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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‘.  …

Mt 2:13-23 – Out of Egypt – sermon notes

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V13 – ‘When they had gone’ – that same night?

Whatever happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Three places – three prophecies. Not always 1:1 prediction/fulfilment (cf. Mt 2:5/Mic 5:2); they are more like ‘patterns’.

1. Egypt – a place of rescue

Border about 75 miles away. Many Jews living there.

V15 – ‘And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”’ (Hos 11:1)

Hos 11:1 not a prediction, but a glance back to the Exodus.…

Inspiration and criticism

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The Christian doctrine of inspiration says that the Bible is the word of God, and therefore uniquely authoritative.

The academic discipline of biblical criticism insists that the Bible is a human word, and therefore subject to ordinary methods of enquiry regarding authorship, interpretation, and so on.

Can these two perspective be reconciled?  And, if so, how?  This is dealt with by John Goldingay in an early (1976) article entitled Inspiration, Infallibility and Criticism.

I would like to summarise Goldingay’s article because I think it’s interesting (not because I necessarily agree with all of it):-

For evangelicals the doctrine of inspiration has, as its corollary, the notion of infallibility (or something similar).  …