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The ‘high Christology’ of the Synoptics

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Scholars such as Bart Ehrman (in his recent book How Jesus Became God) stress the differences between the ‘higher Christology’ of John’s Gospel (in which Jesus is represented as God incarnate) and the ‘lower Christology’ of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which he is represented as exalted, but not pre-existent).  For Ehrman, even the Synoptic view of Jesus did not arise until after his followers came to believe that he had been resurrected; and the Johanine view developed later still.…

Some recent book reviews

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Craig L. Blomberg, Can we still believe the Bible?. Reviewed (or, rather, noted, by Kevin James Bywater).

Blomberg is a thorough scholar and a clear writer.  He has authored books on a range of topics, including the historical reliability of the Gospels.  In this present volume, he deals with a range of possible objections to the trustworthiness of the Bible, including issues to do with the integrity of the text of the New Testament, the choice of books to include in the canon, the historical nature of biblical narratives, and the question of miracles.…

Who was inciting whom?

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I trust that all decent people – straight or gay, religious or non-religious – will be appalled by the treatment meted out to street preacher John Craven.  In fact, it was gratifying to read the comments of Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, who said that street preachers should be able to “make whatever point they want”, so long as they are not provoking “violence or mayhem”.

As reported by the BBC, Mr Craven was preaching about salvation when he approached by two teenage boys, who asked him about his views on homosexuality.  …

Tom Wright – an outline of his theology

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This is a summary of a summary. Based on Stephen Kuhrt’s helpful outline, here are the main themes and emphases in Wright’s thinking.

History

Wright is a historian, and he is very keen to place the story of the Bible in general, and the story of Jesus in particular, in historical context.  He has a high level of confidence that the events recorded in the Gospels ‘really happened’.  He emphasises the importance of understanding Jesus (and Paul and others) in the light of their Jewish backgrounds.  …

A jealous God?

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We regard jealousy as one of the ugliest and most destructive human attitudes.  How then can it be right to worship a Being who describes himself as a ‘jealous’ God?

To many non-believers, it’s a no-brainer.  The very idea of divine jealousy shows just how bankrupt the Christian concept of God is.  James Kirk Wall, for instance, while describing himself as someone who ‘aspires to be patient and respectful’, cannot restrain himself from labelling the idea of a jealous God ‘insane’:-

The Second Commandment declares that god is a jealous god.

…

Isa 41 – God can be trusted – sermon notes

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1. Who is asking the questions?

Not the nations! – It’s God who is quizzing them, v1f.

God does allow his friends to question him (Abraham, v8, cf Gen 18; ‘Why?’, ‘How long’).

But he will not co-operate with questioning that is motivated by scepticism or idle curiosity. ‘Be silent’, v1. Cf Rom 3:19.

Apply this to apologetics (1 Pet 2:15), much of which is evidential:-

The gospel is not just a proposition to be debated

it is a summons to be believed

a command to be obeyed

The questions God asks of us are more important than the questions we might ask of God.…

The Bible vs. the Ikea Catalogue

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According to this article in The Telegraph, 212 million copies of the Ikea catalogue are printed each year, in 29 different languages.  This makes it twice as widely distributed as the Bible (of which there are an estimated 100 million copies either sold or given out each year).

I recently heard Simon Ponsonby remark that one difference is that although the Ikea catalogue is free, you have to pay for everything in it, whereas a Bible usually has to be paid for, but everything in it is free!…

The ‘sensus plenior’ of Scripture

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What follows is based on ‘The problem of sensus plenior’, by Douglas Moo (chapter 5 of Hermeneutics, Authority, Canon, edited by D.A. Carson and J.D. Woodbridge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986).  Moo’s chapter is available here.

A belief in the entire truthfulness and trustworthiness of Scripture raised a number of questions.  One question is this: ‘How can we accord complete truthfulness to [the New Testament] writings that appear to misunderstand and misapply those [Old Testament] texts from which they claim to derive authority and rationale for their most basic claims and teaching?’…

Biblical prophecy – a closed book?

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Unfortunately, the word ‘prophecy’ is thought, in the common mind, to be synonymous with ‘prediction’.

This has had two serious side-effects.

The first is the tendency for certain people to set themselves up as ‘students of Bible prophecy’, and to specialise in speculations about the ‘end times’ that have lost contact with the central message of the Bible.  Never trust a man (I say) who is more interested in Gog and Magog than in grace and holiness; who spends more time with the Revelation of John than with the Gospel of John.…

Theology must be both critical and confessional

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Scholarly approaches to biblical studies are often characterised as either critical or conservative.  ‘Critical’ would be seen either as ‘progressive and open-minded’ or ‘radical and sceptical’, whereas ‘conservative’ would be viewed as either ‘faithful to the historic faith’ or ‘traditionalist and close-minded’, depending on the observer’s own point of view.

However, I think that to pitch ‘critical’ and ‘conservative’ as polar opposites is a mistake, because it sets up a false dichotomy.

The approach to be preferred, I think, is not ‘either critical or conservative‘, but ‘both critical and confessional‘.  …