Book review: Surprised by Hope
N. T. Wright is one of the most talented writers among New Testament scholars today. In this book he presents his understanding of what the Scriptures teach about heaven, the resurrection, and the church’s mission. …
Wright appeals to many because he is brilliant and fascinating, and some of what he says is helpful. Nevertheless, his failure to emphasize the centrality of the gospel is troubling, and pastors who find his work illuminating need to be careful that they do not veer away from their central task of proclaiming the good news to a lost generation.
– Thomas Schreiner, Professor of New Testament at SBTS, reviews Bishop Tom Wright’s recent book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church – at 9 Marks.
Earlier posts: on Tom Schreiner, on Bishop N T Wright. (Update: David Virtue has a related commentary on recent statements from Bishop Wright – at Virtue Online.)
Pilgrim’s Progress audio book reminder
If you were planning on downloading the free copy of the Pilgrim’s Progress Audio book from Christian Audio – but haven’t yet done so – their offer expires on Monday night. See this post.
Bishop J.C. Ryle: strangely up-to-date
“In reviews, magazines, newspapers, lectures, essays and sometimes even in sermons, scores of clever writers are incessantly waging war against the very foundations of Christianity.
Reason, science, geology, anthropology, modern discoveries, free thought, are all boldly asserted to be on their side. No educated person, we are constantly told nowadays, can really believe supernatural religion, or the plenary inspiration of the Bible, or the possibility of miracles.
Such ancient doctrines as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the atonement, the obligation of the Sabbath, the necessity and efficacy of prayer, the existence of the devil and the reality of future punishment, are quietly put on the shelf as useless old almanacs, or contemptuously thrown overboard as lumber!
And all this is done so cleverly, and with such an appearance of candour and liberality, and with such compliments to the capacity and nobility of human nature, that multitudes of unstable Christians are carried away as by a flood, and become partially unsettled, if they do not make complete shipwreck of faith.”
– Bishop J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) in chapter 19 of his classic book, “Holiness”.
From the Files: To Lambeth or not?
Decisions about the Lambeth Conference have not been made in haste. Here’s news from our website from one year ago –
“Standing Committee … respectfully requests the Archbishop of this diocese to communicate to the Archbishop of Canterbury our dissatisfaction at the attempt to maintain union with the unrepentant while continuing to refuse fellowship to faithful and orthodox Anglicans such as the Church of England in South Africa …”
Read this excerpt from the minutes of the Standing Committee of Sydney Diocese on 25th June 2007 – Read more
First-hand account of the Lakeland ‘revival’
There’s a great deal of buzz in some circles about a so-called ‘healing outpouring’ taking place in Florida under the leadership of one Todd Bentley. His daily revival meetings are being shown across the US on ‘God TV’ and include claims of healings and resurrections. For those who may be aware of these events, this first-hand account by Justin Peters (pictured) of one meeting is worth hearing.
Justin was interviewed on Way of the Master Radio in California on Tuesday. While the style of programming might not be to the liking of all, the interview – starting 37 minutes into this mp3 audio file (direct link – 12MB) – is illuminating.
See also our earlier post on Justin Peters’ seminars on Word of Faith preachers.
Beyond homophobia
Dr. Andrew Cameron of Moore College has written a thoughtful and helpful piece, “Beyond homophobia”, Briefing #076 for the Social Issues Executive of the Diocese of Sydney.
You can read it at the SIE website.
The Tragedy of 1662
Lee Gatiss, Co-ordinator of Reform London, spoke last month about the persecution and ejection of the Puritans from the Church of England in 1662, and the lessons we can learn from those events.
The talk is 35 minutes long (it is preceded by a 6 minute introduction to Reform London). Download it from Reform London at this page. Direct link to the 14.1MB mp3 file.
Also available on the same page is the audio of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (at the same meeting) speaking informally on the uniqueness of Christ, GAFCON and the future of the Church of England. Direct link to that 19MB mp3 file here.
Plan to Plant Conference, Saturday July 26
“You may be an experienced church planter, or someone who really wants to be.
