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SECTIONS:
General References
Who I Am
What I Believe
My View of Scripture
General References:
ACC = "Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Whole Bible", The Bethany Parallel Commentary; published 1983, 1985 in two volumes by Bethany House Publishers in Minneapolis; ISBN 0-87123-617-6 and ISBN 0-87123-474-2.
BBA = Baker's Bible Atlas, Revised Edition, Nineteenth Printing, by Charles F. Pfeiffer; published 1984 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids; ISBN 0-8010-6930-0.
CLPP = Constitutional Law, Principles and Policies, Second Edition, by Erwin Chemerinsky; published 2002 by Aspen Publishers in New York; ISBN 0-7355-2428-9.
CT = Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson; published 1983-1985 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids; ISBN 0-8010-3391-8, ISBN 0-8010-3419-1, and ISBN 0-8010-3425-6.
DTM = Deuteronomy by Thomas W. Mann; published 1995 by Westminster John Knox Press in Louisville, KY.
EBKN = The English Bible From KJV to NIV, A History and Evaluation With Indexes by Jack P. Lewis; published 1982 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids.
FSUB = Figures of Speech Used in the Bible Explained and Illustrated by E.W. Bullinger; published 1986 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids.
HBH = Halley's Bible Handbook by Henry H. Halley; published 1964 by The Grason Company in Minneapolis.
IATC = Inerrancy and the Church, edited by John D. Hannah; published 1984 by Moody Press in Chicago.
IBE = Idioms in the Bible Explained and A Key to the Original Gospel by George M. Lamsa; published 1985 by Harper & Row in San Francisco.
IFB = 10,000 Illustrations from the Bible by Charles E. Little; published 1983 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids.
JFBC = "The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary", The Bethany Parallel Commentary; published 1983, 1985 in two volumes by Bethany House Publishers in Minneapolis; ISBN 0-87123-617-6 and ISBN 0-87123-474-2.
KD = Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes By C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch; published 1986 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company in Grand Rapids.
MHC = "Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible", The Bethany Parallel Commentary; published 1983, 1985 in two volumes by Bethany House Publishers in Minneapolis; ISBN 0-87123-617-6 and ISBN 0-87123-474-2.
NCBD = The New Compact Bible Dictionary, edited by T. Alton Bryant; published 1967 by The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis.
NCDB = The NIV Compact Dictionary of the Bible, edited by J.D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney; published 1989 by Zondervan Publishing House in Grand Rapids.
NIDCC = The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by J.D. Douglas; published 1978 by Zondervan Publishing House in Grand Rapids.
OSED = Origins, A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge; published (undated) by Greenwich House in New York.
PBI = Protestant Biblical Interpretation, A Textbook of Hermeneutics by Bernard Ramm; published 1986 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids.
STB = Systematic Theology by L. Berkof; published 1981 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids.
STRG = Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong; published 1991 by World Bible Publishers in Iowa Falls, IA; ISBN 0-529-06679-3.
TBA = The Bible Almanac, edited by James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney, and William White, Jr.; published 1980 by Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville.
TCHJ = They Call Him Junior by Junior Hill; published 2005 by JHI Publishers in Hartselle, AL; ISBN 0-925515-62-3.
TSK = The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Introduction by R.A. Torrey; published (undated) by Barbour and Company in Westwood, NJ.
TWTG = The Way To God And How To Find It by D.L. Moody; published (undated) by F.H. Revell in Chicago.
WBH = The Word Bible Handbook by Lawrence O. Richards; published 1982 by Word Books in Waco, TX.
WDBT = Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types by Walter Lewis Wilson; published 1985 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids.
WEUD = Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language; published 1989 by Gramercy Books in New York.
WOTRS = Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories by Wilfred Funk; published 1978 by Bell Publishing Company in New York.
WTB = The Word Topical Bible of Issues and Answers by William Pinson; published 1981 by Word Books in Waco, TX.
WSKI = What You Should Know About Inerrancy by Charles C. Ryrie; published 1981 by Moody Press in Chicago.
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Who I Am
It's always difficult to set forth one's qualifications to be heard. No matter what you say, it always sounds like you're bragging.
Even the well-known evangelist, Junior Hill, writes, "Because we all have a depraved and self-exalting nature, few among us are ever immune from that insidious propensity to boasting and self glory. And some time it befalls us even when we are unaware of our words." (TCHJ - p.228).
