9:27AM - The iBible
I want one!
(HT: Bound Dragon)
I just got back from Sydney today, but the blogosphere kept on cranking away in my absence...
John La Grou @ Microclesia has just finished responding to Frank Viola's Pagan Christianity.
De Regno Christi is hosting a discussion on the Federal Vision.
Adrian Keister had started a blog called The Making of Many Books.
The much revered holyoffice interviews himself concerning his new book, The Messiah Formerly Known as Jesus.
Douglas Wilson @ Blog and Mablog talks about Kuyperian chapel services.
And last but not least, the Tominthebox News Network discusses the growing trend of VHS-onlyism.
I'm in Sydney at the moment, having just attended 21C, a conference for young Presbyterian leaders. One of the highlights was hearing Andrew McGowan, principal of the Highland Theological College in Scotland. Listen to his wonderful talk on "Christianity and the Nation" here. He also gave a seminar in which he suggested that Presbyterians ought to read more Dutch guys, like Abraham Kuyper and Hans Rookmaaker.
I've also been attending the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Tomorrow morning the Assembly will debate a ban on the ordination of women to the eldership. There is an interesting convergenece of issues here – the GAA (as it's called) deals with matters of doctrine, while the state assemblies deal with matters of government. Now, is the issue of women elders a matter of doctrine or of government? Some would appeal to New Testament teaching that episcopoi (1 Timothy 3:2) and presbuteroi (Titus 1:6) should both be husbands of one wife. According to the Form of Presbyterial Church Government, however, what we normally call elders are neither episcopoi nor presbuteroi, but "other church governors" who are to "join with the minister in the government of the church". But of course, Paul still says that women are not to "exercise authority over a man" (1 Timothy 2:12), and this cannot be merely the apostle's personal opinion.
Anyway, please pray for the Assembly as it debates this and other important matters.
UPDATE: The Assembly voted 83 – 47 to pass the proposal on to State Assemblies and Presbyteries for approval.
This is the first in a series on the status of the Transjordan in the Old Testament, which is the topic of my Honours thesis. The Transjordan is the land east of the Jordan River, which was settled by the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half-Mannasseh. I am looking particularly at Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua. Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
Numbers 32: This chapter describes a request by the tribes of Reuben and Gad to settle in the Transjordan. Moses regards the request as sinful, but a compromise is reached: if the tribes assist in the conquest of the land west of the Jordan, then they can return and settle east of the river.
Joshua 3 – 5: Here we have a narrative of the crossing of the River Jordan. Two chapters are devoted to this event, which suggests its importance. After the Israelites cross the river, the manna ceases, which indicates that the wilderness wandering has finished.
Joshua 22: In this chapter, Joshua tells the two and half tribes to return to the Transjordan. They do return, but then, rather surprisingly, they build a massive altar by the Jordan. This causes the "whole congregation of the Israelites" to prepare for war, but, wisely, they first send a delegation to the Transjordanian tribes. They accuse the Transjordanians of making God angry, and suggest that their land may be unclean. In response to this, the Transjordanian tribes say that the altar is not for offerings, but is only a "witness". The western tribes are satisfied, and return home.
Sorry for the delay since the last post. I've been having a lot on recently. Last night I chaired a Board of Management meeting for the very first time. And I've been busy working on my thesis.
So during the past few days I've seriously thought about ending this blog:
But I think that I might blog on my thesis – I often get asked what my topic is, and blogging about it will get my thoughts into order. My topic is the Status of the Transjordan in the Old Testament – that is, is the land east of the Jordan part of the promised land?
It's a 15,000 word thesis, and I've written about 5000 words. At the moment, I'm just dumping information on the screen – but soon I will have to start shaping it into an argument. A few blog entries on the subject might help me do that.
So don't delete me from your blog feed just yet...
At long last, I've received the rest of the pictures of my trip to Africa. Of course, I didn't take any photos myself – I'm a picture parasite. If you need to refresh your memory about my trip, see the first three installments of my journal.
I have two more albums on Facebook: Getting there and Blantyre.
This is a picture that Toby took of Antarctica on the way over there. Since we were running late, we took a shortcut, and if you think about great circles, it makes sense that we went over Antarctica.
We played a lot of footy in Malawi, introducing the people of Africa to the second best game in the world (behind cricket, of course). Here we were having a kick at Blantyre Airport, and I am being comprehensively out-marked by Toby, as I was all trip.
This is the mission team, outside the Theological Resource Centre in Blantyre. From left to right: Dean, Sandy, Joel, me, Hui, Simon, John Wilson, Toby, Mark, Cam, Clinton and Krissy.
Posted by request.
This is a paraphrase of Hebrews 13:20-21, which is a passage I often use as a Benediction. I preached at St Stephen's, Flemington, and we sang this hymn to the tune of Horsley ("There is a green hill far away") which worked rather well, I thought.
Father of peace, and God of love,
We own Thy power to save,
That power by which our Shepherd rose
Victorious o’er the grave.
Him from the dead Thou brought’st again,
When, by His sacred blood,
Confirmed and sealed for evermore
The eternal covenant stood.
O may Thy Spirit seal our souls,
And mold them to Thy will,
That our weak hearts no more may stray,
But keep Thy covenant still.
That to perfection's sacred height,
We nearer still may rise,
And all we think, and all we do,
Be pleasing in thine eyes.
– Philip Doddrige, 1751.
