Ninety-three years ago today, nine Black teenagers, “hoboing” on a freight train between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee, were attacked by a mob of white youths who strongly disapproved of their presence on “a white man’s train.” Thrown off it by their intended victims, the hooligans falsely reported to police in Paint Rock, Alabama, that the … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers, the Scottboro Boys, and me”
I recently acquired the new edition of Otis Q. Sellers’s 1961 booklet Christian Individualism: A Way of Life for the Active Believer in Jesus Christ (CI) which, to my surprise, I did not already own. [Learning of this gap in my collection, Sam Marrone, my friend and brother in Christ, graciously sent me a copy … Continue reading “When Otis Q. Sellers Invoked Ayn Rand: More on Christian Individualism”
[See Part I, and Part II for notes documenting points this three-part dogmatic summary makes. It was written for those interested in “the big picture” whose details are found in previous posts.—A.G.F.] “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together . . . .” Isaiah 40:6 All … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers’s Ecclesiology and Eschatology: An Overview, Part III”
[This brief series began in Part I. Readers should consult the notes for links to posts that document many of my dogmatic assertions.—A.G.F.] Otis Q. Sellers’s work was effectively, although not explicitly, rooted in sola Scriptura. It was his presupposition. No alternative view of Scripture attracted him. A possible reason why he never referred to … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers’s Ecclesiology and Eschatology: An Overview, Part II”
Otis Quinter Sellers (1901-1992) was a lifelong Bible student and, for his last sixty years, an independent Bible teacher. My work on his life, a work-in-progress since 2017, will introduce you to his teachings, which he never systematized, and to as much of his life as I’ve been able to uncover. Sellers didn’t see his … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers’s Ecclesiology and Eschatology: An Overview, Part I”
Otis Q. Sellers rarely wrote about hermeneutics, but presupposed there are such things as the “facts of Scripture,” data or “givens” one must first observe and then interpret accurately.[1] By accurately, Sellers meant historically and grammatically, following the precept of Myles Coverdale (1488-1569): It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers and the “Facts of Scripture”: The Primacy of Historical and Grammatical Interpretation”
Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 Centuries before Jesus told His disciples (almost certainly in Aramaic) that he would build of himself his ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia),[1] that word was familiar to Hellenophone Israelites exiled in Alexandria, for they used the Septuagint (hereafter, LXX), a third-century BC Greek translation of … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 6: the Kingdom (governmental) significance of qahal and ekklēsia”
Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 No doubt you’ve heard the infamous loaded question, “When did you stop beating your wife,” which presupposes that the one being asked (a) has a wife, (b) has been beating her, and (c) stopped. One cannot answer it without implicitly subscribing to all three. … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 5: Bypassing the loaded question”
Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 When Jesus came to Cesarea Phillipi with His twelve disciples (μαθητaς, mathētas) (which included Judas), whom He named apostles (ἀποστόλου ὠνόμασεν, apostolous ōnomasen (Luke 6:13), He first asked them, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? (Matthew 16:13), and they gave various answers. … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 4: The Rock and His Substance”
Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2. To summarize Otis Q. Sellers’s teaching on ekklēsia presented so far in this series, “by the rule of usage in the New Testament,” καλέω (kaleō) means “to position, to appoint, to place, to name, or to designate.” These terms are synonymous, “agreeing in the sense of declaring a … Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 3: to have a position out of Christ is the status of individuals first, then of their societies.”
