Grace Teaches Change

In light of the comment thread that has appeared under one of my previous posts on love I thought the following section from Titus was rather applicable. Paul writes:

‘For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.’ Titus 2:11-14 (NIV)

So Paul then sees a didactic element to the cross of Christ in that it ‘teaches’ us to change from our former ways. The grace displayed in the cross becomes not only the means by which people are reconciled to God it also becomes the means whereby the individual is transformed into the likeness of Christ as he/she grows in Christian maturity. The gospel teaches godliness.

Emo Elmo

I stole this from a friend’s Facebook profile – I couldn’t resist – I’m sure she won’t mind. Now enjoy with me…

Right Investment

Here’s a profound little comment that one of my pastors made on Sunday night:

“Invest now in the world to come“

Simple yet amazingly profound in light of some of the current debates don’t you think?

Further Reflections on Love – The Loveless Church

I’ve spent the best part of the last 8 years moving in conservative evangelical church circles. The majority of the churches I’ve been involved with have been churches where the gospel of Christ is central not just in belief but also in proclamation. Whilst moving in these circles I’ve also often heard a repetitive criticism attached to them. I’ve heard many people complain that these ‘bible-based, gospel-centered’ churches are great on a lot of things but not great at being loving. My immediate response has often been to suggest that person offering the critique doesn’t really understand what biblical love is and that by preaching the gospel we are showing the utmost love. Often my response was justified. But often it wasn’t and the criticism was valid. It is not completely unfair to evaluate a number of the churches with which I am associated as being un-loving, or at least poor at displaying love.

This is a perplexing problem for someone like myself who holds to the absolute importance of gospel-centered bible teaching as the very core of the church life. Why doesn’t it seem to be working in some cases? Well I don’t have all the answers to a question like that, but I have noticed something that I think is contributing in part. I think that often we’re being reductionistic about the call placed upon every believer by the bible itself. Let me quote a section from Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ book, ‘Total Church‘ to illustrate what I mean. Concerning ministry to the poor the authors comment:

“The most loving thing we can do for the poor is proclaim the good news of eternal salvation through Christ. It is by no means the only loving thing we can do for them, but it is the most loving thing we can do.” (p.75)

Often I think we’re forgetting to add in their little qualification ‘it is by no means the ONLY loving thing we can do…’ And forgetting that qualification can make the world of difference to whether or not a church is loving. So I still affirm, with the authors, that to proclaim the gospel is the single most loving act we can perform as Christians – BUT – its definitely not the ONLY one. We need to shake off that reductionism and teach regularly how the gospel causes us to love in a number of different ways. And then we need to display that true love to a watching world.

Tired of Debating, Craving Love

As I hit the ‘publish’ button for my previous post I immediately had mixed feelings. On the one hand I’m eager to learn and debating on forums is one way to sharpen your thinking on a specific issue – especially when you have to defend your own opinion against criticism. At the same time though I just felt terribly tired and worn out from replying to comment threads on this blog and trying to faithfully provide answers to questions with the utmost integrity and in such a way that the God of the bible is glorified. It is exhausting.

And then I go to college and sit in a class discussing the finer details of advanced Greek exegesis and its fascinating, and I’m convinced that it is thoroughly important that regular bible teachers invest time in the discipline. Yet at the same time again it just feels so far removed from showing a selfless act of love to a homeless man or any other act of true godliness. And so I’m forced to ask myself a question: What, as Christians, are we really about at the end of the day? The proper answer is simple I think, “Love God and love people.”

And so it just struck me that as I enter into debates, as  I discuss issues and as I explore the finer details of Greek exegesis I’m doing it all for one goal – love – love for God and love for people. If I lose that goal I lose everything. We ought to crave it daily – it ought to be what motivates me to debate with integrity on this blog and to spend painful hours in the Greek text trying to figure out what its actually saying. Those things however are not the goals – love is.

If you find yourself existentially removed from this love yet completely absorbed in all the technicalities of the periphery, as I find myself sometimes, then stop, step back and let a simple reading of the text remind you of the love of our God in Christ Jesus – crave that love and don’t proceed without it.

Can you Defend Contextualization Exegetically? An Open Forum

Here’s a post by Gordon Cheng that suggests that Paul’s address to the Athenians in Acts 17 doesn’t really advocate contextualization (be sure to read the comments). What do you think?

As for me, you’ll know if you read this blog that I’m a bit more in the contextualization camp – but in terms of defending my position exegetically (defend from scripture – sorry for the jargon) I need to give it a bit more thought.

