Eph 3:1-13 – What has God done for the church? – sermon notes

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Paul has just been speaking, Eph 2, about the new society that God has established. It is an international and a multi-racial society. There is a place in God’s new society for people from every nation, tribe, language and culture under heaven. In the past, God’s work had been primarily focussed on the Jewish people. But now Jews and Gentiles are offered salvation on precisely the same terms, and with exactly the same benefits and blessings.…

The New Perspective on Paul

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Here we go again: the New Perspective on Paul.

In the words of one writer, ‘the potential significance of the [New Perspective] school for the whole Christian faith can hardly be exaggerated.’ (Seyoon Kim)

Michael B. Thompson, Vice-Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, has a useful short introduction (published by Grove Books).  What follows based on that.

The Old Perspective and its Problems

The NPP is an attempt to understand Paul in his own context, free from the categories and pre-occupations of the sixteenth century.…

Five rules of biblical hermeneutics

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According to E.J. Carnell, in The Case for Orthodox Theology, pp 53-65, the following five rules govern Biblical hermeneutics.

1.  The New Testament interprets the Old Testament.

The relationship between the two Testaments is that of preparation and fulfilment.  The old is a ‘shadow of things to come’, Heb 10:1.  Therefore, in no case does the Old Testament enjoy supremacy over the New Testament.  ‘Moses is a servant in the house, while Christ is the Son.’ …

What is Foundationalism?

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Emerging church people of a more philosophical bent often speak critically of ‘foundationalism’.

What’s that?

Nancey Murphy explains:-

Foundationalism is a theory about knowledge.  More specifically, it is a theory about how claims to know can be justified.  When we seek to justify a belief, we do so by relating it to (basing it on, deriving it from) other beliefs.  If these other beliefs are called into question, then they, too, must be justified.  Foundationalists insist that this chain of justification must stop somewhere; it must not be circular, nor must it constitute an infinite regress. 

…

The Emerging Church in its own words 3

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Chapter 4 of Gibbs’ and Bolger’s Emerging Churches: creating Christian community in postmodern culture is entitled, ‘Transforming secular space’.  Here are some extracts.

Breaking down the dualisms of modernity

‘A consequence of the creation of a secular realm was modernity’s penchant to break everything up into little parts for classification, organisation, and systematisation.  Thus, in the modern period, many dualisms were introduced to church life that had not been problematic before: the natural verses the supernatural; public facts versus private values; the body versus the mind and spirit; faith versus reason; power versus love; and the list goes on. …

The Emerging Church in its own words 2

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Chapter 3 of Emerging Churches: creating Christian community in postmodern cultures, by Gibbs & Bolger, is entitled, ‘Identifying with Jesus’.

Here are some extracts.

What would Jesus do on a Sunday?

‘I read the Gospels over and over.  Nothing I was doing on Sunday was what I thought Jesus would be doing if he were here.’  (Joe Boyd)

The kingdom emphasis

‘It is strange how the church for so long missed the kingdom emphasis in the witness of the authors of the Gospels. …

The Emerging Church in its own words 1

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Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Culture (SPCK) by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger is regarded by many as the most authoritative book presently available on the beliefs and practices of the emerging church.  It is based on interviews with 50 leaders in the US and the UK.

I thought that it would be interesting to provide some extracts from the book, in order let emerging church leaders, together with the two authors of the book, speak for themselves.…

Sir David Attenborough ‘gets hate mail from creationists’

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“They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance,” said Sir David in a recent interview in Radio Times.  And the hate mail bit of the interview was headlined in The Telegraph, The Guardian, and many other newspapers and news sources.

I don’t disbelieve the story for a moment.  There are hateful, lunatic minorities in all movements, from the animal rights lobby to the anti-abortion lobby.

But it’s not very scientific, is it? …

How the emerging church marginalises the gospel

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For emerging church people, Jesus’ message of kingdom tends to be all about what God is doing here and now.  It is about peace, justice, and compassion.  The gospel is an invitation to participate with God in this mission.

Participating in God’s kingdom is not about change in status (unsaved to saved), or about affirming certain doctrines.  It is about following the example of Jesus as the best way to live.

The problem with this understanding of the kingdom is not in what in affirms but in what it denies or marginalises. …

Why Scott McKnight kissed Calvinism good-bye

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Looking back over Scott McKnight’s always-interesting blog, I noticed this post about his dalliance with Calvinism (or, at least with some Calvinist writers) and why he couldn’t, in the end, accept Calvinism as a ‘system’, much as he admired many aspects of it.

He writes:-

I love the “architecture” of Calvinism — that is, the focus on God’s glory and loving God, and I love the magnitude of grace in that theology, and I even love the radical transcendence that is often found in Calvinism…

When I was in college I sat for afternoons in our library and pored through Calvin’s Institutes, leading my dear wife to comment that I’d be better off underlining what I didn’t like because I had underlined most everything!…