Category Archives: People

God does not need us

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What! he who guides the stars, and keeps them revolving in their orbits by the motions of his fingers, does he need an insignificant atom like one of ourselves to serve him?

What! he whom all the hosts of angels do worship, and before whose throne the cherubim do veil their faces with their wings, does he need a tiny creature like man to give him homage and reverence?

If he did need men, he could soon create as many mighty kings and princes as he pleased to wait upon him, and he could have crowned heads to bow before his footstool, and emperors to conduct him through the world in triumph.…

Tozer on God’s self-sufficiency

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Here are some extracts from A.W. Tozer on God’s self-sufficiency.

A voluntary relation

‘God has a voluntary relation to everything He has made, but He has no necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can bring to Him who is complete in Himself.’

We must learn to think differently about God

‘We must reverse the familiar flow of our thoughts and try to understand that which is unique, that which stands alone as being true in this situation and nowhere else.…

God the Judge

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J.I. Packer writes:

Do you believe in divine judgment? By which I mean, do you believe in a God who acts as our Judge?

Many, it seems, do not. Speak to them of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weakness and folly and sin, and their faces light up; you are on their wavelength at once. But speak to them of God as Judge and they frown and shake their heads.…

Good news! Jesus is just like you!

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With his customary incisiveness, Ian Paul has shown how easy it is for us to trim and shape the New Testament picture of Jesus so that it becomes a reflection of ourselves.

Liberals: good news! Jesus is just like you! He criticises the Pharisees for being too religious, and imposing their religious expectations unfairly on others (Matt 23.4). He appears to have a radical programme for social change, in which the poor are rewarded and those unjustly imprisoned are released (Luke 4.18), and this is rooted in a long-term vision for the inversion of social roles in which the rich and powerful are humbled, and privilege is removed (Luke 1.52).

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Knowing God

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“This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3).

What does it mean to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent?

Let J.I. Packer answer.

First, knowing God is a matter of personal dealing, as is all direct acquaintance with personal beings. Knowing God is more than knowing about him; it is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you.…

The Bible, women, and authority

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I have great respect for Ian Paul.  So, when he offers a view that I find unpersuasive, I’m glad to give it a hearing anyway.

Here, then, is the gist of his ‘considered summary’, arising from his study of the main biblical texts (Gen 1, 2 and 3, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 18, Romans 16, 1 Cor 11 and 14, Eph 5 and 1 Tim 2).  But here are the bare bones.

1. The creation accounts offer no evidence of hierarchy in male-female relationships as part of the original created order.

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Preaching: monologue or dialogue?

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Most evangelicals would, I suppose, think that ‘proper’ preaching consists of a prepared speech, delivered without interruption to a group a silent listeners.  The use of dialogue would be thought to ‘water down’ the content and authority of the message, by allowing what was being said to be questioned or even doubted.

But these assumptions should themselves be questioned, writes Ian Paul (here,here and here).

Consider the biblical evidence.  Ian Paul quotes Jeremy Thomson:

Much of Jesus’ teaching was given ‘on the way’ and involved a high degree of interaction with the audience (Mark 8.27–10.52).  …

Tabernacle and temple in the Bible story

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The tabernacle and temple were alike the meeting place between God and people.  Indeed, the tabernacle, which was at first a moveable structure, found a permanent home in Solomon’s temple.

But, actually, the story begins not in Exodus but at the beginning of Genesis.  As many scholars have observed, the garden of Eden was itself a kind of temple, for it to was the meeting place between God and his people.  Not surprising, then, that there are so many allusions to the creation narrative in the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 25ff.…

What are biblical masculinity and femininity?

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According to John Piper,

‘At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to a man’s differing relationships.’

and,

‘At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.’

It is not difficult to find fault with these definitions.  The most obvious complaint would be that they focus too much on the single issue of leadership. …

Guidelines on male headship in marriage

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In their book The Meaning of Marriage Tim and Kathy Keller suggest what obeying the pattern of male headship set out in Ephesians 5:21-33 might look like:

The husband’s authority (like the Son’s over us) is never used to please himself but only to serve the interests of his wife. Headship does not mean that the husband simply ‘makes all the decisions,’ nor does it mean he gets his way in every disagreement. Why? Jesus never did anything to please himself (Romans 15:2-3). …