Introducing Vine Journal
“We’re launching Vine Journal because we’re convinced that the Christian community needs long form arguments and essays – like we all need at least one substantial meal a day, like a house needs solid foundations, like a church community needs its regular sermons.
Short, light, snackable content is enjoyable and often nutritious – but there are some subjects and ideas and arguments that we need to chew over, and that just can’t be adequately covered in a Facebook update, a video clip or a short blog post of 600 words.…”
– Tony Payne introduces Vine Journal from Matthias Media.
The Land of the long weekend
“I am part of the pastoral team of an 800 member Christian Church, we are all being radicalised, every meeting, every week, to engage our society with the message of God’s love. We eschew bullets and bombs and take up a message of love, delivered as we are able with acts of kindness.
Here is the radical Christian message, God your Creator, who made you, loves you, He gave His Son to die for your sin, He raised that Son from the dead to prove to you He is Lord, lose control of your life to Him and you will find true abundant life!…”
– Another great post from Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook.
Knowing Christ
Mark Jones, who has just written a book entitled “Knowing Christ”, speaks with J.I. Packer (who wrote the foreword for the book).
Read the foreword and watch the interview here.
Perspective on the New Perspective (2) – The Moral Centre
“In our last post we used used Romans 4:5 as a test-case to highlight a key difference between the New Perspective and Reformed theology.
We saw that for N. T. Wright and James Dunn the ‘ungodly’ are those who are outside the covenant community and ‘justification’ means to be brought into the covenant. In this post I want to talk about some of the difficulties with this new interpretation…”
– Dr Peter Orr’s second post (first one here) on the New Perspective is worth your time to read, and is a powerful reminder of God’s glory as revealed in the gospel.
Book review — Raised Forever: Jesus’ Resurrection and ours
“…I love those moments where people get it; where they see clearly what the Bible has to say.
And because of that I love those means by which they get it. And because of that I love Rory Shiner’s raised forever.”
– David Ould is enthusiastic about Rory Shiner’s Raised Forever: Jesus’ Resurrection and ours.
(Photo: Rory Shiner, via Matthias Media.)
Multi-Ethnic Churches: 9Marks Journal
The latest 9Marks Journal is now available for free download. The theme of this issue is Multi-ethnic Churches.
From Editor Jonathan Leeman:
“Satan has always loved to exploit the lines of ethnic division. Think of how the Egyptians in Exodus hold the Jews in contempt. Or how the brand new Jerusalem church, price sticker still on the backseat window, divides in Acts 6 between Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jews.
So churches today too often mimic their host culture’s ethnic rivalries, whether in South Africa, India, or America. Or at least, too often they forget they possess a resource for overcoming racial or ethnic strife that the world does not have: the gospel.”
How to be Moral without being a Moralist
“Nobody likes a wowser. But then again, it’s strange how modern life is full of things we’re not allowed to do, eat, drink or say (no sugar, no carbon, no sexism, no GM foods, and of course no religious people telling us what to do).
What do you think Jesus would say about all this?
Is it possible to be genuinely moral and seek to do what is good and right, without becoming a legalistic scold (like his most bitter opponents, the Pharisees)?…”
– Moore College’s Peter Bolt is speaking at two Centre for Christian Living events – one at Wollongong 0n Thursday 22nd October, and the other at the College on Wednesday 28th October. (Photo: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Also coming up at Moore College:
Ray Galea is leading this year’s third Advancing Your Preaching Workshop on Tuesday 6th October.
Free eBook: Are We Together?
“Pope Francis is the first Pope to visit the United States since 2008. His visit has provoked many Christians to ask sincere questions concerning Roman Catholicism. In light of this, Reformation Trust is making the ebook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Are We Together? free until the end of September.”
– From Ligonier Ministries.
Chapters are: 1 Scripture, 2 Justification, 3 The Church, 4 The Sacraments, 5 The Papacy, Mary.
Also until the end of September is a free download of 5 lectures by R.C. Sproul on Roman Catholicism: 1 Scripture and Tradition, 2 Papal Infallibility, 3 The Church and Salvation, 4 Sacraments, 5 The Virgin Mary.
(To download these resources, you need to sign up for an account – however there is no charge for them this month.)
Matters of life and death
“One of the most vexed questions for Christians today is how we apply the truth of what we know to a fast changing culture. This is especially true in the area of ethics. Things that were not even possible 10 years ago, and scarcely considered, are now on the radar. Christians have to react quickly and think carefully.
That’s why John Wyatt’s one hour session at this year’s EMA was gold dust. John is a practitioner, which means every day he is having to put his carefully thought through theology into real life situations, and it’s well worth hearing his conclusions.”
– Thanks to Adrian Reynolds at the Proclamation Trust for the link.
‘Allow me to die!’ — SBS Dateline
On 2CH in Sydney last night, Dominic Steele interviewed SBS journalist Brett Mason and Moore College’s Lionel Windsor, about the SBS TV Dateline programme “Allow me to die!”.
The Dateline programme follows two people who have decided to end their lives.
Related:
The hardest story I’ve told – Brett Mason, SBS.
Dr Megan Best’s speech on euthanasia at Sydney Synod in 2010.
Give Me Liberty and Give Me Death: Belgium’s Brave New Euthanasia Regime – Public Discourse.
Graeme Goldsworthy on the Gospel, Atonement, Satisfaction and Justification
“Graeme Goldsworthy, former Moore College lecturer, is a highly influential theological thinker and author of recent times. His “trilogy” is available on Amazon Kindle right now for the stunning price of 20 cents. [14 US cents on the US store – ed.] It includes three key works: Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, and The Gospel in Revelation. …
Goldsworthy’s life work is built on integrating the grand sweep of biblical narrative with its central theme, the gospel. The gospel, for Goldsworthy, has at its very heart the amazing truth that Christ died as a satisfaction for sin (in doctrinal terms, “penal substitutionary atonement”).
I thought it would be worth providing a few select quotes from Goldsworthy in his chapter on “Justification by Faith in Revelation” to illustrate this. Here he is seeking to integrate the historic reformed articulation of the gospel with the biblical narrative of Christ’s victory in the book of Revelation. …”
– Lionel Windsor has some really helpful quotes at his blog, Forget the Channel.
Anglicare Sydney launches Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal
Anglicare Sydney has launched The Archbishop’s Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal.
Read about it, and donate, here.
A Journey through Romans – infographic
From Lionel Windsor –
“Here is the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, summarised in a single infographic. This is based on a mini-lecture I gave at Moore Theological College.” See it here.
Sooner Count the Stars – new Sovereign Grace album on the way
A new album from Sovereign Grace is on the way and is available for pre-order. Details here.
Evangelism: The Simplicity of Changing the World
“Once upon a time in a land far away, I heard a speaker at a conference insisting that evangelism ought to engage with the cultures around us. The task seemed so complicated. Mapping conceptual worlds. Integrating lofty ideas into unseen mental frameworks. And all of this was to be done well before you open your mouth about Jesus.
Everyone I spoke with at morning tea had been thoroughly convinced of one thing: they could never do the kind of thing the speaker was calling for. And most of them were ministers who had gone through a full theological education! What hope would the ‘unlettered and ordinary’ amongst us have (as the apostles were called, Acts 4:13)?
In contrast, the view of evangelism in the book of Acts is refreshing for its simplicity…
On that extraordinary day when Jesus rose from the dead, evangelism became the ordinary activity of his people for the rest of time.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…