I seem to have gotten a bit carried away with this topic. Blog readers who've joined up in the last little while could be forgiven for thinking that it's a regular subject. But it's really only featured in posts during the last two weeks or so. Who knows what the future holds? But for the moment, if you want to review some of the ground covered, you can go to the following:
1. Politeness and hell
2. Taxidrivers and hell
3. Preaching hell
4. Preaching judgement
5. Do we preach hell too much?
6. Hell: a help for depression
7. Did Jesus preach judgement to all Israel?
8. Broughton Knox on judgement and contextualization
9. Who gets comforted by judgement and wrath?
UPDATE:
10. Preaching hell to depressed teens.
11. Preaching hell for the comfort of angry people.
That's not a complete list, but it is enough to be getting on with for the moment.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Broughton Knox on judgement and contextualization
The message of the New Testament:
-"World evangelism", in D. Broughton Knox, Selected Works Vol II, p 225.
-ibid. p. 226
Broughton says more about judgement and contextualization in other places:
-Broughton Knox, "The Everlasting God" in Selected Works Volume I, p. 60
Australian, African—American, Asian, Western. We may as well add young, old, teenagers, men, and women. Or with Paul: 'Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female' (Gal 3:28)
The New Testament message is a message about the judgement of God on every individual and over every human institution.
-"World evangelism", in D. Broughton Knox, Selected Works Vol II, p 225.
The message of God's judgement is the message which Christians are commissioned to proclaim. It is a very practical and a very pressing message, but within this message there is a word of grace and hope, for the judge is also the saviour...
The message of God's judgement is a very relevant message. It is the point of contact with the hearer, for whatever the culture barrier between the messenger and hearer, both have this common ground; they know the guilt of sin. This is a universal human experience, and it is at this point that the gospel message becomes relevant. For within the message of judgement there is also the message of the victory that Christ has won over sin, so that all who call upon his name as their Lord receive remission of sin and are no longer under judgement but have passed out of death into life. They are accepted by God as his sons and daughters, and stand before him in his favour.
-ibid. p. 226
Broughton says more about judgement and contextualization in other places:
A gospel which contains judgement as a prominent strand as does the New Testament gospel, is relevant to men and women everywhere and in every age and culture. It does not need indigenization [that is, contextualization], so popular a catchword today, but requires only clarity of language and faithfulness in proclamation. The sense of right and wrong is universal in the human race and so is the knowledge that we fall below our own standards of what is right, and that this entails death.
Thus the gospel that contains judgement, and salvation from judgement, is a gospel that is always relevant to the hearer, no matter to what stage of civilization he may have attained. Such a gospel does not need to be assimilated to the culture of the people who are hearing it.
A theology that proclaims the God who saves from judgement by forgiveness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not need to be adapted for Australian audiences, or to be turned into a black theology for the blacks of North America. Asian Christians and Western Christians need the same gospel and the same theology which is based on it, and all are able to understand it, no matter how different the cultural backgrounds of the hearers and preachers may be, so long as the proclamation is true to the New Testament gospel of judgement and salvation from judgement.
-Broughton Knox, "The Everlasting God" in Selected Works Volume I, p. 60
Australian, African—American, Asian, Western. We may as well add young, old, teenagers, men, and women. Or with Paul: 'Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female' (Gal 3:28)
Did Jesus preach judgement to all Israel?
Well, he preached a lot more than that! His was a message of grace and salvation; so much so that he (or John, it is a little bit hard to work it out) could say "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:17)
Not that judgement and grace are ever separated in Jesus' message. The very next verse of John's account makes that plain: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18)
Now all of this is by way of getting back to this post, where I suggested that Jesus preached judgement in the clearest and starkest possible terms. And that he did this not only to the smug religious people but to the whole of Israel, as he instructed 72 of his disciples to take such a message right through the towns and villages of the nation. Speaking to his disciples, he set matters out without any hint of ambiguity:
-Luke 10:12.
Lurid as this warning was, we might ask ourselves whether the 72 disciples, when they went out, were as harsh as Jesus himself when they actually spoke to the people of Israel?
After all, Jesus' words about Sodom were not addressed to the villages themselves, but could almost be read as an aside to the disciples.
We don't have any direct evidence on this question, since the actual preaching of the 72 on this mission is not recorded.
But we do have one reliable judge regarding what was preached, and that is the Lord Jesus himself.
