This Piper Friday, I would like to share an extract with you from an old sermon by John Piper. It rightly entwines three themes that were flowing through my head (and hence this blog!) earlier this year: The study of God’s Word, prayer, and the activity of the Holy Spirit. I am increasingly convinced that we need these three things more than anything else! Oh, God . . . make us preachers to be men like this! “The minister of... Read more
In the previous post in this series we asked the question, “If Jesus was not a sinner, why did He die?” It’s now time that I shared my own definition of Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) which I wrote for a talk I gave last autumn. I thought I would also share the definition given by the authors of the new book, Pierced For Our Transgressions (PFOT). Wherever you are in the world, you can buy PFOT at 20% off the... Read more
Terry Virgo, who is the leader of newfrontiers, will be preaching this Sunday, 29th April, at 10 a.m. in Enfield Cineworld, the home of the church I attend. Newfrontiers is the family of churches of which Jubilee Church is a part. Terry is an inspiring Bible teacher and has a healing ministry. If you can get to the A10 in Enfield, North London, you are most welcome to join us this Sunday. If you are driving, please note that the... Read more
Last week we looked at “The Terrible Problem of Sin.” It is very important that we do this — that we spend time thinking about sin and what sin has caused to happen in our world. The Bible is very clear — before sin there was no death; death was foretold as being the result of sin, and it is stated that because of sin we all die. Any adequate understanding of the atonement has to explain why it was... Read more
Daniel Newman has a great quote explaining something that is often missed or simply assumed about penal substitution, and which the authors of Pierced for Our Transgressions do, in fact, address. (HT Bish) “It is on the basis of our union with Christ that our sins are imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us. Christ is in us and we are in him, indwelt by the Spirit. He was no innocent third party when he suffered, bled, and... Read more
UPDATE – Broadbent subsequently issued a further statment which acknowledged Steve Chalke was one factor in the split. Pete Broadbent, who leads the Spring Harvest Leadership Team, has now issued the following statement in response to my post on Spring Harvest and UCCF, and the official UCCF Statement. It is also interesting in light of Tom Wright’s statement about the atonement and Steve Chalke. Peter Broadbent’s Statement Spring Harvest, Keswick, and UCCF (the three partners in Word Alive) agreed to... Read more
UPDATE November 2008– Steve Chalke has expressed his views more fully in a chapter in The Atonement Debate, and I have posted a response to this. UPDATE #3In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 11th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 12th most widely read post was “The Toronto Blessing”—When the Church Seemed To Be Going Mad. This post examines possibly the most controversial article Wright has written. In it, I question his... Read more
The UCCF has now issued a full statement about the end of Word Alive’s association with Spring Harvest, which I blogged about on Friday. Here is the full text: UCCF STATEMENTFor Immediate Release23 April 2007 Response from UCCF to the SPRING HARVEST Decision to End the World Alive Bible Teaching Week After 14 Years For the past 14 years, the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship and Keswick Ministries have been delighted to partner Spring Harvest in organising Word Alive, one... Read more
As I explained last Sunday, I am determined, at least whilst spending the rest of the week blogging about the atonement, to spend Sundays on a journey exploring the implications of the resurrection of Jesus. I am writing this post one week before you will read it. These days I like to try and get ahead of myself in my blogging as much as possible. This morning I awoke earlier than usual. The house was quiet, and I felt God... Read more
UPDATE November 2008– Steve Chalke has expressed his views more fully in a chapter in The Atonement Debate, and I have posted a response to this. ____________________ FURTHER UPDATEFull statements have now been issued by UCCF and Keswick, as well as Pete Broadbent of Spring Harvest, who also made a further statment. N.T. Wright has weighed into the atonement debate offering clear support to Steve Chalke. Also, Dave Bish is doing a great job of collecting blog posts about this... Read more
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