Muzzled Oxen

In the 1920s Genevieve Sadler left her home in California for what she thought would be a short visit to the Arkansas farm where her husband grew up. The visit lasted seven years, and Sadler’s life was changed forever in the time she spent among the cotton farms near Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on the eve of the Great Depression. Based on her long and detailed letters to her mother, she wrote this engaging memoir with its rich portrait of a small town and its inhabitants, many of whom were poor cotton farmers working on shares.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word includes the last nine messages of the 2007 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Believers." In the final two messages of the previous issue, we covered ten symbols of the believers in the Bible--the wheat of life, the good seed, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the fishers of men, a lamp, a city situated upon a mountain, the sun, virgins, and plants. In this issue we will consider thirty-one more symbols of the believers in the Bible--living stones, sheep, vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, grains of wheat, branches of the vine, branches of the cultivated olive tree, a wise master builder, stewards, a spectacle, the offscouring of the world and the scum of all things, the temple of the Holy Spirit, threshing oxen, contenders in a game, runners in a race, workman in carpentry, nursing mother, father, captives of Christ in His triumphal procession, incense-bearers, ambassadors, letters of Christ, mirrors, earthen vessels, pillars, luminaries, a laboring husbandman, a good soldier, stars, the man-child, the firstfruits and the harvest, and jasper and other precious stones. These symbols of the believers help us to see who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. Seeing who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us will revolutionize our living and bring us into the life and living of the divine-human mystical incorporation of the Triune God. In this divine-human incorporation the Triune God abides in us, and we abide in the Triune God as the mutual abode of God and man, in which we are being built together and structured together with the Triune God to be the New Jerusalem. There are no reports or announcements in this issue.

Does the Hebrew Bible ascribe an implicit form of legal personhood or legal rights to animals? If so, which animals--domesticated or wild, or both--receive which rights, and for what purpose? Scholars have been slow to consider these questions, and animal-oriented research as a whole, in the field of biblical studies. For the first time, author Saul M. Olyan addresses these questions in detail and explores how the evidence of the Hebrew Bible might contribute to contemporary debates about animal rights in the academy, in the courts, in the public square, and in religious communities. In this book, Olyan demonstrates that seven different biblical texts extend both legal personhood and rights to animals. The rights conferred upon them are mainly specific and situational, and the legal personhood associated them is in most cases best characterized as limited. Nonetheless, he argues that the animal rights described by these texts are genuine because they are not contingent on the needs or demands of others, they do not disappear or give way because of conflict with the interests of another legal person, and they may not be violated with impunity. Finally, Olyan considers how the biblical texts examined in his analyses might be used to extend or strengthen the arguments of those advocating for animals in judicial, academic, political, or religious settings.

These essays are concerned with broad hermeneutical and theological issues raised by the book of Deuteronomy.

This book will unravel dark the secrets and mysteries of the enemy that has kept many in misery. A lot of Christians get demonic vexation (oppression, harassment, torment and troubling by evil spirits) .It is not God's will for His people to be troubled by demons. Many of God's children live their lives being troubled by evil spirits simply because they think it's normal. Contrary to what many believe, oppression is not normal and to be expected in a believer's life. It is certainly possible for a believer to be troubled by demons, but as Acts 10:38 tells us, Jesus made it clear that God's will was not for His people to be oppressed, harassed or troubled by evil spirits: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." There is no excuse for a believer to have to live with demonic oppression or harassment from evil spirits. I have news for you! You can break free, you can take authority of demons and the demonic ! You can walk in dominion and freedom from all of devils oppression. In this book I will show you how to operate in this ministry of deliverance with ease and for you

A survey of two literary devices that are indispensable for understanding salvation history A biblical type is a person, place, or thing in salvation history that corresponds to a later person, place, or thing in the scriptural text. An allegory is a passage that says one thing in order to say something else. Both are common literary devices in the Bible that are vital for understanding truths about Jesus Christ found nowhere else. In 40 Questions About Typology and Allegory, Mitchell Chase provides a thorough introduction to both devices, showing where they appear throughout Scripture and the historical roles they have played in biblical interpretation. In a convenient question-and-answer format, Chase answers key questions such as: • Why should interpreters care about typology and allegory? • How do we identify types? • What are the theological assumptions of typology? • Do all types lead to Christ? • What is allegorical interpretation? • How was allegory practiced in the early church? • How should we practice allegorical interpretation? Situating typology and allegory within salvation history, Chase shows how these devices reveal the interconnectedness of Scripture and commonly overlooked aspects of Christ's person and work. Scholars, Bible teachers, and preachers will find this an essential resource for interpreting Scripture more comprehensively.

What is the relationship between the nation of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the church? Pastors and theologians come to significantly different conclusions. The reigning systems of evangelical theology, covenant theology, and dispensationalism answer this question by stressing the continuity of the Israel-church relationship (covenant theology) or emphasizing discontinuity (dispensationalism). In more recent times, progressive covenantalism has emerged as a via media between these two theological approaches by providing a different proposal for unpacking the biblical covenants, and by highlighting that to rightly understand the people of God in biblical theology, the person of Jesus Christ must be the focal point. In Christ Jesus, the True Israel, Brent E. Parker presents the case for the importance of typology in this debate, arguing that national Israel is a type, not unlike other Old Testament types (e.g., the sacrificial system, the temple, etc.), that reaches its antitypical fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Moreover, the Israel-church relationship is also typological, but only through Christ. Parker demonstrates that the progressive covenantal approach is a viable system of theology that seeks to preserve what the whole Bible says regarding the people of God, from Israel to Christ and from Christ to the church.