With this in mind, we note that whatever asides Jesus may have made to his disciples about Sodom, the very next words he speaks are addressed not to the disciples but to the villages that they will be visiting
though they still form part of his briefing session for the 72, and so are meant to be heard by them.
They likewise are words of judgement:
and they continue the thought that Jesus has begun by his mention of Sodom
and indeed, by his mention of what the disciples ought to do if the message they preach is not received.
Not only this, but Jesus' response on their return
"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven", Luke 10:18
indicates satisfaction over the way they've fulfilled their commission, showing that they passed on the message exactly as they heard it. We don't have any reason at all to think that the disciples as they preached their way through Israel watered down their message, or the horrifying terms in which it was stated by their Lord.
Not that we need to doubt that the disciples themselves were fired up to deliver a message of judgement on their master's behalf. Immediately before this mission, James and John, foaming at the mouth over Samaria's rejection of Jesus, have asked Jesus:“Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54). No wonder Jesus called them Sons of Thunder!
Jesus on that occasion tones them down; the people of the towns of Israel, however, receive no such postponement of his judgement message. As far as Jesus himself is concerned, the news he brings is
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
and more judgement
every step of the way from the North of Israel, on his journey south towards Jerusalem. Until finally when we see him arriving at Jerusalem, what does he then preach to all his Israelite hearers? Sure enough, judgement.
This is only a selection of some from the central section of Luke's gospel (Luke 9:51-19:27). Many, equally harsh words are addressed to the religious insiders (for example here, here, here, and here, not to mention here.
Yet in agreeing that Jesus pressed home this message of judgement particularly amongst righteous religious hypocrites, we don't lose sight of the reality that Jesus' message for all the crowds he spoke to was exactly the same: You must repent, or face the wrath of God for all eternity. Jesus himself preached this. He required his disciples to preach accordingly.
Small wonder then, that the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed who heard this message of judgement flocked to Jesus, and found in him grace, peace, mercy, and the lifting of their burdens.
Unless we consider ourselves and our audience, for some bizarre reason, to be more righteous than the Israel that heard Jesus' preaching for themselves, then we ought to preach this same terrible judgement of God to our own burdened, depressed, weary and hopeless hearers. We ought to preach it with the full intensity and ferocity and tears that true love demands. As we do, we should pray that somehow they (and we) might not harden our hearts, but instead find mercy in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Not that judgement and grace are ever separated in Jesus' message. The very next verse of John's account makes that plain: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18)
Now all of this is by way of getting back to this post, where I suggested that Jesus preached judgement in the clearest and starkest possible terms. And that he did this not only to the smug religious people but to the whole of Israel, as he instructed 72 of his disciples to take such a message right through the towns and villages of the nation. Speaking to his disciples, he set matters out without any hint of ambiguity:
I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
-Luke 10:12.
Lurid as this warning was, we might ask ourselves whether the 72 disciples, when they went out, were as harsh as Jesus himself when they actually spoke to the people of Israel?
After all, Jesus' words about Sodom were not addressed to the villages themselves, but could almost be read as an aside to the disciples.
We don't have any direct evidence on this question, since the actual preaching of the 72 on this mission is not recorded.
But we do have one reliable judge regarding what was preached, and that is the Lord Jesus himself.
With this in mind, we note that whatever asides Jesus may have made to his disciples about Sodom, the very next words he speaks are addressed not to the disciples but to the villages that they will be visiting
though they still form part of his briefing session for the 72, and so are meant to be heard by them.
They likewise are words of judgement:
13Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
and they continue the thought that Jesus has begun by his mention of Sodom
and indeed, by his mention of what the disciples ought to do if the message they preach is not received.
Not only this, but Jesus' response on their return
"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven", Luke 10:18
indicates satisfaction over the way they've fulfilled their commission, showing that they passed on the message exactly as they heard it. We don't have any reason at all to think that the disciples as they preached their way through Israel watered down their message, or the horrifying terms in which it was stated by their Lord.
Not that we need to doubt that the disciples themselves were fired up to deliver a message of judgement on their master's behalf. Immediately before this mission, James and John, foaming at the mouth over Samaria's rejection of Jesus, have asked Jesus:“Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54). No wonder Jesus called them Sons of Thunder!
