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The sad irony of celebrity pastors

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Carl Lentz is the latest of a rather long line of celebrity pastors to fall off his pedestal.

Lentz, until very recently, lead pastor of Hillsong Church NYC, has apparently had a string of extramarital affairs.

Prompted by this sad turn of events, Ben Sixsmith (not a professing Christian) has written a thoughtful article about the perils involved with the cult of the celebrity pastor.

Lentz seems to have deliberately nurtured his celebrity image.  Not only has Hillsong NYC tended to put celebrities (such as Justin Bieber) front and centre of stage, so has the pastor himself:

‘Lentz turned himself into a brand.

…

Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10 – The unpardonable sin

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Mt 12:31f “People will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Mk 3:29 “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin”

Lk 12:10 “The person who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”…

Luke 2 – Was Joseph from Nazareth, or Bethlehem (or both)?

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It is generally supposed that Joseph, like Mary, came from Nazareth.  At the time of the census, he travelled, with his wife-to-be, to Bethlehem, his ancestral home.  After Jesus’ birth he took his little family to Egypt, in order to escape the threat of Herod.  And then, after that threat subsided, they returned to their hometown of Nazareth.

Stephen Carlson argues that Bethlehem was Joseph’s actual family home, and not just his ancestral home.  Two reasons: (a) the is no record of a census requiring a man to return to his ancestral home; (b) Lk 2:39 (‘…to a town of their own’) implies that Joseph and Mary made Nazareth their home after the birth. …

Spiritual gifts – the case for cessationism

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For a long time, I have thought that the biblical case for cessationism (the belief that miraculous gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age) was rather weak.  B.B. Warfield, whose name is so often associated with this belief, made his case (in Counterfeit Miracles) on historical, not scriptural grounds.

I was interested, then to read this essay by Thomas Schreiner in which he sets out the biblical-theological reasons for thinking that miraculous gifts have ceased.…

Philippians 2:10 – ‘The name that is above every name’

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2:9 God exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
2:10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow.

At first glance, this passage seems to teach that ‘the name that is above every name’, which God has given to his exalted Son, is ‘the name of Jesus’.

But there are at least two reasons why this cannot be so.  Firstly, the name ‘Jesus’ was given to our Lord at the time of his incarnation, not at the time of his exaltation. …

Is the Son eternally subject to the Father?

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(These notes by no means attempt a definitive solution to this question, which has become controversial in evangelical circles in recent years.)

The question of whether the Son is eternally subject to the Father is of some significance to debates between complementarians and egalitarians.  (This question is, of course, closely related to that concerning the relationship of the Spirit to the Father and the Son, but I will set that aside for now).

It is important to note that neither ‘side’ in the debate is monolithic. …

Rev 7:4; 14:1 – The 144,000

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Rev 7:4 – I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed from all the tribes of the people of Israel.

Rev 14:1 – Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

There has, of course, been much debate over the identity of the 144,000.…

Thinking biblically about racial diversity

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John Stott argues from Paul’s celebrated Areopagus speech in Acts 17.

First, Paul affirmed the unity of the human race, or the God of creation. For God had “made from one every nation of men” (v. 26), and all human beings are therefore his “offspring” (28, 29). We evangelicals rightly reject the concept of “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men” if it is used to deny the special fatherhood and fellowship God gives to his redeemed people.…

John 21:11 – One hundred and fifty three fish

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Jn 21:11 Simon Peter went aboard and pulled the net to shore. It was full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three, but although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Many weird and wonderful attempts have been made to find special meaning in the number of fish in the net.

  1. Jerome, for example, reported that ancient writers believed that there were 153 different species of fish in the net, thus symbolising all the nations of the world.
…

Preach your own sermon (please)

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According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, to plagiarize is ‘to take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one’s own.’

Plagiarism can occur in various walks of life: in academic study, in art and music, and in preaching.  Obviously, it is the latter that we are concerned with here.

Plagiarism may be intentional (in which case it is dishonest).  Or it may be unintentional (in which case it is due to poor work methods).…