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• Living Water John 4:1-42

  Posted at 11:41 am by scribblingtheology, on February 25, 2020

  

  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” – John 4:10

  The story of the women at the well (John 4) is a famous one, and its narrative elements are as old as time. A wise sage (Jesus) meets a broken person (the woman at the well) and offers her insight about God, life, and herself. As a result, the person and the village are changed, rejoice, and the sage goes on His way to the next group of people who needs His wisdom. Every movie ever. Except this isn’t just a story, Jesus isn’t just a sage, and He gives the broken woman not only sound insight but hope and life. Here’s the scene. It’s a hot afternoon, Jesus, a pure-blooded Jewish rabbi, sits alone by the side of a well. A Samaritan woman (typically hated by the Jews), also alone, comes to draw water from the well when Jesus asks her for a simple drink. This simple request, scandalous for its time, ended up showing the woman that her need was more than just a cup of water, instead, she needed living water from which she’d never thirst.

  The theme of living waters is splashed (pun intended) all over the Scriptures. Like most themes, we find it on the first few pages of the Bible in Genesis 1. The first time water is even mentioned is in Genesis 1:2 “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Coupled with the term without form and void (wild and waste), the imagery here is an earth that is a chaotic watery wasteland with God’s Spirit sovereignly hovering over it ready to order and shape. In the rest of the chapter, waters or seas are mentioned for a total of 16 times. We see from the beginning of the chapter that waters are chaotic, but God eventually turns it into something ordered, good, and life-giving. The theme continues:

  • In Genesis 2 after God rests in His cosmic temple, God places the Garden in Eden, and with the tree of life at the centre of the Garden, rivers flow forth to water and give life to the entire world (Genesis 2:10-14).
  • In Genesis 6-9, the world has become exceedingly wicked. Everyone has turned away from Yahweh and follows after their own rebellious desires. As an act of judgement and restoration, God floods the world both destroying it with chaotic waters but also renewing with those same waters. The flood is giving life to a sort of newly created order in which God will start again with His new Adam Noah.
  • In Exodus 14 after Israel has been freed from the oppressive rule of Pharoah in Egypt, they come to the beach of the Red Sea that separates them from the promised land. God, through Moses, parts the waters to allow His people to safely travel through eventually closing the sea behind them, destroying the pursuing Egyptians.
  • God is depicted as being living water in opposition to idols and other gods (Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13).
  • Like the Garden of Eden, the temple is depicted as having water flowing out of it (Ezekiel 47:1-12) giving life to the surrounding area.
  • Zechariah 14:8 talks about living waters flowing out of Jerusalem (also analogues for sacred space) watering the whole earth in the new creation.
  • As we come back to the woman at the well, we see Jesus obviously identifying Himself as the waters of life. Jesus is the temple that houses the presence of God, that gives life to those around Him (John 4:10-11). In fact, John depicts water flowing from the side of Jesus on the cross (John 19:34).
  • Those who are united to Jesus in faith will also have living waters flowing from their hearts (John 7:38) as part of the new temple and the new creation.
  • Finally, in the new heavens and earth, we see Jesus, the Lamb of God leading people to rivers of living water (Revelation 7:17) to drink from (Revelation 21:6) that flow from the throne of God and the lamb with the tree of life on each side of the river (Revelation 22:1-2).

  These are just a few examples of what living waters throughout the Bible. Whether or not the woman at the well was clued into even most of these ideas is uncertain. However, what we do know is that after the conversation she had with Jesus she believed, she was transformed, and as a result, many others believed in Jesus as the Messiah as well. At the end of the day, two things can be taken away from this. 1. That real-life comes from Jesus the Messiah. You will never thirst. 2. If you’re a Christian, your job is to go about watering the earth and giving life to it with the Gospel and by loving others. If salvation is anything, it is giving life to those who don’t have it.

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• Salvation Is: Substitution and Sacrifice Part III

  Posted at 5:26 pm by scribblingtheology, on February 20, 2020

  

  Christians are obsessed with the idea of salvation. Fair enough, salvation is essential. The problem, however, is that everyone has different opinions on what salvation actually is. Different traditions tend to emphasise and even make exclusive claims to their own definition of salvation at the expense of others. So in this series, I aim to explore the different facets of salvation so that we may better understand what it really is. Here are the salvific themes we’re going to explore:

  1. Liberation and Exile
  2. Sin and Judgement
  3. Substitution and Sacrifice
  4. Recapitulation
  5. New Creation and Vocation

  Each motif plays a pivotal role in demonstrating what salvation is, how it is achieved and received, and how it is lived out by the believer. In this post, we will be exploring substitution and sacrifice.

  So far, we’ve explored some essential themes. However, substitution and sacrifice sit right at the centre of all these themes as it is how exile and liberation, sin and judgement are dealt with. Without sacrifice and substitution, there would be no forgiveness of sin, there would be no freedom from guilt, death and the satan, and there would be no new creation.

