May 2012 Blog Posts (23)

"How do we know when the Bible is using phenomenological language?" I'm asked.  This is a reasonable enough question, particularly if it is sincerely asked. That is when one really has as his/her goal to understand the meaning of the Scriptures, to be able to read the Bible correctly.

However, sometimes when I hear the question, I wonder whether the questioner quite comprehends what this expression is referring to. He/she sometimes appears to understand "phenomenological…

Last night, as I was trying to sleep, I remembered an embarrassing moment from my childhood.  I was in 8th grade or so and sitting in English class.  The teacher, one of my favorites and a friend of my parents, knew me pretty well.  She knew we didn’t have a TV (no good fundamentalists do, to use the No Real Scottsman fallacy) and that I read everything I  could get my hands on.  On multiple occasions, I’d read as many as 40 paperback books in a week.  In fact, my mom started up the library…

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. – John 1:1-3 (NLT)…

We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. – 1 John 1:3 (NLT)…

I’ve a one track mind the last couple of days. Sorry.

I keep hearing that marriage is under attack; you know who the culprits are.

But I just can’t get too excited about it. I don’t believe it’s so. Traditional marriage was usurped decades ago (though I know it survives here and there). The revolution is over; society is just institutionalizing the new reality.

Liberals and Conservative, Evangelicals and Atheists affirm by their lives, aspirations and choices…

Below is my cousin's question to me, and my response to him. Do feel free to add-subtract in the Comments. Thanks.

"If one believes that his salvation is attained, what's the problem with sinning. All sins have already been forgiven."

Zack (not his real name!), the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "attained" as "achieved", "gained", "obtained".

Salvation is being freed from God's…

Pastor Worley is not living up to his responsibility to live wisely so as to “protect future generations from persecution”. Perhaps, instead of being called upon to step down from the pastorate, he should be rebuked for reckless endangerment of future generations.

Full post here.

I’ve often thought that ‘marriage’ as traditionally understood is a lost cause- not because it is likely to be extended to same sex couples, but rather because everyone (Christians included) seems to agree about the validity of the concept of sexual identity-whether hetero, homo, or otherwise- and the idea that marriage is most fundamentally about sexual expression with the ‘one true love’ of the West’s Romantic Myth.

That battle was lost decades ago, but few seem to know it. Most are…

I'm often accused of not paying attention to what the text of Genesis 1 says and, instead, basing my beliefs on other things.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  So I thought I'd walk through the first day and explain what I see it saying when I read it.

The ESV says this about the first day:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day,…

I've mentioned in the past that there are so many different understandings of Genesis that we shouldn't pretend that it "clearly" says what I think it means and everyone else is just "twisting" it for unsavory purposes.  I thought I'd lay out the interpretations that I'm familiar with just to see how many I can come up with.  They are numbered just to keep a count, not to reflect any kind of order.

1. Literal calendar week about literal, material creations.  Happened roughly…

I keep finding churches that have small group ministries (called SGMs going forward). This isn’t unusual. Plenty of churches have been into this idea of small groups for a while now—more so in the mega-churches. Thousands of people going through the door winds up creating an atmosphere of anonymity; SGMs winds up being a pragmatic approach for creating community.

But I’ve seen SGMs in churches with as little as seventy-five people.

By SGMs I don’t mean Sunday School where…

The law of non-contradiction simply states that something cannot be both A and non-A at the same time.

If a person decides that the law of non-contradiction is incorrect he must then say that his position, or another position of which he is aware is correct.

The problem with that declaration is that, if the law of non-contradiction is correct, it is incorrect to declare it incorrect. After all, it’s not that it must be either correct or incorrect; it…

Is logic simply a human construct?

Did it begin with the Greek philosophers/

Is it only the invention of people who wish to oppress others who don't know any better?

Is logic a tool of the white man to oppress the other (so-called) races?

Does a desire to think and speak logically mean that a person is placing logic on a plane that is higher than God?

Let me answer the last question first. For me, though I desire to think and speak logically, I understand…

Ah, here I am -- prayed, studied, prepared, preached.  I think to myself, well, that was a great message.  But so was last week's, and the one before, and the one before.  But honest reflection requires setting aside my bias critique concerning my eloquent style and homiletic ability.  No man should even step to the pulpit without a humility of the office, prayerful preparation, and consideration of the people; however, the ultimate truth is:  "Will the Lord truly be glorified?"  

The…

I think this song speaks volumes.  For some reason, we think that Jesus came to beat people over the head with sin.  Sin already condemns.  He came to extend grace.  Listen to the words...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

(John…

The moment a person asserts that truth is not propositional he contradicts himself by making a propositional truth claim.

Colin Brown is senior professor of systematic theology and has been at Fuller since 1978. Prior to this he taught at institutions in the United States, Germany, Canada, and his native England.  He is also an ordained Priest in the Episcopal Church.  The author of numerous texts, I recently finished his "Philosophy and the Christian Faith" which is an overview of Christian philosophy since the middle ages.  The book moves rapidly (all to rapidly) from Anselm and Aquinas to the…