Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
When we talk about Christian salvation does a belief in the Trinity really matter? Can’t we be saved just as readily if our view of God is less complicated. So why not dismiss the three-in-one confusion that comes with the Trinity and deal, instead, with an all-powerful monadic being? After all many would argue that …
Read More SalvationMost of us, I suspect, assume that God’s love is best measured by the way he treats us. We look to our circumstances as evidence of God’s delight and approval. Enriched, gifted, or attractive folks are on God’s good side; those whose circumstances or abilities are marginal to poor must be on his bad side. …
Read More Measuring God’s LoveI was reminded by Peter’s sermon tonight that blind people often have better sight than do the sighted. In Mark 10 the blind man, Bartimaeus, knew enough to call out to Jesus for healing and Jesus responded. The story of the man born blind in John 9 is another example. Jesus loves to give sight …
Read More Eye Opening ThoughtsThis week I’m in pause as Peter Mead and I invited Dave Bish to follow up on his recent blog-based book review of a book by Rob Bell. He agreed and his article is now available on the Cor Deo site. Please take a look if you like. It’s an important issue. Debate has raged …
Read More Love really does winJesus said that a sign of his nearing return would include an increase in lawlessness with the result that “the love of many will grow cold” [Matt. 24:12]. It’s not that a loss of love for God is only found in the end times. The problem was also cited in Ephesus where, although true doctrine …
Read More Lost LoveLet me return to one of my drumbeat issues: sin. Augustine’s fifth century debate with Pelagius had much to do with defining sin as moral privation (Latin “privatio”): an absence of righteousness in human conduct. Let me offer a snapshot of what Augustine was saying and then invite comments from readers. For the full post …
Read More PrivatioPam, who attends Good Shepherd, sent me an email after I preached this morning. She highlighted Ephesians 4:22, that we are “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on …
Read More CorruptionIn reading 1 Kings I’m appalled by Solomon’s fall. In chapter 8 we find Solomon’s epic recital of God’s greatness at the dedication of the new temple. Again, in chapter 9, God appeared to him a second time and promised: “I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. …
Read More Guarding against heart attacksThere are times when friendships that were very important to me suddenly evaporated without explanation. Ask as I might, or try as I would, no reasons were offered or voicemails or emails returned. Just silence. So painful! It’s something common to every age, of course. Think, for instance, of young school children who announce to …
Read More Disappointment and JoyIn The Theological Origins of Modernity Michael Allen Gillespie offers a comparison of views in the debate between Martin Luther and the humanist Erasmus. Let me cite a part of his discussion at length: The crucial issue in the debate, however, is not epistemological and methodological but substantive. It is a question of the relationship …
Read More Who Rules the World?