  “With the other New Testament writers, Paul always points to the death of Jesus as the atoning event, and explains the atonement in terms of representative substitution – the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s judicial retribution”
  – J. I. Packer

  Like every other theme, substitution and sacrifice first appear on the first few pages on the Bible. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are presented with a choice to either eat from the Tree of Life or to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. In the form of the serpent (Genesis 3:1), temptation draws humanity to eat from the Tree of Knowledge which they were told to not eat from (Genesis 2:17) and as a result, they’re cursed, the earth is cursed, and they are exiled from the Garden of Eden (God’s presence). Now sin has entered the world (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21) and corrupts all things (Romans 8:19-23). However, instead of leaving humanity to its own devices God promises that there will be a seed from the woman that will crush the head of the serpent while the seed is wounded by the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Before throwing them out, God clothed them in animal skins (an apparent reference to substitution and covering) and then drives them eastward (Genesis 3:20-24).

  Next, we find Cain and Abel offering up gifts and sacrifices to God (Genesis 4:1-7). Strangely, at this point in the narrative, God hasn’t required any sacrifice to be made. Yet Cain is offering fruit and grain (a clear connection to Leviticus 2), and Abel offers up the firstborn of his flock. The idea of offering and sacrifice is a recurring theme throughout the biblical narrative, where we next see it with Noah:

  • The earth is increasingly sinful and wicked, God destroys the planet with a flood (Genesis 6-9) yet saves humanity through one family and an ark. After the flood, Noah sets up an altar and offers up sacrifices of clean animals which leads God to make a covenant with humanity to never destroy the earth again (Genesis 8:20-22).
  • God promises that through Abrahams seed all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 12:3, 18:18, 22:18), yet as a test of faith, God asks Abraham to offer up his firstborn son as a sacrifice to Him (Genesis 22:1-2). However, instead of Isaac dying, God provides a substitution (Genesis 22:10-14).
  • Through Moses, God sets free His people by sending plagues on the Egyptians finally culminating in the Passover (Exodus 12). Because of the lamb’s blood being painted on the doorpost of Israelites God’s people are identified, their firstborns are spared, God’s people are literally passed over by the angel of destruction, and eventually, they’re lead into the wilderness to worship God.
  • We also see examples of substitution in Numbers 3:12-13; 1 Samuel 17:9; 1 Kings 20:42; Ezekiel 4:4 and of course famously in Isaiah 53. Here we have one of the most prominent passages of substitution and sacrifice foreshadowing the Messiah.

  Surely he has borne our griefs
  and carried our sorrows;
  yet we esteemed him stricken,
  smitten by God, and afflicted.
  But he was pierced for our transgressions;
  he was crushed for our iniquities;
  upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
  and with his wounds we are healed.
  All we like sheep have gone astray;
  we have turned—every one—to his own way;
  and the LORD has laid on him
  the iniquity of us all.

  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
  yet he opened not his mouth;
  like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
  and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
  so he opened not his mouth.
  By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
  and as for his generation, who considered
  that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
  stricken for the transgression of my people?
  And they made his grave with the wicked
  and with a rich man in his death,
  although he had done no violence,
  and there was no deceit in his mouth.

  Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
  he has put him to grief;
  when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
  he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
  the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
  by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
  make many to be accounted righteous,
  and he shall bear their iniquities.

  – Isaiah 53:4–11

  Moving words. This passage prophetically sheds light on the meaning of the coming Messiah’s mission. In light of Jesus, it becomes clearer that even the New Testament authors considered Jesus to be the lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29, 3:17; Acts 2:23–24; Romans 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:5, 9; 2 Thessalonians 1:11). As one author explains:

  The old-covenant-era hearers would have understood what this meant, for guilt offerings were sacrificed to God as substitutes in place of those who had sinned against him, so that the sinners themselves would not bear God’s righteous anger. And the old covenant foreshadowed the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31; Luke 22:20; Hebrews 12:24), where the great Servant, the great Propitiator, would offer himself as the final once-for-all substitutionary sacrifice in the place of sinners (Hebrews 9:26).

  – Jon Bloom

  • Finally, we see the Lamb of God, Jesus, who was our substitute and sacrifice being worshipped and praised (Revelation 5:6-12, 7:9-17, 15:3, 17:14, 22:1-3).

  Every other theme in the Bible hangs off the idea of sacrifice and substitution for it is how every other facet of salvation is achieved. Our King gave up His life willingly so we wouldn’t have to. He died to forgive sins, to set us free from our exile, to lead us into our new humanity, vocation, and new creation.

