Missionary Gas

It is argued that the institution of marriage is important for the good of society. Therefore even gay marriages should be viewed as a good thing. This is a reasonable view but has significant flaws when compared with the Bible. According to the Scriptures, marriage is heterosexual in order that children might be born: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Gen 1:28).  Romantic and passionate marital love is illustrated in Scripture as a heterosexual experience. The Song of Songs, the emotions of David and the marriage of Ruth are indicative of this.  Single people, such as Christ, Mary of Bethany and John the Baptist enjoyed a fulfilling life without being married.  There were severe warnings against homosexual practices. Male rape and male prostitution were condemned (Gen 19:5; Deut 23:17-18) Judg 19:22) as were homosexual practices (Lev 18:21-22; Rom 1:26-27).  Outside of what is ...

Nowadays the most hotly debated issue in theology is justification by faith.     Last week St Andrews University hosted a 3 day conference on Galatians.   About 150 scholars and wanabees attended.    Since I fitted into the last category along with a Croatian,  a Norwegian and a one-legged lady from Texas,  I went along.   The New Perspective on justification,  ably communicated by Tom Wright,  is taken as gospel by  academics.    So there was little fighting type debate,  until,  the last keynote address. This was given by Richard Hays,  Dean and George Washington Ivey Professor at Duke Divinity School,  who spoke for an hour on "Apocalyptic Poiesis in Galatians".    An excellent speaker and erudite,  he convinced me of the dramatic narrative of the epistle.    And I was about to go home and reshape my sermons. That was unti...

A bit like Stirling Uni but less suicidal,  Nottingham University is scattered through an undulating green campus.  I recently gathered with 70 Thiseltonians for a Conference honouring the 75 year old star of modern Biblical Hermeneutics,  Prof Anthony Thiselton.   He's a likeable John Stott type figure who broke down in tears when mentioning the support of his wife and family.  During the day seven academics presented papers looking at different angles of the subject.   Now hermeneutics deals with how we communicate and understand things:  a film,  an Ibrox sign or a Pauline epistle.  It's currently the most important subject in Divinity.    Unfortunately the presentations were models of bad communication being papers read from manuscripts and not readily understandable.      But the chatting in-between was brilliant:   "We live not according to the calendar but according to t...