‘Perhaps the dominant theme of the whole Bible is the sovereign, ceaseless, purposeful activity of Almighty God. In contrast to the idols, which had eyes, ears, mouths and hands but could neither see nor hear, neither speak nor act, our God is a living and a busy God. In its own dramatic and figurative way the Bible leaves us no doubt of this. The breath of all living creatures is in his hand. The thunder is his voice and the lightning his fire.…
Deut 23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite may not enter the assembly of the LORD; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever do so, 23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the LORD your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed the curse to a blessing, for the LORD your God loves you.…
Gen 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15:15 But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”…
Andrew Wilson is Teaching Pastor at King’s Church London. He has written a piece on biblical complementarity. I’m not convinced by everything that he writes. But I do think that it’s one of the best accounts of this hotly-contested topic that I have seen.
Here are some highlights.
1. Creational differentiation
From an undifferentiated chaos (Gen 1:1), God formed a cosmos full of complementary distinctions:
Complementarity, then,
…‘is written into creation.
Notes of a sermon preached at Holy Trinity, Norwich, on Sunday 14th February 2021.
Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-22
There is a habit, in the Old Testament, of individuals ascribing a name to God that describes something that he has done, or something he has revealed about himself.
I think it the first instance of this is Hagar, who in Gen 16:13 names him as ‘The God who sees me’.
Elsewhere, God is name as the Lord
Let’s take a similar approach with our Bible passage this morning. …
Luke 2:39 So when Joseph and Mary had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
This statement is held to be at variance with that of Matthew, which implies that they resided in Bethlehem for some months after the birth of Jesus (i.e. until the visit of the Magi) and states (Mt 2:14) that they then took Jesus to Egypt.
Gundry (Commentary on Matthew) argues partly on linguistic grounds:
…‘Luke says that the Holy Family went back to Nazareth when they finished the ceremonies in the Temple (Luke 2:39), i.e.,
It just is. Martin Davie writes:
‘This is a point that is well made by the American writer Michael Brown in his book Can you be Gay and Christian? He asks the question why there are only a tiny number of biblical verses that directly address the issue of same-sex sexual relationships. His answer to this question is to draw an analogy with a book of recipes for sugar free puddings that has an introduction that explains why sugar should be avoided.…
Summary: It has been claimed by some revisionists that the relationship between David and Jonathan was of a sexual nature. This is implausible, since it imports modern concepts and ideas into the ancient text.
In detail:
In 2 Samuel 1:26 David laments:
I grieve over you, my brother Jonathan!
You were very dear to me.
Your love was more special to me than the love of women.
Their relationship has been introduced in 1 Samuel 18 –
18:1 When David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship.…
Thomas Manton (1620-1677) dealt with the subject of judgement according to works in a series of sermons on 2 Corinthians 5:10 – ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.’
The proposition he draws from this verse is that ‘there will certainly come a day when every person that ever lived shall be judged by Christ according to his works.’…
Abstracted from Practical Religion, by J. C. Ryle, chapter 1.
(1) Do we ever think about our souls at all?
Thousands of English people, I fear, cannot answer that question satisfactorily. They never give the subject of religion any place in their thoughts. From the beginning of the year to the end they are absorbed in the pursuit of business, pleasure, politics, money, or self-indulgence of some kind or another. Death, and judgment, and eternity, and heaven, and hell, and a world to come, are never calmly looked at and considered.…