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• Salvation is: Sin and Judgement Part II

  Posted at 2:44 pm by scribblingtheology, on February 18, 2020

  

  Christians are obsessed with the idea of salvation. Fair enough, salvation is essential. The problem, however, is that everyone has different opinions on what salvation actually is. Different traditions tend to emphasise and even make exclusive claims to their own definition of salvation at the expense of others. So in this series, I aim to explore the different facets of salvation so that we may better understand what it really is. Here are the salvific themes we’re going to explore:

  1. Liberation and Exile
  2. Sin and Judgement
  3. Substitution and Sacrifice
  4. Recapitulation
  5. New Creation and Vocation

  Each motif plays a pivotal role in demonstrating what salvation is, how it is achieved and received, and how it is lived out by the believer. In this post, we will be exploring sin and judgement.

  Sin is often understood in a few different ways. Sin is breaking the rules and rebellion (1Jn 3:4 See also 1Sa 13:13-14; 1Ch 10:13; Ne 9:29; Mic 1:5; 7:18; Ro 2:23; 4:15; 5:14-17; Jas 2:10-11). It can be understood as falling short or missing the mark (Rom 3:23 – this is the most common use of the word in both the OT and NT). Fundamentally, however, sin is idolatry. What is idolatry? G. K. Beale writes that:

  Martin Luther’s larger catechism discussion of the first commandement (“You shall have no other gods before Me” [Ex 20:3]) included “whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your God; trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and idol.” I might add here, “whatever your heart clings to or relies on for ultimate security.” “The idol is whatever claims the loyalty that belongs to God alone.”

  One New Testament professor of mine always used to say that idolatry is the root where sin is the fruit. In other words, the reason why we do bad things like commit adultery, tell lies, cheat and steal is because of the things we either wittingly or unwittingly worship. For all of us, there are little gods in our lives that lay claim to our hearts and turn us away from wholly giving ourselves to Yahweh. This was essentially the primordial sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 they trusted in the serpent and in themselves over and above Yahweh, which is a picture of us all. Each day, perhaps in each moment we’re faced with a test to trust in God or to trust in idols. To allow Yahweh to rule over us or the things of this world to rule. Yet even if we passed 99/100 of the tests, sin can not be overlooked.

  What we worship matters because we become what we worship. Consider Psalm 115:4-8

  Their idols are silver and gold,
  the work of human hands.
  They have mouths, but do not speak;
  eyes, but do not see.
  They have ears, but do not hear;
  noses, but do not smell.
  They have hands, but do not feel;
  feet, but do not walk;
  and they do not make a sound in their throat.
  Those who make them become like them;
  so do all who trust in them.

  In other words, if we worship money, we become greedy if we worship popularity, we become arrogant if we worship darkness we become dark, lost and broken. However, if we worship God who is love (1 John 4:7), holy (Is 6:3; 1 Peter 1:6), patient (Num 14:18; Ex 34:6), and merciful (Ex 34:6-7; Eph 2:4-5) we will become like that as well. Therefore, whoever it is we worship deeply affects the world and the people around us. Sin perpetuates sin, and idols flourish among one another. Sin corrupts the world and destroys lives, it offends God as it disrupts His established order – His Kingdom in which He desires humanity to be a part of.

  So then, this idolatry and sin cannot be overlooked. God might be love, but God is just (Is 61:8 ), and He will not let sin go unpunished (Is 13:11; 2 Thess 1:9). He will judge the world and give each one what they deserve according to their deeds (Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:12), He will punish and destroy the wicked (2 Peter 3:7). We see this pattern starting Genesis 3 where God curses humanity and the earth and removes them from the Garden of Eden, however, notice that God judges to restore not to simply pour out His wrath:

  • God curses humanity and the earth, then He exiles them from Eden. Yet God makes a sacrifice, covers Adam and Eve in animal skin and as an act of mercy so evil cannot live eternally denies them access to the tree of life. Finally, God promises that through the seed of Eve, one will come who will crush the serpent (sin) and restore everything to the Edenic ideal (Genesis 3).
  • Cain murders Abel, and God curses Cain as a result. Yet God protects Cain from ongoing murder. It was through Cains seed that “people began to call upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4).
  • God floods and destroys the earth because of their great wickedness (Genesis 6:1-7). Yet He chooses Noah and his family to build an ark, to save the animals and as many people who’d hear the call of repentance. God judges and renews the earth with chaotic waters and starts over with Noah (a new type of Adam) as God gives him the command to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 9:1).
  • God judges and destroys Sodom, and Gomorrah yet saves Lot and his family (Genesis 19).
  • God sends plagues on Egypt and kills the firstborns, yet saves His people out of slavery so that they may worship Him (Exodus 4-15).
  • God sends Israel into exile under the Babylonian rule as judgement, but also to be a light to the nations and flourish (Jer 29).
  • Jesus is judged in place of humanity. He takes on the full justice of God yet only to save humanity from God’s just judgement (Jhn 3:36; Rom 5:9; 1 Thess 1:10).
  • God will judge the wicked and the righteous only to restore everything in the new creation (Rev 20-22).

