Clarity, Truth, Sufficient and Efficient – with Mark Thompson

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“How do we start with Jesus in formulating a view of Scripture today?

What is Jesus’ view of scripture? How do clarity and simplicity relate? How do we move from the speech of God to the word of God written? How does the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture play out in the different stages of biblical revelation?

Can you give us a sixty second answer on canon formation? And how does speech-act theory impact the issues of the inseparability of Word and Spirit, and the efficacy of Scripture.

Principal of Sydney’s Moore Theological College Mark Thompson has a new book ‘The doctrine of Scripture: An introduction’.”

– Always encouraging to hear someone who loves and thinks clearly about the Word of God.

See also:

How do we read the Bible differently as Followers of Jesus?

More Moore Q&A videos released

See the latest videos released in the Moore College Q&A series.

Available so far:

Coming soon:

On Moore College’s YouTube Channel.

Commanding the heart: Lust

Marshall Ballantine-Jones and Dani Treweek spoke on “Commanding the heart: Lust” at a Centre for Christian Living event at Moore College on 4 May 2022.

“Jesus raises alarm when he warns us that adultery isn’t limited to sexual intercourse outside of marriage, but begins earlier in the lustful glance of the eye and in mental fantasies. Adultery isn’t just physical; it can be done in the heart. So great is the threat of a wandering eye or straying hand that Jesus suggests losing a part of the body instead of facing the fire of hell.

Kingdom righteousness demands more than physical abstinence from sex outside of marriage, but not less. In view of such teaching, what kind of sexual conduct is becoming of a disciple of Jesus?

Dr Marshall Ballantine-Jones and Dani Treweek help us consider how to deal with lust in our hearts.”

The video has now been made available. Very sobering and very helpful.

Related:

Adultery of the heart – SydneyAnglicans.net.

A good minister — 1 Timothy 4:6-16

ACL Council member and Moore College lecturer Lionel Windsor spoke on 1 Timothy 4:6-16 in Moore College Chapel last week.

He began by speaking one of faithful minister who was recently called home – Neil Prott.

Outline:

How do we read the Bible differently as Followers of Jesus?

“The Christian attitude toward the Bible is part of Christian discipleship. To follow Jesus is to follow him in this too. Put simply, we want to have the same attitude toward the Bible as Jesus had.

We must not pit the authority of Jesus—or the power of the Holy Spirit, for that matter—against the teaching of Scripture. Jesus himself turned to the Scriptures as the final word: sufficiently clear, true, and powerful to make known the person and purposes of God, and to direct a faithful response to what God has done for us in his Son. ‘It is written,’ Jesus said. ‘What does the Scripture say?’ asked his faithful servant, the apostle Paul.…”

– Crossway has published this encouraging article by Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson.

It’s adapted from his just-released book, “The Doctrine of Scripture: An Introduction”. (It’s available to order from these booksellers.)

General Synod and comprehensive Anglicanism

“Some believe that the scriptures are quite clear in their condemnation of same-sex sexual activity and that the Church has no authority to act contrary to the clear teaching of the scriptures. Therefore marriage, in their understanding, must continue to be exclusively between one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others, for life.

Others believe that what’s at stake here is an important matter of justice and that LGBTI people should be fully included in the life of the Church and allowed to express their sexuality through life-long, faithful, monogamous relationships just as heterosexual people do. Other parts of the scriptures are cited in support of this view.

…

In Southern Queensland we have set as a key focus area promoting ‘comprehensive Anglican identity and purpose.’

This approach recognises that there will be different convictions, understandings and priorities among Anglicans. And it is likely that each of these perspectives includes insights into the truth.

This means that in order to comprehend the whole truth we need these various insights and perspectives to be present and engaged. …”

– Archbishop of Brisbane Dr Phillip Aspinall writes about the upcoming General Synod to be held next month on the Gold Coast – and the range of theological convictions on the question of the blessing of same-sex marriages.

How ‘comprehensive’ can Anglicans be? Worth considering:

From Article 20 of The Thirty Nine Articles:

“… it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same…”

Photo: Anglican Focus.

