What are 6 essentials of the faith on which you would never bend?

Tim Kimberley the Executive Director at Credo House has a great series called Elder Questions over at the Parchment and Pen blog. In a recent post he posed the question (or rather he was posed the question)

list 6 core convictions concerning which you (as elder) will never give in, nor even bend on, as you lead the church and reference at least 3 scriptures [in] support [of] each one.

I think this is a great question to wrestle with. Here are my six.

1. God created all things seen and unseen
In keeping with the intent of this question, I am not necessarily addressing how long it took or even how long ago that occurred (although these are important). Here the central conviction is that God exists outside of His creation, outside of space and time, and is the First Cause of all that exists. This is probably the most central claim of the Scriptures and the one that can be seen in creation itself. Continue reading

Reading the Bible makes us more Progressive? Really?

Benjamin Corey over at Formerly Fundie offers 10 reasons why reading the Bible makes us (or at least him) more progressive. And Jesus Creed had a lively discussion on this post. In this post I wanted to share my perspective on some of his list and provide 5 things the progressive movement misses when they read their Bible.

Five parts of the Bible the Progressive movement misses

  • Power is often abused by those who have it.
  • Voluntary acts of love and giving is what God wants. Continue reading

Simply Jesus: Why other messiahs failed

In chapters 6-10 Wright has been focusing on the what question. What did Jesus say and do? What were the miracles and stories intended to communicate? The answer in a nutshell is:

God’s kingdom, God’s sovereign and saving rule, really is breaking in, on earth as in heaven.

Wright looks at the teachings of Jesus (chapter 8) and makes several observations.

  • Jesus’ stories remind his hearers that the promises of the OT are coming true now, just not in the ways they expected. (storms #2 and #3 in Wright’s Perfect Storm illustration)
  • Jesus’ stories confronted the existing “forces in power”.
  • Jesus’ stories challenged his hearers. Telling them that when God becomes king, laws are not enforced more strictly but hearts are transformed and people are remade from the inside out.

Together the miracles and stories tell us that the kingdom of God and the renewal of all things is both a present and a future reality. Continue reading