To my mind there is no way to conceive of God in a Christian sense without conceiving of ourselves as servants. ‘Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ Since Kant, ‘individuals’ want ‘autonomy’, self-lordship. Since Nietzsche, we want... Continue Reading →
Theology Questions: #4 Why are real relationship in the church so hard?
First, regarding the description of your stance within the church, then it is clear that you rightly wish to avoid the problem of polarized debates and “positions” whereby partisan factions develop that a priori reject one another’s points of view out of hand in the name of often unexamined interests and agendas that are often... Continue Reading →
Theology Questions: #3 What does it mean to ‘keep in step with the Spirit’?
Keeping in Step with the Spirit In Galatians 5:13-26, Paul writes the following: 13 "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbour... Continue Reading →
Theology Questions: #2 What is Prophecy?
I have spent many years in the thinking of Anthony Thiselton, and so am very interested by his views, not least on prophecy (note the spelling here!). The best place to look for Thiselton’s views on this subject, which I regard as authoritative, is in his large commentary on 1 Corinthians: see, Anthony C. Thiselton,... Continue Reading →
Theology Questions: #1 God’s Will and the Bible
QUESTION: In the area of discovering God’s will how do you and how should we distinguish between what we want and what God wants? Do you regard the Bible as the inspired word of God and if so how should the Bible influence our decision making? RESPONSE: The Bible is ‘useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,... Continue Reading →