Apprentice 2 Jesus

Theology

  • Love and Fear of God

    I’ve actually made my way into the third volume of Barth’s Church Dogmatics. I think I’ve understood a total of 50 pages in the first two volumes… total. Okay… I’m lying. It’s less than that. In II.1 he takes up the doctrine of God. Barth combines the love of God with the fear of God.… Read more

  • Politics, Faith, and Saving Liberalism

    I Heart Barth posted a series of interviews with Miroslov Volf on his new book, A Public Faith. The third video was the one I found really interesting. There are liberals today who are Christian who say democracy isn’t compatible with Christian faith. Jesus was a Socialist. Volf says Christianity is compatible with democracy and what is more,… Read more

  • Treasuring Jesus

    The text this Sunday is Matthew 25:1-13. As I work through this text, and all of Matthew 25 really, I am struck by how this passage brings together a lot of Matthew’s gospel. In particular, I see the 5 foolish virgins in the parable of the soil. They received the word with joy, but without… Read more

  • An Honest Question to Universalists

    I ask this honestly of those Christians who are universalists in their theology: What do you do with Matthew 24 and 25? There seems to be a separation of some sort and the Lord is the One doing it. Please follow this simple rule: Don’t answer FOR universalists. If you ARE a universalist, could you… Read more

  • Happy Reformation Day!

    Today is Reformation Day. This is the anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg. Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine has an interesting take on the need for a “Reformation Day” for Charismatics. Quite honestly, I didn’t know some of these issues still existed. Maybe it’s because I… Read more

  • Confessions

    Well, it seems to be a “confessing Pentecostal” I actually need something to confess. So, here are my confessions: HERE, and HERE. And this: Read more

  • The Gospel of the King

    I was looking for the table (or chart) Scot McKnight has in his book on the difference between the “Soterian” message we tend to preach, and the gospel of the Kingdom. Thankfully, he put it on his own blog. (HERE) One of the things we discussed in staff concerning McKnight’s book was that there does… Read more

  • The Danger of “Decision” Theology

    Scot McKnight makes the comparisons of how the New Testament seems to be talking about Gospel… and how we “gospel” today. He pulls no punches. When all we care about is bringing people to a decision, to pray a prayer, to just admit their sin and find Jesus as Savior, we are doing damage. Jesus… Read more

  • Christian Vampires

    Scot McKnight in his book, The King Jesus Gospel, quotes one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Dallas Willard. He takes Willard’s “gospel of sin management” and puts it in his context of h0w our culture is missing the gospel. We don’t want to follow Jesus. We want him to get rid of our sin… Read more

  • Why I am a Confessing Pentecostal

    The founding of the Assemblies of God (my denomination) was based on the lack of creeds in the very beginning. They believed in the Bible, bless God, and that was enough. It wasn’t long before theological controversy forced them into a statement of faith. (But it’s not a creed. 😉 ) Over the years as I… Read more