Works & Methodology

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The following overview lists all works elaborated by this ministry in the years from 2012 until 2022. All works are being constantly updated and perfected.

  1. Blog (2019-2023)
  2. Books  ·  300 Christian Books (2020-23)
  3. Discernment  ·  Books & Authors (2022-23)
  4. Discernment  ·  False Teachers  ·  Identification (2021)
  5. Discernment  ·  False Teachers  ·  The List (2021-23)
  6. Discernment  ·  False Teachers  ·  Types (2021)
  7. Discernment  ·  Movies & Actors (2022)
  8. Discernment  ·  Music (2022)
  9. Map  ·  Interactive Bible Map at Google Maps (2021-23)
  10. Movies  ·  300 Christian Movies (2019-23)
  11. Movies  ·  Free Movies (2022)
  12. Music  ·  300 Christian Songs (2019-23)
  13. Music  ·  Hymns (2020)
  14. Music  ·  Instrumentals (2020)
  15. Music  ·  Lyric Videos (Animated) (2019)
  16. Music  ·  Lyrics Videos (Live Videos) (2019)
  17. Music  ·  Song Stories (2019)
  18. Music  ·  Videos (2019)
  19. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Canon (2022)
  20. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Non-canonical Writings (2021)
  21. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Non-canonical  ·  Enoch Debunked (2021)
  22. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Non-canonical  ·  Jubilees Debunked (2021)
  23. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Presentation (2020)
  24. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Presentation (Spanish) (2012)
  25. Studies  ·  Bible  ·  Septuagint (2021-23)
  26. Studies  ·  Christ's Death & Resurrection  ·  Study (2021-23)
  27. Studies  ·  Christ's Death & Resurrection  ·  The Year (2022, not published)
  28. Studies  ·  Church History (2021)
  29. Studies  ·  Creation  ·  Chart (2022) 
  30. Studies  ·  Creation  ·  Study (2021-23)
  31. Studies  ·  Creation  ·  Historical Adams (2022)
  32. Studies  ·  Eden (2021)
  33. Studies  ·  End Times  ·  Study (2021-23)
  34. Studies  ·  End Times  ·  Book of Daniel (2022)
  35. Studies  ·  Flood of Noah  ·  Study (2021-22)
  36. Studies  ·  Flood of Noah  ·  Chronology (2021-22)
  37. Studies  ·  Genealogies  ·  Chart (2021-23)
  38. Studies  ·  Genealogies  ·  Study (2021-23)
  39. Studies  ·  God's Communication With Us (2021)
  40. Studies  ·  Laws of God  ·  Study (2019-23)
  41. Studies  ·  Laws of God  ·  Comparison (2021)
  42. Studies  ·  Numerologies (2022)
  43. Studies  ·  One Anothering (2021)
  44. Studies  ·  Promises (2020)
  45. Studies  ·  Prophecies (2021)
  46. Studies  ·  Sabbaths  ·  Study (2021-23)
  47. Studies  ·  Sabbaths  ·  Verse-by-Verse (2021)
  48. Studies  ·  Salvation  ·  Study (2021-23)
  49. Studies  ·  Salvation  ·  Chart (2021)
  50. Studies  ·  Salvation  ·  Once Saved Always Saved? (2022-23)
  51. Studies  ·  Spiritual Gifts  ·  Study (2020-23)
  52. Studies  ·  Spiritual Gifts  ·  Continuationism vs. Cessationism (2022-23)
  53. Studies  ·  Symbolism (2021)
  54. Studies  ·  Theophanies (2021)
  55. Studies  ·  Timeline  ·  Study (2020)
  56. Studies  ·  Timeline  ·  Chart (2021)
  57. Studies  ·  Trinity  ·  Study (2020)
  58. Studies  ·  Trinity  ·  Divine & Human Beings (2022)
  59. Studies  ·  Trinity  ·  Chart of 'gods' references (2023)
  60. Studies  ·  Virtues & Vices (2020)
  61. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Abortion (2021)
  62. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Alcohol (2021)
  63. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Baptism (2021)
  64. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Clothing (2021)
  65. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Communion (2021)
  66. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Fasting (2021)
  67. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Food (2021)
  68. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Giving vs. Tithing (2021)
  69. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Hair & Head Covering (2022)
  70. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Homosexuality (2021)
  71. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Marriage & Divorce (2021-23)
  72. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Predestination & Free Will (2021-23)
  73. Studies  ·  Topics  ·  Sexual Discipline(s) (2022-23)
  74. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Anger (2021)
  75. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Discipline (2021)
  76. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Faith (2021)
  77. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Gospel (2022)
  78. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Heavens (2022)
  79. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Kingdom of God / Heaven (2021)
  80. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Love (2021)
  81. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Religion (2021)
  82. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Tongue (2021)
  83. Studies  ·  Words  ·  Works of Faith vs. Law (2021-22)

Methodology 

1. The author of this ministry is not part of any denomination, what provides an added value to this ministry - not only resulting in independent Bible studies but especially allowing unbiased discernment. He has regularly attended or held membership in independent, Evangelical Free, Mennonite and even Reformed churches in Germany, Colombia and Canada. The overall result is a traditionally minded Christian who is pro-church but not associated with any particular denomination. He is grateful for this diversity of training and experience, that helped him to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of various Christian traditions.

