Here's an interesting page, on the Grove Books website. They ran a competition to write the story of the Bible in 750 words, and these are the winning entries.
I think I might have a go at this myself, one day when I don't have a dissertation to write. Speaking of which..
I read James 2 this morning, the almost infamous passage which apparently contradicts Paul's theology that we are saved only by faith, that there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. I don't think it does say that, however. Here is the passage in full, from the ESV:
2.14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But
someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith
apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and
the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And
in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works
when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (ESV)
The particularly difficult verse is 24: 'You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.' This seems to contradict Paul's assertion in Romans (which intriguingly quotes the exact same verse about Abraham from Genesis):
4.1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (ESV)
Even more starkly, in Romans 3.28 Paul says, 'For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.' What is this apparent contradiction? Are Paul and James saying the exact opposite?
Well no, actually! One of Paul's main points throughout Romans is that salvation depends entirely on God's grace. No-one can keep the law, no-one can be holy as God is holy, everyone messes up, except Jesus. In and through Jesus God offers us the free gift of life, of redemption, salvation and justification, all those long words that basically mean we are given the gift of new life. We don't earn it, we are simply given it.
Now James is making a different point. He is saying that faith on its own means nothing – even the demons believe in God! If you have no works – if your faith does not affect how you live your life – then your faith is not really faith. Works demonstrate whether or not you really have faith, and so in that sense 'complete' it. The works in v.24 are therefore the 'works of faith', rather than 'works without faith'.
In other words, James is not saying that 'works without faith' justify, but he is saying that 'faith without works' is not really faith. He is arguing that we need 'faith that produces works'.
Looking at the context of both passages from James and Romans demonstrates that they are not contradictory after all. In fact, much later in Romans (12.1 and onwards) Paul writes one of his great 'therefore's. Having expounded grace and the need for it over the previous eleven chapters, he begins his section on ethics. We have been given a great gift, therefore we must live our lives accordingly. In other words, faith on its own is not faith: real faith produces works, produces love for our neighbours, generosity, etc.
We need to get away from the absolute contrast between faith and works. We can sometimes make it sound like we have no responsibility to do anything except 'preach the good news'. We must of course do that, but we must also demonstrate and 'complete' our faith by the 'good works' that God has 'prepared in advance' for us to do (Ephesians 2.10).
I had a long conversation last night with a good friend about various theological topics. Some of them will find their way on here, in time. The first of them is the doctrine of assurance. How can we be confident that we are saved? Is such confidence possible?
For Methodists, 'assurance' historically refers to a feeling of peace and joy that our sins are forgiven. An example might be John Wesley's famous line, 'I felt my heart strangely warmed.' He goes on to say:
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation. And an
assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and
saved me from the law of sin and death.
On this understanding, assurance is the feeling that accompanies faith in God's promises.
The difficulty is of course that feelings can mislead us. It is entirely possible for someone to feel 'assured' of their salvation, without having the accompanying faith.
It is therefore perhaps more helpful to talk about assurance in terms of faith. God has promised that those who believe in him will have eternal life, that if we believe in the salvation won for us by Jesus on the cross, we will be saved:
It is not possible for someone to be genuinely broken by sin, genuinely
to believe that Christ is the only way to salvation and genuinely to
have asked God for salvation, and yet still to be unsaved.
This is the most we can say: God has promised certain things in Scripture. Therefore if God is true to his Word, then what God has promised will happen. At the end of the day we can never be 100% certain that God exists, or we would not have faith, we would simply know.
However we can be almost 100% certain that he does, and therefore almost 100% certain that we will be saved if we trust in his promises.
Coming soon to a store near you... with over 25,000 notes, over 80,000 cross-references, and over 200 maps. The layout looks brilliant. Let's hope the anglicized edition looks as good!
Susie and I recently returned from a few days in Rome, courtesy of her great aunt. I have wanted to visit the Eternal City for years, mostly to see the Roman ruins, which are, well, ruins, but still spectacular! The best preserved is probably the Pantheon, which is incredible, but the Colosseum and Baths are not far behind.
We also visited the Vatican museums and St Peter's. The Sistine chapel really is quite special, as are many other things in the museums. However, St Peter's basilica provides much food for thought. In huge letters the front reads:
IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII
That is, translated, 'In honor of the prince of apostles by Paul V Borghese, a Roman, Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1612 and the seventh year of his pontificate.'
All very well and good, but what you actually see when you look at it is 'PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS', because it's in the middle, on the central pediment! This is the story throughout Rome: the most prominent place is always given to the name of the Pope. Even on the side of the Colosseum pope Pius IX gets pride of place!
While there I read this verse:
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honour.
Proverbs 15.33 (ESV)
And also this verse:
For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2.21 (ESV)
I couldn't help but think of all the popes who have sought their own interests, their own honour, before God's. All it would take is 'SOLA DEO GLORIA' ('only for God's glory') as an inscription.
The challenge to us is how easy it was for the popes to behave like this – and we are no different. I'm sure if I was the pope and built an enormous church I'd be tempted to stick my name on it somewhere for the generations to see.
This week I have been on a mission in Bath (I am currently on my day off!). One of my primary roles has been to go into the Junior School for assemblies and class visits.
For the assemblies we made up some dramas, and read out some stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. The Amazon page has a couple of critical reviews, but we found the stories really very good, and the illustrations too.
One of the main criticisms of the book on the Amazon page is that it downplays sin and judgement. I disagree. The section on the crucifixion (called 'The sun stops shining') tells the real story:
Even though it was midday, a dreadful darkness covered the face of the world. The sun could not shine. The earth trembled and quaked. The great mountains shook. Rocks split in two. Until it seemed that the whole world would break. That creation itself would tear apart.
The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down. On his own Son. Instead of his people. It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin.
Now, of course it isn't perfect. No translation is perfect, and this isn't a translation, or even a paraphrase. It's a way of telling some of the main stories in the Bible. It will only 'do much harm' (again, from the Amazon reviewer) if it is used as the only way of telling Bible stories to children.
We used it in our assemblies as the frame for telling the stories. Some of the phrases are brilliant, like this one:
And Peter told them the wonderful Story of God's Love – God's Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.
What the book does best of all is show how Jesus is at the centre of the whole Bible, how 'every story whispers its name' (the tagline from the book cover).
I would recommend this book, especially if you do children's work and can use it in assemblies.
I'm not sure if this is very funny or extremely sad, but I found a video of a Baptist preacher preaching talking about the phrase 'pisseth against the wall' from the King James.
Baptist preaches on KJV "him that pisseth against the wall"
This is the verse he preaches from:
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,
and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against
the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take
away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till
it be all gone.1 Kings 14.10 (KJV)
From this verse the preacher's message is that real men (as opposed to 'males') urinate standing up. The problems in America are caused, it seems, by men urinating sitting down. How he manages to ignore the fact that in the context of this verse is that urinating standing up is not a good thing: doing it will get you 'cut off' from the people of God. I don't claim to understand what's going on here, but I'm pretty sure it's not what this guy says!
He also uses manages to rant about how the King James is better than all other translations, for saying 'males', editing out 'Hell' and 'Jehovah' (which is the name of God). From a bit of research on the internet it seems that this isn't the only strange thing this guy has said.
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