MARCH 2025

        YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!
On March 28th and 29th Bethel Baptist Church will host the Reclaiming the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Conference. This conference will be an in-depth look into God’s Word as it pertains to supernatural and spiritual realities. The Conference will begin on Friday night at 6:00PM. We will have 3 sessions on Friday night. The Conference will resume Saturday morning at 9:00AM. We will have 4 sessions on Saturday morning. This conference will be an intense time of study, learning, and discussion. You will see biblical truths you have never seen before in God’s Word. You will learn truths that will help you not only understand God’s Word more fully but will explain the motivations behind many current events.
Rudolf Bultmann was a prominent German theologian in the Twentieth Century. Although Bultmann was a critic of theological liberalism, ironically, he ultimately ended up in the same place as many of the theological liberals of his day: heresy! Bultmann is famous for his demythologizing approach to Scripture. He felt like many of the miraculous, supernatural stories in the Bible were made up by the early church. Such supernatural, miraculous stories are not consistent with modern man’s worldview dependent upon science and reason, according to Bultmann. Obviously, Bultmann was a product of the Enlightenment. He taught that the ultimate truth of Scripture, the kernel, was enwrapped in a husk of myth. Thus, to get to the kernel of biblical truth, the interpreter had to remove the husk of myth—thus demythologizing Scripture. This belief led Bultmann to reject much of Scripture, especially the supernatural portions.
Most Evangelicals would reject Bultmann and label demythologizing Scripture very problematic, if not outright heretical. Rightfully so. However, the hangover of Bultmann still exists in many Evangelical circles. Ironically, a growing trend among Evangelicals, seems to be an inherent reticence towards supernatural interpretations of many passages in Scripture. Although the motivation may not be articulated explicitly, the desire for credibility within the secular academy has led many Evangelical scholars to buffet their interpretations by modern scientific and rational limits. Such practice has led to a rejection of the clear reading of Scripture in many instances. Talk of Nephilim, demonic possession, and the like is often rejected out of hand by scholars and pastors alike. Seeking to understand the worldview of the biblical writers finds little acceptance and welcome in many pulpits; as a desire for life-application has eroded any interest in original, historical context. As a result, many people in church today have a completely individualized, pragmatic view of Christianity. In addition, many Christians in church today have no concept of the metanarrative of Scripture.  This approach will never sustain church growth and personal sanctification in an increasingly hostile environment.
Reclaiming the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Conference seeks to push back on the tendency to reject supernatural, spiritual interpretations of a plain reading of Scripture. The conference will set forth the historical and literary context of the Bible as the primary guiding principle for biblical hermeneutics. Thus, as I have stated numerous times, a historical-grammatical, redemptive, typological hermeneutic is needed to fully understand and appreciate God’s great redemptive plan for history.

-Pastor Clint Miller