Bible Framework Ministries
Thank you for your support of this ministry through your prayers and gifts!
Many months have elapsed since the previous newsletter was sent out to our faithful supporters like you last Fall. Several things conspired to cause this delay. A big delay was caused by corruption of our mailing software. Finally, a gracious lady in my church who operates her home business service helped us diagnose the problem. Another complicating factor has been the need to visit a number of medical personnel for half-a-dozen ailments. Growing old as many of you have found out can be challenging. We need to focus on the Lord’s stunning promise of the resurrection and His accomplishment of its first installment in the Son of God.
New Upgrade Effort
Our last newsletter recounted how effective the Framework is as a tool for us to tackle life’s problems. With only two semesters in studying the Christian Framework my students at Chafer Seminary demonstrated it gave them a tool to successfully apply Bible doctrine to major challenges they faced in trying to live out the Christian life in our present post-Christian culture.
I listed some of their term paper topics and their comments on the benefits the Framework was to them. I am trusting the Lord to help me and our staff upgrade our two websites: the Framework itself (Bible Framework Ministries) and our annotated list of sources to help you build your faith, Bible Framework Applied.
For this newsletter we are going to show you the new upgraded “4-Layer Cake” tool to map the thought process that every person uses whether conscious of it or not. By thinking through the four layers, we can evaluate our own reasoning as well as that of others.
On either side of the diagram notice the arrows. The arrow on the left side of the diagram points upward. This is the logical sequence of the four layers. First at the lowest level is “metaphysics,” a scholarly term for one’s view of reality.
For example, the biblical view of reality is the view we get from reading Genesis 1–3. If we construct our view of reality from Genesis 1–3 we believe in the Creator-creature distinction. We believe that man and nature are creatures who are finite and therefore lack the divine attributes such as omniscience, omnipotence, perfect justice, and love.
We believe that man is distinct from nature. Instead of being an animal, man is made in God’s image and therefore can understand God’s revelation—both His “silent” non-verbal revelation through the structure of man’s environment and His “verbal” revelation given through His prophets in human language, which call the Word of God.
At Chafer Seminary I used the term Rnvv for His non-verbal relation and the term Rv for His verbal revelation. History in this view is the playing out of God’s “show-and-tell” revelation to mankind. As Triune in nature, the Creator for all eternity has enjoyed personal eternal relationships among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The next layer above one’s view of reality is “epistemology,” a scholarly term for one’s view of truth. How do you know something is true?
For example, the biblical view of truth follows from the Creator-creature distinction. The standard of truth for a Bible-believing Christian is Rv—the Creator’s verbal revelation, i.e., the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. That is the final court of appeal. No matter how brilliant a preacher, speaker, lawyer, politician, teacher, or acquaintance is, their assertions must conform to biblical revelation. Put another way, biblical truth is an absolute or transcendental standard for every situation in life.
The next layer above is one’s view of “ethics,” a term for one’s view of right and wrong or standard of justice that follows from the revealed truth of the Word of God that is directly stated such as the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21) and inferred from statements made by New Testament authors to the early churches.
Finally, the fourth layer at the top of the chart is “discourse and law” that permeate the discussions of the legislative and judicial functions of government. Here is the absolute or transcendent standard that rests upon the lower three layers of the “cake” chart. Laws set the foundation of human government installed at Genesis 9:56 and Romans 13:1–4.
The figures at the bottom of the chart point to the innate sense of deity that every person has according to Paul in Romans 1:18–2:16, a universal knowledge of God in every human creature. This sense of deity is included in our creation in the image of God. Since the Fall in Genesis 3, however, we all, prior to belief, suppress it like Adam and Eve after they sinned and fled from God’s presence.
The upward pointing arrow on the left side shows how each layer logically rests on the one below it. The downward pointing arrow on the right side guides us in understanding why people talk about life situations like they do, whether or not they are conscious of the layers they are standing on.
When, for example, people insist that the best kind of society is a democracy where all opinions and laws are equally valid, they have suppressed or forgotten the Creator-creature distinction. Actually, the best kind of society is a constitutional republic like our Founding Fathers established under the influence of biblical ideas that had spread throughout northern Europe. Thankfully, Martin Luther insisted that the Bible should be translated from the Latin “scholarly” language into the vernacular languages of Europe. Now common people could read God’s truth in their own language that rested on the metaphysical Creator-creature distinction.
Thus, in our Declaration of Independence (1776) we read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are CREATED EQUAL, that they are ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS . . .”
Let this brief summary be an encouragement in sharing the gospel with stubborn unbelievers, especially those in your own family. Use the “4-Layer Cake” to become conscious of your own thinking process and that of those you dialog with.
Please continue to pray for the massive work ahead to improve the Bible Framework, for the folks “working behind the scenes” to keep this ministry going by adding the upgrades to the BFM website.
Bible Framework Web (in)sites
The Framework at Fifty
Did you know that the theme for the 2025 Chafer Seminary Bible Conference was The Framework at Fifty? The conference began with Charles talking about why he began developing the Biblical Framework approach as he saw a need amongst the university students to deal not only with the parts of the Scriptures, but how those parts fit together or interlocked as a whole.
The speakers for the Chafer Conference highlighted the Framework’s impact on their lives and ministries throughout the world and emphasized why YOU should be learning and applying the Framework method to your worldview.
All the available videos, audio files, papers, and presentations can be found on the Bible Framework Applied website by clicking here.
Need an Easy Way to Access all the Bible Framework Media?
While you can still order CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and Flash drives for free from the Bible Framework and Bible Framework Applied websites, we also have free downloads of the entire Bible Framework course and associated Bible Framework Applied materials available on their respective websites. The downloadable 4.7 GB Bible Framework ZIP file includes all of the content included on the Bible Framework Flash drive. If you’d like the media from the Bible Framework Applied website, you can download all of the series from that website in a single 6.9 GB ZIP file.
What a great way to quickly access the Bible teaching of Charles Clough and include it on whatever device(s) you use to study God’s Word. It’s also a convenient way to pass these studies on to a friend by copying the ZIP file to a Flash drive and handing it off to a friend.
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