The Spirit of prophecy and renewal

Westbourne Grove Church, which I help to lead, is part of the Forge Sphere of churches in the south of England, which used to be part of Salt & Light, which is a network of “neocharismatic Evangelical” churches associated with the British New Church Movement.

So no surprise that the Forge summer camp at beautiful Ashburnham Place in East Sussex had some serious charismatic energy to it, boosted by rumours of a “quiet revival.”

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The “den of robbers” and the revolt against Rome
In the previous post on the parable of the good Samaritan, I noted that “robbers” (lēistai) is likely to have had political overtones and suggested that, particularly given the remarkable parallel with 2 Chronicles 28:8-15, the parable could be read as an indictment of the miserable state… ()
Who is my enemy? The parable of the good Samaritan
I came across this intriguing perspective on Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan in an article by Amy-Jill Levine in the Biblical Archaeology Review (2012). She dismisses a number of what she regards as misinterpretations of the parable of the Good Samaritan and comes to this conclusion: ()
For the earth: wisdom from the east?
I wrote most of this on a flight back from Doha on Christmas Eve. My wife has been at COP 28 in Dubai and at hydrogen conferences in Oman and Qatar—so plenty of opportunities to reflect on climate change from a very different angle. ()
Did Paul proclaim an imminent “final cosmic judgment”?
I won’t have time to write anything else this week, so here I’ve written up what started as a response to some further comments made by Edward Babinski regarding Paul’s supposed belief in an imminent “final cosmic judgment.” Babinski argues that the belief was prevalent in second temple Judaism (… ( | 3 comments)
Article published: “The Subjection of the Creature to the Futility of Idolatry: The Scope and Application of Romans 8:19–22”
The latest issue of The Bulletin for Biblical Research (33.3, 2023) has my article on the subjection of the creature or created material to the futility of idolatry. It’s an argument that I made here in outline a few years ago. You need a subscription or institutional access to view it,… ()
How a post-new-perspective, narrative-historical reading of Romans differs from a Reformed reading
In his 2016 NIGTC commentary on Romans, Richard Longenecker provides a summary of what he regards as the key themes that Paul “considered distinctive to his own proclamation of the Christian gospel” (1045-46). They strike me, for the most part, as being expressive of a Reformed outlook. I have… ( | 4 comments)
Paul’s letter to the Romans (15:8-16:27)
The way I see it, Paul’s letter to the Romans is like a stage with three vast backdrop cloths hanging one in front of the other. The largest cloth depicts the creational presuppositions of the letter: God is the creator of all things and cannot be worshipped in the form of created objects; Adam… ( | 1 comment)