First Things First Restoring the Gospel to Primacy in the Church Part One: Some Books Are More Important than Others • • • Some books of the Bible are more important than others. This is not a matter of inspiration. Most of us know 2Timothy 3:16-17 — “All scripture is inspired by God and isContinue reading “First Things First, part one”
Category Archives: The Gospel
More Creed Tinkering?
Note from CM: In conjunction with this post, you might want to go back and read our post from April 23, 2011, “He Descended into Hell,” in which we quoted representatives from many traditions and what they say about this article of the Creed. • • • It seems that N.T. Wright is not theContinue reading “More Creed Tinkering?”
The Kerygma
N.T. Wright raised some dust recently when he charged that the way we say and view the Creeds has led us to miss a central focus of the Gospels — the life and ministry of Jesus. The Creeds seem to go from cradle to Cross, as if what happened in between is of little import.Continue reading “The Kerygma”
MPT Posts on Church Discipline — and I Suggest a Better Way
NOTE: This post is not about a certain well-known pastor, even though it involves the church he leads. In the discussion that follows, I am not interested in having us talk about this pastor personally. So don’t. Please keep the conversation on the subject of church discipline itself, more broadly. We focus on these articlesContinue reading “MPT Posts on Church Discipline — and I Suggest a Better Way”
Hate Religion? Love Jesus?
Jefferson Bethke has certainly received a lot of attention for his video, “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus, which went viral on YouTube last week (over 10 million views). In it, he raps a poem expressing a common evangelical perspective: Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. In fact, Jesus came to abolishContinue reading “Hate Religion? Love Jesus?”
David Lose on “The Absurdity of Christmas”
David Lose holds The Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Biblical Preaching. David led the creative team that developed Working Preacher, one of my favorite resources on the Internet. There he writes a weekly column on the upcoming lectionary texts. HeContinue reading “David Lose on “The Absurdity of Christmas””
The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (3)
Today we conclude our posts on Mary’s Magnificat. In the first post, we contrasted Mary’s song with the “soterian” gospel that focuses primarily (if not solely) on personal salvation. In contrast, we affirmed that in the Magnificat, “Mary proclaims the Gospel. As we will see, it is no mere ‘personal plan of salvation,’ no ‘steps’Continue reading “The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (3)”
The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (2)
Today, I had marvelous conversation with an African-American woman who had grown up in Mississippi, moved to Indianapolis, whose family had relocated to other rust-belt cities like Chicago and Detroit in the 1960’s and 70’s. She could talk about picking cotton, participating in civil rights marches, employers who were members of the Ku Klux Klan,Continue reading “The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (2)”
Contradicting the World’s Propaganda
Long before I read N.T. Wright and other contemporary authors, my eyes were opened to what Scot McKnight calls “The King Jesus Gospel” through the work of the great Roman Catholic Biblical scholar, Raymond E. Brown. His two little books, A Coming Christ in Advent, and An Adult Christ at Christmas, though considered “liberal” byContinue reading “Contradicting the World’s Propaganda”
The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (1)
Scot McKnight ran a post earlier today called, “Justin Holcomb and the Soterian Gospel.” In it, he commented on a piece by one of the pastors at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, designed to answer the question, “What Is the Gospel?” McKnight rightly commends Holcomb for an excellent presentation of a certain kind of “Gospel”Continue reading “The Magnificat vs. Today’s Gospel (1)”
The Internet Monk Archives 