The Surprising God

[Updated 8/27/2019] Do Grace Communion Seminary and Grace Communion International (sponsors of this blog) teach a doctrine of universalism? The answer is no---both are in agreement with the teaching on this topic from Trinitarian theologian Thomas F. (TF) Torrance who notes that, "Whether all men will as a matter of fact  be saved or not, in the nature of the case, cannot be known" ( Scottish Journal of Theology 2 [1949] 310-18, quoted in In the End, God,  by John A.T. Robinson, Wipf and Stock: 2011, p. 148). Torrance offers two reasons for this assertion: 1) The irrational mystery of evil. 2) The truth that God gives each person the freedom to say "no" to him---potentially forever. Both reasons must be seen in the light of the deeper truth of God's election , which, in Torrance's view  TF Torrance expresses the universal action of God's grace in such a way that, far from dissolving the personal elements of choice and decision, it establishes ...

Are there conditions that a person must meet in order for God to forgive them? Many answer yes , often making two claims: That God, being holy, stores up wrath against the sinner (here they typically cite Rom 2:5). Moreover, God will not  let go of this wrath, through forgiveness,  until the sinner repents (which to them, includes asking God for his forgiveness). That God will not forgive the sinner until they forgive those who have sinned against them (here they typically cite Jesus' words in Mat 6:14-15 and 18:21-35). I address the second claim in another post , so I'll focus here on the first. What I understand Scripture to teach (when read in the light of the gospel of grace), is that God's forgiveness of all humanity is unconditional and, moreover, has  already been granted. (public domain, Wikimedia Commons) First, let's note a disconcerting paradox: Those who claim that God will not forgive us until we repent, often claim that we should forg...

In a recent You're Included   video ,  Dr. Alan Torrance beautifully and profoundly summarizes the Christian life as, "our sharing by the Spirit in the Incarnate Son's communion with the Father." As noted frequently in this blog, the Son of God, our Creator and Sustainer, united himself to all humanity by adding humanity to his divinity in the person of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Though not all people know of and thus personally experience this established union with Jesus, Christians do, and through the Holy Spirit they share actively in the Son's communion with his Father. Is their sharing perfect? No. Christians, like all human beings, are a work in progress. Therefore,I think it's helpful to think of this union leading to communion as a journey with Jesus . As I study Jesus' earthly life in Scripture, I see the journey as consisting of three basic steps (or, better yet, patterns of being and doing) that are grounded in and expressive of God's...

This post is part 2 of a series exploring The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly called the Nicene Creed). For other parts, click on the corresponding number:  1 ,  3 ,  4 , 5 ,  6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ,  10 , 11 ,  12 ,  13 . This historic, orthodox Creed begins with a simple, yet profound assertion:          We believe...  The Creed defines the content of this belief in a way that has stood the test of time, being embraced by Christians of nearly every denominational stripe for over 1600 years! According to Athanasius, who was an influential delegate at Nicaea, the Creed sets forth "the divine and apostolic faith" (quoted in  The Trinitarian Faith by T.F. Torrance, p15). A ccording to Torrance, it presents the "simple first principles of the Gospel" (p16). The chief concern of the framers of the Creed, including Athanasius (see picture), was to clarify and defend what the Apostles taught concer...

This post is part 1 in an ongoing series that explores the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly called the Nicene Creed ). To read other posts in this series, click on the corresponding number:  2 ,  3 ,  4 , 5 ,  6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ,  10 , 11 , 12 , 13 . This series makes frequent reference to the book  The Trinitarian Faith by theologian Thomsas F. (T.F.) Torrance. Greek philosophy As Torrance notes (p2), the Nicene Creed represents the work of the Greek church fathers in reaching careful expression of crucial points in the Gospel where it had been seriously misunderstood and distorted under the influence of Greek philosophy. This philosophy viewed God as one, perfect, unchangeable and totally unlike physical beings. Such a perfect, unchanging God, they reasoned, would have nothing to do with physical matter, including with flawed human beings. The Arian Controversy Influenced by this Greek (Hellenized) philosophical view of  God, some...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. Last time we began exploring the concept of God’s singing in the new life of believers as the ‘sound of the spiritual harvest’ (as described in The Sound of the Harvest , by J. Nathan Corbitt) and the need for a gathered group of such people to find th eir own ‘worship voice.’ But many observe there seems to be two completely different church ‘worlds’—there’s ‘big church’ and ‘little church’—and when it comes to music resources, they’re worlds apart. Mega churches have choirs, praise teams, bands, worship directors, staff, and celebrity worship leaders. But for small congregations with quite limited resources, it often means singing along to CDs or videos. So after some years of singing along to CD’s, here’s the story of how one little church prayerfully reevaluated their situation and decided to move in a different direction. The little flock had come to a crossroads of sorts, and needed to address a number of challenges. In s...

