Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Needham Bible Chapel Annual Conference

The annual conference at Needham Bible Chapel will be held February 19 & 20, 2011 at the chapel. The speaker, Chuck Gianotti, is a brother very involved in producing helpful study and equiping materials for New Testament Churches, their leaders, and believers in general. Many of these materials are available at http://www.bible-equip.org/.
His subject matter for the conference will be on the formation of the New Testament itself. The conference is titled, "The New Testament: Credible or Not?" with Bro. Gianotti's following comments:
"Christianity rises or falls on the historical credibility of the Bible, particularly the New Testament documents. It has come under increasingly forceful attacks, with major news and magazine outlets routinely publishing scholarly refutation of the historical basis of the Bible and its stories. Some assert that the Bible as we have it today was the result of a political posturing in the early church that was rife with intrigue, conspiracy and secrecy. Others see it is a genuine effort by the 2M and 3M century church to read back into the very human stories of Christ a miraculous component that never existed in the first place. In such a post-modem (and some would say, post-Christian) culture, many are searching for answer to questions like these:
- Are the New Testament writings historically reliable?
- How do we know those book comprising the NT are authoritative? Who decided which documents to include?
- What about the apocryphal, deutero-canonical and Gnostic writings?
This presentation sunimarizes the large volume of available (yet very technical) information on the subject by providing a concise analysis of the facts to help you determine whether the New Testament as embraced by Christians for close to 2000 years is worthy of your confidence."

Message 1; 10:30AM
Title: What's the Problem?
The New Testament did not just dropout of heaven as one complete whole. How then did it come to be? How do we go about determining its historical origins? What actual documents do we have to work with?
11:30AM - Q & A
11:45AM - Lunch

Message 2; 1:00PM
Why Were Some Writings Included?
How did the early church come to identify the current 27 books or parts of the New Testament as being authentic and authoritative?
2:00PM - Q & A
2:15PM - Break

Message 3; 2:30PM
Why Were Some Writings Excluded?
What about those other writings, like the Gnostic gospels, the apocrypha and other writings? Why were they excluded?
3:30PM - Q & A
3:45PM - Break

Message 4; 4:00PM
Wht Does It All Mean?
So what? What difference does it really make? How is the New Testament unique among religious documents. What does it mean for us today?
5:00PM - Q & A
5:15PM - Supper

Lunch and Supper will be provided by the chapel. Please plan on attending - this will be a very informative and encouraging time. Needham Bible Chapel is located at 2497 New Hope Road in Needham, Alabama.