You may want to start new ministries in a sub-culture or in a new way.
You may be a part of a larger team or working by yourself.
You may have no ideas or be full of them… but if you want to be stimulated by others who are currently multiplying Gospel ministry – you need to be here.”
Martin Morgan, from Rouse Hill Anglican Churches in Sydney’s west, invites you to a day for all who want to multiply gospel ministries.
Saturday 26th July 2008 at Rouse Hill. Download a leaflet for details.
Run to win the Prize – Tom Schreiner
Professor Tom Schreiner from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, spoke at the Oak Hill School of Theology in London last month. His topic? “Run to win the prize – The nature of warnings in New Testament theology”.
Our friends at Oak Hill have generously made the audio files of the talks available – on the Oak Hill website.
The M’Cheyne daily Bible reading calendar
Need encouragement to read the Bible regularly? Ben Edgington has made available Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s daily Bible reading calendar in several formats.
Links to PDF files and an online interactive version are linked from this page at www.edginet.org. (There’s another online version here.)
From the Files: Peter Jensen on GAFCON
In December 2007, shortly after GAFCON was announced, Archbishop Peter Jensen wrote this about the meeting –
“The Anglican Future Conference is not designed to take the place of Lambeth. Some people may well choose to go to both. Its aim is to draw Biblical Anglican Christians together for urgent consultation. It is not a consultation which can take place at Lambeth, because Lambeth has a different agenda and far wider guest list. Unlike Lambeth, the Future Conference is not for Bishops alone – the invitations will go to clergy and lay people also. But it is a meeting which accepts the current reality of a Communion in disarray over fundamental issues of the gospel and biblical authority. …”
From the Files: The Anglican Debacle
So, who are the schismatics? Over coming weeks, many will seek to portray biblically faithful Anglicans in such a way. It’s not true, of course.
Dr. Mark Thompson’s paper, The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns, delivered at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in March, catalogues the events leading up the GAFCON and Lambeth 2008.
Word of Faith preachers
Like it or not, some members of your church probably watch US TV preachers. The so-called ‘Word of Faith’ preachers increasingly dominate the US Christian cable channels, and are also being seen in Australia. Who are these preachers – and what is their message?
One who has studied their teaching is Justin Peters. He visited faith healers as a teenager, hoping to be healed of Cerebral Palsy. At Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, his Master’s thesis was an examination of the life and ministry of Benny Hinn.
Justin went back to Southwestern to give a 30 minute overview of the seminars he runs in churches. A video file of that overview is available on his website (a 101MB download in Windows Media format via this page). Justin has also been interviewed on Christian radio in Toronto (5.2MB mp3). DVDs of his seminars are available from his website.
(For some light relief, here’s a page from Sacred Sandwich.)
From the Files: A Crisis in Koinonia
Newspaper articles, prophecies of doom, and synod resolutions aside, Jesus is still building his church.
For Anglicans, in a denomination that now sanctions same sex unions, this now means changes in the shape of our relationships so they might help rather than hinder the mission of Christ. The new oppressive liberal orthodoxy in North America must choose between using the current denominational structures as instruments of coercion, or through an act of love, allow a realignment of relationships within different structural patterns. If those in power choose the first course of action, biblically orthodox Anglicans will be forced to choose between the gospel and Anglican structures. Either way the Anglican communion as we know it will cease to exist. …
– We published this very helpful paper by David Short, Rector of St. John’s Shaughnessy in Vancouver, back in 2004. With GAFCON just around the corner, and Lambeth close behind, it’s worth re-reading “A Crisis in Koinonia: Biblical Perspectives for Anglicans”.
The Death and Doctrine of Nicholas Ridley
Bishop Nicholas Ridley is one of the martyrs of the English Reformation – dying with Bishop Hugh Latimer in Oxford on October 16th 1555. But what was it all about?
In this helpful talk, Dr. Garry Williams of Oak Hill Theological College, London, puts the death and doctrine of Nicholas Ridley into their historical and theological context.
Dr. Williams’ 54 minute talk is available as an mp3 file at The Theologian.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…