Jesus on that occasion tones them down; the people of the towns of Israel, however, receive no such postponement of his judgement message. As far as Jesus himself is concerned, the news he brings is
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
judgement,
and more judgement
every step of the way from the North of Israel, on his journey south towards Jerusalem. Until finally when we see him arriving at Jerusalem, what does he then preach to all his Israelite hearers? Sure enough, judgement.
This is only a selection of some from the central section of Luke's gospel (Luke 9:51-19:27). Many, equally harsh words are addressed to the religious insiders (for example here, here, here, and here, not to mention here.
Yet in agreeing that Jesus pressed home this message of judgement particularly amongst righteous religious hypocrites, we don't lose sight of the reality that Jesus' message for all the crowds he spoke to was exactly the same: You must repent, or face the wrath of God for all eternity. Jesus himself preached this. He required his disciples to preach accordingly.
Small wonder then, that the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed who heard this message of judgement flocked to Jesus, and found in him grace, peace, mercy, and the lifting of their burdens.
Unless we consider ourselves and our audience, for some bizarre reason, to be more righteous than the Israel that heard Jesus' preaching for themselves, then we ought to preach this same terrible judgement of God to our own burdened, depressed, weary and hopeless hearers. We ought to preach it with the full intensity and ferocity and tears that true love demands. As we do, we should pray that somehow they (and we) might not harden our hearts, but instead find mercy in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Responding to Burma
Shane Rogerson has adapted some of John Piper's thoughts on how we ought to respond to the current crisis in Burma. He includes links to some other websites that will be especially useful for Christians in Sydney who want to offer practical help.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Friday, 9 May 2008
Hell: A help for depression.
I find that I've been checking the Pyromaniacs blog quite a lot lately and being greatly helped by what I read. So I started reading this post and was struck by a quote from Spurgeon, a regular guest on the Team Pyro blog spot.
When I went to the quote in context I found a really terrific sermon that just kept exhorting the hearer to find their joy and peace in Christ by constantly returning to him. Now Spurgeon wasn't going to ignore medical advice:
and being a serious depressive himself, you have to believe that he didn't offer the qualification, or hold out hope, lightly.
If like me you are someone who struggles with depression, then go to the sermon by clicking on the link—I think you will be helped by what Spurgeon says, and I pray that you are.
But what jumped out at me, and what I hadn't expected, was how bold Spurgeon was in directly addressing his hearers with the reminder of God's terrible wrath and the very fires of hell—yes, even as he spoke of dealing with the depths of depression. He says for example:
or again, he says:
Spurgeon urges his hearers to trust in Jesus alone, and to expect joy and peace as a consequence. But if they don't, what then?
[bold mine]
As Spurgeon drives to his conclusion, he imagines the state of mind of the depressed person (or perhaps he simply reports!):
Spurgeon uses the power and horror of hell to bring comfort to his own soul, and to those of his hearers.
His text?
The horror of hell highlights the triumph and goodness of the grace of God in Christ, and brings joy and peace in believing for the depressed heart.
By the way, how wonderful for those preachers among us incapable of improvisation to see that Spurgeon chose to preach from a full text! His hard labour in this matter means that we all share in the blessing of he wrote.
Do you think Spurgeon would have been a blogger?
I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to, but I always get back again by this—I know I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in him, and if he falls I shall fall with him, but if he does not, I shall not. Because he lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and my down castings, and get the victory through it; and so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it. In your most depressed seasons you are to get joy and peace through believing.
When I went to the quote in context I found a really terrific sermon that just kept exhorting the hearer to find their joy and peace in Christ by constantly returning to him. Now Spurgeon wasn't going to ignore medical advice:
I believe there are some persons who are beyond the reach of the preacher and who must be dealt with, if treated at all successfully, by the ordinary physician. Their case has gone beyond the limits of argument. Their mind has got into a disordered condition and the body, also, and therefore both body and mind must be set right by some other means before it is likely that spiritual reasons will prevail upon them. Provided you are sane people in some measure of health, and that you are sincere persons, we think that with God’s blessing we may be the means of comfort to you this morning.
and being a serious depressive himself, you have to believe that he didn't offer the qualification, or hold out hope, lightly.
If like me you are someone who struggles with depression, then go to the sermon by clicking on the link—I think you will be helped by what Spurgeon says, and I pray that you are.
