‘Do not be afraid’

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Bible commentator William Hendriksen, while expressing some sympathy for artistic representations of biblical scenes, rightly asks if some images of the angels announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) give the correct impression.

Take, as an example, ‘Good Tidings’ by the artist William Plockhurst.

‘The sheep are huddled together in some kind of pen. Right near them are a few shepherds. Leaning against one of these sturdy men is the faithful shepherd’s dog.…

Discussion starters, Lk 2:41-52

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1. Luke 2:41-52 tells us all we know about Jesus’ childhood. What else do you wish you knew about his childhood and family life in Nazareth?

2. Jesus says to his parents (verse 49), “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” The following verse tells us that his parents ‘did not understand what he was saying to them.’ Do you think they should have understood? What do you think he meant?

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Aiōnios: duration, quality, or both?

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In his book The Fire That Consumes Fudge devotes an entire chapter (chapter 4) to the meaning of the Greek word aiōnios (usually translated ‘eternal’).

The key question is this: does the word mean (a) lasting for ever, (b) characteristic of the age to come, or (c) either or both of these (depending on context)?

A key text is Matthew 25:46, which speaks both of ‘eternal life’ and ‘eternal punishment’.  Many argue that aiōnios must mean the same in both parts of the verse. …

Grow your congregation in ethnic diversity

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If, like me, you’re slightly nervous about today’s social agenda of ‘inclusion and diversity’, then you, and your church, may need an injection of real gospel diversity to set the record straight and (to change the metaphor) adjust the direction in which we are traveling.

Greg Morse has some helpful guidelines, addressed especially to pastors, but useful to us all.  I summarise:-

1. Don’t dismiss social justice as “not a gospel issue.”  True, social justice is not the gospel, but it is just as true to say that it is an essential and inevitable outcome of the gospel.…

How about preaching a Bible overview?

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We all agree (don’t we?) that it’s great to have a bird’s eye view of the Bible as a whole, and especially its overall storyline.  But what about attempting this in a series of sermons?

John Percival writes on Unashamed Workman about just such an attempt.  His church followed Andrew Reid’s outline of eleven ‘big moments in God’s story’: creation, fall, promise, exodus, conquest, kingship, exile, return, cross, gospel, new creation.…

Seven marks of false teachers

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Summarising this post by Tim Challies:-

  1. False teachers are man pleasers.  They deal, not in what their hearers need to hear, but in what they want to hear.  See Gal 1:10; 1 Thess 2:4.
  2. False teachers oppose God’s most faithful servants.  So it was that false teachers dealt so brutally with our Lord himself.
  3. False teachers teach their own ideas, rather than God’s word.  See Jer 14:14; 23:25; 29:9.
  4. False teachers neglect what is of greatest importance in order to focus on what is less important. 
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The justice of final judgement

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‘The justice of God’s final judgment, which Jesus will administer, according to the Gospel, lies in two things: first, the fact that what people receive is not only what they deserve but that they have in effect already chosen — namely, to be forever without God and therefore without any of the good that He gives; second, the fact that the sentence is proportioned to the knowledge of God’s Word, work and will that was actually disregarded (cf. …

What are parables for?

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‘In contrast to most of the parabolic sayings, such as not reaping figs from thorn bushes (Luke 6:43), the story parables do not serve to illustrate Jesus’ prosaic teaching with word pictures. Nor are they told to serve as vehicles for revealing truth—although they end up clearly doing that. Rather the story parables function as a striking way of calling forth a response on the part of the hearer. In a sense, the parable itself is the message.…

Are only a few people going to be saved?

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This was, of course, a question that was put to the Lord Jesus (Luke 13:23).  We would do well to take his response to heart: it matters little whether they are few or many, if you are not among that number.

Still, some things can be said about this subject.

The question is faced up to squarely by the Puritan Christopher Love, even though he found his conclusion to be ‘one of the most dismal doctrines’ a pastor could preach. …

Grudem on annihilationalism

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Wayne Grudem (Systematic Theology, p1150) notes the following arguments that are advanced in favour of annihilationalism:-

  1. the biblical references to the destruction of the wicked, which, some say, implies that they will no longer exist after they are destroyed (Phil. 3:19; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Thess. 1:9; 2 Peter 3:7; et al.);
  2. the apparent inconsistency of eternal conscious punishment with the love of God;
  3. the apparent injustice involved in the disproportion between sins committed in time and punishment that is eternal;
  4. the fact that the continuing presence of evil creatures in God’s universe will eternally mar the perfection of a universe that God created to reflect his glory.
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