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16
May
2026

2 Corinthians 12:2-3: Did Paul Leave His Body?, Part 1

This article is a follow up to the series on The Immortal Soul. In that series we examined the biblical concept of the soul and worked through the passages most commonly cited in support of the idea that the soul consciously survives the death of the body. One passage we did not address is 2 Corinthians 12:2-3, where Paul writes that he does not know whether his extraordinary experience occurred “in the body or out of the body.”

Most readers assume he is describing the soul’s ability to exist apart from the body. But this reading imports a meaning into the passage that Paul himself refused to assert, twice, and that contradicts his own established usage of the identical Greek phrase in his previous letter to the Corinthians. Read in its proper context, 2 Corinthians 12:2-3 does not support the Platonic view of an immortal separable soul. It actually undermines it.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Afterlife
25
Apr
2026

Was Rahab Really a Prostitute?

Rahab

Most Bible readers know the basic outline: two Israelite spies slip into Jericho, a woman named Rahab hides them, she hangs a scarlet cord from her window, and her household survives when the walls come down. Familiar story. But somewhere along the way, someone decided to clean it up and claimed that Rahab was not a prostitute at all, but an innkeeper.

Now, perhaps she did operate an inn out of her home. That would not be surprising given the historical association between the two professions. But an innkeeper is not what the biblical text calls her, and the story of how that label got attached to Rahab is worth examining.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Misconceptions, Women
11
Apr
2026

Is “Paid in Full” (Tetelestai) Sermon Folklore?

Grenfell & Hunt II 50a1

On Easter Sunday, my daughter asked me a question. Leading up to Easter, she heard the same claim again and again in social media posts and sermon videos, all driving toward the same dramatic punchline. She wanted to know what was real and what was hype. Her specific question was about tetelestai2 which is the Greek word translated “It is finished” in John 19:30.

She had heard that ancient people wrote tetelestai on business receipts to indicate that a transaction was “paid in full.” Therefore, when Jesus said it from the cross He was declaring that He had paid the debt of sin in full.

It’s a compelling illustration. It’s also not true. Tracing how it started turns out to be an interesting story.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Misconceptions, Word Studies
28
Mar
2026

Why So Many Churches?: How the Methodists Got Their Name – Part 14

Methodists

Nobody names their own movement after an insult. But that’s exactly what happened with the Methodists. Their critics mocked them for taking their faith too seriously, and the name those critics coined ended up outlasting everyone who meant it as a dig. It starts with two brothers at Oxford, a Bible study, and a denomination that eventually rode on horseback across the American frontier.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Church History
14
Mar
2026

What Really Makes Someone a Heretic?

Calvin burns a heretic

Have you ever heard someone call another Christian a heretic? Maybe a teacher changed his mind about the end times. Perhaps a theologian questioned a popular doctrine. Maybe someone in your own church asked the wrong question out loud. Christians throw the label around a lot, and it lands hard. It can end ministries, split churches, and leave people wondering if they’re even saved.

But what does the word actually mean? The wordy heresy comes from a New Testament Greek term, hairesis, and it doesn’t mean what most of us assume.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Church, Church History, Misconceptions, Word Studies