I am one of the speakers responding to Iain Provan (who has just written this book) in this Davenant Institute event on Protestant hermeneutics. Continue reading “Iain Provan, ‘In Defence of Protestant Hermeneutics’ (and responses, including mine)”
Category: Controversies
Sexuality in Zero Gravity
A talk delivered at Patrick Henry College on the changing shape of sexuality in the twenty-first century. Continue reading “Sexuality in Zero Gravity”
The Trinity in the OT, the Faith of OT Believers, the Angel of the Lord
A number of years ago there was a lot of debate in certain circles in the UK revolving around these topics: the degree to which Christ/the Trinity is explicitly present in the OT; the nature of the Angel of the Lord; relatedly the object of believers’ faith in the OT (did OT saints trust consciously and explicitly in the Son?); the degree to which revelation is progressive from the OT to the NT. A lot of these threads were explored in the Blackham-Goldsworthy debate: http://www.theologian.org.uk/bible/blackham.html
What are your views on these topics? Some more specific questions might be:
– Does the OT, read on its own terms, clearly present a unipersonal God or a binitatian/Trinitarian God? Or does it murkily present the latter?
– How were OT believers saved? Through explicit faith in the Son, or through other means?
– Who is the Angel of the Lord?
Continue reading “The Trinity in the OT, the Faith of OT Believers, the Angel of the Lord”
Man, Woman, Deception and Authority in 1 Timothy 2
How do we explain 1 Timothy 2:14? On the one hand it appears to have a novel idea that Adam was not deceived in the fall. While on the other it appears to ground the submission of women in a tendency to be deceived. What’s going on here?
Continue reading “Man, Woman, Deception and Authority in 1 Timothy 2”
The Church and the Natural Family
In the past two episodes of “Mere Fidelity” there was an underlying issue which was touched on, but not fully discussed. That is the relationship between the biological family and the New Family of which Christ is the firstborn. Examples I am thinking of: 1.) Does the Great Commission now call us to emphasize “being fruitful and multiplying” for this New Family through making disciples, over and against being fruitful in biological families? 2.) For those who cannot have biological families, how much should the church be relied upon to be family? 3.) The New Testament certainly seems to de-emphasize biological family to some degree, what do we make of this?
Peter Leithart and Me on Baptismal Efficacy
I just finished Leithart’s The Priesthood of the Plebs. It was one of the most stimulating books I have read in a long, long time. I also have recently watched some of your videos on baptism. How does your thought relate to his? I may be misreading Leithart, but he emphasizes baptism working ex opere operato and seems to say that baptism is salvific for all those baptized. This seems to stand in contrast to your statement in “Does Baptism Save Us?” at 13:28 that not every person baptized is saved and brought into the realities you are speaking of. Perhaps I am misunderstanding one or both of you. Or perhaps you have disagreements with Leithart. Either way, I would enjoy hearing you talk about his book and how your understanding of baptism compares and contrasts with his.
Continue reading “Peter Leithart and Me on Baptismal Efficacy”
Richard Rohr on Scripture
I came across this post from Richard Rohr on how Jesus interpreted scripture (https://cac.org/jesus-interpreted-scripture-2017-01-10/). Here is a quote from the post:
“Jesus consistently ignored or even denied exclusionary, punitive, and triumphalistic texts in his own inspired Hebrew Bible in favor of passages that emphasized inclusion, mercy, and honesty. He read the Scriptures in a spiritual and selective way. Jesus had a deeper and wider eye that knew which passages were creating a path for God and which passages were merely cultural, self-serving, and legalistic additions. That becomes self-evident once you know enough to see the “comparative meaning” of an incident or statement.
When Christians pretend that every line in the Bible is of equal importance and inspiration, they are being very unlike Jesus. This is precisely why Jesus was accused of teaching “as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:29, RSV), and why they hated him so much. Jesus even accused fervent and pious “teachers of the law” of largely missing the point. “Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” he asked them (Mark 12:24, RSV). We cannot make the same mistake all over again—and now in Jesus’ name.”
How would you respond to the idea that Jesus read the scripture in a spiritual and selective way and that he emphasized some while ignoring or denying others?
Elisha and the She-Bears
I discuss the troubling passage at the end of 2 Kings 2, where forty-two are killed after ridiculing the prophet Elisha. This discussion was prompted by Jonathan Pageau’s discussion of this passage.
Reading Revelation
There seem to be a number of different overall approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation. Can you briefly explain what each of these are and then share your own preferred interepretaive approach? Perhaps some recommended reading too?
1 Corinthians 14 and Women’s Silence in Church
I have a friend who is from a non-religious background who is interested in Christianity and is reading the bible for the first time. She asked me to explain 1 Corinthians 14:33b-35. “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.” She said, “I don’t know how to make sense of that.” I’m also curious (and unsure) about that passage as “keep silent”, or it being “shameful for a women to speak in church” and needing to only ask questions of their own husbands goes far beyond men only as elders, teaching or having authority. As I type this I wonder if I should only ask my own husband about this. 😉 We have five daughters, three of them are young adults now, believers with a high view of scripture, and they also wonder about this verse. We’ve had a lot of discussions about this in our home, and we are curious about your views.
Continue reading “1 Corinthians 14 and Women’s Silence in Church”
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