Responses to First Greek Lesson

People wrote immediately after the first New Testament Greek class. I am taking this slowly because I know everyone needs to absorb a lot. I remember those days, even though it was 50 years ago. I was a slow starter.

Note this - Little Ichabod was a whiz at St. John in Latin. When we were done, he could read and translate a chapter at a time, no notes - fast - and he got even faster. When we repeated in Greek, it was slogging away, just like the first days in Latin.

Tough slogging in the Slough of Despond

Pliable: Then said Pliable, Ah! neighbor Christian, where are you now?

Christian: Truly, said Christian, I do not know.

Pliable: At that Pliable began to be offended, and angrily said to his fellow, Is this the happiness you have told me all this while of? If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may we expect between this and our Journey's end?

Do not be like the character who fell into the Slough of Despond in Pilgrim's Progress. "If this is how the journey begins, how will it end?" He went back to the City of Destruction.

'This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.'^[1]

Not everyone wants to do this, and that is perfectly understandable. Do I want oboe, skiing, or voice lessons? No.

Two approaches really help in immersion training:

1. Speak the words out loud until reading them smoothly is natural, no longer like the piano student chopping at the keys instead of playing them.
2. Spend a lot of time matching Greek words to their English derivatives or equivalents.

Some Greek Words You Already Know - More or Less - From English

Catherine - pure

Margaret - pearl

Peter - rock

Stephen - crown

Greg - watchman

Aspirin - yes that is found in 1 Thessalonians

 Westcott and Hort worked  hard to destroy Christian
trust in the text and the truth of God's Word.
Knowing some Greek is the key to understanding
these frauds and the damage their deceptions continue
via the New NIV.

Even So - Completely Wrong! The Hot ‘New’ Church Growth Method

The Hot ‘New’ Church Growth Method:



"A new study just unearthed a remarkable finding: conservative doctrine grows churches.

This isn’t necessarily what we’ve heard in recent years. Whether it’s the music, the attractive facility, or the feeling of community, we need something to keep the church growing—something besides biblical teaching. How surprising, then, that David Millard Haskell, Kevin N. Flatt, and Stephanie Burgoyne have found that doctrine grows churches. In their peer-reviewed scholarly article for the Review of Religious Research, a prestigious journal, the trio present findings among mainstream Canadian churches showing that—contra the stereotypes—doctrinally conservative churches that reach out aggressively often grow. Churches that soften biblical teachings and de-emphasize evangelism often shrink."

'via Blog this'

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GJ - The only issue is being faithful to the Word, which will bring about God's will. That can be quite tumultuous for the individual, congregation, or country.

The Reformation was a time of great violence because the Church of Rome used every possible scheme to extinguish the Gospel, but that era was also a time of great growth in faith, in appreciation of God's Word, and in the abundance of the fruits of the Spirit.

This is the issue - not any other.