Marginal Christianity

Salvation means many different things to different people in different circumstances. And that’s as it should be, as far as it goes. But I don’t think it goes quite far enough. I often pose the following question to help get at this issue: “Do you know that Christ has no interest in making a difference in your life or mine? None. Nada. Not at all! Not even for a nano-second does he think about that. To put it bluntly, Jesus Christ has not, does not, and will never entertain the idea of making a difference in our lives!” Do you believe that? Really? I suggest that much of what we know as Christianity does not believe it and fancies Jesus making a difference in their lives as the essence of what being a Christian, walking with Jesus, is all about. And they would be wrong. And if they are wrong about that, about salvation, maybe that’s a big part of why the story of the church in North America has reached a dead end in America. So, do you believe Jesus has no interes

Here’s a bare bones outline of a thought experiment I’ve been playing with concerning salvation, damnation, eternal destiny, universalism, and the like. It’s only bare bones, the main lines of a view that would require much other demonstration and detail. So keep that in mind as you read it. God created our world and us in it to share his life with us here. That’s the big picture within which we live our lives. God wants to be with us, ultimately as one of us (Jesus the incarnate one). This was not instantaneous. We needed to grow into or lives as free, responsible, and response-able creatures to whom God delegated the vocation of protecting, caring for, and nurturing the creation to its full flourishing. Now God is both willing and able to achieve his purposes. We call that divine sovereignty. God gets what he wants. He’s set up the whole process and equipped us with everything we need to succeed. There’s no reason for failure. Yet we do fail! Unfathomably, inexp

Faith, politics and salvation by Christ alone  Thu, 15/06/2017 - 15:39 |  Andrew Perriman Tim Farron resigned yesterday as leader of the Liberal Democrats because the conflict between his evangelical faith and the values of a progressive liberal party had become unmanageable. His official statement can be  read here . During the election campaign he had struggled in particular to explain his position on gay rights. Under media interrogation he  insisted that he supported  “equality under law, equal dignity and that includes people whatever their sexuality”. But he clearly also felt bound to maintain some awkward  private  religious opinions that were at odds with his political convictions. It’s perhaps not surprising that people concluded that he was “out of step with his own party”—and indeed with the prevailing moral mood of British society. Some have argued in the aftermath that British liberalism is not nearly as fair-minded and tolerant as it thinks it is. The  direct

What if the reading of the creation stories in Gen.1-2 offered by Greg Beale that the Garden of Eden, Eden itself, and the uninhabited lands outside Eden symbolize the temple (Garden=Holy of Holies, Eden=Holy Place, uninhabited lands=temple courtyard) and God’s aim is for his image-bearers to extend the boundaries of that Garden Holy of Holies to finally encompass the whole earth making it a place where God can dwell with his people forever is on target. That makes Gen.1:28 the original “Great Commission.” If God’s aim is as just stated then his mandate to turn this planet into a Holy of Holies is what human rebellion disrupted and what God’s call to Abraham and Sarah restarted by dealing with sin in order to fulfill God’s creational design. This means that God’s Tempe-building project is his primary concern and focus. That’s what he’s working on and what calls his followers to work on. This is the “it” the whole God-thing is about (or what we call “salvation”). And this sal

8.     Talk of salvation as restoration to the genuine humanity God created us for raises the question of who God created us to be in the first place. Who we assume or think ourselves to be determines the kind of salvation we can envision God achieving for us. Our Western heritage of individualism, especially in the form we experience it today, has decisively shaped the salvation we believe we experience. a.     We think of ourselves as “Billiard Balls.” Complete, self-sufficient, independent, we fancy ourselves moving through life as though around a billiard table. We make contact with other balls and the table rails which changes our direction but these contacts make no difference to who we essentially are. b.     The Bible tells us, however, that God made us like molecules, a configuration of atoms connected by various sorts of relations. We are not complete, self-sufficient, or independent; rather we are who we are only in relation to God and others. Without these othe

I don’t remember the source for this story but it is wonderful! One Saturday morning a father was sitting on the floor in his den sorting through the week’s accumulation of junk mail. Unbeknownst to him, his 10 year-old son and a friend were sneaking up on him. Dressed out in their camo gear replete with eye black and helmets the kids crept to the doorway of the den. With a cry they bounded out and dove at the father amid his pile of junk mail. Then the fun started. They rolled and rough-housed around the den floor till all were exhausted. They fell apart belly-laughing for several minutes. The father looked at his son’s friend and realized he didn’t know him. Salvation is participating in the life of God through Jesus Christ. Like that kid who joined in the son’s fun with his father, we too share in the all goodness, beauty, and love – and fun! – of the life of the triune God! If you imagine yourself joining Jesus is such hijinks with the Father, you have some sense of ho

Ch.5: Salvation is a Matter Between the Individual and God Two Models of Being Human           What does it mean to be human? Few more important questions than this one. How we see ourselves and others goes a long way to determining how we think and respond to others and the issues we face in life. The way the western world has taught us to see ourselves, and which America has adopted with a vengeance, is individualism. I call it the “billiard ball” view. Individualism sees each human being as complete, self-sufficient, and whole in themselves. They need nothing outside themselves to be fully human. That is simply a matter of actualizing their inherent potential and thus realizing themselves. Everything else is external to them. Relationships, opportunities, obstacles and the like are analogous to the billiard ball rolling around the table striking other balls and rails. These are no doubt important but ultimately adds nothing to our essential humanity.           When Chri