The religion of self-worship

“Steve Chalke of the Oasis Trust, and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, have with others written this in a letter to the Prime Minister:

To be Trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole: precious, honoured, and loved, by yourself, by others and by God.

In one sentence this brings into the open what a good deal of the LGBT+ movement has become: it is now a sacred quest, an agenda no longer driven science, common sense, or simple compassion; but by a transcendental vision, a desire for mystical fulfilment and a metaphysical belief in unseen realities. This is, more than anything else, a religion.

But it is not Christian religion. …”

– Matthew Roberts at The Critic looks at the worldview behind a recent letter that’s been making news in the UK.

Photo: Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

See also:

‘To Be Trans is to Enter a Sacred Journey of Becoming Whole’: A Former Archbishop of Canterbury and the Liberal Enthusiasm for Transgender Ideology – Albert Mohler’s Briefing for Thursday 14 April 2022. See Part 3:

“This is a public statement made by someone who had held major public responsibility in an historic Christian Church, and he basically here is offering a theology that is directly contrary to scripture and he is doing so believing that the message that he is bringing will lead to human happiness, wholeness, and flourishing.”

and

Why the Christian argument for a ban on transgender conversion therapy fails. – Anglican theologian Martin Davie.

“I very much regret having to disagree with Archbishop Rowan Williams. He is someone whom I deeply respect and from whose writings I have learned an enormous amount. However, as part of my responsibility as a theologian, I feel that I need to say publicly that I disagree with the Christian argument for a ban on transgender conversion therapy put forward by Archbishop Williams and thirteen other Christian writers in their recent open letter to the Prime Minister. What they say in the letter is deeply misleading and they completely fail to make a convincing Christian case for such a ban. …”

The Challenge of Feminism

Equal but Different has republished two articles by Dr Claire Smith on “The Challenge of Feminism” –

Part 1 – Should We Call Ourselves Feminists?

Part 2 – God’s Better Solutions.

How the Person Became a Self

“In 2020, while the world was on lockdown due to COVID-19, Carl Trueman published one of the most important books of the last several decades.

In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Trueman built on the insights of contemporary thinkers such as Philip Rieff and Alasdair MacIntyre to show how modern thinkers … gave expression to a worldview … that made possible and plausible the arguments of the late-modern theorists who shaped the postmodern sexual revolution …

It is a penetrating analysis of recent intellectual history that shows why people are willing to believe ideas today that our grandparents would have rejected out of hand—without need of argument, evidence, or proof—just two generations ago.

The only problem? The book is over 400 pages long. … I knew that many of Carl’s potential readers would not have the time or appetite to wade through so many of his finer, nuanced discussions. So I emailed Carl, praising the book as essential reading. But I also suggested that he consider writing a shorter, more accessible version of the basic argument for non-specialists. Carl has now produced that volume with Strange New World, and it sparkles on every page. …”

– If the length of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self put you off, Strange New World might be just what you need. Ryan T. Anderson writes at First Things.

The book is available widely – here are some booksellers.

Scripture Alone — David Cook

Even if you haven’t, David Cook has seen the preaching and the damage done –

“Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!”

He writes at The Expository Preaching Trust:

Attending Bible College in the 1960s involved a two-year course, each year having three terms.

This meant that six areas of Systematic Theology were covered, the first being the foundational Doctrine of Revelation—what we believe about the Bible.

Entering Moore College in 1973 meant attending the transformational lectures of DB Knox as he led us through TC Hammond’s, ‘In Understanding Be Men’, the first chapter of which is entitled, ‘Final Authority in Matters of Faith’.

All other doctrines flow from a right understanding of what we believe the Bible is, its source, its nature and its purpose.

Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!

The available Presbyterian Theological Schools, with a non-commitment to the inspiration of Scripture, its supremacy, authority and sufficiency, had produced a generation of preachers with nothing to say, apart from vague, theistic, positive psychology.

When Paul urges Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 to understand the times, avoid the alternatives and preach the word, all these imperatives are based on a firm conviction about Scripture’s divine source (2 Timothy 3:16).

Abandon the foundation of what God tells us about Scripture and the pulpit, and all true pastoral ministry will be lost!

