We finish off the sketch of how the messianic community was kow-towing to the rich and despising the shabbily-dressed. In this letter, the rich are the oppressors and the poor are the oppressed. As we will see next week, the messianists are poor and they need to learn a lesson from looking round about them to see how God works. But for now, James makes his stunning point in James 2:4, and he does so by asking a question: Have... Read more
We want more attention to be given to youth ministry, and so Chris Folmsbee joins us weekly to offer a post. Today’s post is about mentoring. We welcome, as always, your feedback and conversation. This post today deserves responses from pastors and youth workers. Sometimes I wonder how I ever even made it as a youth minister through my emerging adulthood years (think: Dr. Jeffrey Arnett and his book, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road From Late Teens Through The Twenties). ... Read more
Here is another in our series of guest bloggers who send stuff in to us. We always welcome your ideas or your own posts. Our first wave of submissions is now about complete, so we are hoping for another batch. This one, by Travis Mamone, asks a question that seems to come up all the time. What should we call ourselves? And, does it matter? We’ve all seen the “Christian vs. Follower of Christ” ads on the Internet, no doubt. ... Read more
To prepare for his ordination examination, Philip Fithian (1746-1776) was asked to prepare a sermon on the “Nature of Regeneration” and an exegetical study “that shall prove by plain & full Arguments that the Torments of the Damned will be Eternal.” Fithian, well-known to American historians but completely unknown to me until I read John Fea’s meticuloiusly-researched and very readable new book (The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America (Early American... Read more
What is fasting? Try defining it, and I’ll make a suggestion. Go ahead — in your mind define it. Here’s my suggestion: If, in defining fasting, we are tempted to define fasting as something we do “in order to” get something, I suggest we need to look again at the deepest wells of the Christian fasting tradition: the Bible. In Fasting: The Ancient Practices I suggest that in the Christian tradition we somehow got sidetracked. Instead of seeing fasting as... Read more
During my early graduate years in seminary I began to use the Loeb edition of the apostolic fathers, and then when Bart Ehrman brought out a whole new Loeb edition of the apostolic fathers, I bought that one. I enjoy Loeb volumes. But I have changed: Michael W. Holmes (Bethel College), who has for decades been working on these texts and producing various editions and translations, now has brought it all together in his new Greek-English edition of the apostolic... Read more
With the fourth chapter of Peter Bouteneff’s book Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives we come to a rather controversial character, Origen of Alexandria, (ca.185-254) Origen was a prolific Christian writer, thinker, and scholar. He is purported to have written some 2000-6000 works (depending how one counts) from commentaries on Genesis and John to his well known texts On First Principles and Against Celsus. His Hexapla contained a comparison of six versions of the Old Testament. Most... Read more
Pelagianism is the favorite term thrown around by many today when the intent is to label a theologian as heretical. In the 9th chp of Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe we are treated by Nicholas Adams (Anglican theologian at Edinburgh) to a discussion of Pelagianism. Pelagianism “implicitly denies the existence of original sin and asserts that people can take the initial steps towards salvation by their own efforts, choosing the good by virtue... Read more
AN Wilson, known to many as a religious skeptic and critic of the Christian faith, tells his story of faith in public. I hadn’t heard this before, and maybe I’m woefully outdated, but here it is. A week ago, there were Palm Sunday processions all over the world. Near my house in North London is a parish with two churches. About 70 or 80 of us gathered at one of these buildings to collect our palms. We were told by... Read more
How we treat the poor is a barometer of our faith in the Glorious Jesus Christ. That’s what James says in James 2:1 and then he sketches a scene before our eyes: 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor... Read more
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In