Regarding the Purpose of OneInJesus

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Jay F Guin

I get emails —

You say your hope is to call all members of Churches of Christ together again, united against the Christians outside of “the church.” Yes? Well, that’s not exactly the way you word it. But your statement is limited to unity for all in the Church of Christ families. That objective surely is commendable. It’s also less than we should aim for–the unity of all who are in Christ. Isn’t it?

Hmm …. The original purpose statement for this site is —

This site is dedicated to members of the Churches of Christ searching for a deeper understanding of God’s grace, the Holy Spirit, and more. Ultimately, the mission of this site is to set forth an understanding of the Bible that will allow for a reunification of the Churches of Christ.

I wrote that over three years ago, when I was hoping for a readership in the double digits. And it remains true that I want to see a reunification of the Churches of Christ. But the correct path to unity will necessarily lead to unity on a much grander scale than that! It would indeed hardly be enough to reunite the conservative and progressive factions of the Churche of Christ if that’s as far as it goes.

And so I’m making this change —

This site is dedicated to members of the Churches of Christ searching for a deeper understanding of God’s grace, the Holy Spirit, and more. Ultimately, the mission of this site is to set forth an understanding of the Bible that will allow for a reunification of the Churches of Christthe unity all followers of Jesus.

That’s what I should have said in the first place.

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The Fork in the Road: Definitions: “Faith,” Part 2

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Jay F Guin

In the last post of this series, I pointed out how the conservative Church of Christ preachers often treat “faith” as including a comprehensive doctrinal system, rather than simply faith in Jesus. Wayne Jackson, in the Christian Courier, gave a string of verses supposedly proving that very point, and yet not a single one teaches what he says it teaches.

And this is critically important. You see, this abuse of “faith” has caused us to repeatedly make some deeply serious mistakes. But before we get there, I want to make another point. The fact is that where the progressives and conservatives disagree, the conservatives routinely cite a long list of verses, and the verses routinely don’t mean what the conservatives say they mean. And when challenged, the conservatives routinely change the subject. Continue reading →

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Perseverance: Hebrews 4

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Jay F Guin

(Heb 4)  Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

The writer compares the promised “rest” of Ps 95 with the rest we are promised. The new heavens and new earth will be our Promised Land (which is how our hope is often expressed in Old Testament prophecy, but that’s for another day). He says we both heard the good news, but hearing the message was of no value to the Israelites as they lacked faith.

One could argue that they never had faith and so were never saved. But, of course, they had enough faith to paint the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts. Ray Vander Laan points out that in Egypt, blood on a doorpost would have meant a death sentence for the Israelites had God not intervened. It was an act of great faith. Continue reading →

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9 Sectors of Salvation

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Jay F Guin

John Mark Hicks has just finished his 9-part series explaining the multiple layers of salvation. These posts are highly recommended.

What is Salvation? (Introduction, Sector 1, Sector 2, Sector 3, Sector 4, Sector 5, Sector 6, Sector 7, Sector 8, Sector 9)

In the posts, he explains this chart —

Past
Justification		 Present
Sanctification		 Future
Glorification
Personal Forgiveness of Sins and Relationship with God (1) Moral (Inner and Outer)  Transformation (2) Resurrection of the Body (3)
Communal One Body of Christ: One New Society (4) Reconciliation and Social Transformation (5) The Fullness of the Kingdom of God (6)
Cosmic Resurrection and Exaltation of Jesus (7) Redemptive Emergence of New Creation (8) New Heaven and New Earth (9)
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The Lord’s Supper: The Passover

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Jay F Guin

The Synoptics teach that the Lord’s Supper was instituted as part of a Passover meal. Jesus ate hundreds of meals with his apostles. Why was the Passover the meal he used?

Well, there are several reasons, all steeped in the purposes of the Passover meal. In particular, though, the Biblical commandments concerning the Passover stress the importance of remembering.

(Exo 12:24-27a)  “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'”

(Exo 13:3)  Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.”

