Pepperdine Lectureship Schedule Set

pepperdinePepperdine has just posted the schedule for the 2016 lectureship, Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 4:30 PM – Friday, May 6, 2016 at 11:30 PM (PDT).

N. T. Wright will be speaking 4:30 for the opening keynote and then at 2:30 and 3:30 every day.

But enough about him. I’m teaching twice, both times at 9:30 on Thursday and Friday, on baptism. (I’m so glad I’m not opposite Wright!!) I’ll be in Plaza 190. This is evidently the Plaza Classrooms building (as labeled on site), shown on maps as the Black Family Plaza Building (someone please correct me if I have this wrong).

If you plan to attend, it’s free and registration is not required, but it helps the planners locationsmapsgreatly if you register.

I look forward to seeing you all there. If you’ve never been, it’s always an incredible, uplifting, enriching experience. Check out the classes and other presentations: a veritable buffet of Christian teaching and encouragement.

And it’s in Malibu.

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Meandering thoughts on Nein Quarterly, hermeneutics, a little Kierkegaard, and leading change in a Church of Christ, Part 1

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From Nein. A Manifesto by Eric Jaronsinki, compiled from his Twitter feed of philosophy based humor: @neinquarterly

Hermeneutics and change in church

As you know, I’m an avid reader of Richard Beck’s blog Experimental Theology (a title I wish I’d thought of — and thought of before he did. I’m so very jealous.) And he recently posted this regarding hermeneutics and Protestantism “Owning Your Protestantism” —

Here’s the situation, I told the group, you have to own the fact that you are Protestants (as am I). Which means that you are never going to land on an uncontested “biblical view.” Protestants have never agreed on what the Bible says. Just look at all the Protestant churches. Underneath the conversation about the “biblical view” what you are searching for is a hermeneutical consensus, the degree to which your community can tolerate certain hermeneutical choices.

Stretch the hermeneutical fibers too thin and the consensus snaps. People can’t make the leap. The view is deemed “unbiblical.” But if you keep the changes within the hermeneutical tolerances of the community the consensus holds and the view is deemed “biblical.”

But let’s be honest, I said, what we are discerning here is more sociological than Biblical. We are assessing the hermeneutical tolerances and capacities of a faith community because at the end of the day it’s consensus you are after.

Continue reading

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Assembly 2.0: Part 11.11: Have We Restored the First Century Assembly?

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Restorationism

The Restoration Movement was originally a unity movement. Various branches attempted to build unity from within the Presbyterian and Baptist denominations, but they found themselves unwelcome, even excommunicated by their home denominations. They became, unwillingly, a new denomination (and then, later, decided to pretend not to be a denomination).

As a result, Alexander Campbell published a series of articles called the “Search for the Ancient Order,” seeking to find the original pattern for the early church’s assembly. Just as I have done, he found very limited guidance in the scriptures, and so he turned to history
— the uninspired writings of the early church fathers — to fill in the gaps. And there were many gaps. Continue reading

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Lord & Lady

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Assembly 2.0: Part 11.10: Tongues and Prophecy Today; Testimony

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Conclusions regarding Tongues and Prophecy for Today

I think there’s great wisdom in Martin Luther’s teaching on the subject, as summarized by Foller,

On the one hand, Luther may say that in the present time, miracles are no longer necessary, because the Gospel has already been proclaimed everywhere and the church has been established; on the other hand he holds onto the truth that the same power and impact of Christ is forever in existence in Christendom and miracles may happen whenever they are required (WA 45, 260, 18-264, 19; 45, 261, 27-262, 2). They were necessary when the Gospel first entered the world.

But, from his own time, Luther regarded this as not necessarily required and he viewed miracle signs as warnings of unauthorised action. But in times of extraordinary pressure it might again become necessary. In such cases without exception each Christian would have the power to perform miracles. Especially in missionary situations where the Gospel is first announced, God will provide affirming miracles. The deciding category, in Luther’s view is the question of necessity. According to Luther God tends to show his power through a miracle, where ordinary means of keeping up the oikonomia, the worldly reign and the church are too weak. … Continue reading

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Robbie Seay Band

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Assembly 2.0: Part 11.9: When Did Prophecy End?

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When Did Prophecy End?

Many theorize that prophecy was received by the laying on of apostolic hands, meaning that the gift ended in the early Second Century. Others believe that prophecy and other miraculous gifts ended when the NT was complete — when the last book was authored. Historians disagree as to when this was, but the early Second Century would seem to be the outside date.

What our theologians sometimes forget is that we have early church writings going back to the late First Century. The uninspired writings from church authors tell us a great deal about life in the early church, and they testify that prophecy continued at least to the Third Century. Continue reading

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Wineskins series on Instrumental Music from 2010

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Back in late 2010, I edited an issue of the Wineskins online magazine dealing with instrumental music. That was followed by a series of articles here responding to various questions and criticisms.

When we converted Wineskins to a new server a couple of years ago, all the links broke due to the new archiving software. They are now fixed. Here are updated links to the articles as well as the articles posted at OneInJesus: Continue reading

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John Mark Nelson: “I’m Not Afraid”

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Scot McKnight on Calvinism and Pantheism

tulip calvinismScot McKnight has posted a thought-provoking critique of Calvinism at his Jesus Creed blog.

If you’re getting tired of watching the SEC beat up on the rest of the college football world, you might enjoy the high-level theological ruminations.

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