God. Real. Right.

The reality of free will.
In modern culture either psychology or physics explains everything. So there is no room for real freedom. In many forms of orthodox, contemporary religion there is the belief that God chooses evil in order that good may come and that sin happens to be one form of that evil. So there is no room left for real freedom. Having real freedom is having the actual power to make self-denying choices. The issue is important because God has made that kind of real freedom both necessary and essential to real discipleship.
Then why do so many faithful and intelligent Christians Read the rest of this entry »

Being in Kerrville at the SBTC’s SLT/SWU camps this week, I don’t have much time to post. However, AP just published a story worth recommending. The most ancient manuscript of the New Testament in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus, will be available on the internet beginning about this time next year.
Even those who hold it in disfavor for its truncated ending to Mark and its extra-canonical material are surely giddy over the prospect of seeing it first hand. I am–despite a lingering suspicion there may be a substantial fee for full access. I also suspect, by the way, that many readers will be shocked at the extra challenges involved in reading hand-written Greek. But first hand access to information is always a good thing.

A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from July 16, 2008: A discussion with callers about what Emergent Churches are doing and what traditional churches should do better. Doug Padgitt’s interview fell through so callers discussed their views on what churches, ministries, and individual believers ought to do differently in order better to represent Christ in the world.

Doug Padgitt is an emergent church and postmodern Christian leader. His congregation is Solomon’s Porch in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Like most emergent leaders, he sees traditional Christianity as stuck and stifling. Like most emergent leaders, he values narrative over proposition and inclusion over division. He has recently published A Christianity Worth Believing.
There are some good things that come from leaders like Padgitt. For instance, when we see their success connecting to their surrounding communities, we have to re-examine Read the rest of this entry »

KJV
Let there be light: and there was light.

Comments
Let there be light: Later biblical authors make much of the relationship between light and God. Psalm 104 uses all the elements of Genesis’ creation account to praise God. Verse 2 of that Psalm says God wraps Himself in light. John uses the image of light frequently, even saying in 1 John 1:5 that God is light. (Of course, that claim is not the same as the claim that light is God–a claim which would be a huge theological error.) But it is important throughout the rest of scripture that God creates the means by which the whole concept of revelation takes on significance. God is revelatory.

…and there was light: This part of verse 3 is interesting because it exactly replicates the first part. That is, in Hebrew the grammar and spelling of what God says matches exactly what results. In English it would look like this: “God said be light and be light.” Of course, the Grammar is wrong in English, so the translation must conjugate “to be” into “let there be” and “there was”. But in Hebrew the fact that what happens in creation is a direct reflection of what God says is unmistakable. That fact makes even more sense of why God’s Word is inviolable (as it is preserved in passages like Psalm 12:6-7) and why a false prophet’s unfulfilled word is sure evidence of his fraudulent claim to represent God (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

Expanded Paraphrase
Exactly what God said came to pass. He said, “be light,” and the very next thing was light.

A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from July 9, 2008: Open line theology day. Callers ask questions about specific passages in the Bible and about general theological and ministry issues. Some topics include the audience of James 5, Christ and the law, Christian participation in voting, security of the believer, communion in the local church, whether saints in heaven watch believers on earth, and whether all people are the same in heaven. Some relevant mentioned passages are Ephesians 2, John 3, John 10, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11, and James 5.

Some of those who acknowledge that violence might be virtuous at certain times and for certain people still hold that it is not right for Christians living out the kingdom in the world today.
There are several problems with that position. It misses the necessarily universal nature of moral judgments, for one (as always, a post for another day). But perhaps the most important problem with that position is that it hinges on a misinterpretation of the model of Christ.
A commendation for those who hold that view is that they have certainly chosen the right figure to follow. In the light of 1 Peter 2:21-24, believers must follow Christ’s example in order to be genuine disciples. Read the rest of this entry »

KJV:
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Comments:
This phrase leaves no room for a deistic view of the world. Deism claims that God started the world, but is no longer involved in it, either normally or at all–depending on how developed the form of deism is. But here Moses uses a word implying that God settles, hovers, or flutters over His new creation. In fact, he uses the same word again in Deuteronomy 32:11. There it is translated as “flutters” and describes how God stayed with and led His people through the wilderness. The importance of God’s constant and total involvement in the world is also made clear in passages like Colossians 1:16-18: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” And when Peter speaks of skeptics who deny that God will ever judge the world, he reminds them that before God judged the world in Noah’s day, He was already maintaining that world (at creation, in the water and out of the water) with the power of his word. That’s the point in 2 Peter 3:5: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” Peter goes on to speak of Noah’s judgment, making the point that God was involved in the world immediately after its creation, and when it was time for that first cataclysmic judgment.

Expanded Paraphrase:
But after God created the cosmos with His word, He did not leave it alone. Instead, His Spirit settled down over it to remain involved in what is not Him, but is most definitely His.

Publishing this poem accomplishes the goal it states in the ante-penultimate (a great term for “third from the end”) line. The poem itself reflects the take-and-give attitude with which all followers follow Jesus. And, yes, Herbert deliberately wrote the shape into the poem as he did with at least one other, “Easter Wings.”

c. 1633

Most importantly, notice what kind of altar is raised Read the rest of this entry »

A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from June 11, 2008: Resolutions at the SBC, Dr. Johnson’s interview with N.T. Wright, then phone calls and discussion on whether Jesus is the only way to heaven.