You blog slower then a slug moves in treacle!

Please check my Doctrinal Basis post as it is under constant edit at the moment.
Please continue to comment on it also.
In Christ,
Peter

A Christian's understanding of fear!

F-false
E-evidence
A-appearing
R-real

(Please click for source and author.)

My doctrinal basis....Ed. 4

After looking at a few peoples 'Doctrinal Basis' recently I've decided to have a look more closely at what should be in them and what shouldnt. For example one church (see here) decided that the first key point on thier doctrinal basis was "We believe that the King James Bible is the word of God without error."Obviously something important has been missed here. What is to follow then is what I believe should be in a doctrinal basis and why.

The First question to ask is "What is a doctrinal Basis and why bother?". A doctrinal basis [for our purpose] is a list of understood principles (doctrines)which sums up what a Christian believes. My aim here then to test what I believe is neccessary for one to be a christian with your keen eyes of course.

1) There is one God in three equal, eternal persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Deut 6:4; Matt 28:19)

I believe that the Trinity is a vital Christian doctrine. The bible is clear on this one and much of the Christian's understanding of God's nature and redemption of man rest upon this understanding of God.

2) God is sovereign: He is the creator and sustainer of all things and as such the rightful ruler. He created mankind in his image and as such have free will. (Isa 46: 8-11; Gen 1)

This tends to go too far one way or another. Either that God controls every single fasset of life (determinism) and therefore we are not accountable for our actions (supralapsarianism) or God gives up all his soverignty all together as the Gospel depnds wholly on mankind (pelagianism). Both of these are wrong. The Bible is clear that God is the rightful ruler of everything and that he has the power to do as he wishes. However, the Bible also states that we are responsible for our actions and therefore God must lay aside some of his severign power for the sake of our free will. Although this term gets used by different groups the principle is similar. God is Ruler had has the right to do as he wished with his creation.

3)Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to and deserves death. God's wrath and condemnation is rightly on us becuase of sin. We are spiritually blind because of this sin and refuse to seek God of our own accord. (Gen 3; Rom 3:23; 2 Cor 4:4)

As if often said "The Gospel is bad news before it is good news". Unless we state that God is just in condemning us what is the Good news? We need to know what state we are in before we can know why we need saving.

4)God chose a special people, the Israelites, to whom he made a covenants with Abraham and his descendants to Bless the world through them. It is by them that the Law was recieved and the relationship with God and Man was founded. It was through them the the final means of redemption would come: Jesus Christ.(Rom 9:4-5; Gen 26:4-5)

5) The Lord Jesus Christ,born of a virgin, is God's incarnate Son: fully God and fully man, yet without sin. He lived the perfect life, proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom, died on the cross as a once-for-all sacrifice to save the world of its sins, was raised bodily from death to defeat death once and for all, and is now sat at the right hand of God the Father and is the only mediator between God and man. (John 1:1-2,14; 1 Pet 2:22; Mk 1:14-15; Heb 10:10; Luke 24:46; Acts 2:32-33; 1 Tim 2:5)

Jesus as the God-man is vital as unless he is both then we cannot be fully redeemed and interceeded for. His perfection is also vital as it was necessary that the atoning sacrifice was unblemished if it was to the worthy. Is death is the propitiation of our sins and his physical resurrection the proof of defeat of sin and the Grave. It also proves that he has the power to remove ur sins and to raise us up on the last day. Due to this Jesus is the only way to God and thus explaining why all other means are futile.

6) The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ available to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ. (John 16:7-11)

As stated before man is spiritually blind and cannot seek God of his own accord. The spirit then opens our eyes to the Gospel so that we may respond.

7) Those who have faith in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God's sight only because of the righteousness of Christ and his vindication of us; this justification is God's act of Grace and undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts. Baptism is the outward mark of this inward committment to Christ. (Eph 2:8-9)

We are justified by grace though faith, as Paul writes, and not of works so that no-one can boast. The preparation, will, practicalities and delivery of salvation is all a work of God and is made effectual to us wholly by faith in Jesus Christ with no addition or subtraction.

