word | spirit | world | church
When someone wants to point out that Christians don’t believe the Bible—often because they want to poke holes in a Christian sexual ethic—they turn to one of two places, mixed fibres or shellfish. Both are laws from the old testament, one part of the food laws which I’ve written on before, the other one of… Continue reading Mixed Fibres
In Revelation 21 the church (the ‘bride’) is described as a city, a new Jerusalem, in intricate detail. John is referencing from all over the Bible, he has the later part of Ezekiel and Genesis 2 in particular view, but liberally references elsewhere. John is at this point in Revelation talking about the future; this… Continue reading The Gates of the City
Theologians debate the Ordo Salutis, or ‘order’ of salvation. Describing it can get us into some of the deeper questions about how the Lord rescues us. By ‘order’ I don’t mean the chronological order, what happened first and what happened second. Several of these events will have been concurrent with each other, and time and… Continue reading The Order of Salvation
There’s this strange moment in Noah’s life where he gets drunk, falls down naked, his son Ham sees him naked, and then he curses Ham. It leads to the frequent accusation that Noah was a drunkard, which at best might be true but is missing the wood for the trees. You can read the story… Continue reading Noah and the Curse of Ham
No. That was easy. Except, I think most readers will expect me to say ‘yes.’ Aren’t we all without excuse before the wrath of God (Romans 1)? Yes, we are. Yet this is not saying the same thing. Having been fed—mostly evangelistically—on the (true!) idea that even the smallest sin is the enough to damn… Continue reading Is all sin equal?
In Matthew 16 Jesus declares to Peter that he is the rock on which he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What does that mean? In popular piety it’s most often quoted when we feel under attack by the forces of the Enemy. We’re most likely under… Continue reading The Gates of Hell
There’s probably a lot to be said about using commentaries to prepare preaching, but I’m going to address one very narrow aspect: how I’ve developed a way of knowing which commentaries to regularly consult. I’m a pastor but not employed by the church, I preach approximately monthly and so don’t have the luxury of lots… Continue reading Developing a ‘canon’ of commentaries
Yes. But not like you think I mean. There are a number of passages in the New Testament which speak about perfection. Perhaps most famously, and challengingly, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount declares that we should “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5.48 It is common to wave this away.… Continue reading Can We Be Perfect?
Are we supposed to judge others, or not? D. A. Carson has quipped, and is often quoted, that John 3.16 is no longer the best known verse of the Bible in western cultures. Instead, it’s Matthew 7.1: ‘judge not, that you not be judged.’ Which tells you a fair bit about our culture’s reception of… Continue reading On Judging Others
We need to learn to play in the Bible’s text. I’ve touched on this in an article about the way I read the Bible with others, but I’m convinced that what we need to learn if we want to revive our reading of the Bible is the freedom to try things out in discussion. The… Continue reading Playing in the text
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