So, if any of this sounds like bragging, please forgive me and just note my struggle with the words.
My name is Dave Johnson. I'm 60 years old (as of 2005/09/29). My wife, Heather, and I live in Glenview, Illinois and attend the Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Our second church, where we can rarely physically attend, but often visit online, is the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida.
Our son and his wife live in Kenosha, Wisconsin and attend the Calvary Memorial Church in Racine. Our daughter and her husband live in Falls Church, Virginia and attend the First Baptist Church of Alexandria.
I was saved at Moody Memorial Church in Chicago on December 25, 1967. Although I do hold a 1982 Certificate of Graduation from Moody Bible Institute, I'm mostly a self-taught amateur theologian.
But I use "amateur" as Webster first defines it, "a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons", instead of as in the alternate definition, "diletante, tyro, novice" (WEUD - p.45).
"Amateur" comes from the Latin "amator" (a lover) (OSED - p.14). "You may remember in your introduction to Latin that you had to conjugate the word 'love' as amo, amas, amat". (WOTRS - p.312). I love the study of God and all of His Ways. Hence, I'm an "amateur theologian".
I'm the author of the Scripture index for Baker's Bible Atlas (Revised Edition, 19th Printing and following). (BBA - pp.341-347).
I also hold a 1975 BS in Electrical Engineering and Environmental Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a 1977 MBA in Accounting also from IIT, and a 2002 MS in Computer Science from Northeastern Illinois University.
I believe in Lifelong Learning: I'm currently enrolled at Pennsylvania State University working towards a Masters in Geographical Information Systems. I'm also taking a course in Spanish at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois.
In 1997, I retired from my position as a Senior Electrical Engineer after 27 years of service with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. I'm currently Senior Public Service Administrator for End-User Computer Support at the State of Illinois' James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. I also own and operate BDS Software, a computer consulting firm which has Maine Township, Illinois as its primary client.
I chose the name "BDS" back in 1986 as an abbreviation for "Bible Disk Software". BDS got its start publishing the King James Version of the Bible as as set of plain text files on forty 180Kb 5.25" floppy disks for the Radio Shack Color Computer (CoCo). Bible software has come a long way since then. But, at the time, BDS Software was the only source for the full KJV specifically for the CoCo.
I'm also currently serving a four year elected term as a Glenview Public Library Trustee, and a four year appointed term as Chairman of the Maine Township Planning Commission.
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What I Believe
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible:
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds;
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father,
by Whom all things were made:
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and became
man.
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man:
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was
buried:
And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures:
And ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father:
And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead:
Whose Kingdom will have no end:
And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
Who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son]
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
Who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe in One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look for the Resurrection of the Dead:
And the Life of the world to come. Amen.
The Nicene Creed
Traditional (from The Book of Common Prayer)
With respect to Eschatology, I hold to the premillenial, post-tribulation rapture of the church at the Second Coming of Christ to establish His Kingdom.
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My View of Scripture
I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God; and the sole authority for faith and practice, cf. II Timothy 3:16.
With Charles C. Ryrie, "I believe in the verbal, plenary, infallible, unlimited inerrancy of the Bible." (WSKI - p.17)
Verbal: I hold that, in the original autographs, the very words (not just the thoughts) were breathed-out by God through the human authors, cf. II Peter 1:20,21.
Plenary: I believe that, in the original autographs, every single word, every jot, every tittle was inspired by God, cf. Matthew 5:18.
Infallible: I also affirm that, in the original autographs, the words were precisely the ones God wanted in the text. Every word is authoritative.
Inerrancy: I believe that every word in the original autographs was transmitted by God through the human writers without error. Not one typographical error was made by any of the original human authors.
Unlimited Inerrancy: I further hold that, in the original autographs, the veracity of the Bible is not limited to spiritual subjects: Everything it has to say about science, history, geneology, etc. is also completely without error. Where secular scholarship conflicts with biblical pronouncements, we should work to harmonize the two by beginning from the position that what the Bible says is truth.
And, finally, it's my position that such errors as have crept into our scriptures over the centuries through copying and translation, are minor in nature (i.e. not affecting any major doctrines) and are amenable to resolution via comparison of manuscripts and other evidences.
And I believe God has allowed those errors to creep in for reasons of His own, included in which may be the need to save us from bibliolatry.
To God be the glory!
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