But what jumped out at me, and what I hadn't expected, was how bold Spurgeon was in directly addressing his hearers with the reminder of God's terrible wrath and the very fires of hell—yes, even as he spoke of dealing with the depths of depression. He says for example:
Can you see the Son of God agonizing in the garden? Your Maker lies on the ground. Can you see Him taken before Herod and Pilate, and there mocked and scourged and spit upon? Can your eyes endure to see that spectacle of grief when the plowers made deep furrows on His blessed back? Can you believe that He is very God of very God, and yet is suffering thus? Can you see Jehovah grind Him to powder between the upper and the nether millstone of His wrath?
Can you hear Him say, “It is finished”? Can you mark the fearful shriek of “Eloi! Eloi! Lama Sabacthani?”
Can you believe that this is the Son of God—standing for sinners and suffering all this weight of wrath and punishment for us—and yet think that He is not worthy of being trusted to do that for which He died?
or again, he says:
But being what I am, unworthy, undeserving, and Hell-deserving, I trust Christ to save me—and if He does not save me, He is not as good as His word!
Spurgeon urges his hearers to trust in Jesus alone, and to expect joy and peace as a consequence. But if they don't, what then?
But if I wait for joy and peace, and afterwards trust, I go the wrong way to work, and put the cart before the horse. Then I have begun to expect a harvest before I sow the wheat—to expect the flower before I cultivate the stem—and I shall be mistaken and go down to the pit with a curse because I would not obey the command, “Believe and live.”
[bold mine]
As Spurgeon drives to his conclusion, he imagines the state of mind of the depressed person (or perhaps he simply reports!):
Now, I will finish with this declaration. If you can get into such a state that all the sins that were ever committed should swear that they will block your pathway to peace. If all the suggestions of Hell that ever came up from the infernal pit should surround you at one time. If, in his own proper person, the very Prince of Hell should stand across the way and swear to spill your soul’s blood...
Yet, yet in that fearful extremity, if you can believe, you are saved!
Spurgeon uses the power and horror of hell to bring comfort to his own soul, and to those of his hearers.
His text?
“Joy and peace in believing.” (Romans 15:13)
The horror of hell highlights the triumph and goodness of the grace of God in Christ, and brings joy and peace in believing for the depressed heart.
By the way, how wonderful for those preachers among us incapable of improvisation to see that Spurgeon chose to preach from a full text! His hard labour in this matter means that we all share in the blessing of he wrote.
Do you think Spurgeon would have been a blogger?
Letters in the Australian
The ‘marriage’ issue was ‘most talked about’ in the Australian today.
I got a letter in:
My favourite letter was this one; thoughtful and intelligent:
Murray’s the minister at Mentone Baptist, and trained at Moore College.
Several other supportive letters too; check the link.
I got a letter in:
PETER Jensen is right. Defining 'white' as 'grey' doesn’t change the way light works, it just brings confusion. In the same way, redefining marriage as anything other than a voluntary union between one man and one woman can only bring confusion, and also pain, as experiments with alternatives show.
Gordon Cheng
Kingsford, NSW
My favourite letter was this one; thoughtful and intelligent:
RECENT experience leads me to affirm Peter Jensen’s call for "spending a lot more time and energy thinking about the moral meaning of marriage between a man and a woman".
Two months ago I married my first couple, and attending the wedding were people from all sorts of backgrounds. After the ceremony, I was struck by the number of people commenting on how revelatory the teaching from the Bible was. One woman who had been married for many years had never realised how prudent the Bible’s teaching is on the relationship between a husband and wife. This wedding confirmed what I already held in principle, that is, sometimes to progress as a society we need to return to basics, and that involves accepting the Bible’s framework for human relationships.
Murray Campbell
Mentone, Vic
Murray’s the minister at Mentone Baptist, and trained at Moore College.
Several other supportive letters too; check the link.
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Population crisis
Al Mohler comments on Japan's population crisis:
They will've lost 70% of their workers by mid-century.
The population explosion prophets are still warning of a population crisis to come, but they got the story almost perfectly backward when it comes to nations like Japan. Russia and several other European nations face similar crises.
They will've lost 70% of their workers by mid-century.
An evangelical manifesto.
From Justin Taylor: This morning a document was released at the National Press Club in the United States entitled An Evangelical Manifesto: A Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment, spearheaded by Os Guinness and signed by over 80 evangelical leaders.
