The Goodness of God — Two Ways News
From Phillip Jensen:
“‘Good’ is such a strange word. We all know what we mean by it, but it is so difficult to define. So when God declares his creation to be ‘good, very good’ what is he saying? Is the world itself good or simply pleasing? And if it is good, what is it good for?
In this week’s Two Ways News, Peter and I venture into the meaning of God calling the world good and the implications that has for living in this world and the next.”
– Listen (or read the transcript) here.
Words and Relationships
Phillip Jensen writes:
“On Peter’s recovery, I thought it would be good to hear his views on the topic of words and power that Genesis 1 so importantly illustrates. So, we return to the topic of words and see how they create and operate in relationships. This brings us to how they are distorted and politicised by suspicious people.
I’m sure you will appreciate coming back to the two voice podcast as Peter and I struggle through this important and highly contemporary issue of words.”
– Listen to the latest Two Ways News podcast here.
Book Recommendations on ‘Corporate Worship’ from Pastors
From 9Marks –
“ ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God’ (Col. 3:16).
Is there a singer or musician in your church who is hungry to glorify God as they lead in corporate worship? Or do your members need to be taught that they’re all ‘part of the choir’?
9Marks asked a couple of pastors who have thought a lot about corporate worship for book recommendations on the subject. …”
– You may recognise some of the books they recommend.
The Power of Words — How could we keep silent? Two Ways News podcast
From Phillip Jensen:
“Sadly Peter was sick when we recorded this episode of Two Ways News, so it is a solo effort for today’s topic. Thankfully, Peter has now recovered.
From Genesis 1 we see the power of God’s word, which is part of God’s wisdom by which he created the world. Thus, the power of words is one of the joys and problems of life. The devil’s power is in his lying words. Yet it is God’s word that never returns to him empty but always achieves his purposes. Understandably but wrongly, this leads people in authority to censorship.”
– Listen here.
Repeating the Basics — The Cross and the Resurrection
“Friends in Christ, today I am going to repeat the basics!
When the Apostle Paul summarises the central gospel truths he preached, he writes of what he…
‘…passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
It is what you should hear of again and again at any decent church – in our preaching, in our songs, in our confessions, creeds and prayers:
- of the cross, and its meaning (atonement ‘for our sins’), and
- of the resurrection and its meaning (forgiveness, hope and the resurrection of the body, which he unpacks in the rest of 1 Corinthians 15). …”
– In the Cathedral Newsletter, Dean of Sydney, Sandy Grant, reminds us of what we must not forget.
Exploring and Celebrating the Nicene Creed
“This year is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which is an important part of our liturgy for a number of our services, in particular for the Eucharist. We encourage you to mark this year by devoting some time to focussing on the creed, both personally and as a congregation. …”
– The Ministry Development Committee of the Diocese of Ballarat is seeking to help church members think about what they mean when they say the Nicene Creed on Sundays.
Related:
Credo Magazine feature: 1700 Years after Nicaea. – January 2025.
Christ and Creation — Two Ways News podcast
From Phillip Jensen:
“Dear Friends,
Hello again, thanks for the feedback and encouragement. Peter and I are enjoying chatting over the great themes of the Creator and creation in Genesis 1.
So far, we have been struck by the opening words ‘In the beginning God created’, which take us to the idea of one God and one universe. But yet when we come to John chapter 1 we find that the word by which God created all, became flesh in the person of Jesus. Furthermore, in Colossians 1, the world was created not only through God’s son but also for him.
So, in this week’s Two Ways News we are exploring the place of Christ in creation. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did in making it.”
– Listen here.
Who is Melchizedek?
“Who is the greatest in the book of Genesis? Abraham? Wrong! The greatest man in Genesis is Melchizedek.
‘Who?’, you say. Even if you have been a Bible reader for a while, your knowledge of Melchizedek may be a little sketchy. Who was he? And why does he matter?
Melchizedek appears in three places in the Bible. We will take these in turn and see how they fit together.…”
– Christopher Ash, Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, begins a new series, ‘Curious characters in the Bible’, by exploring questions around the mysterious Melchizedek.
God’s Deep Irony!
“HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds responded to a request from The American Magazine in July 1922, to identify the six most influential people in history.
‘I am an historian,’ he said. ‘I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history’.
Why then was HG Wells, and many like him, not a believer? Perhaps it has something to do with what we might call, God’s deep irony. …”
– John Mason writes in this week’s Word on Wednesday from The Anglican Connection.