  Finally, sin is grave. God takes it seriously, and so should His Church. As my friend Alan Stanley explains:

  Judgement is the natural outcome of idolatry. For example, Adam and Eve’s sin leads to an experiential separation from God before God removes them from the garden. In Romans 2, God’s wrath is described as his eschatological judgment. But in Romans 1 people experience judgment/wrath now by God handing them over to their desires. The more one becomes enslaved by their desires, the more one experiences death now because they do not know life. John 3:18 says that those who do not believe in Jesus stand judged already, and God’s wrath remains on him (3:36). In other words, those who worship idols do become like them: they become blind, etc., and are unable to experience the reality of God. This is judgment, in the present. The final judgment then is not so much God whacking his stick over his naughty and disobedient children, but it is punishment nevertheless; a punishment that people have chosen for themselves during this life.

  Let us consider God’s judgement on sin and the ramifications of our idolatry on the world around us.

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• Salvation is Liberation: Part I

  Posted at 6:29 pm by scribblingtheology, on February 12, 2020

  

  Christians are obsessed with the idea of salvation. Fair enough, salvation is essential. The problem, however, is that everyone has different opinions on what salvation actually is. Different traditions tend to emphasise and even make exclusive claims to their own definition of salvation at the expense of others. So in this series, I aim to explore the different facets of salvation so that we may better understand what it really is. Here are the salvific themes we’re going to explore:

  1. Liberation and Exile
  2. Judgement and Sin
  3. Substitution and Sacrifice
  4. Recapitulation
  5. New Creation and Vocation

  Each motif plays a pivotal role in demonstrating what salvation is, how it is achieved and received, and how it is lived out by the believer. In this post, we will be exploring liberation and exile.

  In Australia, refugees, asylum seekers and displacement is a huge issue. People are fleeing their homes in search of a safer place to live and to flourish because of war, famine and hunger. A recent study suggests that as many as 70.8 million people worldwide have been displaced as they desperately seek to find greener pastures. However, this isn’t anything new. Being forcibly removed from one’s country by foreign powers has been a recurring theme throughout the history of the people of Israel starting on just the first few pages of the Bible.

  Exile begins with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). Humanity sins by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, they’re expelled from the presence of God as a consequence. They’re driven eastward, and as the archetypal figures of Israel and indeed of all humanity they represent the state of us all, separated and exiled from our true home with God. Throughout the rest of the Bible, we see this theme recurring to highlight the consequence of sin, rebellion, and even God using exile for restoration.

  • God calls Abraham out from his own land into another (Genesis 12).
  • Abraham and his descendants are in the promised land, yet they trust in Egypt and are enslaved (Exodus 1).
  • Moses is driven from Egypt into the wilderness only to come back and set free God’s people (Exodus 2:11-22).
  • Israel is liberated from Egypt (Exodus 12-15) only to wander the wilderness before finally settling in the promised land, but not before they have to take it by force (Joshua).
  • The nation of Israel is formed, but because of their sin and idolatry, they are retaken into exile under the oppression of foreign countries (2 Kings 17:6; Jeremiah 52:28-30).
  • Eventually, Israel is allowed to return to their homeland, but it never was the same (Ezra and Nehemiah).
  • Israel is later taken over by Alexander the Great and becomes a part of the Greco-Roman empire (332 B.C.). Israel still dwells in the land, yet they feel like exiles in their own homes. This is not the perfect life the Old Testament Scripture seemed to promise.

  As N. T. Wright says

  Most Jews of this period, it seems, would have answered the question of ‘where are we?’ in language which, reduced to its simplest form, meant: we are still in exile. They believed that, in all the senses which mattered, Israel’s exile was still in progress. Although she had come back from Babylon, the glorious message of the prophets remained unfulfilled. Israel still remained in thrall to foreigners; worse, Israel’s god had not returned to Zion.

  • However, Jesus, God incarnate, arrives and preaches the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). He fulfils (Matthew 5:17) and rightly interprets (Luke 24:27; John 5:39) the Old Testament claiming that in a sense everyone is separated from the Kingdom because of their sin and is exiled regardless of where they live.
  • Jesus lives, dies and rises again to set us free from the greatest powers that truly keep us enslaved in exile from God’s Kingdom, sin (Romans 6:22), satan (1 John 3:8) and death (Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:1-15).
  • The kingdom has come, the Spirit has been poured out onto God’s people (Acts2), and we’ve been brought out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13). Yet a strange tension remains. We await our King to return to bring history to completion (1 Corinthians 15). The Church wanders as exiles in the now and not yet (1 Peter 1:1, 2:11) in hopeful anticipation of a new creation where not only the penalty and power of darkness has been removed but its presence as well (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21-22).

