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If the deeper intention of 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Ephesians 5:21-33 is to call Christians to follow Jesus within the institutional expectations of their time, the challenge to the contemporary church is to follow Jesus not by transferring ancient views of authority to our own time but by recognizing that those who follow Jesus reject the pursuit of power and …
Forty-nine people died and scores were wounded in an Orlando terrorist shooting. The bloodbath reminds us of the hatred in the world and the church’s muddled ambivalence toward the LGBT community. On the one hand we are opposed to homosexual sex acts, but at the same time we have trouble declaring loudly that we love people like Edward Sotomayor and …
When In 1630 John Winthrop an influential Puritan boarded the Arabella he was headed to the “New Israel.” He gave what became one of the most famous sermons in American history. He described his company of Puritans as “God’s chosen people.” “We shall be a City upon a Hill.” he declared. The Puritans viewed church and state as fully entwined- …
In the American culture wars bathrooms have become fodder for a fight. The issues circle around where transgenders can legally go to the bathroom. This is not about homosexuals wanting to go to the bathroom with the opposite sex. Given the church’s commitment to follow Jesus might it not be better to start with the personal, the biological data, the …
We have discerned God’s will not by just interpreting written-down texts in the Spirit. We also discerned God’s will by interpreting the Spirit’s living texts, women he has gifted for service in the kingdom. Gifted women in leadership right now in the church are living descriptive texts. These women are part of a great band of witnesses stretching all the …
Because the idea of Scripture as a constitution or code book persists among Bible-loving Christians, many of us see the authority of Scripture mediated to us as commands, examples, and necessary inferences. The usual drill is to look for commands, note the examples, and make our own inferences. Something like this is practiced widely within all evangelical churches. So if …
We believe Jesus is Lord. We believe in the authority and inspiration of Scripture. We also believe in the Spirit’s power to illuminate Scripture and help us embody the first-century word in the 21st century. We believe God is raising up men and women to do his work. The argument in this book is based on the authority of Jesus …
The background of Paul’s first letter to Timothy was a heresy of “unsound words” in the church in Ephesus. Paul described this heresy as “myths and endless genealogies.” The dominating mythology of Ephesus was propagated to all its citizens by the Artemis religious fertility cult, which was housed in a massive temple. Acts 19:23-40 testifies to the powerful hold Artemis …
WOMEN IN SCRIPTURE’S INTERPRETIVE CIRCLE Given the obvious diversity of texts regarding women in Scripture, we seek to properly interpret them as they appear within the redemptive storyline of Scripture. One way to discern the meaning of these texts is to understand them as normative, descriptive, or corrective. We function in an interpretive circle regarding Scripture, moving back and forth …
The framework for any biblical interpretation is the story Scripture tells of the mission of God and the formation of a community sent to participate in it. This is what the entire story is about. The mission of God is the framework, the clue, and the interpretive key for biblical interpretation. The aim of biblical interpretation is to fulfill the …
