan had known what was going to happen on the cross”, he would never have crucified the Lord of Glory….(it’s in the Bible somewhere.)(new testament.
And yes, absolutely, we do need the Old and New Testaments..Yes the Old Testament from Genesis 1:1 is the foundation to the rest of the Bible.
Lord Jesus, bless you, and keep pondering…. Christine
May 13, 2011 at 7:05 pm
jhonse
Thank you Christine! I’m glad I can provide my site for you to read on occasion. Keep pondering yourself as well! I may listen to teachers here and there, but I believe true divine inspiration can also come from God directly if we listen and are patient in understanding.
March 11, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Cathy
I’m glad that you heard the voice of your Shepherd. Your blog is a blessing.
August 15, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Joe
Fantastic blog. Just landed here while working on a post for my (surprisingly similar) blog. Glad to see someone else working their way through the bible and still stuck in Genesis even after writing for two years. 😉
I’m currently researching three (!!) posts about Genesis 24. Darn it if that’s not a deep chapter. I’m trying to piece together the story of Nahor (Abraham’s brother) from the fragments in the bible. No consensus on whether or not he was a polytheist.
May 8, 2013 at 1:40 pm
o Padre
Justin,
I was saddened to read your comments about being put off by those who’ve gone to seminary… The problem is theirs, and not the school’s.
I admire your willingness to study on your own, and am impressed by the results I can see on your site. However, there are some real advantages to seminary studies– being in a class means having the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew and Koiné Greek in order to study Scripture in the original languages, receiving insights from others, who may have ideas or questions you haven’t thought of; it means having a professor to answer questions and guide your learning; it means having a syllabus to follow– which can help keep the student from focussing too much on his own interests, rather than getting the broader sweep necessary before focussing on some particular aspect (my own failing).
I won’t try to send you off to seminary– that’s between you and God… I will, though, encourage you to go on line and look at the websites of some of the various seminaries, because a number of them actually publish their syllabi/syllabuses on line to encourage potential students. A syllabus from a seminary that matched your theological leanings could point you towards readings from theologians and experts in Biblical languages, etc., that you might not find on your own.
I don’t normally comment on sites such as yours, but I am impressed enough at what you’ve done without formal study that I’d love to see what you’d be able to do with those additional tools!
God’s peace,
Francis+