Alright peeps – your turn (and remember no essay length comments!)…

This is so exciting…

Tim Chester on the Kingdom of God

As always Tim Chester is extremely helpful on something I’ve been trying to get my head around. In chapter 5 of ‘Good News to the Poor‘, Chester discusses the relationship between social involvement and the kingdom of God. One of the fundamental questions he tackles is whether or not the kingdom of God is to be identified with social advances within history. Chester argues that no, it shouldn’t be. And so he says:

“…if we are to be true to the bible, we must maintain that salvation does not exist in history beyond the church and that in the New Testament the kingdom of God comes only as Christ is acknowledged as king.” (p.74)

Much of social advancement today is being tagged as God at work growing his kingdom. Like Chester I’m not convinced this is the most helpful way to categorize it – nor do I think it is consistent with the New Testament. If the kingdom is to be manifest then Christ is to be installed as King – without the King there is no kingdom. I would argue, as Chester alludes to later, that social advancement in this world that takes place apart from Christ being acknowledged as King is rather a case of the common grace of God being manifest.

Now this thinking might run contrary to lot of thinking in ‘missional’ circles – even in evangelical missional circles (that’s why in one sense I’m glad Tim Chester, a recognized missional voice, said it first). However at the moment I remain unconvinced by the text of accepting a wider view of the kingdom that embraces social advancement that takes place apart from the acknowledgment of Christ as King. I would maybe suggest that the ethics and ideals of the kingdom of God can be spread into areas that may not necessarily have entered into the kingdom. This will happen as kingdom members – Christians – live out the kingdom within close proximity of those who are outside of the kingdom. I think this spread is unavoidable, in a theoretical sense, since all Christians are called to live by kingdom ideals and ethics.

Chester concludes the chapter with the following words:

“Some Christians see advances in social justice in history as the coming of God’s kingdom, but in the New Testament the kingdom comes through the gospel as people submit to God’s word. God’s kingdom will be supreme over all things when Christ returns, but in the meantime it comes secretly and graciously through God’s word. The social dimension of salvation is anticipated in history in the life of the Christian community.” (p.81)

Harmon on New Testament Unity

Matt Harmon outlines 5 reasons in support of the theological unity of the New Testament documents. He also helpfully points to further reading on the subject.

Desiring the Missional Cold Turkey

Tomorrow I’m registering for what is probably my last year, for a long time, of formal studies. Its one more year of work stuck in the books before entering the world of full-time pastoring. Its a bit scary actually. I’ve become used to my books, I’ve become used to choosing when and where to preach and I’ve become used to hiding behind the fact that I’m currently in transit as an excuse for not being missional enough. All that ends at the end of this year – and all I’ll be left with is the missional cold turkey. The place where the rubber hits the road. Its the place where you have to learn things never taught at seminaries or bible colleges – things that really can’t be taught in those institutions, even the finest ones. Its the place where you can’t see what’s coming around the next corner.  Its the place where anxiety reaches heights you didn’t think possible.

But I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Being given the chance to live missionally and lead others in living missionally in such a way that God is glorified and Christ is exalted is just about as flippin’ exciting as it gets.

As the psalmist says, ‘Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart‘ (Ps. 37:4) – he really will.

Blomberg on Eschatology

Craig Blmoberg wrote this in his conclusion to a 1998 article in Themelios, entitled “Eschatology and the Church: Some New Testament Perspectives“

“It is precisely because we understand God’s plans to supernaturally transform our universe that we can function as little outposts of heaven to model his designs for the universe. We pray ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Mt. 6:10). A healthy understanding of the inaugurated eschatology of the NT will save us from the twin errors of a despair or defeatism that attempts to do nothing for this world but save souls from it and the currently more prominent mistake of replacing a hope for a supernaturally recreated universe with utopian socio-political programs for this world. Only God knows how much good we as Christians can bring about socially, politically, ethically, and ideologically in our world. We have seen in our time relatively peaceful revolutions in Europe and the former Soviet Union due in part at least to Christian intercession and non-violent action. It is not a little perverse when certain North American dispensationalists continue to see European unity as a sign of the fulfillment of prophecies in the book of Revelation of satanic activity.81 But euphoria over the collapse of the Iron Curtain quickly gave way to grief over mass genocide in Rwanda, a country boasting eighty percent of its population as professingly Christian! So, quickly on the heels of events seemingly influenced by the divine came the demonic again, and the tribalism that generated that African holocaust in less extreme ways tends to fragment our world on every continent at the end of this second Christian millennium, notwithstanding all attempts to create structures reflecting socio-political or even ecclesiastical unity.”

Idolatry in Noble Tasks

I think sometimes I get myself into some sort of internal conundrum trying to have a water-tight take on specific doctrines. I don’t think I’m trying to get all my important doctrines squared off into neat little boxes so that I can take the moral high-ground on everyone else and point fingers. That’s really not my intent. I think I quest more for neat formulas because I vest confidence in those formulas as I proceed in ministry and life.