Justin Taylor comments: The full document is over 7,400 words, and I encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s an imperfect but nevertheless (in my opinion) remarkable document that deserves serious attention. The press has latched on to the political dimension of the document, but the critique of theological liberalism is much more extensive and pointed.
Justin has a short interview with the manifesto's chief organizer Os Guiness, here.
The manifesto itself is here.
UPDATE: Here's my early and provisional response:
I've read the manifesto twice now, and will need to do so again, far more carefully.
The word 'judgement' occurs once, and not with reference to God.
At second reading, there is no clear explanation of what the resurrection is about.
The question of Scriptural inerrancy seems to have been carefully avoided.
These are early responses only, and I am keen to go back and see if these early impressions are valid. Especially, even if the vocabulary of judgement is absent, I'm keen to discover whether or not the idea of divine judgement is clearly stated. I would have thought it would be linked in some way to the resurrection (see Acts 17:31). I'll need to look more closely to see if I've missed it.
Many good things too. This statement from page 8:
is surely right (but if so, it makes the initial appearance of reticence on the subject of divine judgement more troubling rather than less).
The desire to put distance between genuine evangelicals, and those evangelicals who have pursued strong secular political affiliations in the name of evangelicalism, is a good one, and I hope this part of the message gets out clearly within the US political scene, and more broadly.
UPDATE II: This is a fine piece of rhetoric:
Remind...Reaffirm...Rally...Reform. They have been taking lessons from Obama (and I don't mean that as cynically as it might sound).
But why would you make a deliberate decision 'not to attack or exclude?' Aren't some bad things worth attacking and excluding?
Justin Taylor comments: The full document is over 7,400 words, and I encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s an imperfect but nevertheless (in my opinion) remarkable document that deserves serious attention. The press has latched on to the political dimension of the document, but the critique of theological liberalism is much more extensive and pointed.
Justin has a short interview with the manifesto's chief organizer Os Guiness, here.
The manifesto itself is here.
UPDATE: Here's my early and provisional response:
I've read the manifesto twice now, and will need to do so again, far more carefully.
The word 'judgement' occurs once, and not with reference to God.
At second reading, there is no clear explanation of what the resurrection is about.
The question of Scriptural inerrancy seems to have been carefully avoided.
These are early responses only, and I am keen to go back and see if these early impressions are valid. Especially, even if the vocabulary of judgement is absent, I'm keen to discover whether or not the idea of divine judgement is clearly stated. I would have thought it would be linked in some way to the resurrection (see Acts 17:31). I'll need to look more closely to see if I've missed it.
Many good things too. This statement from page 8:
...Evangelicalism must be defined theologically and not politically; confessionally and not culturally.
is surely right (but if so, it makes the initial appearance of reticence on the subject of divine judgement more troubling rather than less).
The desire to put distance between genuine evangelicals, and those evangelicals who have pursued strong secular political affiliations in the name of evangelicalism, is a good one, and I hope this part of the message gets out clearly within the US political scene, and more broadly.
UPDATE II: This is a fine piece of rhetoric:
Our purpose is not to attack or to exclude but to remind and to reaffirm, and so to rally and to reform.
Remind...Reaffirm...Rally...Reform. They have been taking lessons from Obama (and I don't mean that as cynically as it might sound).
But why would you make a deliberate decision 'not to attack or exclude?' Aren't some bad things worth attacking and excluding?
A million lives at risk in Burma
This is a terrible tragedy.
The current online version of the SMH (6.09 am) has this story below the US presidential nominations and a story about the Pope maybe apologizing for sexual abuse when he gets to Sydney, and is at equal level with stories about Medicare, the Sydney Harbour boat accident where six people died last week, and John Howard's farewell.
That said, the Chinese newspaper is worse, leading with news of the Olympic torch. The news from Myanmar (Burma) is tucked away under 'More Stories' below a story about Chinese T-bonds.
It is the top story in Svenska Dagbladet, the Swedish Daily for today, May 8.
It is the top story in the Age at 6.40 am. The Age also has an opinion piece by Graham Reilly on the Burmese government's response. But in the Australian, it appears when you scroll down the page, below a story about NZ withdrawing legal action against Japan over whaling.