8) The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated. He enables them to increasingly become Christ-like in character and behaviour and gives them power for their witness in the world. A true believer is proved by his actions but not saved. To a believer the promises of full life and eternal life are given. (2 Corinthians 3:18; Gal 5: 16-26; John 10:10; John 3:16)

The spirit is the one who continues to reform us and is the mark of the promised things to come. Without the spirit we have no guarantee of the promise and no hope of living and becomeing Christ-like.

9) The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person. The dead will be bodily raised and He will judge everyone to execute God's just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory in the new creation. (Rev 19:11; Rev 20:12)

God will judge all. The Christian, because of Jesus' worth, to eternal life, and the rest to eternal death as just punishment for thier sins. The exact nature of this punishment is intentionally left vague as there a various 'orthodox' positions.

10) The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired Word of God. It supremely bears God's authority in all matters of belief and behaviour. (2 Tim 3: 16-17)

The Bible being the inspired word of God is a key concept as it is the eternal, solid reference in an ever changing world. It is indeed God breathed and is useful to the believer. Its infallibility is not mentioned here however as the Bible never openly makes such claims and there is more then one possible understanding of God breathed.

11) The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong. This is marked by unity and the taking of the Lord's supper together. (Eph 4:4-6; 1 Cor 11:23-26)

The Church is not a building but the people of God. Therefore all who are saved are part of this body, with Christ at the head. A Christian is never a lone believer. If one serates themselves from the body then thier salvation is rightly opened to questioning

I believe that is all for now but as the title suggests it is open to reforms so I look forward to your CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

Till next time!

N.B. I have used the UCCF Doctrinal Basis as my template. Please see here for the original.

Something I've been working on

"There can be such great truth expressed in the honest out-pouring of a Christian’s heart that it can strike even the greatest intellects dumb, and convict a person of their folly in a greater way then a thousand Loveless words ever could."

Let me know what you think.

It reminds me of the [true*] story (but paraphrased due to my bad memory) of the Christian girl who was sat on the train reading her Bible. A Muslim man came and sat opposite her and saw that she was a Christian. He then started to debate with her over who was right. Every arguement she gave he tore to shreads. Eventually the girl stops and then bursts in to tears. The man asks her what is wrong. She replies "I know Jesus is true and I want you to know him but I can't convince you, I'm sorry". The man was so moved by her passion that he went to church with her one sunday and became a christian.


*for Sarah

Is context that important?

I'm sure you've all heard these sayings before:

"If you take the text out of the context you just end up with a con"
and
"The first three rules of exegesis are: Context, context, context."

Is context really that important to reading a text?
Below are a few examples of what you end up with if you pluck verses out of thier context:

1)Psalm 14:1b: "There is no God"
Does the Bible really say that there is no God? No. The context tells us that this is what the fool says in is heart!

2) James 2: 25: "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?"
Now Rahab the prositute was righteous for what she did! What do prostitues do? Have sex for money. So she was righteous to prosituing and then sending the jewish spies away? No, the context tells us that she stoped the spies getting caught and was therefore considered rightous as she trusted God and served him in his purpose and not for being a prostitute.

3)Isaiah 61:5a: "Aliens will shepherd your flocks".
According to the Bible ET will come down ans herd your sheep for you. Isn't that nice! Of course context tells us that 'Aliens' here means foreigners.

4)Ezekiel 23:20: "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."
It is good to emulate what you learn in the Bible and therefore it is good for women to lust after large genitals and potent men! No, this is obviously condemned!

5)1 Kings 11:3a: "He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines."
If The wise king Solomon did this then surely it is good for me to do so!....except the context tells us that God forbade Jews marrying foreign women and that they lead him astray.

