Thoughts of a Christian Husband, Father, and Pastor
Here’s another of my favourites from Fernando Ortega. This song glories in both the exalted power and immanent presence of our Lord. It further contrasts his greatness with our neediness, leading us to cry out to him. He is powerful and trustworthy, he is merciful and faithful, worthy of all our love, adoration, and praise. [...]
One thing I’ve grown to appreciate over the years is Christians who are able to take the grandest truths and the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith and express them in new and deep ways. In particular, I have a love for men & women who are able to communicate to me the mystery [...]
On Monday at the Toronto Pastors Fellowship, during the Q&A, Tim Challies was asked to give a brief review of the bestselling book, the Shack. Note that this review was given off-the-cuff in a Q&A session. Tim has done a thorough review of the book for you to read here. But, if you’re lazy and [...]
This past Sunday at GFC, the preacher taught on Core Value #4: Authority. That was good for my heart to hear. When we, as elders, sat to discuss what we wanted to include in this series (i.e. What are our core values?), authority wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. As we reflected on [...]
I must confess: when Paul first asked me if I’d be willing to preach on one of GFC’s core values, I got excited. But when I found out the value he had in mind was freedom, my excitement was dampened. The notion of freedom isn’t something that has historically ‘fired me up.’ When I thought [...]
Sunday’s post reminded me of something that Dr Ware taught us in a contemporary theology course not too long ago. He challenged us to develop our Trinitarian categories, and to work hard for clarity in the distinctions between the persons of the Godhead. One challenging example he gave was that of Ephesians 1. How many [...]
It seems that in theology, as in the rest of life, we’re constantly riding a pendulum. The more we run from doctrinal error that we see in others, the more likely we are to fall into the opposite error ourselves. If we reject an over-emphasis on God’s love as the basis of his character, we [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 5. CONCLUSION Stephen Neill is indeed correct in his summation, that “the Christian finds that he can never think of God without thinking of Jesus Christ, and that he can never think of Jesus Christ without thinking of God.”[1] In the NT, the faith [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 4. IN JESUS’ NAME: PRAYER TO AND WORSHIP OF JESUS AS GOD Aside from being portrayed as deity by his authority in his earthly ministry, and declared to be both “Lord” and “God” throughout the NT, Jesus is also strongly implied to be deity [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS (cont’d) B. JESUS AS THEOS. Many of the passages which may speak of Jesus as θεός are heavily debated, and some with good reason. The ones which most certainly do refer to Jesus as θεός are John 1.1; [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS A. JESUS AS KURIOS. It must be noted first that we are not primarily dealing with the gospels in this section, since “when people address Jesus as ‘Lord’ in the Gospels, this is often no more than a [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 2. A MAN WITH THE AUTHORITY OF GOD: JESUS’ DIVINITY IN THE GOSPELS Darrell Bock notes that whereas the number of times when Jesus is directly spoken of as “God” in the gospels is relatively small, it is “far more common” that Jesus, in [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 1. INTRODUCTION The importance of recognizing that the New Testament identifies Jesus as deity, and yet as completely one with the Father, cannot possibly be over-stated. For the authors of the NT, this Christ himself became not only the interpretive grid, but also the [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. The Trinity Perhaps one of the more sobering truths about the egalitarian-complementarian debate is the reality that more is at stake than just the interpretation of a few words or a few verses. Rather, our whole vision of God is altered by how we [...]
Tertullian lived ca.150-ca.225 AD. He was born in Carthage, which is in North Africa (so he was probably a little darker than the picture would suggest). He was a man brilliantly gifted by God for writing. He wrote extensively on things like apologetics and ethics and often wrote polemically against the heretics of his day [...]
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