“As we bring the gospel home to our family, we dare not do so as a self-righteous older brother. Even if our family members are out squandering their inheritance with prostitutes or wallowing in the mud with pigs, if we’re pointing to our record of good behavior while condemning their wicked ways, it will beContinue reading “The false gospel of self righteousness”
Tag Archives: gospel
Gita and Gospel
From John Nicol Farquhar, 1861-1929: “Here, then, we have the secret of that similarity which we are all so clearly conscious of, when we read a Gospel alongside of the Gita. In the Gospels we have in historical form the authoritative utterances of the historical Jesus; in the Gita we have the imaginations of aContinue reading “Gita and Gospel”
The Incomplete Gospel
I love the incompleteness of the Gospel of Mark. It ends without ending: “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8) It invites us to ask, “But if they said nothing to anyone, how come we’ve heard of this?” Evidently, itContinue reading “The Incomplete Gospel”
A New Kind of Prosperity Gospel
In an article entitled, A New Kind of Prosperity Gospel, Bruce Epperly writes: “While there is much to affirm about the relationship of positive thinking, visualization, and heart-felt faith with physical, mental, relational, and spiritual well-being, I believe there are serious problems with both the new age/new thought and Pentecostal understandings of spirituality and prosperity.Continue reading “A New Kind of Prosperity Gospel”
Contextualisation is often misunderstood
Are we sure we understand contextualisation? This afternoon I stumbled across an article on Reclaiming Contextualization by Dr David Sills, a Professor of Christian Missions and Cultural Anthropology. David comes from a much more conservative background than myself, so our sensitivities differ somewhat, but I really appreciated some of his comments on contextualization which struck meContinue reading “Contextualisation is often misunderstood”
Life Transformation, Death Transformation
Some time ago Jolly Blogger posted this picture under and accompanying text under the title of “failed gospel tract“. Not sure I’d call it a failure. It shows up the unbiblical saccharine of the prosperity gospel well enough.
The Gospel of Jesus? Or the Gospel about Jesus?
Some people see the the Gospel of Jesus as being in opposition to the Gospel about Jesus. They note that Jesus announced the coming Kingdom of God. They note that Paul and the other apostles announced the resurrection of Jesus. They see the different language and conclude this represents a fundamental difference between the two.Continue reading “The Gospel of Jesus? Or the Gospel about Jesus?”
The Good News: It’s Not All About Guilt
Yesterday I suggested that we need to be more aware of cultural diversity and of the guilt-innocence, shame-honor and fear-power paradigms intermixing in glocal cultures. I also suggested it has implications for how we share the good news, for our paradigms shape what we see as good news. Today I want to draw people’s attentionContinue reading “The Good News: It’s Not All About Guilt”
The Gospel in Romans 1
Just some more reflections on the gospel here. Since the letter of Paul to the Romans is a critical source for Reformation theology I suppose I would be remiss not to include it in the discussion. So, what does Paul have to say explicitly in Romans? Well, we don’t have to look far. Paul introducesContinue reading “The Gospel in Romans 1”
The Gospel begins with the Resurrection
With all the recent conversation I’ve been having with different people about Reformed theology, missional theology, emergent theology and just what do each of us mean by loaded terms like “the gospel”, I thought it was worth spending some more time talking about what I understand as “the gospel”. Well, first and foremost, it’s theContinue reading “The Gospel begins with the Resurrection”
Curious Christian 