Quotes from Frank Viola

According to the best available scholarship, here is the order in which they were written:1050 Galatians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Romans Colossians Philemon Ephesians Philippians 1 Timothy Titus 2 Timothy

The fact is, Jesus was the greatest human being who ever lived, and if all we have to look forward to in life is the frustration of trying to be someone we are not, then we've got better ways of enjoying the interval between birth and death. But the "good news" is that Jesus /doesn't/ want us to be "like" Him. He wants to share His resurrection life with us. He doesn't want us to imitate Him; instead, Christ, the Unspeakable Gift, wants to live in and through us.

The church of Jesus Christ was a classless society. Its members didn't regard social status, color, or position. For them, there was no Jew or Greek in the body of Christ. There was no slave or free. There was no rich or poor. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11 ESV)

The unexamined life is not worth living." —Socrates

Christians get very angry at those who sin differently than they do.

Because the presbyters were the ones administering the Lord's Supper, they began to be called priests.560 More startling, the bishop came to be regarded as the high priest who could forgive sins!561 All of these trends obscured the New Testament reality that all believers are priests unto God.

Martha, seeking to serve the Lord according to her own thoughts, was distracted and diverted. The

The social location of the church meeting expresses and influences the character of the church.221

Consequently, adoption is not a word of relationship but of position. You as a Christian are a child of God by new birth. But adoption is God's act in which you are placed in the position of an adult son (Gal. 4:1–5). Greek, Roman, and Jewish families adopted their own children. Birth made them children, but discipline and training brought them into adoption and the full stature of sonship.

When God created the world, He worked for six days and then rested. Adam was created on the sixth day. So God's seventh day—the Sabbath—was Adam's first full day.

the One who touched lepers and dead bodies wasn't afraid of getting His holy hands dirty with the problems of this fallen world.

Are we living in a culture that is so infatuated with change that we have forgotten that the church is about transformation, not mere change?

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.22

When Mark records the baptism of Jesus, he says that Jesus saw the heavens "splitting apart" (Mark 1:10 NLT). The Greek term for this word is the same used in Exodus 14:21 in the Greek Old Testament.* Exodus 14:21 is speaking about the "splitting apart" ("dividing") of the Red Sea at Israel's exodus.

the normative church meeting is when every member of the church comes together to share his or her portion of Christ (1 Corinthians 14:26, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 10:24-25). All are free to teach, preach, prophesy, pray, and lead a song.

This does not mean that the knowledge of the world, church history, theology, philosophy, and the Scriptures is without value. Such knowledge can be very useful.[105] But it is not central. Theological competence and a high-voltage intellect alone do not qualify a person to serve in God's house.

Consider this thought: Adam's entire existence was based upon what he ate. His diet determined his destiny. It also determined the entire course of human history.

According to the first-century use of the word, an ekklesia is a local gathering of Christians who live as a shared-life community and who gather regularly under the Headship of Jesus Christ.

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit." —Paul of Tarsus in 2 Corinthians 2:17, NIV

The main message of Gothic architecture is: "God is transcendent and unreachable—so be awed at His majesty." But such a message defies the message of the gospel, which says that God is very accessible—so much so that He has taken up residence inside of His people.

In Jesus Christ, you and I have received something far greater than a personal Savior. We have received Jesus Christ's very own relationship with His Father! According to New Testament teaching, what the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you and me. Because we are now "in Christ," the Father loves us and treats us just as He does His own Son. In other words, we share and participate in Christ's perfect relationship with His Father.

The message of the steeple is one that contradicts the message of the New Testament. Christians do not have to reach into the heavens to find God. He is here! With the coming of Immanuel, God is with us (see Matthew 1:23). And with His resurrection, we have an indwelling Lord. The steeple defies these realities.

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God

All the traditional reasons put forth for "needing" a church building collapse under careful scrutiny.[209] We so easily forget that the early Christians turned the world upside down without them (see Acts 17:6). They grew rapidly for three hundred years without the help (or hindrance) of church buildings.