6)Revelation 22:18 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book."
Therefore if anyone writes nots in thier Bible they will have plagues added to them? No, obviously the contexts notes that those who teach the prophecy we know as the book of revelation with additions or refuse to teach bits to others, therefore effecting thier safety, God will curse them.

7)Job 4:7: "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?".
If therefore you are innocent or upright you will never be destroyed or perish......or so Job was told. We see later that Job's friend was rebuked by God for giving false advice.

I think the idea is across. Obviously there are more serious verses taken out of context but this was just a few silly examples to help you get into the flow of using context in your exegesis.

When you are reading remmeber that there is more then one type of context to be looking at. See here for an introduction.

Happy reading and learning.

Till next time!

Satan = Lucifer?

What would you say if I asked you "Who is Lucifer?" I think the most common response would be 'The Devil' or 'Satan'.

Isaiah 14:12-15, The famous Old Testament passage regarding Lucifer says:

"How you have fallen from heaven,
O [Lucifer] morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. [c]

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."

But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit."

English Church tradition has talken hold of this passage to refer to Satan. The question is whether this is legitimate or not.

The Hebrew is literally "Morning Star", often used to denote dawn in the Bible. In the Latin versions it was translated to Light bringer or Lucifer (Lux-Light, Ferre-to bring). There is lots of ancient symbology which was probably borrowed, particulatly from a Caananite Myth. Basically they all run along this line. There is the morning star (venus) who assends from the darkness and brings the dawn (the light) and keeps assending in the Sky until the Sun dawns whose light engulfs the morning Star which then descends again.

This then has been associated with Satans falling from heaven (Luke 10:18). Is this what Jesus was refering to? I think not. The main reasoning being that the context of the passage doesn't allow it. Isaiah 14:3-4 says:

"On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end!
How his fury has ended!"

and Isaiah 14:16-17 says:

"Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
"Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,
the man who made the world a desert,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?""

We see from the context therefore that its is actually the King of Bablyon and not Satan! In other words God is greater then the great Kingdom of Bablylon despite it destroying the other Kingdoms and conquering the World! Nothing to do with Satan at all.

In the New testament Jesus is called the Morning Star (Lucifer). In Revelation 22:16 Jesus says:

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

This is not the only example. Is Jesus the Devil therefore? Perish the thought. Rather they NT writers are using the image to show that Jesus is the one who makes the light Dawn in our hearts. For example 2 Peter 1:19 says:

"And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts"

For this reason I do not believe that Lucifer is a Biblical or suitable name for the Devil.

Let me know your thoughts

Till next time!

Preaching Darwin

I found this on Dr Jim West's blog:

"Today across the nation vapid Pastors will set aside their Bibles in order to preach Darwin. As it’s my aim always to be a blessing, I’ve assembled a list of other materials such ‘preachers’ might consider to use in place of the Bible for their Sunday Sermon:

1- Sports Illustrated. Face it, people love sports more than they love Darwin, so ride the wave!

2- Readers Digest. It has some cool stories and the Unitarians use it all the time. Be ‘chic’!

3- Playboy. That way you can urge your congregants to ‘read the articles instead of looking at the pictures’. And the number of young men attending your services will explode.

4- Ebony. I have never read Ebony, not being black myself, but I’m sure there’s interesting stuff in it or it wouldn’t be so popular. Anyway, it will make you seem really cool!

5- Movies. I mean here that instead of preaching you can show a blockbuster movie and then after it’s over, you can make some lame comment about it and so seem ‘connected’.

6- Music. This one works great too. Pick some idiotic Bob Dylan song (with his incomprehensible lyrics) and pretend to know what he’s talking about by applying it to your audience. This also works for the foppish U2 and other cult-like groups worshiped by believers.

Follow these 6 recommendations and you’ll be able to avoid the Bible for years to come! After all, you were called, weren’t you, to preach what people want to hear rather than the Verbum Dei."

Preach it Doctor!