So for example, at the moment I’m frantically scratching my head over the doctrine of the church. There are a number of loose ends that I’d love to see neatly tied up. Why? So that I can tell the world off because they’ve all got church wrong? No – simply so that I can do church properly myself. And herein lies the problem. It becomes a trust problem. My confidence in ministry and life becomes vested in how well I’m able to intellectually tie together my framework about specific doctrines. Now even though many of those doctrines might be closely tied to Christ, they are themselves not Christ and my pursuit of them can therefore become idolatrous.

I wonder if some of us truly believe that we can become idolatrous in our doctrinal quests and miss the Christ under whom all our doctrines should be subservient? I must quest for knowledge, I must quest for truth, I must quest for doctrinal clarity where possible, but I must quest with Christ as my master and nothing else. Anything less is religious idolatry and depreciates the very point of knowledge, truth and doctrine.

Quote of the Week

“This internet is a wonderful tool, isn’t it? Incredible insight with very little actual knowledge.“  – Michael Spencer responds to some would-be Christian watchdogs prowling around the internet looking for minute discrepancies to devour without understanding.

2008 Preliminary Reads

Here are some of the reads I’m intending to attempt along with all my college reading in the first two months or so of the year:

A Clear and Present Word – Mark D. Thompson

I’m busy with this one at the moment – almost halfway through. Thompson makes quite a compelling case that not only is God a speaking God but he is a speaking God that intends for his communication to be known by those he has created. I just finished a brilliant section where he tackles the issue of human language and exposes the potential problems it poses for communication between a transcendent God and his human creations.

Post-Christendom – Stuart Murray

I’ve read a fair amount of good reviews about this one so I thought I’d better check it out. I’d like to also match up the way he qualifies post-christendom with the current South African Christian context and see how true his picture rings here.

Neither Poverty nor Riches – Craig L. Blomberg

I live in South Africa where poverty and riches live side by side in a way that is found almost nowhere else in the world. I think, therefore, a thorough knowledge of what the scriptures say on the issue, authored by a proven biblical scholar, is a must for me and other ministers in this country.

iPod therefore I Am

George Whitefield College is running its annual ‘Summer School of Biblical Christianity’ from 23 Jan to 1 Feb 2008 at their campus in Muizenberg, Cape Town. They’re offering courses on Biblical Theology, Church Response to Contemporary Issues, New Testament Greek, Old Testament Hebrew, Advanced Exegesis and Post-Graduate Research. I’ll be attending the Post-Graduate Research course.

What was really interesting to me is that Mark Norman will be down from Pretoria to teach 6 sessions on understanding postmodernism entitled ‘iPod therefore I Am‘. Here’s his schedule:

Part 1: Understanding Postmodernism – The differences between ‘Premodern’, ‘Modern’ and ‘Postmodern’ societies.

Part 2: Postmodernism and the Problem of Truth – A Christian critique of postmodern views of knowledge and truth.

Part 3: Postmodernism, Terrorism and Fundamentalism – The new global war and what it means for the church.

Part 4: Postmodernism and African Thought – How post-colonial African thought relates to postmodernism and its relevance for the church.

Part 5: Postmodernism and the Use of Language – A study of postmodern approaches to language, with special relevance to Jacques Derrida.

Part 6: Postmodernism and the Stories We Live In – Are you living in the Christian story?

Mark’s talks will take place in the mornings of each day prior to the other Summer School classes.

For more information contact GWC  (021) 788-1652

Or see the college website.

Resurgence Conference 2008: I’ll be There!

I’ve been a bit quiet about this on my blog until all the details were sorted out but I thought it was time to come clean: Yes, I’m going to be at the Resurgence Conference: Text and Context, February 2008 at Mars Hill Church, Seattle! An amazingly gracious sponsor has helped me to get over to the States and attend this conference. I’m going to also have the opportunity of meeting with a number of different people involved in church planting – some of them connected to the Acts 29 Network – which is probably my main aim in this trip. I’m quite excited about possibly linking up with A29 for future church plants here in South Africa.

I’m looking forward to also attending two churches in the States that we, here in South Africa, don’t really have anything similar to. I’m spending one Sunday in St. Louis at the Journey Church pastored by Darrin Patrick and then spending the following Sunday at Mars Hill Church in Seattle pastored by Mark Driscoll.

What I’d like from the peeps out there is to make contact with as many people I can who read this blog and will also be attending the Resurgence Conference. I’d love to catch up with you guys – especially those of you who write blogs. I thought that rather than emailing each of you individually I’d just stick this notice up as a post instead. Please let me know if you’ll be there so I can look out for you.

