Discuss Theology

The thesis of the book of Acts is that you can kill the messengers but you can not kill the message.  The picture in Acts is that the word of God is like a throbbing electrical force that goes back and forth but ultimately and irrepressibly forward.

Working through John again reminds me of how different Jesus was in showing them that he really was the fulfillment of so much of what they held dear.

I asked my wife, “So what have you been thinking about in theology recently?”  She said, “Oh not much really but I have been thinking about how we do spiritual warfare against the beast.”

We are in a war, like it or not.  The Lamb will conquer.

A youth pastor friend called to tell me that his Lutheran seminary educated pastor believes everyone is saved and going to heaven.  I heard this before when I studied at a Methodist undergrad school.  His youth want to continue with Inductive Bible studies, the pastor has apparently been reading extreme later disciples of neo-orthodox patriarchs.  True Trinitarian theology demands, true Trinitarian adherence to the historic basics of the faith.

Tomorrow we celebrate the fact that YWAM Montana is debt-free and saved a boat load of interest payments in the process.  Praise God for his excellent grace.

I thought, today,  about why so many contemporary western evangelicals are either non-commital or closet speakers and thinkers about tongues.  I think the primary driving force is a desire to be respectable and not lose jobs, pastorates, speaking engagements and writing contracts.  I believe, that for some, the reason is truly exegetical, hermeneutical and principial.  The latter exegetical group trail the former respectability group, numerically.  This is true only in the contemporary west.  I recommmend reading Philip Jenkins on The Next Christendom for a view of the future.

www.charitynavigator.org describes various financial aspects of non-profit organizations. You will find many interesting stats here.

I taught Hebrews recently in Canada.  I found an interesting discussion by Wright in The New Testament and the People of God on the hero list in chapter 11.  He states that the book of ben Sirach had a similar list exalting the high priest.  Interesting that the high priest is exalted in ben Sirach and Hebrews tells us that we have a better High Priest forever.