The current online version of the SMH (6.09 am) has this story below the US presidential nominations and a story about the Pope maybe apologizing for sexual abuse when he gets to Sydney, and is at equal level with stories about Medicare, the Sydney Harbour boat accident where six people died last week, and John Howard's farewell.
That said, the Chinese newspaper is worse, leading with news of the Olympic torch. The news from Myanmar (Burma) is tucked away under 'More Stories' below a story about Chinese T-bonds.
It is the top story in Svenska Dagbladet, the Swedish Daily for today, May 8.
It is the top story in the Age at 6.40 am. The Age also has an opinion piece by Graham Reilly on the Burmese government's response. But in the Australian, it appears when you scroll down the page, below a story about NZ withdrawing legal action against Japan over whaling.
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Peter Bolt living with the underworld
I made some comments about Peter Bolt's Living with the Underworld at the new Sola Panel blog.
The book is good for Christians, but will also suit an intelligent non-christian with an interest in the supernatural.
The book is good for Christians, but will also suit an intelligent non-christian with an interest in the supernatural.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Ethicist Peter Singer debates Andrew Sloan
About 2 weeks ago some of my buddies from Melbourne Uni days organized a debate between ethicist Peter Singer and Christian ethicist and OT specialist Andrew Sloan. You can watch it here, the subject is "Do You Need God to be Good?", and this is the question time.
I'm about 17 minutes into watching it now. Andrew Sloan at about the 15 minute mark has just done a brilliant job demolishing a straw-man that Peter Singer puts up about Christians supporting the institution of slavery out of Scripture.
Will get back to you when I've watched the rest of it, or you can click on the link and watch it yourself.
Fifi and I shared a house with debate moderator Andy for about a year. He made a mean spag bog. Boy was it mean.
I'm about 17 minutes into watching it now. Andrew Sloan at about the 15 minute mark has just done a brilliant job demolishing a straw-man that Peter Singer puts up about Christians supporting the institution of slavery out of Scripture.
Will get back to you when I've watched the rest of it, or you can click on the link and watch it yourself.
Fifi and I shared a house with debate moderator Andy for about a year. He made a mean spag bog. Boy was it mean.
John Woodhouse on 1 Samuel
This one's for you, Alex!
I see that you can get at least some of John Woodhouse's comments on 1 Samuel by going to the website for his book and clicking around a bit. You get to find out whether fat old Eli wears a black hat or a white hat. I think. Or maybe not.
Click on through, it is easy reading and helpful for anyone who is interested in this part of the Bible. John's book on 1 Samuel is great stuff for anyone who missed him speaking on this at CMS Summer School.
I see that you can get at least some of John Woodhouse's comments on 1 Samuel by going to the website for his book and clicking around a bit. You get to find out whether fat old Eli wears a black hat or a white hat. I think. Or maybe not.
Click on through, it is easy reading and helpful for anyone who is interested in this part of the Bible. John's book on 1 Samuel is great stuff for anyone who missed him speaking on this at CMS Summer School.
Do we preach hell too much?
Not in my experience. Whether for good or ill, the churches I've been involved in—all Bible-believing, theologically orthodox churches—for the last 33 years, have not had a huge amount to say about hell. Nor, for that matter, has the preaching of hell been a large feature of the evangelism I've been involved in or witnessed on tertiary campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane over the same period. Nor do most of the Bible-believing church attenders I've asked at various times report anything different. Claims to the contrary are, as far as my experience goes, a slightly puzzling furphy.
I remember a lady years ago, a regular church attender who sang in the choir, offhandedly dismissing Billy Graham as a fire and brimstone preacher. As I lived across the road from her for nearly 10 years, attended the same church for a time, and sang in the same choir, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that she never heard Billy Graham preach. I don't doubt that Billy could have preached up a fire and brimstone storm if he'd wanted to, but it didn't happen when I went along to hear him speak at the crusade in 1979, and John Pollock's biography doesn't at all speak of his preaching in these terms. Billy Graham's description of hell on his website is straightforward, unembellished and biblically based, sparing a lot of detail and pointing to Christ.
So, maybe my friend from across the road was telling the truth as she saw it, but I really think her description was wrong to the point of being untrue.
And I wonder if a similar distortion occurs in the portrayal of Bible-believing teachers and preachers within Sydney Anglicanism. If so, it's a problem.