See some of you soon…

How to Jinx your Football Team

***Note: When I use the word ‘football’ I’m not referring to the American variety  – a sport in which the ball hardly ever touches the foot – instead I’m referring to soccer – a sport in which ones foot is regularly engaged***

Now I know Christians are not supposed to believe in superstitions and all but here’s a guaranteed way to jinx your favourite football team and condemn them to rubbish performances. Its simple really. Use your favourite football team as a sermon illustration about what real consistent quality looks like. I did it and it worked! After a string of near-perfect results Arsenal drew at home 1-1 with the mighty giants of English football: Birmingham!

Thanks for all the Literature Bart and Co.

After watching those Ehrman lectures I was wondering to myself how I might pastor people who came to me distressed after reading a book like ‘Misquoting Jesus‘ or far less scholarly literature like the ‘Da Vinci Code‘. So I did some searching around to see how many people have written academic responses to these sorts of works but written them at a popular level – as Ehrman himself does. Now we all know about the glut of literature written in response to the ‘Da Vinci Code‘ but what else is out there?

What I noticed, without having read much of it at all, but through reading reviews by other top scholars, is that there seems to be a whole lot of really decent literature out their refuting people like Ehrman, Price, Pagels and of course Mr. Brown.  Top evangelical scholars like Darrell Bock, Daniel Wallace, NT Wright, and others have written quite a few works. And so in once sense I’m glad that Ehrman and co. wrote these books because its made a whole lot of good Christian scholarship, in this area, available to so many more people than we previously had. As has always been the case in history, the church is writing theology for each occasion and there is some quality coming out.

Bart Ehrman on Youtube

I watched all 10 parts of agnostic, Bart Ehrman’s, Stanford lectures entitled ‘Misquoting Jesus’. I haven’t read the book but I found him quite fair and entertaining in the lectures. I don’t agree with him on a number of points – some of them rather crucial points to his whole argument – but I did find him engaging. From what I could pick up it seems that Ehrman would take issue with many of the findings of some scholars who come out of more of a classic liberalism when it comes to the dating of some of the original New Testament books. He seemed to come out a lot more conservative on that issue than I thought he’d be.

There’s nothing earth-shattering in his presentation and he says that himself – he’s not bringing new things out onto the table he’s just popularizing textual criticism for a wider audience. His work probably could cause a lot of anxiety in certain Christian circles that aren’t taught to think a little beyond the status quo. I suppose I should warn people, if you’re evangelical that is, to exercise a bit of caution if you’re planning on watching the material – don’t denounce Christianity and run out and follow him just yet. Maybe read a little further in the subject. You never know you might find that there are a fair number of quality evangelical scholars who might also have something worth saying.

Check out Ehrman’s wiki page make sure though that you read the transcript of a debate he had with William Lane Craig in 2006 or read Dan Wallace’s critique of Ehrman’s book.

Birthday Nostalgia: Posts that Stirred the Pot

Being the birthday and all its time for another trip down memory lane. We’ve already had one trip back into the archives to find posts that I wished had received a bit of a wider readership but today’s nostalgic trip picks up the posts that drew a bit of heat and fire for various reasons. I suppose you can’t really write a blog with conviction and not stir up the pot from time to time. Well here are the posts that either stirred up others or posts where I got a opinionated:

Charismatics and Conservatives Together (15/09/07) – funny that the controversy this post stirred up had little to do with Charismatics or Conservatives coming together. Go figure.

Witherington and Progressive Revelation (21/09/07) – on this one, as much as I respect and admire him, as much as I and read his blog daily, I just couldn’t stomach Dr. Witherington’s understanding of the unfolding of doctrinal accuracy through the course of redemptive history. In fact I still can’t stomach it or justify it from scripture.

Reading Romans 7 and the Evangelical Conviction (11/10/07) – proof that even your own teammates shoot you sometimes (just kidding Kim – all’s forgiven).

“God is Dead” – But was he ever alive? (26/10/07) – a catchy title goes wrong…

Why I don’t Stone People (14/11/07) – I seem to have a fan base of atheists who visit this blog quite regularly. This post resulted in a bit of frivolous banter between us.

Tutu Gay Rant (19/11/07) – This little rant didn’t really stir too much but it did cause someone to write the longest comment I’ve ever seen on a blog.

What is the Gospel – An Open Forum (28/11/07) – ok so this post didn’t really draw all that much heat, except for that one guy disagreeing with me, Tim Keller, I mean who does he think he is? It’s not like he’s got a Facebook appreciation group that’s bigger than all my friends combined!

Proudly South African (17/12/07) – who knew that being a patriot would rattle the cages a bit?

Golden Compass Christian Hernia (17/12/07) – I managed to unsettle some folks twice in one day! There’s a simple math formula for topics like the Golden Compass if you haven’t figured it out yet. It goes like this: Golden Compass + Christian Blog = Controversy + Lot’s of hits! I couldn’t resist throwing my two cents in.

So far 2008 has been controversy free. Although I’m probably not going to shy away from the posts that stir a bit let’s just pray that I stir in godly way – there is such a thing.