From Dr. Bob Cornwall on the gospel lesson for Pentecost 23C, Luke18:9-14:
In light of all that has been happening of late, it might be difficult for some to be sympathetic to the plight of the tax collector. He and his cronies in the government should beg for mercy!
Eddie Arthur comments with a link and provides some valuable advice. I grew up with my parents on long term missions, and have been on a number of short term missions myself, and this resonates.
James McGrath makes a connection here that I had never thought of, comparing a mythicist hypothesis that this refers to suffering outside the gate of heaven (for which we have have what evidence?) as opposed to a common belief at the time that Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem, for which we do have literary evidence. William of Ockham rules!
I wanted to promote a comment from Chris Heard: (who blogs at Higgaion)
Sadly, when I clicked through to the article on Charisma News, one of the sidebars pointed to another Charisma News article entitled “This Is What Heretical, Counterfeit Christianity in Action Looks Like.” That article condemned an Anglican preacher as “sinning” and practicing “heretical, counterfeit Christianity” for speaking out against homophobia and heterosexism. Commenters piled on to aver that the preacher in question is “not a Christian.” Sad that one columnist on the site faults MacArthur for using techniques that another columnist on the same site employs against a liberal Anglican. Broadsides against liberal or progressive Christians are no better than broadsides against charismatic Christians. To clarify, I am not tarring you with that brush, Henry, just noting that there’s plenty of incivility to go around.
I definitely appreciate his not tarring me with the same brush, but I think this is an experience that needs to be emphasized.
In this case, it was two different people in the same magazine, but often it’s one and the same person. We object to the way we are criticized while speaking harshly of others. I want to emphasize that I’m not talking here about upholding what you believe to be the truth, nor of compromise, or of approval. I’m talking about both civility and effectiveness. Obviously I’ve been speaking with some vigor about the way certain people are speaking. What I do not think you have heard me do, though I have been guilty of it at various times in the past, is condemning a whole group of people.
Inevitably someone will say that certain doctrinal beliefs, such as whether one accepts gay marriage or not, is simply outside the bounds. Be very careful who you place outside the bounds of civil discourse. Are there cases where someone is that far out? Yes. I would say so. But there are many less, I think, than we so categorize. I think I would summarize my approach by saying it’s best to talk about what is right more than who is right.
I’ve made a mission of conversation, and while I spoke under the current circumstances of charismatic and evangelical, I am committed to having this conversation include Christian liberals as well. You can hear my approach in the video I’ll embed below. It’s a simple home video which I made early in the process of forming my company, Energion Publications. I’ve heard many times that my plan is not viable, either for a publishing company (too much variety, too little focus) or for any ministry. I think there are good things that happen when we listen to one another, and I’m going to make that effort.
I make some (but not many) apologies for the (sort of) commercial. After all, publishing is what I do. I’m bound to talk about it.
Finally there is a review of Killing Jesus from someone I trust. John Byron pretty much tells the story. You’ve gotta love this:
On a recent 60 Minutes interview Bill claims that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the book (see below). If this is true, it’s too bad the Holy Spirit didn’t help him to do a better job of it.
Ouch!
Now I can not read the book with a clear conscience.
I’ve always believe in open communion in the sense that any Christian should be permitted to participate. Over the last few years I’ve attended a church where truly open communion is practiced, because the pastors believe, with John Wesley, that this is a converting sacrament. So they state each time communion is offered that you don’t have to be a member of the church, or even a Christian, to participate. Jesus invites everyone.
I’m not at all prepared to debate the issue; I simply haven’t studied the theology enough. But I do have a couple of authors who are quite involved in it. One is Dr. Bob Cornwall, who will be writing a book on the Lord’s Supper for the Topical Line Drives series. (The book itself hasn’t yet been announced, but the contract is signed.)
In the meantime another author, Dr. Bob LaRochelle (I’d be in trouble without authors named Bob), who has a special perspective as a former Roman Catholic who is now a Protestant clergyman, is beginning a series of columns for Energion.net on ecumenical issues, and his first column deals with communion.
I’m putting this on my personal blog because I’d like to see comments from some of my readers on this particular topic.
John MacArthur has a conference starting tomorrow. Here’s how he talks about the charismatic movement:
http://youtu.be/vWp-rLTPQYE
I recently wrote an article titled Nobody Is above Question. Now I’m questioning Dr. John MacArthur in the way he is challenging others.
This is precisely the opposite of the philosophy I have for my company, Energion Publications (mission statement here). I believe we must all be prepared to learn from one another. I do think much charismatic Bible study is much too shallow. Those of us who are charismatic (and I count myself in that number), should be ready to learn from our Baptist brethren to spend more time, and more serious time, in the word. But there are so many more things we can learn from one another if we spend less time condemning and more time listening.
In a comment I suggested that we need to learn to show grace while still upholding truth. Neither element can be lost.
I was out driving today and saw a church sign with the statement, “The Bible – Your First Notebook.” What exactly does that mean? I see almost nothing about the Bible that makes it like a notebook.
It’s still better than the common statement—at least I heard it frequently when I was younger—that the Bible is like the Boy Scout Handbook. In fact, again, the Bible is almost totally unlike the Boy Scout Handbook. They do both have covers, pages, and letters on the page, but there the similarity seems to end. There are portions of the Bible that are more like the handbook than others, but even those, such a Proverbs, or certain sections of the Pentateuch, but even there the differences are overwhelming.
The Bible is a bit more like a collection of all the camp fires tales and verbal wisdom passed from one leader to another, though nobody is likely to use that as an analogy. Nonetheless, such an analogy would provide more help in learning to interpret the Bible well.
I think we see these expressions as somehow pious. People respect the Boy Scout Handbook in a certain way. People follow the directions that are in it. So it seems pious and virtuous to make the comparison.
But such comparisons are really unhelpful. The Bible presents the word of God, but it often provides us with more questions than answers, starting places for thinking rather than conclusions. I’m not saying that it does not provide any conclusions. It’s just that it’s not as simple as an instruction manual. It tells a story of human interaction with God. That makes the Bible work.
The Bible also makes much larger claims than any instruction manual. Besides the claim to bring God’s word, it claims that study of that word will bring wisdom. (Consider Psalm 19 or all of Psalm 119, for example.)
So while it may seem pious to compare the Bible to things in our ordinary lives that we respect. But we do not help people by making these claims or comparisons. The most respectful thing to do about the Bible is to represent it accurately, and treat it as it is.
I doubt such an accurate representation will fit on a church sign.
In these pictures I’m not doing the work. My landlord is. I’ve been working on some of this stuff as well, but today I was taking the pictures. Tom Hunt, my landlord, owns all the heavy equipment. I have to say that the work is fun. Right now we’re cleaning up the piles of limbs and logs and other debris produced by clearing.
![IMG_20131014_172642[1]](http://henrysthreads.com/wp-content/IMG_20131014_1726421.jpg)
I expect to have most of the logs done and ready for splitting this week.
In any case, that’s a personal update. I don’t do that often on this blog!