  We desperately yearn for our real home, that Garden that tugs at our heartstrings. Every one of us, Christian or not, have this deep sense of displacement. We know things aren’t what they’re supposed to be, we’re never truly settled. There is a constant lack of contentment, and the road beckons us, calls to us with glints of answers to for our unsettled hearts. There’s a reason why the open road seems so compelling. Travel and experiencing what the world has to offer is more popular today than ever. However, more often then not, we end up back where we started perhaps with more questions, more discontentment than ever before. As the preacher in Ecclesiastes says “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Behold salvation. Salvation is liberation. It is liberation from our exile, from that which enslaves us (the powers of this world – satan, sin, and death), from that which unsettles us. It brings us into the light and gives us a grand hope for a settled and whole world with God dwelling our midst.

  Sins… were the chains by which the dark powers had enslaved the humans who had worshipped them. Once sins were forgiven on the cross, the chains were snapped; victory was won. – N. T. Wright

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• Systematic Theology vs Biblical Theology

  Posted at 1:07 pm by scribblingtheology, on February 10, 2020

  

  When I started to think through my Christian faith, I would do so in terms of fixed categories. For example, Calvinist or Arminian. The Trinity. Premillennial, Amillenial or Postmillennial. Baptist, Anglican, or Pentecostal. Cessationist or Continuationist and many, many more. These are all systematic categories, and they’re helpful because they help the Church to navigate the often muddied waters of theology (of what to believe and not to believe). This kind of approach to neatly defining the Faith is very Western. Starting with the early church fathers through to the reformation and into the modern age we often (not always) find systematicians heavily influenced by Western categorical approaches to Christianity. Despite the influence of deconstructionism, this has actually been a good thing. Faithful theologians like Augustine, Luther, Calvin and Zwingli have used systematics to both guards against heresy and to recover biblical Christianity. However, the use of these sorts of categories has not always been so helpful (at least in my experience.

  Throughout my time studying theology and living the Christian life, I have encountered many people who have taken these systematic categories and formed an identity out of it. All of a sudden Calvinism or Arminianism is equated to true Christianity, and anyone else needs to repent and believe. Instead of one Faith, one body, one Spirit, other Christians become second class where they’re ostracised and considered unclean. Tribes within Christianity are formed, and instead of defending the walls, we turn on one another desperate for theological supremacy. Theology in many corners of the Faith has gone from serving the Church to destroying it all because of pride. I admit I have played my own part in this terrible ordeal and as I continue to move past it, I look back, and I can count three main things that helped me shed my theological prejudice and pride:

  1. Biblical theology
  2. Jesus’ commands to love others
  3. The opportunity to love others

  For me, biblical theology saved me from possibly years and years of tribalism and systematic theology supremacy. While categories were helpful, I began to learn that the Bible isn’t a systematic textbook. Instead, it’s a narrative leading to Jesus Christ and the salvation of humanity. Sometimes categories like free will, God’s sovereignty, the trinity, and total depravity, while correct weren’t so cut and dry. All of a sudden, I went from neatly coloured boxes to colouring just outside of the lines which actually unified the Scriptures for me better overall than ever before. This is where I began to hold “tensions.” Yes, humanity is totally depraved, yet we have stories such as Noah or Abraham, finding favour in God’s eyes because of their faith. Yes, God is sovereign over every atom and movement throughout history, yet we see God hold people accountable for their own free actions. Things weren’t so neat anymore, and I loved it. It was freeing to not bind myself to any-one camp or tribe instead I now strive to commit myself to biblical Christianity (yes I see the irony in that statement, you gotta draw a line somewhere). Now I have genuine friends whom I love in all sorts of camps that I love to float to and fro from. Which leads me to my next point…

  The second thing that saved me from my theological pride was to take the command to love others seriously. This is, an ongoing journey, but until recently, I just hadn’t obeyed this command. For me being an Arminian was more important than loving my Calvinist brothers in Christ. It was more important for me to defend human free will then it was to bear their burdens, to weep with them and to rejoice with them. I thought “if only I could convince them that Jesus really did die for every single person and not just the elect then they’d be better Christians” when in reality what they needed was someone to pray for them and to minister to them in love. God placed one such person in my life that until recently was an ongoing struggle to love and be a brother too. For the longest time, we took every opportunity to one-up each other, to flex our theological minds until the Spirit broke us and bonded us in love. Now we can’t stop talking to one another as we bounce off one another in love for each other’s benefits to the glory of God.

  Finally, biblical theology and systematic theology needs one another (sprinkled with a bit of love). Without biblical theology, systematics become rigid, demanding and inflexible. Yet without systematics, biblical theology can easily be led down the path of liberalism. Our categorised theological traditions safeguard the Faith and have done so for thousands of years. So let us study theology to our heart’s content. Let us do so with discernment and wisdom, the love of Christ and a spirit of worship.