2. Do not be afraid of colours. While black & white is still the (moderately attractive) norm today, not even the biblical scrolls had been black & white. The background used by this ministry symbolizes the royal colour and the comfortably readable white letters symbolize purity, enriched by gold to underline important aspects and by red & green to further highlight and / or contrast aspects between good & evil or between Old & New Covenant. The author intentionally prioritizes a quick optical surveying over a common limitation to not use more than 2 colours in professional documents.

3. While Jews are overzealous in not even pronouncing the name of God, we have even lost the basic respect by writing 'He', 'His' and 'Him' in lower case. This is comfortable for translators as it avoids many decisions e.g. in the book of Revelation - if it is now 'he' (anyone) or 'He' (Jesus Christ) who stomps the winepress. All articles of this ministry are now reflected with capital letters, in order to avoid a decrease in perceived holiness. Every Bible translator should urgently do the same and not shy away from some difficult calls. Other capitalizations are seen through the words 'Gospel', 'Heaven', 'Kingdom', 'Scripture' and a few other important concepts of the Bible such as His 'Second Coming'.

4. 99% of ministers do not only use black & white, but also the 'Word' style. Now 'Excel' was and is essential for this ministry and I would warmly recommend it to any other minister of Christ. Firstly, it is much more readable, because it avoids long lines, breaks those into easier readable blocks and simply refreshes the mind of the reader. Secondly, it is the key for best organizing complex biblical structures / combinations of Bible verses.

5. If the author would have used 'Word' for Bible studies, those studies would surely be more rudimentary in its theological content and would require easily 50 - 150 % more descriptive words. The 'Excel' style helps enormously to keep things short, while the 'Word' style often stretches the patience of the reader, especially in times of Youtube or Netflix, where a believer rather watches a 3-hour movie than reading through lengthy articles. I can also not avoid this dilemma, but offer a bridge between the Youtube generation and the lengthy 'Word' articles, while compacting the information, injecting as many Bible verses as possible and organizing them with only a few own words / interpretations / conclusions.

6. You will not find the usual combination of 95 - 99% of scholarly interpretation, decorated with 1 - 5 % of Bible verses. We have become way too intellectual and assume in unwritten rules that a churchgoer is bored if we use more than 5 Bible verses in a sermon or an article. But this is surely not the methodology of the First Century Christians nor of Christ and His Apostles. We have to go back to the roots and let Scripture speak more than our own intellect and eloquence. We commonly love to hear us speaking, but real love is to hear God speaking.

7. All Bible verses are hyperlinked and readable in context. For reasons of space and streamlined readability, parts of Bible verses not relevant for the respective subject are often shortened by '[...]', or by '...' at the beginning or end of Bible verses. All verses are written in italic words, while comments of this author are inserted by '[comment]' in standard letters (similar principle as Amplified Bible).

8. Bibles texts used for this ministry: the unsurpassed Apostolic Bible Polyglot (ABR:Septuagint - for own research), the very nuanced J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible (EBR:Masoretic - for own research; one of the most accurate English translations available today), the Lexham Bible (LEB:Masoretic - for published studies), plus tools such as Logos, StudyLight and e-Sword including the very important Strong's dictionary.

9. All Bible studies are not dated, but constantly being updated. The aim of this ministry is not to throw out a schedule of a certain amount of studies per year and to differentiate between older and newer studies, but to have a solid stock of a limited amount of principle Bible topics and perfect those over the years as ultimate resource for other teachers. When believers and scholars fall into the habit of constantly needing something new very fast, it results in moderately researched or incomplete works, and ultimately into cherry-picking Bible verses and falling for certain tendencies such as 'Belief Only', 'Grace Only' or 'Once Saved Always Saved'. If we would take more time for investigation and rather teach the full picture of the Word, then we would also leave less leverage for false teachers. Instead, a hastily preached and often selective Gospel enables false teachers to go one step further and to preach in even more unbalanced ways.

10. The author of this ministry does -not- focus on extrabiblical and historical sources as so often done in order to offer 'special' information. He adds those in some cases, but focuses primarily on the Word itself. We have to be aware of the fact that quoting history and / or historians opens the gate for every kind of false teaching (as perfectly seen in topics such as the Sabbaths or Divorce), because we can find a historian for nearly every theology we want to propagate. This would not be such a problem if we would only use reliable historians. But this is definitely not the case as perfectly seen by the common use e.g. of the church father 'Origen' by renowned scholars, while Origen is a heretic of the worst kind (universalist, probably self-castrated, catholic et al.). See also the study on the Biblical Canon for a basic differentiation of reliable historians. At the end of the day we have to go back to the Word and avoid extrabiblical sources - what is possible in the vast majority of Bible studies.

11. All works listed above are created by Thomas Lorenz. The author is not responsible nor liable for linked content and does not always agree with the overall theology of those sources. This should especially be apparent in the Discernment of Problematic Teachers, where more than 3000 references surely will include some discernment ministers he would agree with on the respective discernment, but not on their overall work.

Fair Use Notice

This website -especially the section 'Discernment'- contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, religious, and 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in the respective copyright laws. The material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.