Author Archives: admin

‘The Lost Message of Paul’ – ‘The wrath of God’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In chapter 12 of The Lost Message of Paul, Steve Chalke deals with ‘the wrath of God’.

Chalke thinks that the idea that God is capable of wrath, or anger, is mistaken.  Three reasons are discernable.

Historical

According to Chalke, much of the responsibility for the doctrine of the wrath of God must be laid at the feet of John Calvin, who is described as brilliant but legalistic.

Calvin, it is said, ‘effectively replaced Jesus’ image of God as a loving parent with that of God as a stern, courtroom judge.’…

‘The Lost Message of Paul’ – synopsis

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Chalke, Steve. The Lost Message of Paul (2019).  SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Although I’ve already given a critique of some of the teaching of this book, I’m going to pause in order to give a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the whole thing.

I want to make sure I’ve grasped Chalke’s teaching before saying any more about how convincing, or unconvincing, I find it.

1. The conversation

Second only to Jesus himself, Paul is the most influential person in Christianity. …

‘The Lost Message of Paul’ – ‘Faith’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In chapter 9 of The Lost Message of Paul, Steve Chalke urges us to leave our Reformation-shaped prejudices and get back to the thought world of the apostle Paul.  If we do so, he insists, we will discover that the word pistis (usually translated ‘faith’) means something other than we thought it did.

‘I believe,’ says Chalke, ‘that it is far more accurately translated as “faithfulness” than “faith”.’

How does he know that?  Well, because Paul was steeped in Hebraic thinking. …

‘The Lost Message of Paul’ – ‘pistis Christou’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Does the expression pistis Christou mean ‘faith in Christ’, or ‘the faith [or faithfulness] of Christ’?

This post is not an attempt to settle the question once and for all, but rather to respond to an argument mounted recently by Steve Chalke.

In chapter 10 of The Lost Message of Paul (2019) Chalke says that:

‘Martin Luther, John Calvin and countless others following them have chosen to translate pistis Christou as ‘faith in Christ’, and then to hang their whole doctrinal approach on it.

…

Inspired in the smallest detail

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Although we do not deny that the Holy Spirit, in his inspiration of Scripture, is often happy to give us approximations and generalisations, where necessary he calls our attention to the smallest detail of grammar.

Consider:

Hebrews 12:27 ‘The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.’

The argument turns on one phrase – ‘once more’.

Galatians 4:9 ‘But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces[a]?…

Five types of gossiper

Walking With Giants Posted on by

From Paul Tautges (summarising part of Resisting Gossip, by Matt Mitchell):

#1: The Spy – In Proverbs 11:13, the Hebrew word translated “gossip” means “‘a peddler (of secrets), a huckster/hawker, deceiver, or spy.’ The English Standard Version uses the phrase ‘whoever goes about slandering’….We might use the word ‘informer’….Spies know how to wheedle a story out of us.”

#2: The Grumbler – Another Hebrew word commonly translated “gossip” refers to a whisperer. The Hebrew dictionaries say that this “is one who is ‘murmuring about another person behind their back rather than openly complaining about their behavior.’”…

May we refer to God as ‘she’?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Clearly, God is not ‘male’.  So should we not stop referring to God exclusively (or predominantly) as ‘he’?

The argument is that to refer to God with masculine language is to demean the dignity of women, to imply that they are less ‘godlike’ than men, and to perpetuate their subservient positions.

The solutions would be either to refer to God in both masculine and feminine language (in roughly equal proportions), or to use gender-neutral language when referring to the deity. …

‘It’s never going to happen. And when it does…’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Rod Dreher’s ‘Law Of Merited Impossibility‘ is an epistemological construct governing the paradoxical way overclass opinion makers frame the discourse about the clash between religious liberty and gay civil rights. It is best summed up by the phrase, “It’s a complete absurdity to believe that Christians will suffer a single thing from the expansion of gay rights, and boy, do they deserve what they’re going to get.”’

Or, put more simply: ‘It’s never going to happen. …

A biblical critique of slavery

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It is often supposed that the Bible accepts without question the institution of slavery.  The implication is, of course, that the Bible is wrong, and that we now know better.

But does the Bible itself contain a critique of slavery?  Ian Paul thinks so, and offers the following texts for consideration:

Creation

Genesis 1:26f – God created human beings in his own image.  ‘In contrast to other ANE texts, there is a universality here to the image of God in humanity; it is not confined to one sector or class of humanity…This foundational text…offers a critique of any system which seeks to divide different groups of humanity into fundamentally distinct categories.’…

How important is the gospel?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It may be that evangelicals suffer from (or think they suffer from) ‘gospel fatigue’.  When everything is claimed to be ‘gospel-centred’ and ‘gospel-driven’, there is a danger of thinking (if not actually saying), “Oh, not again!  Give us a break!!”  Indeed, I have heard people urge that Christian ministry must move beyond the gospel and deal more with its practical outworkings.

Sam Storms invites us to listen to Scripture.  What follows is based on this article.…