How to Talk about Theology

http://reknew.org/2014/06/how-to-talk-about-theology/

Did Jesus teach the "Romans Road"?

Adam Stephens said...

I read a great quote it states "When we can find hardly any instance of our favorite theological category in the whole of the four Gospels, we need to be wary of How important our own interpretations and theological favorites are" I have to ask the question,is the Romans Road a man made method or what Jesus Taught? Some of these scriptures I can't find in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) at all. The Plan of Salvation according to Jesus within the Gospels was Believe (Salvation) followed by Repentance (To turn from Self and Sin to Him) with a call to pick up your cross and follow Him. This is the consistent message from Jesus Himself. No Prayer was ever recorded for salvation or No confessing with the mouth. We need to dig into Roman history to find the true meaning of what Paul is saying. Many today say that Romans would profess Caesar as Lord and not Jesus. The result is Paul pleading with them to Profess Jesus as Lord, not Caesar. In 1st century Rome denying Caesar would mean you would be in danger of your life. A person professing Jesus would indicate true belief. Today this wouldn't apply directly in the context of the passage. I find the Romans road creates what is called easy-believism. True belief results in denying self and relentlessly pursuing Christ as the only hope. 

Is the Word of God inerrant?

Thoughts from theologian Greg Boyd:
It’s my conviction that the only place to begin our reflections on the “God-breathed” nature of Scripture that can claim a trans-human authority is Jesus Christ. As with everything else pertaining to God, I submit that to understand the nature of biblical inspiration we must adopt Paul’s humble mindset and start with the confession that we “know nothing … except Jesus Christ and him crucified ” (1 Cor 2:2). From beginning to end our thinking about the nature of Scripture should be centered on the crucified Christ. Jesus is not one of God’s words; Jesus, as the God-become-human, is the Word to which all the words of Scripture bear witness. As such, we should regard him to be the essential content and controlling center of all “God-breathed” words. - 

See more at: http://reknew.org/2015/09/an-alternative-to-biblical-inerrancy/#sthash.A5jU8kkq.dpuf

A High View of Scripture

A high view of Scripture takes the Bible seriously, while also taking its historical context and the humanity of its authors seriously. A high view of Scripture is held by those who actually read Scripture, seek to understand why the human authors wrote what they did, and how they convey God’s timeless will for us today. A high view of Scripture includes not only reading the Bible, but seeking to live its timeless messages, which are discerned in the light of Jesus Christ, who is the definitive Word of God. - 
See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2014/05/01/adam-hamilton-offers-scandalous-take-on-scripture/#sthash.2P6LfgWm.dpuf

SEPTEMBER 2015 Newsletter - ReKnew.org

Three Buckets of Scripture

From "Making Sense of the Bible" by Adam Hamilton -

 "I suggest that there are three “buckets” into which scriptures fall:

1. Scriptures that express God’s heart, character and timeless will for human beings.
2. Scriptures that expressed God’s will in a particular time, but are no longer binding.
3. Scriptures that never fully expressed the heart, character or will of God.

Bucket one scriptures include passages like the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor.  They include passages that call us to “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God,” and to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”   Most of the Bible fits into this category – capturing God’s heart, character and timeless will for humanity.

Bucket two scriptures, those that expressed God’s will for his people in a specific time and circumstances but which do not express the timeless will of God, include the command that males be circumcised, commands regarding animal sacrifices, clean and unclean foods, and hundreds of other passages in the Law.  The Apostles, in Acts 15, determined that most of the laws like these were no longer binding upon Christians.

The idea of a third bucket, passages that never fully reflected God’s heart and will, is disconcerting to some.  It challenges some deeply held beliefs about how God spoke and continues to speak through the biblical authors.  Here are a few examples of scripture I don’t believe ever accurately captured God’s heart, character, or will:  Leviticus 21:9 requires that if the daughter of a priest becomes a prostitute she must be burned to death.  In Exodus 21:20-21, God permits slave-owners to beat their slaves with rods provided they don’t die within the first 48 hours after the beating “for the slave is his property.”  God commands the destruction of every man, woman, and child in 31 Canaanite cities and later killis 70,000 Israelites in punishment for David taking a census. These passages seem to me to be completely inconsistent with the God revealed in Jesus Christ who cared for prostitutes, commanded that we love our enemies, and gave his life to save sinners.

Where Christians disagree is whether the handful of scriptures that condemn same-sex sexual activity belong to bucket one, two, or three.  Do these passages describe God’s heart and timeless will, or might they have been addressing specific forms of same-sex activity in ancient Israel and in the first century Greco-Roman world, or perhaps they may not have captured God’s heart and character at all?

How we answer the questions of what scripture is, how when and why it was written, and the way in which God influenced its human authors shapes how we make sense of issues like homosexuality."

The Power of Grace

"Grace empowers you to be who God created you to be". Ted Roberts - Pure Desire Ministries

Indifference

Indifference does not mean apathy or disinterest. It simply means I must become indifferent to anything but the will of God. The degree to which I am open to any outcome or answer from God is the degree to which I am ready to really hear what God has to say. If I am clutching or overly attached to one outcome versus another, I won’t hear God clearly.


