In a prior post (see here), I announced a new blog series designed to address problematic passage in the Bible. This new series will feature guest posts from other evangelical scholars and is largely a response to the one by Peter Enns’ entitled, “Aha moments: biblical scholars tell their stories.”

The contributor for this installment is Craig Blomberg (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen). Craig is the Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, and the author of numerous books. A few notables are: The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey, and Can We Still Believe the Bible? (the latter of which I reviewed here).

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In a recent post on his blog, Old Testament scholar Peter Enns invited New Testament scholar John Byron, professor at Ashland Theological Seminary, to write about an “aha moment” that changed his understanding of the Bible. Byron chose the same passage that Bart Ehrman described in the introduction to his Misquoting Jesus, which led to his reneging on his Christian commitment altogether in favor of agnosticism: Mark 2:26.

Now clearly Byron and Ehrman are a far cry from each other theologically. Ehrman teaches at a state university (the University of North Carolina) and tells classes regularly he wants to disabuse them of any form of Christian faith. Byron teaches at a theologically centrist United Methodist Seminary, helping to train people for professional ministry, and still considers himself a devout Christian. But both appeal to this same passage as one reason they reject the inerrancy of the Scriptures.

Despite the separation of church and state in the U.S. religious groups often tend to have fairly delineated stances on political and social issues.

The United Church of Christ, for instance, has taken a collective stance on gay marriage and even filed a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina in April to protect its right to perform marriages for same-sex couples.

Historically black churches tend to be primarily Democrat-affiliated, while a majority of Mormons are Republican-affiliated, according toPew's Religious Landscape survey. A large majority of those in historically black churches and Muslim congregations believe in a bigger government with more services, while a majority of mainline churches support a smaller government with fewer services.

To see the graph created by the Religion News Service's Corner of Church and State go here.

A local church is on the planet to make disciples, not merely help people “make decisions” for Christ and then leave them alone and uncared for.

Sadly, in some churches people are led to “receive Christ” but are not challenged to grow in their new journey with Him. In these churches, leading someone to faith is treated like “the end,” as if the church has fulfilled her responsibility when someone becomes a Christian. But the moment of salvation is “the beginning” of new and eternal life, the beginning of living in a new kingdom and serving a new King, the beginning of knowing Christ.

Thankfully, the Lord continues to raise up leaders who are committed to shepherd people beyond the moment of salvation. They understand that the Lord uses the body of Christ not only in the moment of justification but also in the process of sanctification. There are two essentials for a local church to have effective ministry to new believers:

Jesus gives us the image of being born again to describe what it means to become His and enter His kingdom (John 3:3). Because of Christ, new believers are now a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are brand new.

When someone is born physically, a passionate parent provides care and attention. The newborn is held, fed, and loved. Of course, as the child grows, the child is taught to walk, to feed himself, and to make choices. But those first few months and years are so critical. Only a negligent parent leaves a newborn to fend for himself. Though none of us parented perfectly, our passion for our kids drove us to provide care and nurture. In the same way, those born into the kingdom need care and nurture. And those churches passionate for new believers, though not perfect, will seek to provide it.