The Christian faith has only a partial answer to the problem of evil. A great deal of mystery remains. Most Christians, however, lean upon several fundamental truths.
1. Christianity acknowledges the reality of evil. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he included the petition “Deliver us from evil.” The Christian faith, unlike some other religions, never regards evil as an illusion. It is not a misguided way of thinking, a problem of human perception of reality.…
I have become increasingly convinced that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are as theological, in their way, as the Gospel of John, and that the Gospels generally are as theological as the writings of Paul.
With regard to the pre-existence of Christ, we often turn to the famous passage in Philippians 2, or to equally celebrated Prologue of John’s Gospel (together with passages such as John 5:43, 8:14, 12:46, 14:28, 16:28, 18:37).
But, as Simon Gathercole remarks, the Synoptics present repeated instances of sayings that indicate that Christ has ‘come’ followed by a statement of purpose for his coming.…
(a) Look at the two-fold summary of the law in verse 27. What do you think are the dangers of emphasising one part of this at the expense of the other?
(b) As they listened to this parable, what do you think Jesus’ hearers would have been expecting him to say at verse 33?
(c) In the light of this parable, who is your ‘neighbour’ today?…
Light, commentator William Hendriksen remarks, is associated in Scripture with:-
In 1990, aware that respected evangelicals such as John Stott, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes and John Wenham had recently lent their support to annihilationism/conditionalism, J.I. Packer gave a lecture on ‘The Problem of Eternal Punishment.’
Packer began by affirming what all evangelicals should affirm, namely that our views about ultimate destiny should be shaped not by what what we might like to be so, but by what Scripture actually says is so. Packer also observed what many before and after him have observed: that the Scriptural voice which speaks most frequently and firmly about hell is that of Jesus himself.…
Hendriksen (New Testament Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 1:4) summarises the teaching of the NT on the doctrine of election:-
Hendriksen (New Testament Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 1:1) summarises the various shades of meaning of this great word:-
Sometimes it is a solemn duty before God to warn people, Eze 3:20. See also Pr 29:1.
1. Warnings of Example, Jude 1:6,7,17-19.
2. Warnings of Instruction, concerning,
3. Warnings of Experience,
(Richardson, in The Biblical Illustrator, adapted)
…
The synagogue-worship, developed by and after the exile…was also essentially popular, homelike, familiar, escaping from the exclusiveness of the priestly service. It had four principal parts:
a) the recitation of the shema’, composed of Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-21, and Num 15:37-41, and beginning, “Hear (shema’), O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh”;
b) prayers, possibly following some set form, perhaps repeating some psalm;
c) the reading by male individuals of extracts from the Law and the Prophets selected by the “ruler of the synagogue,” in later years following the fixed order of a lectionary, as may have been the case when Jesus “found the place”;
d) the targum or condensed explanation in the vernacular of the Scriptures read.…
A friend who, knowing that I’m still trying to get my head round ‘the New Perspective on Paul’ and is also doing the same, recently asked me how the ‘New Perspective’ had changed my own perspective on the Christian life.
I answered by saying that I’m neither ready to dismiss the NPP out of hand, nor adopt any particular version of it. So it hasn’t changed the basic shape of my Christian faith. But it has asked questions about various aspects of ‘traditional’ evangelical thinking and practices, and sent me back to the Bible ‘to see if these things are so’.…