Arriving at this place of interior indifference and trusting that God’s will is good—no matter the outcome—is no small task.

What to preach if...

If the world were ending tomorrow, I’d want to preach this Sunday the good news that Jesus Christ died to save sinners and rose again, and that we can live a life of faith in him that matters for eternity. And if the world hangs around a few more millennia, I’d want to preach the same exact message.

You can build a congregation in size and collect large offerings by creating anxiety, fear, and anger toward the outside world, but I don’t think you’d be on task. In fact, you might just wind up starting a cult, which never ends well.

Instead, lead people to life in Jesus. Lead people to the cross for redemption. Lead people to discover the life worth living no matter what the world looks like around us. Lead people to follow Jesus, emulate his character, and implement the ways and practices conveyed in Scripture.

By Brandon Cox 

A Discerning Mindset

The rest of the world makes decisions, but the church discerns. If that were just a choice of words, it wouldn’t be important. But Ruth Haley Barton believes the difference goes much deeper. To discern is to find the will of God. “Christian leaders have an idea that their decision-making should be somehow different from the rest of the world,” Barton said. “But sometimes we reduce that to just having a prayer and devotions at the beginning of the meeting.”

She defines discernment as “the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God in both the ordinary moments and the larger decisions of our lives.”

Discernment is the habit of noticing where God is at work and how God is speaking. Barton believes it is possible, in any situation, to “have a sense of whether God is at work or the Evil One is at work.” This needs to happen even in the interior world of our own thoughts and motives. 1 John 4:1 advises us to “test the spirits.” Are we willing to test our own spirit?

To do this, we need to listen to God in solitude and silence.

“Many of us are trying to give spiritual leadership without having much of a spiritual life,” Barton said. We must not let our busyness — even our Christian busyness — keep us from being aware of what is going on in our own soul. We need to be quiet and hear the voice of God as distinct from our own voice.

To whom does God give the spiritual gift of discernment? To those who are on a spiritual journey, Barton says. To those who let God transform them into a better version of themselves.

Sometimes the ones most gifted with keen spiritual perception are quiet and rarely speak up. Leaders should seek their counsel.

To become more discerning, Barton advises praying a prayer of indifference: “Not my will but thine.” This is not apathy but surrender. “The prayer of indifference helps us cross the threshold between human decision-making and the will of God,” Barton said. It is not easy to pray sincerely for indifference. “You will not be able to make yourself indifferent by trying really hard and gritting your teeth,” Barton said. “God has to be doing a work in you.”

And yet, any group of Christians might pray the most earnest prayers of indifference and still disagree about what God’s will is on a certain issue. Barton acknowledges that “part of the work of discernment is talking about how important unity is to us and what to do if we don’t reach agreement.”

We might perceive that part of God’s will is to stay in fellowship with each other. God knows we won’t agree about everything. When there is not unity of mind, there still can be unity in Christ and unity of spirit. If we can discern it.

Lifting the Burden

 Carrying a grudge literally weighs you down. Researchers at Erasmus University asked people to write about a time when they either gave or withheld forgiveness. They then asked their human guinea pigs to jump as high as they could, five times, without bending their knees. Those who had been thinking about a time when they’d forgiven jumped highest, about 11.8 inches on average; those who had written about their grudges, on the other hand, jumped 8.5 inches—a huge difference, and a startling illustration of how forgiveness can actually unburden you.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV)
²⁸  "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
³⁰  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

For the full article click here

Through the Lens of Jesus

One of the most surprising aspects of Jesus’ teaching is that, while he clearly shared his contemporaries’ view of the Old Testament as inspired by God, he was nevertheless not afraid of repudiating it when he felt led by his Father to do so (Jn. 8:28; 12:49-50; 14:31).

For example, while the OT commands people to make oaths in God’s name (Deut 6:13), Jesus forbids it (Mt 5:33-37). And, much more importantly for our purposes, while the OT commands an “eye for eye” and a “tooth for a tooth,” Jesus commanded people to “not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek, also” (Mt 5:38-39). Jesus’ repudiation of taking an “eye for an eye,” is explicitly commanded in the OT (e.g. Ex 21:24; Lev 24:19-20).

Indeed, in Deuteronomy, the command is not merely about how much punishment is allowed; it’s about how much is required. “Show no pity,” the text states, “ life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut 19:21). It thus seems that Jesus “freely admitted that his ethical teachings contrasted sharply with some of the ethical teachings in the Mosaic law.”

Jesus does more than give a better interpretation of the old authority; he relocates authority from the written text of Scripture to himself – i.e., to God’s presence in his life, teaching, death, and resurrection. We must agree that this example of Jesus’ “authoritative ‘but I say to you,’ is shocking in its contrast with the principle of justice defended by the OT texts.” Yet, while this contrast is indeed shocking, it’s important we note that Jesus’ new “teaching is not a transgression of the Law, but its transcendence,

- See more at: http://reknew.org/2014/10/eye-for-eye-that-time-jesus-refuted-an-old-testament-teaching/#sthash.UMMkuue7.dpuf

Kingdom of God vs. Kingdom of the World

The kingdom of God looks and acts like Jesus Christ, like Calvary, like God’s eternal, triune love. It consists of people graciously embracing others and sacrificing themselves in service to others. It consists of people trusting and employing “power under” rather than “power over,” even when they, like Jesus, suffer because of this. It consists of people imitating the Savior who died for them and for all people. It consists of people submitting to God’s rule and doing his will. By definition, this is the domain in which is God is king.

Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world,” for it contrasts with the kingdom of the world in every possible way. This is not a simple contrast between good and evil. The contrast is rather between two fundamentally different ways of doing life, two fundamentally different mindsets and belief systems, two fundamentally different loyalties. Here are five ways that it is different:

A contrast of trusts: The kingdom of the world trusts the power of the sword, while the kingdom of God trusts the power of the cross. The kingdom of the world advances by exercising “power over,” while the kingdom of God advances by exercising “power under.”

A contrast of aims: The kingdom of the world seeks to control behavior, while the kingdom of God seeks to transform lives from the inside out. Also, the kingdom of the world is rooted in preserving, if not advancing, one’s self-interests and one’s own will, while the kingdom of God is centered exclusively on carrying out God’s will, even if this requires sacrificing one’s own interests.

A contrast of scopes: The kingdom of the world is intrinsically tribal in nature, and is heavily invested in defending, if not advancing, one’s own people-group, one’s nation, one’s ethnicity, one’s state, one’s religion, one’s ideologies, or one’s political agendas. That is why it is a kingdom characterized by perpetual conflict. The kingdom of God, however, is intrinsically universal, for it is centered on simply loving as God loves. It is centered on people living for the sole purpose of replicating the love of Jesus Christ to all people at all times in all places without condition.

A contrast of responses: The kingdom of the world is intrinsically a tit-for-tat kingdom; its motto is “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” In this fallen world, no version of the kingdom of the world can survive for long by loving its enemies and blessing those who persecute it; it carries the sword, not the cross. But kingdom-of-God participants carry the cross, not the sword. We, thus, aren’t ever to return evil with evil, violence with violence. We are rather to manifest the unique kingdom of Christ by returning evil with good, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, loving, praying for our enemies. Far from seeking retaliation, we seek the well-being of our “enemy.”

A contrast of battles: The kingdom of the world has earthly enemies and, thus, fights earthly battles; the kingdom of God, however, by definition has no earthly enemies, for its disciples are committed to loving “their enemies,” thereby treating them as friends, their “neighbors.” There is a warfare the kingdom of God is involved in, but it is “not against enemies of blood and flesh.” It is rather “against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).

—Adapted from Myth of a Christian Nation, pages 46-48

- See more at: http://reknew.org/2015/01/5-differences-between-the-kingdom-of-god-and-the-kingdom-of-the-world/#sthash.uin2B79e.dpuf

New Questions for the Church

New Questions for a New Day:

It's time to start asking new questions. Better answers to the same old questions about the church will not get us through the tumultuous times in which we live. This is a time for out-of-the box thinking. Old questions keep us in the box. New questions invite us to move outside.

One question that has been asked consistently through the years, and even more so in these days of declining church membership is, "How do we bring them in?" It would be better for us to ask, "How do we send them out?"

In these days of changing roles and responsibilities many wonder, "What should the pastor do?" But a more important question for congregations today is "What is our shared ministry?"

When congregations focus on strategic planning they ask, "What's our vision and how do we implement it?" What would happen if they instead asked, "What's God up to and how do we get on board?"

When congregations have financial struggles, they ask, "How do we survive?" Instead they might ask, "How do we serve?"

When congregations think about their mission, they often ask, "How do we save people?" or perhaps, "How do we help people?" A better question might be "How do we make the reign of God more present in this time and place?"

There are no "right" answers to these new questions that can be applied to all congregations. Every congregation needs to live with the questions, because it is only in living with them that new ways being and doing church emerge. The familiar line from Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet can guide us: "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, one distant day live right into the answer." 

If you ask these questions there is no assurance that you'll find the way to renew, revitalize or redevelop your church. It may happen. But you may just as likely discover that asking these questions takes you down a road to some other alternative that you hadn't even thought of before. What I feel pretty confident about, however, is that asking these new questions will bring us closer to discovering what God is seeking from us in this time. I also believe asking these new questions will help ensure that whatever the future holds for us and our congregations we will be more faithful in the work we are about right now. And that is a pretty wondrous thing!

By Pastor Jeffery D Jones - Alban Weekly

Great Quote

Richard Hays from A Moral Vision of the New Testament: “…for the foreseeable future we must find ways to live within the church in a situation of serious moral disagreement while still respecting one another as brother and sisters in Christ. If the church is going to start practicing the discipline of exclusion from the community, there are other issues far more important than homosexuality where we should begin to draw a line in the dirt: violence and materialism, for example”

5 Differences Between Kingdom of God & Kingdom of the World

http://reknew.org/2015/01/5-differences-between-the-kingdom-of-god-and-the-kingdom-of-the-world/?utm_source=Website+Signup&utm_campaign=6bebc3724e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0de6226b5c-6bebc3724e-28050201

From Greg Boyd