I remember a lady years ago, a regular church attender who sang in the choir, offhandedly dismissing Billy Graham as a fire and brimstone preacher. As I lived across the road from her for nearly 10 years, attended the same church for a time, and sang in the same choir, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that she never heard Billy Graham preach. I don't doubt that Billy could have preached up a fire and brimstone storm if he'd wanted to, but it didn't happen when I went along to hear him speak at the crusade in 1979, and John Pollock's biography doesn't at all speak of his preaching in these terms. Billy Graham's description of hell on his website is straightforward, unembellished and biblically based, sparing a lot of detail and pointing to Christ.
So, maybe my friend from across the road was telling the truth as she saw it, but I really think her description was wrong to the point of being untrue.
And I wonder if a similar distortion occurs in the portrayal of Bible-believing teachers and preachers within Sydney Anglicanism. If so, it's a problem.
Abortion help
Doug Groothuis has recommended this 'Abortion Changes You' website, being promoted by Prison Fellowship specifically for women who are dealing with having had abortions, and those close to them.
I've not had a look at it yet, but it comes via Justin Taylor, whose judgement is reliable.
A commentary on the launch of the website from Prison Fellowship Ministry President Mark Earley:
I've not had a look at it yet, but it comes via Justin Taylor, whose judgement is reliable.
A commentary on the launch of the website from Prison Fellowship Ministry President Mark Earley:
Rarely have I been as moved emotionally as I have been by reading these stories.
There is the teenage girl whose parents insisted she have an abortion; the husband who drove his wife to the abortion clinic against his own better judgment and later watches his marriage unravel. One is about a grandmother who each year, as the date nears of her daughter’s abortion, silently mourns the loss of the grandchild she never knew. These stories will change you. They will make you look at this issue differently, just as the experience has changed the people involved.
The founder of the Abortion Changes You movement and author of the book Changed knows full well. Michaelene Fredenburg shares her own experience in the book. She says, “There are still many times that are painful for me. Mother’s Day is particularly difficult. The year my child would have graduated from high school was filled with pain. . . . If my child had gone to college, she would have graduated this year. This child would now be a young woman with gifts and abilities, hopes and dreams, her whole life ahead of her. There will always be a hole in my heart,” she says, “a hole in the fabric of our family and our community.”
Monday, 5 May 2008
Preaching judgement
I'm occasionally told that Jesus only preached the full horror of judgement to self-righteous, smug, religious people who were felt assured of their place at the heavenly banquet. The sick, the sad, the sincere and the sorry (on this view) were exempted from such harsh language.
But that's sentimental nonsense, as Jesus' public mission to Israel shows. In Luke 10, Jesus gives 72 disciples their instructions for the mission throughout Israel:
Jesus' public message, publicly stated, and publicly delivered through Israel was that all the towns that turned against their Lord would be subject to a judgement worse than the one that befell Sodom. All Israel was to know of the consequences of disobedience to her Lord, and was to know in the most graphic of pictures, a picture that had become a byword for the LORD's anger.
Very much a 'turn or burn' message, delivered in terms that even the thickest Israelite could not fail to understand.
But that's sentimental nonsense, as Jesus' public mission to Israel shows. In Luke 10, Jesus gives 72 disciples their instructions for the mission throughout Israel:
10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
Jesus' public message, publicly stated, and publicly delivered through Israel was that all the towns that turned against their Lord would be subject to a judgement worse than the one that befell Sodom. All Israel was to know of the consequences of disobedience to her Lord, and was to know in the most graphic of pictures, a picture that had become a byword for the LORD's anger.
Very much a 'turn or burn' message, delivered in terms that even the thickest Israelite could not fail to understand.
Folding t-shirts in 2 seconds
I was practising this yesterday.
I'm a lot slower than the lady in the video, but:
How To Fold A T-shirt In 2 Seconds
I originally saw it on Better Homes and Gardens, which the whole family watches on Friday nights when Hub Club isn't on.
(Ruth, this one's for you ;-) )
I'm a lot slower than the lady in the video, but:
How To Fold A T-shirt In 2 Seconds
I originally saw it on Better Homes and Gardens, which the whole family watches on Friday nights when Hub Club isn't on.
(Ruth, this one's for you ;-) )
Independent schools
Some ideas on school reform from the Swedes.
A proliferation of independent schools that didn't undercut the public system or discriminate on the basis of ability to pay would be a neat idea. I don't know how well the Swedish system has worked but it would be worth a closer look.
