The witness of scripture is not primarily to the personal relevance of God but to the political relevance of God. It has to do with the rule or kingdom of God in the world. Witness operates at large scale national-civilisational… ( | 2 comments)
Biblical faith is almost always forward-looking. It is as much about what may or may not happen in the future as it is about the knowledge and experience of the God of Israel in the here and now. It is, therefore, almost always either fearful or… ( | 1 comment)
John Morehead had this to say about my “Is there only one way to heaven?” post, and I want to explore some thoughts in response to it:
…as you developed this piece, for me it lost theological momentum when you got to the section on how the early… ( | 1 comment)
Tim Challies wrote a short piece a couple of days back explaining why there is only one way to heaven. I had originally thought to discuss his argument in the recent post on Progressive Christianity under the final statement: “It does not claim that… ( | 3 comments)
I’ve just listened to my friend Michael Cooper talking on the Ephesiology Podcast about the events in Washington last week and the lamentable state of American evangelicalism. He and his co-hosts have some sensible things to say, but I found myself… ( | 10 comments)
The question of whether the Bible teaches that the unsaved will suffer an eternity of conscious torment in the fires of hell after they die is not quite the hot topic it was a decade ago, when the first edition of this book came out, but it… ( | 1 comment)
I noticed recently that in response to the question “What are your favorite progressive Christian resources on the Book of Revelation?” on Twitter, a friend recommended my book The Coming of the Son of Man or “Really anything by Andrew… ( | 9 comments)
Here is a disappointing post to celebrate a disappointing Christmas—just a dreary list of previous Christmas posts. Something might pique your interest. I had neither the time nor the imagination to come up with a new piece. It’s even too cloudy and… ( | 1 comment)
I’m planning to do the occasional podcast interview with people doing mission in the Western secular context. This is the first one. I’ve got to know Lynsey and Stuart Gilmour through Communitas and I love listening to them talk about who they are… ()
This is the audio version of a recent post on my blog. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Climate change and ecological destruction is relatively slow and longer term, but it is likely to constitute an existential crisis on an… ()
In our age of intense ecological anxiety, Paul’s sympathetic portrayal of creation as a suffering thing, yearning for liberation from its bondage to corruption (Rom. 8:19-22) has an obvious appeal. It’s a remarkable image, but how much modern… ( | 17 comments)
Jon Hallewell asks whether I have a list of scriptures that point to the first, second, and final horizons of New Testament eschatology. I do now.
The diagram illustrates the three horizons model. I think that the narrative-historical method… ( | 13 comments)
The SBL annual meeting is happening online this year, of course. In a highly stimulating and persuasive presentation yesterday David Burnett argued for revisiting the thesis of D.A.S. Ravens that Luke uses the story of the anointing of Jesus by a… ()
This is really just an appendix to the previous post on the two “ends” in Jesus’ apocalyptic discourse in Mark 13. I have summarised the development of thought, highlighting what seem to me to be the salient literary features, with a few brief… ()
The question is a simple one. Does Jesus have one or two climactic events in mind when he speaks to his disciples about the future? Following on from his discussion of the “parable” of the sheep and goats, Ian Paul has posted a defence of Dick… ( | 1 comment)
Ian Paul has written a good piece on the sheep and goats passage in Matthew 25. He notes, rightly in my view, that the “least of these” are not the poor in general, and that it is not good Christians and bad non-Christians who are separated at the… ( | 15 comments)
I’ve been greatly enjoying an intermittent conversation with Tim Peebles of the Anvil Trust about the relation between kingdom and new creation or shalom themes in scripture. We both have trouble getting our point across succinctly, so my… ()
The practical question that I’m trying to answer here is: how do we assess the effectiveness or validity of missional activity when the “product” is more qualitative than quantitative? Church growth models are proved effective if they result in… ( | 2 comments)
Prompted by an excellent podcast that I listened to yesterday discussing the relation between the kingdom of God and “shalom” in scripture, I want to look briefly at Isaiah 9:6-7.
The passage speaks of the birth of a child who will sit on the… ( | 2 comments)
I work with an international mission organisation called Communitas. We have a small presence in the UK, and if anyone wants to know more about us, please get in touch. This is the personal background for the question that I want to address in a… ( | 14 comments)
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