Creator, King and Country — The importance of the first five words
From Phillip Jensen:
Citizenship is a wonderful thing. To be part of something larger than yourself gives meaning purpose and identity. Peter and I grew up in the British Empire having been born before the granting of Australian citizenship. It was for the Empire that our parents and grandparents generation went to the world wars. Today that is almost unimaginable, for now people find their identity in being Australians.
However, when we read Genesis 1 we are confronted with a ruler who is over and above every empire and nation because he is the Creator of all things. In this episode of Two Ways News we look at the meaning and implications of the opening words of Genesis 1.
– Listen here.
The reality of ministry – 2 Corinthians 4
Archie Poulos preached at Moore College’s chapel this morning.
From 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he spoke about The Reality of Ministry.
Two Ways News Podcast — The Foundations of Genesis Part 2
The second episode of the 2025 series of Two Ways News Podcasts is now out, with Phillip and Peter Jensen. They continue on Genesis 1–11.
“We spent last time talking about the background ideas of how we come to read Genesis, but Peter, you said something about the nature of literature, and I’d like to follow you up more on the assumptions when you’re reading, because you talked about how you approach reading.”
Guess who’s coming to podcast?
“The former Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, has been joined by his brother, former Archbishop Peter Jensen, in a refashioning of the podcast Two Ways News.
The podcast was previously hosted by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne. …
In the first episode of 2025, Mr Jensen introduces his brother Peter as the new co-host. “This year we’re looking at Genesis,” he says in the first episode. ‘Last year we worked our way through Romans and we just thought, well, the opening chapters of Genesis open up so many questions for us that it’ll be a great passage to have as the backbone of the year.’…”
– Russell Powell shares the news at SydneyAnglicans.net.
This podcast will be a real treat. Listen to the first episode for 2025, released today.
Image: Peter and Phillip at the 2023 King’s Birthday Conference at Moore Theological College.
Book review: ‘Proclaiming Christ’
“The past two hundred years of human history has seen the rise of so-called ‘modern’ thinking, which has created unprecedented challenges for Christians around the world.
As it stands, our current society is underpinned by a subjective approach to truth – emotions determine worldviews; objective biblical standards are labelled extremist; and unalterable biological realities like one’s own gender are contested on the grounds of personal feelings. In turn, this subjectivity has accompanied religious pluralism, as no revelation from God can be considered objectively true, because nothing is objectively true.
Against this cultural backdrop, believers are constantly in need of reminders to keep preaching Christ crucified. As a compilation of Packer’s 1978 lectures at Moore Theological College on Common Objections Against Christianity, this book serves to do exactly that. …“
As we noted when Campbell Markham reviewed the book last year, as well as reading the book, you can watch Packer’s 1978 Moore College lectures – About an hour each:
Lecture 1 – We’ve a Story to Tell.
Lecture 2 – The man Christ Jesus.
Lecture 3 – He emptied himself: the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Lecture 4 – The wonderful exchange.
Lecture 5 – No other name: the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
What would we lose if we stopped teaching complementarianism?
Dr Mark D Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, writes:
“The following is a paper I presented to a seminar at the 2025 Priscilla and Aquila Conference.
What would we lose if we stopped teaching complementarianism?
If we believe that the complementarian nature of human life and Christian ministry is a good thing, given by our loving God for our welfare, then we ought to want to preach and teach it, and to help people see how this perspective finds expression right through the Bible, and how it nurtures healthy, joyful and meaningful relationships. Yet increasingly, it seems, Bible teachers and preachers who are convinced of the truthfulness and even the goodness of this part of the Bible’s teaching, are unwilling to teach it for a variety of reasons. The context of our moment in history in the Western world — a right and proper concern to affirm the equal dignity and value of women and men, while at the same time being confused about what it means to be a woman or a man; the grotesque misuse of the Bible’s teaching by some to justify oppression and abuse; voices inside the churches insisting the Bible says something different and outside the churches arguing not only that we need not, but that we must not, follow the Bible’s teaching anyway — all of this pushes hard against any decision to teach complementarianism even if we believe it.
So my goal in this seminar is simply to encourage us to teach what we believe. And I don’t want us to do that just out of some sort of obligation, begrudgingly teaching this because it’s there in the Bible, but because we know it is good and that without understanding this our life together will be all the poorer. God is good. His word is good. He is committed to our welfare. He has built us for relationships. And what he has to tell us in his word about how to relate as men and women, in the home, in the church, and in the world that he has made, is very good. So if we don’t teach complementarianism there is a lot that we can lose. …”
– Read it all here – and very good to share with others in your church.
Related: The Priscilla and Aquila Centre at Moore College.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…