  The goal of theology is the worship of God. The posture of theology is on one’s knees. The mode of theology is repentance.  – Sinclair B. Ferguson

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• Christian Deconstructionism: The Good and the Bad

  Posted at 2:17 pm by scribblingtheology, on February 8, 2020

  

  When I first became a Christian, I swallowed everything hook, line and sinker. I was taught premillennialism, young-earth creationism, and that the Bible was always meant to be read literally unless there was an excellent reason to read it otherwise. Of course, anyone else was wrong and against the purest form of our Faith. These days as I’ve gone through my own sort of deconstructionism, I find myself in a very different place. I’m now an amillennial, an evolutionary creationist, and I’ve learnt to read Scripture according to its literary genre and context. Some of these things might sound fairly mundane to some of you, but for me, even the most basic of these concepts set me on a trajectory that would radically shape the way I relate to God, the Word, humanity and creation. So, rather than walking away from Christianity (which so often happens with people who go through things like this) I pressed forward trusting that God would conform me to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).

  So what is Deconstructionism? Philosophically, it is the idea that there is no fixed meaning in a text. Instead, everything in any given text is subjective and open to rigorous interpretation (originated by Jacques Derrida 1930-2004). As all things often do, this idea spilt over into a popular Christian movement in the West where traditionally held to beliefs like I’ve listed above (among others) are challenged and pulled apart (deconstructed) and are held up to scrutiny. Once plainly understood verses and passages are now challenged, reinterpreted and reapplied. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. One author defines deconstructionism like this:

  “Let’s say our faith was like a sweater. Yarn: our ideology. Weave: our tradition. This is how you wear it. Don’t change it, even if the sweater doesn’t keep you warm any more. Even if it’s too tight or the threads cut off oxygen at your neck. This is the way. Doubts and questions mean disrespect, and those are the seeds of evil, so just don’t.

  But over the years, a thread comes loose and you try to just tuck it in alongside the others. You can cover the fraying up. You can pull the thread and think, ‘Oh, I don’t need this one, because it is harmful to me; it’s itchy and gets caught on corners.’ It comes out easily. And the sweater stays together. Then you pull another, and another, and soon you find all the yarn is gone. You have deconstructed the entire thing. You are left naked. People gawk and run away, and you feel two opposing things: the freedom of glorious nakedness, and the fear of the same.”

  Lisa Gungor, writing in The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen (Zondervan)

  I have to admit I have felt the freedom of being naked and the fear that comes with change and the judgement you often feel from the people around you who still hold firmly to their traditional beliefs (God bless ’em). Deconstructing one’s Faith is a beautiful, liberating endeavour where (at least in my experience) it has led me into a deeper faith than I ever had before. However, that hasn’t been true for everyone. Unfortunately, people stay naked and join a commune (if you’re still tracking with the metaphor) and never come back. Over the years, there have been a few famous people who have fit this category. Rob Bell started off fairly conservative/ fundamental went through his own deconstruction and now (as much as I love the guy) is hardly even a Christian. This process needs to be walked with wisdom and discernment. That’s ironically a little subjective I know, but my point is that the human heart, while we often mean well and strive for goodness, it’s quite deceptive and easily led astray.  Human nature is a chaotic mess that needs order which takes time and patience under the hand of God. Deconstructionism coupled with dedication for reconstructionism can be either a beautiful part of this process (which we usually call sanctification) or, if done without wisdom it can be destructive.

  So here are a few thoughts and perhaps guidelines for people going through this or for people watching their loved ones going through it:

  1. Christ-like humility. Whether your a black and white fundamentalist or a Christian who is wrestling with some of the hardest questions of our Faith, it all must be done with extreme humility. That is to say, if you’re worried about your friend going through deconstructionism, remember that at some point in your walk with God you didn’t have all the right answers either and I’m sure you still don’t. Don’t let your dedication to guarding that which you’ve been bought up in cloud your ability to love your brother or sister in Christ.

  If you are deconstructing, remember that tradition is wisdom. There have been dozens if not hundreds of learned scholars and theologians throughout church history who have tackled the same things you’re wrestling with. You aren’t a lone wolf. Humbly seek the advice of the sages and saints who have gone before you and of those who are around you.

  2. The centrality of God’s Word. God speaks, and He does so primarily through the Scriptures. If you’re watching your friend go through deconstructionism trust that God will work through His Word and through His people (even you). If you’re going through deconstruction, remember that God’s Word is trustworthy and good. You might be struggling with the idea of inerrancy (I’ve been there) or inspiration, but there is a reason why it’s the most popular book in the history of humanity.

  The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
  Blessed is the man
  who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
  nor stands in the way of sinners,
  nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
  but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
  and on his law he meditates day and night.

