||Book Summary|| I am not a fan of Brian Tamaki. As an educated Reformed Evangelical it is unsurprising that I would be at odds with a fundamentalist Pentecostal, as many others are for many different reasons. But I think a man with such a high profile and public loathing deserves the dignity of being understood. Having read Peter Lineham’s “Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-Made Apostle”, I came away disagreeing no less with Tamaki’s teaching and practice than I did before, but with significantly more respect for the man. For that reason, I commend the book to fans and critics of Brian Tamaki alike. It need not change your own final assessment, but it allows you to think more intelligently about him.
Christians in high places can do a lot of good for God’s kingdom, but they can also do a lot of damage. There is a risk that Christians in places of power end up becoming a liability to the gospel.
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||Pastoral Passage|| In light of the current coronavirus pandemic and the use of vaccines to ward off its serious ill effects, I would like to share two incidents – deaths – from the life of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards’ faith was in the same God and gospel we have today. The same confident hope is offered and there are the same expectations for selfless, humble, purposed living.
||Technical Article|| In the face of the unchallenged claim that the emperors ruled supreme, Paul begged to differ, shaping his Christology to offer an alternative world-ruler, sent not only to rule but also to redeem the Creator’s wayward world.
||Article|| Christians (and others) who ultimately refuse to get vaccinated and acquire a vaccine-passport face being made maligned and marginalised members of New Zealand for the foreseeable future. Whatever their rationale, they will not be doing it lightly, and it is not the role of vaccinated Christians to make life harder for them.
||Article|| As you read this, I would like you to imagine how things might be different today if the ideas here were widespread in churches 30-40 years ago. It is unfortunately common for churches to be slow to respond properly to difficult social issues – too often the response has been silence, reactionary, or capitulation. Nevertheless, “late” is better than “never” and churches are increasingly taking these kinds of ideas on board.
Some thoughts on a letter Martin Luther wrote to a friend during a health crisis.
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||Short Article|| Reception history provides a useful and exciting set of new tools for studying the Bible, which I am confident will be a much more fruitful and satisfying endeavour than studying the film-texts that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
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||Book Summary|| Noted church historian Justo L. Gonzalez does what professional historians usually don’t – he tells a history in order to make a point about the present.
Chris Northcott 