Hi! I'm new to using the more advanced parts of Logos. I need to search through passages where 'fire' (or perhaps'burning' as well) relates to people. Is there a way to do this? Just searching for the terms gives me a huge list...
Thanks!
Hi Matthew
Does the search below give you what you are looking for?
Graham
Thanks Graham, I had no tried the brackets. It's for an essay regarding annihilationism...
Thanks again
Another useful search might be hell NEAR literal. (EDIT: I just realized perhaps you were looking to locate passages in the Bible not in general in your entire library. My suggestion applies to a Basic search in your Entire Library, to find what theologians have written about the fires of hell, and they will refer you to Scripture passages which might not mention fire or burning or people explicitly but still might be relevant. You might also want to search for annihilationism itself, if you haven't already -- you probably have.)
Thanks for your suggestions Rosie; what I'd really like to find is any passage/verse where fire relates to individuals or people but not destructively, if that makes sense. John Stott says fire means destruction not pain - I'm looking for the counter argument...
Graham I know the (fire, burning) NEAR people has to be TYPED IN THE SEARCH BOX just right to make it work, Is there a Wiki that will help me learn how to do this?
Thanks
Is there a Wiki that will help me learn how to do this?
Hi Sam
Have a look at http://wiki.logos.com/Search_HELP and http://wiki.logos.com/Detailed_Search_Help, particularly http://wiki.logos.com/Detailed_Search_Help#Using_parentheses
Thanks Graham that will work
It would be difficult to construct a search that would narrow down verses to ones that relate to people or individuals, because there are so many words that could be used to refer to people, including pronouns. Also constructing a search that would add the "but not destructively" element to it is probably too much to ask of a computer. You'll need to assess each verse on your own to decide whether it applies to individuals and whether it's destructive or not. However you could narrow down the search for verses about fire or burning to make sure they aren't just burning something in the here and now by including all the terms you can think of that refer to hell or punishment in the hereafter. Something like this might do the trick: (first make sure to set your search to do "Find all word forms")
(fire, burn) AND (hell, eternal, punish)
If you can think of any other terms to include on the right side, add them separated by commas inside the parentheses. In my TNIV this search finds 13 verses. That's not too many to go through manually and see if the burning has to do with destruction of people.
Also, check out these books:
I'm sure that between the two of those (or probably in either one) you'll find reference to all the possible verses you could line up for your defense of that position.
You might also want to take a look at this for a balanced view of both sides, to make sure you are adequately addressing all the arguments that Stott and others put forth for annihilationism. It's not in Logos, unfortunately:
Thanks Rosie. I guess I was trying to avoid the hard work[:)] I've got the Pink title you suggested so I'll look at that.
Hi Matthew -
I was looking for this a few weeks ago and found some great articles in the Journals...do you have the Theological Journals? Here's a link to one that was fairly good.
logosres:ert018;ref=Page.p_20
EDIT: Another great search is one of the entire library on annihiliationist "the love of God"
Blessings-
John