Of course, what was remembered is two things — the fact the Israelites were spared the wrath of God by the sacrifice of a lamb — and the fact that they were freed from slavery. You see, the Passover is the source of much of the imagery about our salvation in the New Testament. Continue reading →

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The Fork in the Road: Definitions: “Faith,” Part 1

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Jay F Guin

One of the most important differences between conservative and progressive Church of Christ theology is our different use of some key words. For example, to a progressive, New Testament references to “faith” are references to faith in Jesus. To a conservative, “faith” refers to a system of doctrine. There is, of course, a huge difference between being saved by faith in Jesus and faith in a complete doctrinal system.

Wayne Jackson writes in the Christian Courier —

Some suggest that the expression [“one faith” in Eph 5:4] likely means the “trustful acceptance” of Christ, or “saving faith” (Moule 1977, 105). Bruce calls it a “common belief in Christ” (1984, 336), which, as Smith (a Baptist scholar) observes, includes “the accompanying incidents and conditions,” i.e., the “‘faith’ by which men are saved” (1890, 61). This would embrace the exercise of “faith” in repentance, confession of one’s confidence in Christ, and immersion in water for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Romans 10:10, etc.).

On the other hand, the “one faith” can signify the unified body of Christian teaching, wholly consistent with itself and general biblical teaching otherwise. There are a number of passages that use pistis in this sense (Acts 6:7; Galatians 1:23; 1 Timothy 3:9; 4:1,6; 5:8; Titus 1:4; Jude 3; see Turner 1982, 157; Lenski 1961, 512).

Thus, in Jackson’s perception, the “one faith” that unites all Christians is the body of Christian teaching, “the body of revealed doctrine.” I think “faith” means faith in Jesus. In Jackson’s view, we must agree on all doctrine to be united. I think the seven ones of Eph 4:3-6 are quite enough. Let’s see whether Jackson has dealt fairly with the verses he cites in support of his view. Continue reading →

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Moderation, Etc.

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Jay F Guin

For those new to the blogging world, to “moderate” comments is to require that I pre-approve them before they appear on the site. I rarely moderate comments. I wish I never had to do it at all.

If I politely ask someone to discontinue a line of discussion or change his tone and that doesn’t suffice, I put the commenter on moderation — which is a pain in the neck for me and for the commenter, as it may be hours, or even days, before I have a chance to check the moderation box and allow the comment through.

Any posts with multiple links will be automatically treated as spam by the software and sent to me to approve or disapprove. And every once in a while, someone gets caught in the spam filter for reasons I can’t figure out. It just happens.

I’m going to be tied up Thursday and Friday and may not be able to get to the comments. And Wednesday is filled with church meetings. So I may not get to everything until Saturday or Sunday. But I’ll try to log in as I have time — if I have time.

The posts for the next few days are already written and will pop up at their usual times.

So be good. Stick to the subject. And the next commenter to call another commenter a liar (or the equivalent) gets put on moderation without further warning. No fighting words.

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The Lord’s Supper: The Daily Sacrifice

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Jay F Guin

(Exo 29:38-46)  “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning–a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.

44 “So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.

The daily sacrifice of wine, blood, and flour mixed with oil, was given to assure the Israelites that God was present among them and that he had chosen them to be his people so that he could be their God. Continue reading →

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Perseverance: Hebrews 3

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Jay F Guin

I love Hebrews. I find it easier to follow than Paul. I mean, the author — whoever he or she may be — wrote clear, direct prose. Hebrews speaks to me. And so I want to address the Perserverance of the Saints (POTS) from the text of Hebrews.

I’m half tempted to write a commentary on the whole book. I mean, I just love reading and studying Hebrews. But I figure that would test the patience of even the hardiest readers. But I’m going to cover A LOT of the book. And I want to start in chapter 3. Continue reading →

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The Fork in the Road: “Will Worship”

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Jay F Guin

When we in the Churches of Christ disagree over how to conduct the Sunday assembly, at some point someone will inevitably accuse the other side of “will worship.” And will-worship is sin.

The assumption is that “will worship” means worshiping as you please versus worshiping as God pleases. Indeed, when the discussion centers around designing a worship that is “relevant” to or speaks in the “heart language” of today’s culture, the accusations of “will worship” are guaranteed, because it sounds as though we’re concerned about the feelings of the congregation, when we should be solely concerned about God’s feelings. Continue reading →

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