  He is like a tree
  planted by streams of water
  that yields its fruit in its season,
  and its leaf does not wither.
  In all that he does, he prospers.
  The wicked are not so,
  but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

  – Psalm 1:1–4

  3. Finally, as you deconstruct your Faith do so prayerfully and with the expectation that God will work in you good things. Invite God along for the ride, continuously examine yourself, making sure that you’re deconstructing with the right intentions and attitudes. Some use deconstruction as a way out of the Faith, seeking to justify other lifestyles. Instead, let the Spirit move in you as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Oh and remember, take every question to God no matter how heretical or silly it sounds. God wants to work at it with you.

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• Chaotic Love

  Posted at 8:56 am by scribblingtheology, on January 15, 2020

  

  I hate love stories, they always make cry, I’ve never even read a love novel. My favourite stories are love tragedies. Samson and Delilah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Titanic. The 2003 classic Love Actually has to be one of my all-time favourite love movies though. In particular, the scene where Andrew Lincoln stands outside of Keira Knightley’s door as he boldly declares his love for her all the while her new husband is inside watching T.V always makes me cry. Oh, what could have been? I feel for the guy. Completely in love with a woman he can never have. How long has he been thinking about her, imagining what life what have been like had he met her first? Then, finally, he spills his feelings in a romantic gesture to only walk away from it all, leaving us all wondering if there was a next? What I love about the scene is that he was, at least eventually, so forward with his feelings, yet it didn’t end up the way he’d hope despite his years of dreaming.

  Presenting the unfortunate drama of love and life.

  Personally, love has taken its toll. There’s always a cost with love, a risk that we’re usually blind to because we so desperately want to believe that a knight in shining armour will rescue us from our towers. Thanks, Dinsey. For a lot of people, we swipe right, meet, fall in love and get married. We spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a day where despite the vows, despite the promises made, despite the people cheering and wishing you well, nothing is assured. Meet reality.

  Love is real, but Disney is a myth. Love is as whimsical and as magical as it is practical and painful. Love can happen in an instant, or it develops over time and can be gone the next day again. Love can make you giddy, content, or crazy. People have fought wars over love and swam across oceans, others have simply knocked on the door while being invited in for some ice tea, or they walk away knowing that may never get the one they want. Love binds and breaks, it enlightens and makes us stupid. It cannot be controlled, simply guided. For the Christian love is governed by the Bible, for others, it’s guided by whatever it is their worldview presupposes. However, even for the Christian, as much as we want to believe it, the Bible isn’t a sure way to cover us from the chaotic nature that is love. Love is patient, love is kind and Christian marriage should endure. Life though throws us a curveball, and when love comes crashing down around you in all of its forms, we must beg the questions what now?

  Many of you know my story, many of you may not. This isn’t a sceptical reaction to love. I love, love. I thrive on it, and I think you do too. If I can offer any wisdom or advice on the topic of love, it is this:

  1. Love is a chaotic force that can bring a lot of peace and order to your life. It is not to be taken lightly, yet there is something about it that’s magical.
  2. How love works depends on your choices, yet it can’t be controlled.
  3. Let love take you places, yet be wise in your dealings with it.
  4. Never, ever give up on it, despite its fickle nature, it doesn’t give up on you.
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• Politically Christian

  Posted at 12:37 pm by scribblingtheology, on January 7, 2020

  

  Australia is on fire, and the Greens are to blame, or maybe Scott Morrison is. Trump ordered an assassination on the Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani which, as Iran promises, guarantees severe consequences and international backlash. Climate change, LGBTQI, international trade and globalisation, human rights. The world is in rapid flux. Peace one day, on fire the next. Politics are unavoidable.

  I never thought I’d admit it but to be Christian is to be inescapably political. Here’s why:

  1. Christians live in a kingdom with a king who rules over every other system of government and power (Psalm 2, Daniel 2:21, Matthew 28:18, Revelation 1:4-5).
  2. Christians, therefore, are inherently monarchists who bow the knee to King Jesus. This is a political stance. We’re saying every other government is on borrowed power and time from a higher power which reigns over them eternally.
  3. Therefore, whenever we vote for a leader or a policy, we do it with Jesus in mind. We must ask ourselves if what it is we’re voting for is aligned with God’s kingdom revealed in His Word (Matthew 5-7 is a great place to start).
  4. Whenever we do vote, whenever we get involved in politics, as citizens of God’s kingdom, we are declaring something about who God is. If we vote for climate change policies, we are saying God cares about the environment. If we vote against abortion, we’re declaring that God cares about all life. If we vote for religious freedom, we’re showing that God, at least in this age, gives everyone the freedom to decide who they will worship.

