I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary... Since the era of the Enlightenment, there have been objections to the authenticity of Jesus' birth found in the gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke. Some scholars have suggested that early Christians borrowed mythical elements from ancient literature in an attempt to adapt the gospel to a Hellenistic (Greek) culture (1), while others have suggested that there has been an error in translating the word almah, leading to a conclusion that the original authors did not explicitly express. Many versions of the Bible render this word as virgin while critics argue that it should be translated young woman or maiden. William Beck, who has done extensive research of the word comments, I have searched exhaustively for instances in which almah might mean a non-virgin or a married woman. Ther...
1. Why is the Holy Spirit so vital to the life of a believer? 2. What does it mean to “walk” by the Spirit? (correlates to what word in v18) a. Exodus 31:3 b. Ephesians 5:18 3. How do these verses relate to what is said regarding the work of the flesh? a. Flesh Defined – Galatians 2:20 b. Practice – How can missing this one word change how we read this passage? c. Works Evident – Romans 1:18-22, 1 John 3:10 d. Results – Galatians 5:21, Galatians 6:8, Romans 6:23 4. Examine the Negative List a. Are there words that need to be defined or clarified? b. ...