Bishop Ware The July 2011 issue of Christianity Today features an interview conducted by CT editor-in-chief David Neff with Bishop Kallistos Ware of the Greek Orthodox Church ( click here to read the article, and here  for a video). In answer to Neff's question, What is the center of the Christian message? , Ware states the following: I believe in a God who loves humankind so intensely, so totally, that he chose himself to become human. Therefore, I believe in Jesus Christ as fully and truly God, but also totally and unreservedly one of us, fully human...  The love of God is so great that Christ died for us on the cross. But love is stronger than death, and so the death of Jesus was followed by his resurrection. I am a Christian because I believe in the great love of God that led him to become incarnate, to die, and to rise again. That's my faith. All of this is made immediate to us through the continuing action of the Holy Spirit (p41). Note the Trinitarian framework a...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. When it comes to congregational singing, some of the best advice I've ever heard is that each congregation needs to find it’s own collective ‘worship voice’. In other words, it is important for each unique collection of humanity to discover the music, songs, instrumentation and methods that best enable the offering of thanks, praise, and testimony in that particular setting. Through Christ and the Spirit, the Triune God has entered into creation and the life story and relationships of each individual and group. So, yes, there is unity in Christ. But because of unique individual, family, cultural and congregational relationships and histories, each collective ‘worship voice’ will not sound identical to a ‘worship voice’ in another setting, though each sings the common, yet ever-new song of redeeming love, an echo of the New Song of the Lamb in the heavenly realm. This ‘worship voice’ of gathered humanity is not static, but l...

John Wesley Trinitarian, incarnational theology teaches that God the Father has included all people in his love and life, through the person and work of his incarnate Son Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. How ironic (and sad) if those who embrace this theology of inclusion  would express an attitude of exclusivism ! I was thinking about this (and examining my own attitude), when I watched the movie Wesley . It dramatizes the story of the life and ministry of John Wesley and his brother Charles. John and Charles were highly educated (both grads of Oxford U.). However, part of the genius of their Methodist movement was the ability to recognize that the Holy Spirit is able to further the cause of Christ through common, often uneducated (and sometimes even ill-informed) people serving as teachers and preachers. Though the Wesley's valued and advocated higher education and sound theology, they realized that perfection in these matters is not the end-all and be-a...

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them  (Genesis 1:27). According to Frances and Paul Hiebert, the humanity that images God is a  co-humanity  constituted by men and women in relationship. Stated negatively, men alone and women alone do not express fully the image of God   (see the Hiebert's essay,  The Whole Image of God: A Theological and Anthropological Understanding of Male-Female Relationship,  in Incarnational Ministry ,  edited by Kettler and Speidell). This makes sense in light of the biblical revelation that our triune God is a relational communion of three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), in which there is unity, diversity (distinction of persons) and equality . God's communitarian nature is imaged in humanity when a similar unity, diversity and equality are found in us - particularly in our male-female relationships. According to the Hieberts, differing male and ...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. A “blended” worship service commonly means a service designed to use both traditional hymns as well as contemporary songs or choruses—whether the mix leans more heavily to one side or the other, or is right down the middle. (Of course you can also use other styles of music as well, but for this discussion let’s stick with hymns and choruses.) However, creative writers and musicians sometimes go beyond just sprinkling hymns and choruses throughout the worship list for the day and take the extra step of creating one piece of music that is more a “fusion” of something old and familiar with something fresh and new. Using symbols to describe th e process—just placing two different worship styles one after another (for example, a contemporary chorus after a traditional hymn) can be represented as A + B = AB. Whereas creatively fusing these elements together in such a way that both are mutually transformed into a new third thing can be se...

How may the church join with Jesus in what he is doing through the Holy Spirit to minister God's love and life to and through families? Dennis Guernsey answers in  Family Ministry and a Theology of Family: A Personal Journey, an essay in Incarnational Ministry   (eds: Kettler and Speidell). Guernsey, now deceased, teamed with Ray Anderson at Fuller Theological Seminary to develop an approach to family ministry informed by Trinitarian theology and family systems psychology ( click here  for details). In Guernsey's view, "family" is best understood as a verb, rather than a noun. Family is about being "familied." Unfortunately, some family ministries are more about programs and structures than about loving, family-like relationships . As guidance to churches wishing to join with Jesus in relational ministry to and through families, Guernsey offers five theological principles: 1.  "Human persons are created in the image of God and are of infinite valu...