You Are Cereal |
 Playful and lighthearted, breakfast is likely your favorite meal of the day. (In fact, you're probably the type who sneaks cereal as a midnight snack.) Your culinary skills are probably a bit lacking... and you are a sucker for junk food. Some people accuse you of eating like a kid, but you prefer to think of yourself as low maintenance. |
I had a long day preaching in the country yesterday, so I didn't post my customary Sunday hymn. Since my last list of websites omitted online journals, I thought I'd post them now. There should be something for everyone here...
On page 79 of his Confessions, Mark Driscoll describes a number of people one finds in churches:
Horses are vibrant leaders who pull a lot of weight and run fast.
Colts are emerging leaders who need training, testing and opportunities to lead. If properly broken in, a colt can be developed into a horse.
Mules are faithful workers who dependably and continually do whatever is asked of them in the church.
Squirrels are people who are generally liked because they are nice, but they rarely do anything meaningful. Squirrels need to be put to work in the church.
Cows are selfish people who wander from church to church, chewing up resources without ever giving back to the church until they kill it.
Stray cats are socially peculiar loners who linger around the church.
Ducks are disgruntled people who continually quack about whatever they're unhappy about.
Driscoll also describes fish, eagles, rats, sheep, wolves and snakes.
This is a very helpful list, since it highlights the need for a pastor to be discerning. For example, I have had the experience of thinking a particular person was a stray cat, before realising that the person in question was probably a cow.
But this is also a very dangerous list, for it can lead us to judge a person too hastily. Whenever we categorise people we run the risk of attributing to them characteristics they do not possess. We tend to impute motives, and make decisions based on surface appearances.
This is, by the way, a temptation that accompanies any training in counselling. Once you learn general principles about how people function and relate, you are tempted to think you can figure out any person you meet.
G. K. Chesterton has written a great story about this. The Miracle of Moon Crescent features a certain Warren Wynd, and the "miraculous rapidity with which he could form a sound judgement, especially of human character":
Another story was told of how three tramps, indistinguishable from each other in their community of filth and rags, had presented themselves before him asking for charity. Without a moment’s hesitation he had sent one of them to a particular hospital devoted to a certain nervous disorder, had recommended the second to an inebriates’ home, and had engaged the third at a handsome salary as his own private servant, a position which he filled successfully for years afterwards.
But as Father Brown said, "What is any man that he should be a judge of men?" Indeed, the three tramps were "dismissed rapidly right and left to one place or another; as if for them there were no cloak of courtesy, no stages of intimacy, no free-will in friendship. And twenty years has not exhausted the indignation born of that unfathomable insult in that moment when he dared to know them at a glance."
So, it may be helpful to categorise the people one meets in church, but this must always be accompanied by courtesy and grace.
I have received a request for me to list my top ten "Christian/theological/preaching" websites. I have ignored blogs, online journals and discussion forums. So here goes, in alphabetical order:
This was painted by the Norwegian artist Rolf Groven. If you stare at it long enough, you can see that it's a map of Europe, with Italy as the bridge. The title of the work is Den Norske Dråpen ("The Norwegian Drop").
We sang this at Scots' this morning...
Presumably inspired by Despair.com, Phil Johnson from Pyromaniacs has designed some motivational posters for the emerging church:
I thought I'd better post some thoughts regarding Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformission Rev, though many readers will have already discussed it at some length. I reviewed his previous book, The Radical Reformission earlier this year.
Driscoll asks, (page 23), "Will you proclaim a gospel of forgiveness, fulfillment or freedom?" He notes that the "traditional" church proclaims a gospel of forgiveness, (which "worked well for people in Christendom") and the "contemporary" church proclaims a gospel of fulfillment. The "emerging" church, on the other hand, proclaims a gospel of freedom. Driscoll clearly aligns himself with this third version of the gospel.
Yet Driscoll's reason for rejecting the "gospel of forgiveness" is vague at best. He says that it "seems judgmental, mean-spirited, naive and narrow-minded to the ever-increasing number of people who do not understand the basic tenets of Christianity". In other words, it is liable to be misunderstood – but it always has been misunderstood by many people.
There is no doubt that freedom is a biblical category, and I believe it to be an integral part of the biblical gospel. It can also provide an effective focus for evangelism, though it has its own particular pitfalls. If we say that we focus on freedom because it is something that people long for (whereas they don't desire forgiveness), then we still have to carefully distinguish between freedom that's bad (like freedom from God) and freedom that's good (like freedom from sin). Tailoring the message to what we think people want to hear is always dangerous.
The thing is, freedom and forgiveness are not incompatible, and should not be played off against each other. Since the Bible is thematically rich, there are many different ways to explain the gospel. We don't always gave to use the analogy of the law-court and speak in terms of getting right with God. But there's nothing wrong with preaching in this way.
In fact, we can go much further. We could, in theory, take any biblical theme and use it as a means of telling the gospel. For example, we could argue that the thing that people desire and lack is not freedom, but relationship. We could then formulate the gospel in terms of love – sin means rejecting God's love. But God's love is also the solution to the problem.
Thus, there is nothing wrong with preaching the gospel in terms of freedom, but Driscoll (and the emerging church movement) misses the mark in saying that we should do so at the expense of preaching in terms of forgiveness.
My exit appointment for next year is at Aspendale Presbyterian Church, in south-eastern Melbourne:
The Presbyterian Church of Victoria's church directory indicates that there will be 132 souls in my care – 92 communicants, 10 adherents, and 30 children and youth.
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