THE FOURTH DAY OF MARCH IN THE YEAR OF GRACE TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN
RADIO MINISTRY — God willing, I will be guest on Sunday night, March 15 on a radio program broadcast from San Antonio, Texas. More details to follow.
PRECIOUS TO GOD — Psalm 116:15 says that “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” That is surely especially true when they are martyrs dying for their faith in him, as is the case with thousands continually throughout the Middle East at the hands of the murderous self- named Islamic State. Like the martyrs in Revelation 6:9-11, these wait for God’s judgment on their killers and his vindication of their own faithfulness.
GREG BOYD ON HELL — Greg Boyd, 57, is well-known as a theologian, author, and Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Last Sunday morning (March 1, 2015), Boyd preached on “Going to Hell (In a Nutshell),” and answered common questions about the error of relativism, Jesus as the light of and way to the Father. Along the way, Boyd recommended The Fire That Consumes as the book to acquire on this subject. To download an MP3 Audio or MP4 Video of this sermon, go to http://whchurch.org/sermon .
Before launching Woodland Hills Church, Boyd taught theology for sixteen years at Bethel University. He is author of nineteen books, among them: Jesus Under Siege (1995); Satan & the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy (2001); Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God (2004); Escaping The Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free To Experience Real Life In Christ (with Al Larson) (2005); and Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty (2013).
B O O K N O T I C E
The Authority of Scripture in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities (Ketch Publishing, 2014, 85 pages).
This stimulating little book is edited by gracEmail subscriber Dr. David Langford, from a conversation about Scripture and Culture conducted on July 20, 2011 at Quaker Avenue Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. Participants were Dr. Jeff Childers of Abilene Christian University, and Drs. Kenneth Hawley and Michael Martin of Lubbock Christian University.
The event was organized, hosted, and the recorded presentations edited for publication by David Langford, senior minister of the Quaker Avenue Church. The discussion ranged over such common questions as why our Bible contains the books it does, what is the Bible’s authority, and how that relates to God, Christ, the church and daily life. Contributors avoid glib and simplistic formulae,and honestly struggle with real-life issues.
For example, it is helpful to remember that “revering the Bible and understanding it perfectly” is not the ultimate goal of Christian faith, for one “can be a Christian without being literate” (Childers, 29). Nor is our task concerning outreach to convince people to sign a paper affirming the Bible’s authority, but to invite people to “share our life, as a community of disciples,” and gradually grow to “appreciate the true place” of the Bible “in forming and sustaining that life” (Childers, 30).
Jesus reprimanded his contemporaries who sought eternal life in Scripture, but who then read Scripture as an end within itself rather than as a pointer to Jesus. Michael Martin cautions moderns against the same bibliolatry today. To that end Martin recalls Karl Barth’s distinctions between God’s Word (in ascending order of importance), as the “Proclaimed Word” of the Church, the “Written Word” of Scripture, and the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ” (32-33). For ordering information, go to www.KetchPublishing.com