This was posted on Pentecost Sunday--a good day to address a question sent in by one of our readers, a church pastor: "Within the past year, two long-time members have relocated from other parts of the country to one of my congregations. Neither of these individuals believes in the deity of the Holy Spirit, believing instead our old teaching that the Holy Spirit is some kind of energy or power of God.  Why is it necessary to believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit? Why isn't faith in Jesus Christ enough?" To believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit is to understand that he, like God the Father and God the Son, is fully God. This contrasts with the mistaken idea that the Holy Spirit is merely the "power" or the "wisdom" of God, in an impersonal sense. There are many reasons why it is vital to uphold the deity of the Holy Spirit. I'll comment on two here. I invite our readers to add others (use the comments feature below). 1. The Bible ...

In The Ministry of Leadership: Empowering People (an essay in the book Incarnational Ministry ), Walter C. Wright, Jr. defines Christian leadership as a relationship by which the leader works to empower, nurture and increase the maturity of the follower as a person loved by God (p207). This leadership of 'the Jesus kind,' is servant-leadership that transforms.  Whereas current literature tends to define leadership as a process by which individuals or groups are influenced toward a particular outcome or goal (p207), Jesus' way of leadership is principally about relationship . Of course, relationships involve influence, but the principal focus of Jesus is not to influence his followers toward an external objective (no matter how lofty), but to love and serve them with an eye toward their empowerment, leading to the positive transformation of their lives. Jesus demonstrated this radical approach to leadership at the Last Supper, where he washed his dis...

Given the biblical revelation that God has reconciled all humanity to himself in and through Jesus Christ (2 Cor, 5:17-19), why should the church be concerned about reaching out to the world in mission? And if it is to be concerned, what does that mission look like? In order to answer these questions, we first must answer this one:  Who is God?  The Bible;s answer is that the one God exists eternally as a tri-personal communion of love. In his being (nature), God is love (1John 4:8), and God does what God is. The triune God of love is a God who, in love, reaches out to others. Missional God In love, God created the cosmos as a time/place in which to share his triune love and life with his creation. And because his love never ceases or diminishes, he became Redeemer to rescue his creation from its inability, due to the fall, to live in communion with him. As Creator and Redeemer, God has, from before time, been on mission. The mission of God ( missio Dei) in cre...

Trinitarian, incarnational theology shapes our understanding of Christian stewardship . It points us to the life and love of Jesus, who represents and substitutes for us as the perfect human steward of God's grace in all its forms ( 1Pet 4:10 KJV). From this perspective, Christian stewardship is a believer's active participation in Jesus' lavish generosity (his own love, which "compels us," see 2Cor 5:14 ), as he lives in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit (in the Trinity), and with all humanity (through his continuing incarnation). I'm reminded here of a phrase coined by Mark Vincent in A Christian View of Money : Generous God, generous people .    In the above cited passage from Peter's first epistle, the Apostle is addressing the stewardship of spiritual gifts (one aspect of God's amazing and bountiful grace to us). These gifts are the very ones that Jesus possesses in himself. Through the indwelling Spirit, he shares these gifts (ab...

Sure, ministry involves the important stuff of life, but have you ever attached so much importance to the ministry in which you serve that you begin losing your sense of playfulness, humor or joy? Or in taking your role as a servant seriously, have you also begun taking yourself a bit too seriously? It’s an easy trap to fall into. (Confession time here. In leading worship through the years, I’ve seen more than a few photos of myself looking more serious than a solemn judge, and not so much like a joyful worshiper. Though none of us will do it perfectly, those who serve in visible roles should be aware of the impressions given.) And if we take ourselves too seriously, we might also think too highly of ourselves and our work—especially if folks regularly offer thanks and appreciation for our work. Remedy arrives in the wisdom a nd humor of Swiss theologian Karl Barth . Barth was perhaps the most highly acclaimed theologian of the 20th century, and no one had written more about the s...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. "Baptism of Christ" by Zelenka (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) In an essay in Incarnational Ministry: The Presence of Christ in Church, Society, and Family: Essays in Honor of Ray S. Anderson , Colin Gunton writes against an individualistic approach to baptism and for a gospel-centered approach. In doing so, he addresses various pastoral concerns, including the practice of infant baptism. Against an individualistic approach Gunton decries an approach to baptism that emphasizes the individual person, thus separating baptism from the shared life of the church: While baptism is in part the concern of the particular person, it is not primarily a matter for the person as individual but for the person in relation to other people in the community of salvation, the covenant people of God. Baptism cannot, and should not be treated in isolation form the life of the community of faith (p100). Historically, individualisti...