Moses – a confusing story?

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Moses is the most prominent human character in Torah.  He leads the Israelites out of Egypt, and guides them towards Canaan.  He mediates the laws the Yahweh revealed on mount Sinai.

Critical scholars point out that there is no extrabiblical biblical evidence that Moses was a real, historical, person.  The accounts of him in Scripture were compiled centuries after the events they purport to describe.

According to Jeffrey Stackert, there is not one Moses in the Old Testament, but four.  …

Midrash

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Introduction

With reference to the rabbinic writings, the term ‘midrash’ refers to both a type of scriptural interpretation (‘midrashic’) and for a body of scriptural interpretation (‘midrashim’).

It has become increasingly clear to scholars that parts of the NT reflect a midrashic approach.

In rabbinic practice, midrash assumes the existence of a fixed and holy text that can be used in multiple and diverse ways to answers various religious questions.  ‘Midrash assumes that the biblical text has an inexhaustible fund of meaning that is relevant to and adequate for every question and situation.’…

The tyranny of scholarship

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‘Let no one ever again affirm that conservative evangelicals have no regard for scholarship.’

It was with that statement that Bishop Stephen Neill began his review of a 1976 book entitled ‘History, Criticism and Faith’.  This book was a collection of four essays by F.F. Bruce, R.T. France, Colin Brown, and G. Wenham.  In it, they discuss ‘Myth and History’ (Bruce), ‘the Authenticity of the Sayings of Jesus’ (France), ‘History and the Believer’ (Brown), and ‘History and the Old Testament’ (Wenham).…

The psychology of eyewitness testimony

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I have referred, on several occasions, to the work of Richard Bauckham on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.  In that book Bauckham sets out a range of evidence in support of his view that the four Gospels are based very largely on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and therefore should be regarded as having a high index of historical reliability.

Writing in the 2nd edition of the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (art. ‘Historicisms and Historiography’), J.…

Confessional faith in the Pastoral Epistles

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‘The later letters in the New Testament to Timothy and Titus, in addition to their continuing use of these dynamic definitions of faith, distinguish true faith from false faith by making the content of faith confessional (2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9). Sound doctrine becomes the basis for right teaching (Titus 2:1) and right living (2 Tim. 3:15). Paul’s words to Timothy when faced with the prospect of death—“I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7)—can be a witness to both the dynamic quality of his life in Christ and the correctness of his understanding.’…

Let’s celebrate Christmas every day!

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The lively remembrance of the Savior’s birth should not be confined to any certain days in the year but should call forth our gratitude and praise every day.  We read nothing in the New Testament of setting apart one particular day for the celebration of this great event.  The minds of the apostles and primitive disciples were so imbued with the spirit of the gospel that they appear to have disregarded those external circumstances and associations which have, since, so greatly occupied the thoughts of men. …

1 Pet 3:8 – Togetherness – sermon notes

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1 Peter 3:8

We live our Christian lives under intense scrutiny.  1:12 – angels, 3:12, the Lord; 2:12 the world.

What astonishes the angels, delights God, and convicts the world, more than almost anything else?  To see the followers of Jesus Christ living in harmony with one another.

Five qualities.  Apple pie & fatherhood?

This is addressed to ‘all of you’.

1. Harmony

‘Like-mindedness’.  Unity of thought, purpose and action.

It is a unity in diversity. …

1 Peter 3:8-15a – Live in harmony – sermon notes

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Peter’s purpose in writing was to encourage persecuted Christians to stand firm in their faith, 1 Pet 5:12.  Accordingly, he repeatedly reminds them of the blessings that belong to those who belong to Christ: so much so, that this letter has been called ‘the epistle of hope’.  Moreover, he instructs them in the behaviour that Christians should exhibit in the midst of suffering: what kind of relationships they should have with the world in general (1 Pet 2:11f), with the state (1 Pet 2:13-17), within the home (1 Pet 2:18-3:7).…

Forgiveness in the teaching of Jesus

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According to N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God)  “Forgiveness of sins is another way of saying ‘return from exile’”.

‘However,’ (writes Robert Stein) ‘this is at best an overstatement. There is much in the Gospels concerning the great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and receives forgiveness (Luke 15:7, 10). It is difficult to see in Jesus’ forgiving the paralytic’s sins (Mark 2:1–12), in his forgiving of the sinful woman (Luke 7:36–50), in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10), and in all the accounts of the forgiving of sinners the theme of the return of the nation from exile as being more central than the forgiveness of these individuals.’…

What is the time?

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Trevin Wax explains the importance for the Christian leader of knowing ‘what time it is’.  It is one thing to focus on ‘timeless principles’, but another to lead in the context of:-

Biblical time.  Scripture has a clear timeline, reaching back to creation and stretching forward to the new creation.  We need to know where we are in the grand sweep of God’s purposes, and to understand what it means to live in the overlapping time of ‘now’ and ‘not yet’.…