Blogthru the NT – Part 2 (Luke)

I’m going to continue posting some gleanings from my current bible reading programme. I’ve just finished reading Luke. I know that I havent posted on Mark yet. Maybe I will one day, but not today. Luke has very different emphasis to Matthew. While this may reflect the needs of the early church (as form and redaction critics might say) I doubt it is the sole reason for the differences. While I’m not keen to get into a discussion on the synoptic problem, I am aware that Luke was not writing history as a detached observer. Had his own intentions for writing. But this doesn’t mean he has written fiction. Ironically the more affected someone is by the events that have taken place the more they want the truth to be told. We have only to look to the Holocaust survivors to see that (see Blomberg 1997). Luke also needs to be analysed in terms of its other half: the book of Acts.

Reality Check

My wife and I are quite different in our reading tastes. I only read non-fiction. She only reads novels. A few days ago my wife said to me that she wished she had the desire to read the Bible more, pray more, and “spend more time with God”. While I read a lot of theology, and am often reading the Bible, I too desire the same thing as her. Her desire wasn’t for the Bible or prayer. Like many Christians, what she wanted, was a connection. A relationship. We all want to experience the love of Jesus in our every day lives. We hunger for that authenticity, and reality in our relationship with Jesus that is just not there. We long to be fully human, we groan for it, as does creation.  

The Road Ahead

It’s normal at this time of year to start making resolutions. We want to lose weight, get a new job, make better friends and so forth.2007 and 2008 were two great years of discovery for me and I’ve learnt a great deal. I have grown in my understanding of the Bible like I never have before. As the year draws to a close I am a tired man. I have worked hard, and am ready for a rest. Some have said to me that if you’re not feeling stressed in life, then you’re not alive. There is some truth in that, but if all of life is stress that makes for a very poor existence. I owe so much to my dear wife Joy. She has made my life a life worth living

Pleasantly Surprised by Wright

It has often been said that Christianity stands or falls on its doctrine of Justification by faith. In fact it as Martin Luther who said that (surprise surprise). I would offer a hearty Amen to that statement. But a better statement woud be, I would say, is that Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Recently I got a copy of N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope” and it blew me away. I’ve always been skeptical of Wright but there was very little occasion for it this time. Taking on the subject of death, heaven, resurrection and everything associated with that is not easy task but Wright does it so well. His experience with death mirrors my own. The only funeral I’ve attended was my Grandmothers when I was 20. Apart from that one time I have had very little contact with death. I suspect this may be the case for many. In the west we are seldom confronted with the sheer ugliness of death compared with someone in Africa or other parts of the third world where life carries a lot less currency.

Consistency & The Grace Full Conversation

Well its been an interesting week. My wife and I both spent a week at home recovering from a nasty flu. While I would normally say that anytime away from work is good time, there are only so many movies you can watch. It got old pretty quickly. I’m still getting over my cough, it creeps up every so often when I’m on the phone with clients. No matter how much medicine I have taken over the past week nothing helped me more than a good sleep. Funny how that works. The most effective measures we have are sometimes the most frustrating. But the week was not a total loss. It has given me a lot of time to think and ponder over some of the issues in my own life. 

Back (…yet still on Sabbatical)

I’m back and it feels great! My time off from blogging has done me the world of good. But good can be such a relative term these days. Recently I got stung with $2,500 tax bill. It seriously delayed ourplans for the end of the year. But I have to trust that God is Good. What else can I do?

Recently I checked out the top 100 best sellers on the Amazon Christian Bookstore. I was quite surprised. Horrified is a better word. It seems most people think Pop-Psychology books are Christian books. Either that or most Christians are more interested in Psychology than the Bible.

Reformed Theology – Perseverance of the Saints (Part 6 of 6)

Spurgeon said it best when he said “There is no gospel if we do not preach what is now commonly known as Calvinism”. I wholeheartedly agree with that. If we got it wrong then we’re all without hope. Through my study of these doctrines I’ve seen that they are the clearest explanation of the gospel message to date. I don’t believe them to be setting forward any new doctrines, but rather what shines forth so clearly from scripture.

I’d just like to give a few quotes about this doctrine which should help define it a little better.

“The perseverance of the saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again. ”
Wayne Grudem from Systematic Theology ( pg. 788 )

A system is what a system does

For me a lot of stuff changed in 2007. I was sitting in a Church service with my then girlfriend (and now wife) and listening to a guest speaker. This wasn’t my usual church I was just visiting.
The speaker was David Peters. His wife was a quadriplegic, and they toured the country together sharing their experiences and how it had impacted their faith. It was a powerful testimony to everyone who attended. The power I believe came in the fact that they were so open and honest with the struggles they had. They asked the same questions everyone else asked, yet somehow they did not waiver in their faith in God. I was amazed. But there was another element that I had overlooked. David Peters claimed to have a prophetic gift.

In the middle of his sermon he stopped and pointed directly at me (it was a small service of around 100 people) and said something I will never forget. “You will become radicalised for God and it will start with His word” – I was a bit shocked. I had never really been singled out in a service like that.
I’d had prophecies over my life before but nothing like this. The words may seem simple but they have echoed in my mind everytime I pick up the Bible or a theology book.

Objections…(continued)

Yesterday someone from a forum on another website posted a comment on my post entitled “OBJECTIONS”. They were such good questions that I thought I should answer them in a post for the benefit of everyone. While I have called this post Objections…(continued)  it isnt an objection in the negative sense as you will see from the second question.

Q. “1st, do you make a distinction between our pre-salvation situation as dead in sin and thereby unable to even accept the gift we are freely given without God graciously doing even that in us on the one hand, and “free will” in day to day life on the other hand? In other words, does Calvinist soteriology also require some sort of Christian fatalism/determinalism? If so isnt that very hard to fit into the Biblical narritive?”

Objections

That debate I had on Saturday motivated me to form more cohesive arguements for position among other things. My wife suggested I follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to to talking. Listen 80% of the time and talk 20%. I’m not gonna get into that too much now because I want to talk about some objections raised by my position on the atonement and eternal security. I’m very well aware that I have not posted the final point in the five points of Calvinism (or Doctrines of Grace as they should be called)  “Perseverance of the saints”. Please be assured I will get to this in due time. I want to spend a bit more time revising my posts of the previous 4 points before attempting the fifth one. My heart tells me I havent given full credit to the other positions in the arguement and this needs to be addressed. I feel that I will not win anyone over the Calvinist side if we engage in “I am right and you are wrong” debates. I think the postmodern generation does not respond to well to that kind of discussion. However I do feel that certain objections should be met as best as possible, and if you are going to hold to either side of the arguement you should be able to give cohesive biblical reasons for your position.