A proliferation of independent schools that didn't undercut the public system or discriminate on the basis of ability to pay would be a neat idea. I don't know how well the Swedish system has worked but it would be worth a closer look.
Saturday, 3 May 2008
Preaching Hell
Excerpted from the book Why we're not emergent (by two guys who should be):
Other quotes too, from the Pyromaniacs blog here.
These two guys are right to pick this up. I don't actually know that many hellfire preachers. In fact, I'm not sure I know any. It seems to me that claims of such preaching abounding are grossly overexaggerated (which could be tautological, but isn't in this case). Perhaps it would actually be a good thing if there was a bit more of it, seeing that the Bible itself is so full of the message of judgement. If no judgement, then the grace of the cross makes no sense.
Granted, there is no place for giddiness concerning God's wrath, but isn't there a place for passionate, blood-earnest warning? Isn't it biblical to move past agnosticism about hell and implore people on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20)? Could it be that our evangelism languishes, our preaching loses authority, and our congregations lose focus because we don't have the doctrine of hell to set our face like a flint toward Jerusalem?
Other quotes too, from the Pyromaniacs blog here.
These two guys are right to pick this up. I don't actually know that many hellfire preachers. In fact, I'm not sure I know any. It seems to me that claims of such preaching abounding are grossly overexaggerated (which could be tautological, but isn't in this case). Perhaps it would actually be a good thing if there was a bit more of it, seeing that the Bible itself is so full of the message of judgement. If no judgement, then the grace of the cross makes no sense.
Climate comments
Michael Duffy makes some observations about climate change in today's SMH.
Commenting on the fact that global warming has stopped since 2002 (some argue 1998) Duffy says:
The whole article is worth reading, and includes references to some useful websites.
As usual, Tim Blair is somewhat more forthright:
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 comes to mind.
Commenting on the fact that global warming has stopped since 2002 (some argue 1998) Duffy says:
But because the figures since 2002 might raise doubts about the orthodoxy, there has been a great silence. Most of those involved in public discussion of global warming simply ignored what was happening to the temperature record. The media have continued to interpret any minor weather event as proof of global warming. Political leaders have continued to crank up the panic.
It's a response that has to raise concerns about the relative roles of reason, emotion and propaganda in public consideration of global warming.
The implications of the past six years for public policy are the same as for science: we need to be cautious. We simply don't know enough about this matter to justify urgent and dramatic action. It's worth reflecting on the number of scientists who are certain about what the temperature trend will be in a 100 years, yet in 2001 were unable to predict what would happen in the next six.
The whole article is worth reading, and includes references to some useful websites.
As usual, Tim Blair is somewhat more forthright:
The same people who only now predict a twelve-year cooling still expect to be taken seriously about eventual massive warming. They’re making this up as they go along. And it’s your fault for believing previous warming threats:
The projection does not come as a surprise to climate scientists, though it may to a public that has perhaps become used to the idea that the rapid temperature rises seen through the 1990s are a permanent phenomenon.
From whom might the public have gotten that crazy idea?
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 comes to mind.
Friday, 2 May 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV
The video game is released this week.
From Al Mohler's blog.
That's right -- this is the most popular game among 12- to 14 year-old boys. This shocks even one of the game's creators, Lazlo Jones, who told the Post, "If you let your child play this game, you're a bad parent."
From Al Mohler's blog.
John Cargher dies
John Cargher has died. He presented the programme Singers of Renown for 42 years. My mother listened to the programme every week.
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Jean's Ph.D
This is nice. Apparently one of my many stray comments helped Jean get started on her PhD on puritans. Which was five years of hard work for her, but blessing for the rest of us who read what she now writes. Generally my stray comments do more harm than good, so it is nice to find one that didn't.
I'm trying to think of a suitable Bible verse to go with this, but Genesis 50:20 isn't doing it for me.
I'm trying to think of a suitable Bible verse to go with this, but Genesis 50:20 isn't doing it for me.
Taxidrivers and hell
Had to catch a taxi from the city to work. I talked to the driver about death and judgement, and warned him that every one of us would have to stand before God and give account for our lives before him. I also told him that our good works would not be sufficient to gain us entry into heaven.
Not being a teenager, he just laughed it off.
Not being a teenager, he just laughed it off.
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