A quote worth remembering: The light of Christ’s life reaches us through the Church as the community of those who, bound together in the love which Christ brought down, are “forever shedding that love abroad” in their own lives and “manifesting in the grace of Christlike character the reconciling purpose of God. From Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life, by Geoffrey Wainwright (p. 36). Read more
The 2d spiritual law of the classic Four Spiritual Laws is this: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life. Here the law appeals to Romans 3:23 for “sinful” and to Romans 6:23 for the “separated” (=spiritual death). The italicized explanation at the bottom of that website spells some of this out: God is holy and man is sinful. There is a great gulf, and man tries to... Read more
Here is the First Spiritual Law of Bill Bright’s famous Four Spiritual Laws tract, just in case you haven’t used it or heard it: Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spiritual laws which govern your relationship with God. Law One: God LOVES you, and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life. God’s Love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should... Read more
In this and a few more posts, I want to enter with you into a conversation about how Jesus would evaluate the Four Spiritual Laws of Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ. The conversation should be back and forth between what Jesus taught and what the Four Spiritual Laws teach. In the process, one of the deep principles of the Deep Ecclesiology of the Emergent movement will become clear: namely, its theology begins with a relationship with Jesus, and... Read more
In light of a previous post on Why is sin urbanized?, I thought I’d bring up its companion: if the deep sins of culture and the area of the biggest need is sometimes located in the inner city, then the cause of that problem is systemic evil and that problem is to be found in the suburbs. Suburban wealthy folk sometimes work in the inner city, so the story goes, make lots of money on the backs of the poor,... Read more
In one day I was asked to write two articles on the Emergent movement, give one TV interview, and then to lend a hand to something that was being written. All because of Tall Skinny Kiwi, I told myself, and his decision to speak forth about DA Carson’s book. Well, how about this from Chaucer to say something central about Emergent concerns: “first he wrought, and afterward he taught.” I would like to see an Emergent leader write a book... Read more
… is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow the lights of Tom Holmen’s book, Jesus and Jewish Covenant Thinking, and think our way through the various “theories” of the Christian life. To do that, we looked through the six traditions sketched in Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water. Now I’d like to conclude by suggesting that Jesus taught us (Mark 12:29-31)... Read more
… is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow the lights of Tom Holmen’s book, Jesus and Jewish Covenant Thinking, and think our way through the various “theories” of the Christian life. To do that, we looked through the six traditions sketched in Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water. Now I’d like to conclude by suggesting that Jesus taught us (Mark 12:29-31)... Read more
This is the last in our series of posts on legalism, which we have called covenant path marking because those who practice these acts see them as faithful embodiments of the covenant. The Incarnational tradition, more accurately the sacramental tradition, is Foster’s weakest chapter, partly I’m guessing because he is Quaker. At any rate, he chooses Susanna Wesley, examines briefly divine aesthetics, and then looks at Dag Hammarskjold. As for its defining parts, Foster sees it as concerned with God... Read more
This is our sixth in seven installments on legalism, or covenant path marking. According to Foster, the Evangelical tradition of the Christian life focuses on the Word. (Don’t equate this with the current raging debate about what an “evangelical” is; Foster’s usage is broad.) He uses three examples: Augustine, Peter, and Billy Graham (who will be interviewed Friday night on Larry King Live). The Evangelical tradition is known for faithful proclamation of redemption and reconciliation, for the faithful preservation of... Read more
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