Peter is working out a theology of how to live as a Christian in Roman Empire, as powerless Christians in a world that God loves, and he is no pie-eyed dreamer. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” Pure recapitulation. |inline Read more

Whichever view of 1 Peter 4:7 you prefer, it is nonetheless clear that Peter’s motivation is to ground the need for the powerless churches of Asia Minor to live properly. As Peter’s theology for the powerless is worked out here, it is a theology that resonates with an eschatology. Some today are embarrassed by the eschatological systems |inline Read more

I wrote a third post, about the article of David Mills, on the Criswell Theological Journal‘s edition on the emergent church movement recently, then tossed out the paper copies and it rained on them. Today it is clear that I made a mistake because that post is not here. So, this one from memory on a good article. I’ll add a comment or two about Hammett’s piece at the end. |inline Read more

1 Peter 4:7: “The end of all things is near; therefore be …”. In technical studies, we call this “eschatological ethics.” That is, an ethic (“therefore be…”) that is rooted in and derives from a sense that history is about to close its door, that it is about to be wrapped up in a grand finale, that time will gave way to eternity. Peter is not alone in this in the early Church. |inline Read more

Driscoll’s piece in the Criswell Theological Review, “A Pastoral Perspective on the Emergent Church,” offers a nice little sketch of ministry in the modernist era, the transition to the postmodernist era, and then the postmodernist era. Then he uses Stetzer’s model of the relevants, reconstructionists, and revisionists model for understanding essential orientations to ministry. |inline Read more