Fifty years on and we need this reminder because fewer of us have experienced those empty, powerless days.

Scripture’s inspiration means that its authority is supreme, over church and culture.

Scripture’s inspiration means that it is sufficient, we need not, and should not look for any other special word from God, that extra word is at best a hunch.

Scripture is God’s word, not yours or mine, therefore we have no right to add to it or subtract from it.

Scripture is the instrument God uses to bring the lost to life and to bring the believer to maturity (Isaiah 55:11; Acts 12:24; 19:20; 20:32; 1Cor 1:18;1:21; 15:2; Eph 1:13;  2Timothy 3:15-16).

As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we share his conviction as to the authority and centrality of Scripture (Mark 12:10; John 10:35).

Thus all Christian leaders must be awake to what our recent history has taught us, and actively resist any influence to water down the central and supreme authority of Holy Scripture.

As our old friend John Chapman used to say, ‘The authority is in the text, brother. Preach the text’.

‘It is at the very root of the Evangelical position that the supremacy of Holy Scripture be held in its fullest sense… no words can too strongly express the importance of securing, beyond doubt, the unsuperseded authority of the Sacred Scriptures in all religious discussions whether of doctrine or practice’. (TC Hammond, ‘In Understanding be Men’, p.39).

– First published at The Expository Preaching Trust.

An unwanted gift

“Have you ever received a gift that you did not want? A number of years ago I asked my father to buy me a cast-iron griddle pan, but he decided to give it to my wife Pearl instead. I was delighted. She was less than impressed. Not every gift is something we want.

I received a gift I didn’t want recently. Despite abundant caution and double vaccination I received a bad case of COVID-19. And it really was bad. I cannot remember feeling so ill in my life. Even a month later I’m still in the process of recovery. Yet, despite all that, and amid recognition of all the pain and loss it has caused so many, I still consider it a gift. …”

– Bishop of Western Sydney Gary Koo shares what he has learned through COVID – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Image: Bishop Gary Koo / Anglican Media Sydney.

A Wake-Up …

“With the continued missile onslaught on the cities of Ukraine we feel the pain and the suffering and the loss of life. ‘Why this evil and suffering in this 21st century?’

In his 1940s book, The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis considers the question of pain and suffering from the perspective of the meaning and purpose of life. …”

– At the Anglican Connection, John Mason has a reminder of the signs of the times.

How Can Jesus and the Father both be God?

“Thanks for asking this great and important question. There are a few issues tied up here but let me begin by offering a basic answer and then try to explore it a bit more deeply.

You ask how the Father can be God and yet Jesus can also be God. Of course, this is similar to what John talks about at the start of his gospel. Referring to Jesus as the ‘Word’, he declares that:

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

How can the Word (the eternal person who became Jesus) be with God and be God. Is this simply a contradiction?

How can this make sense? How can the Word (the eternal person who became Jesus) be with God and be God. Is this simply a contradiction?…”

– In a new feature at The Gospel Coalition Australia (“Ask TGCA”), Andrew Moody seeks to bring some clarity in answering the question “How Can Jesus and the Father both be God?”.

Peter Jensen: The Challenges of Global Anglicanism — The Mission of the Church

From Church Society:

“In this first of our 2022 Lent series on the challenges of Global Anglicanism, Rt Revd Peter Jensen former Archbishop of Sydney and General Secretary of GAFCON, speaks about the challenge of taking the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world.

He identifies three challenges: identity, truth and relationships.”

Good to watch and share.

‘Two faces …?’ — an Ash Wednesday reflection

“Human relationships on the personal and international level must rate as the greatest challenge for the world’s future. The cold-blooded invasion of Ukraine reveals an oft unspoken issue that confronts us: flawed human nature.

The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once commented, If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Robert Murray McCheyne, who was a great influence on CS Lewis, observed, The seeds of all sins are in my heart, and perhaps all the more dangerously that I do not see them.

Let me make a suggestion. Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent that continues through to the day before Easter Day. …”

– Read (or listen to) John Mason’s Word on Wednesday reflection for Ash Wednesday from the Anglican Connection.

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