The original founders of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement (RM) had known, understood, and preached Jesus Christ. However, from the second generation forward, Jesus Christ himself gradually faded from view as the primary subject discussed week after week from the pulpits of Churches of Christ, to be replaced by "the Lord's church" (or "The New Testament church") and "the plan of salvation." In his book titled The Core Gospel: On Restoring the Crux of the Matter (ACU Press, 1992), the late Dr. Bill Love, a Jesus-man and Bible preacher of uncommon giftedness, painstakingly documented, … [Read more...]
Walking through a strange land home
Do you ever feel a longing for home, but a home not of this world? If so, there is a very good reason, and First Peter just might be what you need to see you through this day. Written originally to Christians in five Roman provinces, it is clearly a legacy for the church at large, consisting of individuals Peter describes as God's chosen ones but strangers in this world. That double (and paradoxical) identity will follow us through the whole epistle. This world is not our home, as anyone who takes seriously God's calling and assignment quickly learns. What is this mission to which we are … [Read more...]
Ask God about Jesus-man in Kenya and you
ASK GOD ABOUT JESUS-MAN IN KENYA AND YOU I do not normally use gracEmail for this purpose (to do so could quickly consume every issue), but I come today urging you to consider a special need in Africa and to ask God if you are to be a part of the solution. George Odhiambo is a Jesus-man in Kenya in East Africa, with whom Sara Faye and I have had contact for several years. He and his wife Lilian have three children (full disclosure: one of whom is named "Edward Fudge Odhiambo") but like many of their fellow-Christians there, they also support his father, other relatives and some village … [Read more...]
WORDS TO LIVE BY
It seems that some Corinthian Christians were quoting a saying of questionable value. "Let us eat and drink," the slogan invited, "for tomorrow we die!" (1 Cor. 15:32). If there is no resurrection, Paul observed, that advice is as good as any other. The old canard had been around for centuries. Unbelievers had recited it in Isaiah's day (Isa. 22:13). It showed up again in a parable of Jesus--spoken by a man whom God called a fool (Lk. 12:19). Being old and popular do not guarantee that a slogan is either true or wise. Whether Paul or the Corinthians cited this old saying first, the apostle … [Read more...]
what our people must learn
"You will know them by their fruits," Jesus said when warning his disciples about false teachers (Matt. 7:15-20). Teaching and living go together. Say something often enough, or just hear it said, and you will soon be living as if the thing being said is true. Which brings us to Titus. Paul stationed Titus in Crete to amend what he found defective and to ordain elders in every town. The Cretan churches faced two primary issues: the presence of some subversive teaching (Titus 1:9-16), and ongoing problems involving Christian morality. "The grace of God, the goodness and loving kindness of … [Read more...]
Divine revelation–Word to words to Word
A crowning diamond in the Christian treasury is the gracious ease with which God's self-revelation to humankind occurs, and the beauty of its flow from Word to words and back again to Word, until every rift between God and humans is removed and relationship is fully restored. The cycle of redemption is thus completed: the fullness of God becomes human and, through dying and being raised from death, brings the fullness of humanity into the glory of its intended destiny in sharing the divine nature (Heb. 2:5-9; 2 Pet. 1:3-4). The cycle of revelation begins in the eternal beauty of God's … [Read more...]
GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US
What a sense of awe and wonder Moses must have felt, there in the silence of the wilderness, when God spoke to him from the burning bush! Can we even imagine the awful terror with which the Israelites waited to hear God speak from Mount Sinai--the mountain quaking, its form hidden by smoke, the air charged with lightning on a day as black as night? What awesome joy surged through Peter, James, and John on the mount of the Transfiguration as God spoke from heaven and Jesus shone with the brilliance of his divine glory. Do we wish we could have been there when these encounters took place, or are … [Read more...]
DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
A caller phones Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and asks to speak to Dr. Ben Witherington III. "I'm afraid he can't talk right now," the receptionist says. He's writing a new book." Nonplussed, the caller replies, "Never mind. I'll just hold." With more than forty books to his credit, including socio-rhetorical commentaries on every book of the New Testament, one is tempted to suspect that the prolific author (who calls himself "BW3" on his website at: www.BenWitherington.com ) really does crank out books that fast -- which suspicion, of course, would be a mistake. Witherington … [Read more...]
SCRIPTURE AT ITS BEST: SATURATION
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I want to grow in my relationship with God, but I'm now struggling with where the Bible fits into the equation. How do I approach scripture to apply it to my faith journey?" * * * The best place for learning how to approach scripture is Scripture itself. The 39 books that we call the "Old Testament" were regarded as sacred writings by the Jews before there were any Christians, and also from the first by Christians, who then were all Jews, and who eventually added 27 more books of their own that we call the "New Testament." If we can identify how New … [Read more...]
INTERNATIONAL, MEMORABLE, AND HISTORIC
The long-awaited Rethinking Hell Conference last weekend (July 11-12, 2014) brought together nearly 150 registrants and participants from the USA, Canada, U.K., France, Lithuania, New Zealand and Australia at the campus of the Lanier Theological Library and Chapel in Houston, Texas. The Conference sponsor, the Rethinking Hell (RH) Project, is presently uploading presentations to its RH Channel on YouTube. Presentations by both plenary speakers are already available for viewing, as is a lively conversation between RH podcaster/interviewer Chris Date and me, including some questions from the … [Read more...]