We don’t confuse the basis of the gospel with its benefits. The gospel is the announcement of Jesus victory through cross and resurrection over the powers of sin, evil, and death which distorted God’s creation and creatures into deathly parodies of what they were intended to be. This is the “good news”! Forgiveness, new life, assurance, reconciliation – are the benefits of the gospel which we receive only on the basis of the gospel. In other words, the gospel is that “Jesus is Victor” (Karl Barth) not that we can have our sins forgiven and be assured of our place in heaven. Confusion here results in a false gospel, a truncated vision, and stunted Christin existence. It’s not about our going to heaven but heaven coming to earth. The dualism of spiritual (immaterial) and material which privileges the former as better than or superior to the latter which weigh’s down, hinders, is inferior to, temporary, or not as important as the former has no place in the Christi

J. Todd Billings It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. – C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses In my theology classes, I often assign works from 4th- and 5th-century theologians debating about Christ and the trinity. These theologians stand in awe before the reality of the Triune God – they stutter with words of poetry and praise as they worship Christ the Lord. They meditate on the astonishing scriptural truth that we have been made adopted sons and daughters of the Almighty King, through the power of the Spirit. Reformed theologians do not hesitate in speaking about the uniting communion that we experience now – and will ex

                  Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google Plus Share via Email More Options Share on Pinterest By Alissa Wilkinson May 15 at 10:01 AM Theatergoers will flock this weekend to an imagined story set in a steampunky dystopian hellscape. Or will they just be looking in a mirror? We’re all about the apocalypse and its aftermath these days, from “The Walking Dead” to “The Last Man on Earth.” So it’s not surprising that the 1980s dystopian “Mad Max” franchise has been revived, this time with actor Tom Hardy swapped in for Mel Gibson as the wandering eponymous hero. “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which releases this weekend, is the rare blockbuster that will likely please critics and action-loving audiences alike. It is  a little surprising that we spend so much time and money on watching stories about all the horrible ways our civilization will end. But the preoccupation is not new. Since humans started telling stories, we’ve been imag

by Amy Laura Hall on April 14, 2015     If I were one of a homosexual couple — the same as I am one of a heterosexual couple — I would place my faith and hope in the mercy of Christ, not in the judgment of Christians.  – Wendell Berry A few years ago I realized that I wanted to be a bit more like those people. I realized that if I wanted to do that I was going to have to work harder to save my own soul. – David Brooks Two links about morality appeared on my twitter feed this week.   One describes David Brooks’s “moral bucket list.”  The other is on Christianity and debates about homosexuality in the United States , by Wendell Berry. People within a select demographic were sharing David Brooks like caramel popcorn. While I washed the breakfast dishes, NPR announced they would be visiting with Brooks about his new book on morality. Even though this is WUNC (NPR in North Carolina) I do not remember hearing them run a piece featuring Wendell Berry, well . . . ever, even though Berry

    I  had gone 40 years without ever having the flu. +    I had this unbelievably great healthy track record of not getting the flu until this year. My wife and I had spent a Saturday afternoon in early January installing a new back splash at my mother-in-law’s house. Our little remodeling project prompted the little arguments and multiple trips to the local hardware store common to most projects we work on together. As we were finishing up, a creeping achiness began to overtake me and when the project was complete, I sat on the floor in the kitchen leaning against the hard cabinet assuming I was just tired. Nope. The flu was just beginning to settle in. My wife and I headed home and within two hours we both were wrapped up in blankets, shivering, coughing, and feverish. With three boys it is hard enough when one of us is sick, but this scenario was worse; we were both sick, with the flu, at the exact same time. +   For the next couple of days I wandered around the h

5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.   Are we saved by our faith?   This is a frequent question in some circles at least.   A careful reading of Romans 5:2 spells out Paul’s understanding.   Faith grants us “access,” but access to what?   Into “this grace” (read salvation).   And how did we arrive in “this grace”?   “Through him,” this in Jesus Christ. Or to put it backwards:   Jesus Christ has achieved salvation for all humanity (see later in this chapter).   “Thi

Posted on May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 by Bobby Grow Donald Fairbairn, Patristics theologian par excellence, has written a rich and very accessible book entitled Life In The Trinity: An Introduction To Theology With The Help Of The Church Fathers. I would highly recommend this book to you, and even recommend it as a devotional type of book if you are interested in doing your devotions with the Trinity. I have just recently finished reading through a section of the book that is discussing Christian salvation, and in particular, God’s action and human action in the realm of salvation. After sketching the common dilemma that has obtained in the Western branch of the Protestant church (i.e. Calvinism V Arminianism, e.g. emphasis on God’s choice or humanity’s choice in salvation – to be a bit reductionistic) in regard to salvation, Fairbairn offers an alternative that he has gleaned from his years spent with the Church Fathers. Here is what he has written: To spell this idea out a

http://www.postost.net/2014/08/gospel-not-about-reconciliation-man-his-creator Submitted by Andrew on Thu, 14/08/2014 - 17:47       Gospel and salvation Here’s another response that I saw on Facebook to my post “ What should we expect apostles to do today? ”. This time the focus is not on the kingdom but on the “gospel”: There is no gospel but the one that reconciles a man with his creator. Everything else must be built upon this or it is built on nothing. Salvation is an individual experience. The community needs to flow out of this revelation. This is the standard evangelical understanding of the process, only stated in more gender-exclusive terms than is customary these days. We begin with a gospel of personal salvation, from which community follows: people are converted, then they become church. There is no “public” dimension to this model, so it has been criticised by many in the emerging church and the incarnational-missional movement, among others, for fai