  In the ever-intensifying geopolitical climate that we all live in, we must prepare ourselves for what is to come. Politics is unavoidable, and because of the Gospel we preach, and the King that we worship we’re already involved in politics anyway. Let’s hold up a minute. Before we go gate crashing the government and rioting for change, Christian, change happens first within the Church itself. If you haven’t already go and read Awaiting the King by James K. A. Smith, one of the best books I read last year among others. In it, Smith argues that

  1. Being political is actually worship
  2. Worship is actually political
  3. That influencing the political world happens first in and through the Church.
  4. When we do inevitably engage in the political sphere, do so with hopeful reservation.

  Which begs the question, what is worship? Singing? Yes. Reading the Bible? Yes. Prayer? Yes, though worship is more. Worship is loving one another as yourself. It’s actually everything you do every day for the rest of your life to the glory of God. Why? Because as a Christian, you are in Christ, the temple, the place where worship happens, where communion between God and His people meet. You cannot escape worship, and you cannot escape than being political because we don’t worship only God but a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords. So here are my easy steps to being a healthy political Christian in 2020:

  • Go to a sacramental centred church. As Smith argues, it is through the liturgical means of the church that the people of God are transformed. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper demonstrate the Gospel, and the Word proclaims it (these are the three sacraments given to the church by Christ).
  • As the Word transforms, as the Supper of the Lord’s death seeps into your soul and Baptism brings you life, love one another fiercely, so that the rest of the world looks on with jealousy and awe. This means that you need to meet other’s needs. Meet them in brokenness, forgive them when they sin against you.
  • Go out and proclaim the Gospel, which is the power of God to save. Before any political reform happens, hearts need to be changed, and only God can do that through the Good News proclaimed by the Church.
  • Engage in the public sphere with a now but not yet mentality. What we do and vote for matters in eternity, however, remember that Jesus is still to return and make all things new at His second coming.

  This 2020 be wise in your engagement in the political sphere. Love, worship and rest knowing Jesus reigns and the world is indeed running on fumes.

   

  The call to follow Christ, the call to desire his kingdom, does not simplify our lives by segregating us in some “pure” space; to the contrary, the call to bear Christ’s image complicates our lives because it comes to us in the midst of our environments without releasing us from them. – James K. A. Smith

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments

• 2019 Mix Up: My Five Favourite Blogs of the Year

  Posted at 6:50 am by scribblingtheology, on December 16, 2019

  

  Here is a list of my top five favourite blogs I’ve written this year for your viewing pleasure:

  1. Genesis 1-11 Part I: Authorship, Context and Genre
  2. Let’s Fight Depression
  3. The Local Church: A Slice of the New Earth
  4. Between Churches
  5. My Year in Review: 2019
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• My Year in Review: 2019

  Posted at 12:05 pm by scribblingtheology, on December 14, 2019

  

  “And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought.”
  ― St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

  As 2019 wraps up, as the Earth begins to make its final trip around the Sun, as people all over the world scurry to a fro in a capitalistic drive to purchase an overabundance of gifts for people who’s hearts will never be truly satisfied… I sit back and reflect on the year gone by. What a year it has been. If I were to describe it in one word, that word would be “wearisome.” We’re only days away from Christmas, and as I write this, I can say that I am tired and broken. I’ve moved from the city to the coast, changed jobs by buying a cafe, struggled to settle into a church, I’ve changed positions on some big theological ideas, and on top of all that my wife and I separated. It’s been a tough year of change and heartache, and I have as many questions as I have things to be thankful for.

  One of the biggest things I’ve been thankful for is my family and friends (cliche I know, but it’s true). Despite what I’ve been going through, everyone has been there for me from the entire spiritual spectrum. From non-believers to conservative Christians, they’ve all loved me, prayed for me and have been there for me as much as possible without any judgement. They’ve born my burdens, watched me cry and have listened. I couldn’t have had better people in my life. It’s times like these that genuinely prove who your friends are and they’ve gone above and beyond. They’ve genuinely fulfilled the golden rule.

  However, I’m still left with a lot of questions and mixed feelings.

  • Where’s God in all of this?
  • Why has this happened to me?
  • Isn’t God supposed to do good things for me?

  Theologically, I know the answers to all of these.

  • God never leaves or forsakes me
  • This has happened to conform me to the image of His Son
  • God works out all things for good for those who love Him

  It doesn’t make it any easier, though. It leaves me doubting my God and my faith. It makes me wonder what is next for 2020 and where I’m supposed to go from here. I want to rebel and fly off the handle, wake up in a strangers bed with a hangover and indulge in the typical hedonistic life the world has on offer. As I write this though, I’m reminded to not escape the pain and trials through meaningless distractions (entertainment, booze and parties… trust me it’s very tempting), instead, to embrace the pain and to grow in wisdom. The wisest of us suffer and learn, they don’t escape. I want to walk through the flame, look back and be assured that God had more profound things in store for me. I want to experience the Spirit and be infused with His great love for others. I want to sing the Gospel and witness the might of His Kingdom.

  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. – Romans 8:18

  Posted in Scribbles | 1 Comment

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