Everything we do at JC Studies has your personal good and public good works in mind, for the sake of the Kingdom! Thank you for your support. Our doors are open and we meet new people every week because of generous haverim like you.

I’m thrilled to finally be in a position to financially support this ministry. It’s meant a lot to me over these last couple of years, but times have been challenging. I feel these teachings are part of my future ministry in helping to disciple others. – J.Z.

The Perils of Reductionism

To understand something complex, you can examine the individual parts and how they work together. My wife makes amazing homemade sourdough bread. Our family, friends, and guests enjoy eating it. The more we learn about the intricacies of making sourdough, the more we appreciate each bite.

Once the bread has baked and filled the house with its tempting aroma, the loaves have to cool for an hour. The running joke is how I complain while waiting for a slice. The “grumbling” evoked by my exclusive focus on getting a taste is a type of reductionism. The time-tested adage is that “I am losing the forest” (the effort and process), “for the trees.”

Reductionism focuses on a part without returning it to its context to better understand the whole. Reductionism takes a component of something and over-exaggerates its significance. If we’re being honest, it happens regularly in relationships. We each have the proven capacity to obsess on the fault of another until it becomes their defining characteristic.

That is the divisive work of the father of lies, the enemy of everything good, noble, and true.

This insidious reductionist spirit is constantly at work against clear headed biblical thinking. One example is the tendency to think of salvation as going to heaven when we die. Is it true? Yes. But please note the Bible describes heaven as God’s expansive space; it never references chubby cherubs sitting on clouds strumming lutes. Far from it.

Is going to God when we die the holistic biblical picture of salvation? No way! It is but a part of a glorious whole which includes the here and now.

The Awe-inspiring Wonder of Expansionism

I am coining the term expansionism to match a biblical reality; each detail of creation and covenant has ever-growing meaning and implications on its own. And each part fits marvelously back within the whole—which continues to expand, evoking prayer, praise, and thanksgiving: Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed (Rev 15:4).

The Testament-connecting teaching of Dwight Pryor exemplifies our expansionist approach. Here is an excerpt from the current Sabbath devotional email series, Being in Jesus: Our Life Between the Resurrections (jcstudies.com/articles).

“According to the apostolic witness of the New Testament, the resurrection is foundational to our faith. In my experience, it is, however, something that Christians seldom mention or think deeply about. We tend to put it exclusively in the category of ‘going to heaven.’ I want to explore what it means to be ‘in Jesus.’ To live like living stones, being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus the Messiah (1 Pet 2:5).”

Community News

• I encourage you to check out the ten-part video series at israelunfiltered.tv. In the ongoing cosmic battle against antisemitism, it is a solid resource.
• A longtime friend of JC Studies with typesetting expertise is helping me format Dwight’s material on the Psalms of Ascent. This is the legacy book project I mentioned in my 2024 year-end letter.
• Listen to a new teaching each month from the Book of Acts featuring Tom Guilliams here at JC Studies and on Spotify.
• Click here to read Doug Ward’s excellent article accompanying this newsletter.