Nov
18
2009
Worth a Look 11.18.09
Jon Tonkowich comments on the recent controversy at Calvin College over homosexuality and shows how this debate shines light on evangelicalism’s crisis of authority.
Christian freedom—academic freedom and personal freedom—is not the right to interpret the Bible in any way we see fit and then act on our interpretation. It is the freedom to be fully human in company with and under the authority of the Church throughout the ages and in accord with the unchanging truth that is in Jesus Christ.
John Mark Reynolds believes that if you have a conviction, you should be courageous enough to make it public.
There is an admirable courage in men who follow arguments into ideas that threaten their jobs. One can disagree with the position taken, but when they are open about what they believe and risk their living they are not cowards…
What nobody should tolerate, however, is the wicked weasel, the moral coward, who changes his or her mind, but tells nobody and keeps collecting checks from people’s whose views he no longer shares. Even worse is when, finally, after much patience he is let go for his new views and then plays the martyr.
I’ve been following the recent evangelical discussion about the Trinity (whether Jesus was temporarily or eternally subordinate to the Father). Dr. Michael Wittmer brings Karl Barth into the debate.
Barth: “As we look at Jesus Christ we cannot avoid the astounding conclusion of a divine obedience. Therefore we have to draw the no less astounding deduction that in equal Godhead the one God is, in fact, the One and also Another, that He is indeed a First and a Second, One who rules and commands in majesty and One who obeys in humility. The one God is both the one and the other.”
Why pastors and church leaders should “think hybrid”
“Thinking hybrid” is about drawing from a number of wells instead of just one. In doing so, we are able to maximize the strengths of our heroes while minimizing their weaknesses, instead of reproducing them in our own ministries.