Gary Shogren's Blog
A presentation given at an ESEPA conference in April 2021. The original Spanish version is found on my other blog under the title “La Lectura Oral de las Escrituras en la Iglesia Primitiva y en la Actualidad.” And you may download it as a pdf file: oral-reading-of-scripture-in-the-early-church-and-todayDownload Summary: In the early church, extensive oral scripture... Continue Reading →
In another place I have written about two churches I have visited that gave a broad weekly invitation for all members to participate in leading worship. I have also written on the related theme of the Priesthood of all Believers. As we hear so often, “The church is not the building, but the congregation.” That... Continue Reading →
This material adapted from 1-2 Thessalonians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, from pages 161-66. The book is available from Amazon and as a discount from Amazon, and also from Logos, in Korean and also in Spanish. 1 Thess 4:4 is the most complex verse in the Thessalonian correspondence because of the difficulty of... Continue Reading →
Download the article as a pdf: Shogren_The Emperor Constantine the Great – a villain or a hero, or something in-between To many, the Emperor Constantine was a saint: in the Orthodox church he is one of the “Equal-to-Apostles” (isapóstolos) a title given to people (such as Patrick, Cyril the evangelist of Russia and others) who were... Continue Reading →
They have just published a pair if my essays in Strangers to Fire: When Tradition Trumps Scripture. It's now available on Amazon. You might recognize the title as a response to John MacArthur's book, Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship. The contributors of these 35 essays are not the sort... Continue Reading →
Shogren_1 Cor 13 Perfect in Patristic Exegesis This article is a technical study of how the Church Fathers interpreted Paul´s prediction that tongues, prophecy, and knowledge would pass away when "the perfect" comes. My conclusion is that nearly all orthodox fathers believed it referred to the age to come, whereas Marcion, Mani, the Gnostics and... Continue Reading →
Click link to download the article as a pdf file: Shogren_The gift of tongues in the post-apostolic church In 1965 Cleon Rogers published a short study about the gift of tongues in the centuries after the apostles.[1] It is late in the day to refute an article already a half century old; but since people keep... Continue Reading →
These posts are adaptations of my commentary on 1 Corinthians, based on my own study of the critical Greek text, the early church fathers and the best of contemporary scholarship. It is available from Logos, and soon to be available in Spanis and in English from Amazon. Why you’ve never heard of the Second Corinthian... Continue Reading →
Spiritual growth comes through Spirit-power and direction, applied from the inside out as God rewrites our heart, soul and mind to conform to his righteousness. Revivals of history have come as the result of prayer and the Spirit’s power; most are absent of any persecution as a proximate cause: the Reformation, Great Awakening, the Wesleyan... Continue Reading →
Is persecution good for what ails the church? Here’s the word on the street: Viewpoint A: Everyone knows that persecution purifies the church – Therefore, if revival is to come, it will be through suffering. Therefore, persecution is a good, a benefit. Therefore, the committed Christian should pray for persecution to fall on their country.... Continue Reading →
