Q. It is not clear to me that the phrase basileia tou theou should simply be lumped together with the general sovereignty of God over all of his creation, or merely be seen as a subset of that idea. That phrase in Mk. 1.15 and elsewhere seems to have an eschatological and interventionist and salvific sense. ‘If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons then you will know that the divine saving action of God has broken into your midst’.... Read more
Q. The phrase building for the kingdom comes up quite a lot in this short book. Explain what that means to you, and how it would differ from what the phrase building the kingdom itself would mean. The dominion of God seems to have both a present and a future sense to it— now referring to the divine saving activity and its effects on human beings who submit to the lordship of Christ, but later refer to the dominion as... Read more
Q. How was the book parceled out? Were there chapters that you mainly wrote, with Tom adding a bit, or where Tom mainly wrote and you added a bit? The book is very much a joint project. Tom wrote the largest chapter of the book about the “powers” of this age. I also helped re-work some earlier material of Tom’s which he then curated further. I did the opening chapter about church and empire as well as the final... Read more
Q. What prompted you and Tom to write this particular book at this juncture in history? A. I remember listening to a news podcast about the latest info on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on TV, then later watching a documentary on YouTube about China and Taiwan, soon after I saw my Twitter feed inundated with debates about Trump, Christian nationalism, and January 6. Later that same day I got an email from a friend in Myanmar about the... Read more
One of the major problems with a Reformed approach to the sovereignty of God is that it sometimes ignores the progressive nature of revelation in the Bible, and at times this means ignoring that the further one goes in the Bible, the more recognition is given to the fact that God has allowed there to be viable secondary causes in the universe whether angels or humans, and they are indeed morally responsible for their own actions. Their actions, and in... Read more
Hot off the presses (released in late March 2024) comes this book by Tom Wright and Mike Bird, boldly going where previous Evangelicals have been loathe to go— namely into politics. The book is not difficult to read, and is under 200 pages (178 to be more precise), and does a good job of teasing the mind into active thought on this subject. It is not merely a cautionary word about the problems with Christian nationalism in its various forms,... Read more
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/31/us/jesus-christ-skin-color-easter-blake-cec/index.html We should not be judging people by the color of their skin, but rather by the content of their character– a paraphrase of what MLK said. Read more
https://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2024/03/28/front-loader-chase-moos-cprog-orig-bdk.cnn Read more
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