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By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Books I'm Reading, Gospel Written on October 13, 2011

King Jesus Gospel

Scot McKnight recently wrote a book called The King Jesus Gospel. I finished reading it yesterday.

I know it is vain, but as I read it, I kept waiting for him to quote from a journal article I wrote back in 2006 called “The Gospel is More than Faith Alone in Christ Alone.”

Of course, Scot McKnight never did quote from it.

So either he plagiarized me, or he never read the article… Hmmmm… I wonder which one it is?

The Gospel is about more than How to get Saved

In the 2006 journal article, I studied the New Testament usage of the word “gospel” and ended up concluding that

The gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, including all of the events leading up to His birth, and all the ramifications from Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for unbelievers and believers.

Then, in 2009, in a blog post titled “The Gospel is Full of Good News” I stated that

The full gospel is full-orbed in the claims it makes about our present life and eternal existence, and what Jesus wants to do with both.

Later, I did a whole series on “Gospelism” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) in which I argue many of the points that Scot McKnight made in his book, but which he referred to as “Gospeling.”

As I was reading Scot’s book, it often felt to me that I was re-reading some of those old posts.

Sure, Scot McKnight and I don’t argue along exactly the same train of thought, and he nuances things differently than I did, but in general, we are in agreement. I found this very comforting, since in 2006, some people blasted me pretty hard for the article I had written. I imagine Scot might be taking flak also. People don’t like their “gospel message” to be challenged.

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Books I'm Reading, Eschatology Written on October 3, 2011

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Prophecy and the Book of Revelation

Want to learn more about the Book of Revelation? In a few weeks, several of us around the blogosphere are going to read and blog about a book which is creating an earthquake in the way people read and understand the Book of Revelation.

You are invited to obtain the book, and read it along with us, and if you have a blog, write about it on your own blog as well. We will all be linking to each other in our posts, so this will also create some good backlinks to your blog.

We will be reading The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham.

Here is a brief introduction to what the book is about:

Understanding Revelation

The book of Revelation has always fascinated and frustrated students of Scripture. It appears to contain extensive predictions about the future through the use of images. But what do these images mean?

What message is John trying to convey?

What message, if any, does the book of Revelation have for us today?

Is the end of the world upon us?

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Blogging, Books I'm Reading Written on September 26, 2011

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Join our Blogging Book Club

Blogging Book Club

Some of us are going to start a Blogging book Club, and you are invited to join.

How the Blogging Book Club Works

We will select a book (usually about some aspect of Scripture or Theology), and announce the book about 3-4 weeks in advance, so we can all obtain the book and start reading it. We will also invite our blog readers to buy the book.

Then, on a particular date, we will all start writing posts about the book, linking to each other’s blogs, and interacting with each other about the content of the book. It will be somewhat like a Synchroblog, but one where there are several posts over the course of a couple weeks in which we interact not only with the ideas of the book, but also the ideas in other blog posts.

A website is currently under development which will serve as a landing page for the various books we read and links from your blog. More on that in the future.

You Should Participate

If you are a blogger, this is a great way to get to know other bloggers, and to introduce yourself to the readers of other blogs. Also, since every post in the series will include links to all the other bloggers who are participating, this will be a great way for all of us to get backlinks for your blog. It’s a win-win situation for everybody.

If you are a blog reader, this is a great way to read a book which may challenge your thinking, while interacting about the ideas of the book with other people around the world.
Continue Reading…

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Bibliology, Books I'm Reading Written on September 20, 2011

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Sola Scriptura OR Solo Scriptura?

In a recent post, I suggested that nobody believes in Sola Scriptura.

In a comment, Tim Nichols from Full Contact Christianity challenged my definition of Sola Scriptura, as not being the same definition that was used by the classical Reformers when they talked about Sola Scriptura.

I was intrigued, and so asked where I could read more about what he was saying. He recommended a book by Keith Mathison called The Shape of Sola Scriptura. So I obtained the book and read it last week.

It turns out Tim was right. And so was I.

Let me rephrase that. I stated that Reformers like Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli “tried to reject tradition and return to the Sola Scriptura,’the Bible alone.’” This was the statement Tim Nichols objected to, and after reading the book by Mathison, I stand corrected.

Mathison argues fairly persuasively that when most people today talk about Sola Scriptura, what they really have in mind is Solo Scriptura. “Solo” Scriptura is the idea that we can learn all matters about faith and practice using the Bible alone, plus nothing else. If a group or person studies the Bible, and they think they have found some truth, doctrine, or practice in Scripture, then they should believe or practice this idea, whether or not it was ever believed or practiced previously in the history of the church. This is “Solo” Scriptura.

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Books I'm Reading Written on September 1, 2011

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Should Philosophy Guide our Theology?

Did you know that much of our modern theology is founded upon philosophical ideas from Aristotle and Plato? Lots of people assume that our beliefs come primarily from the Bible, but when you actually start to study the history of how Christian doctrine was developed, you discover clear statements from numerous members of the early church who developed these beliefs, that they were trying to synthesize Greek Philosophy and Biblical Teaching.

They took the Bible in one hand, and the ideas of Aristotle and Plato in the other, and put the two together to develop our Christian beliefs.

There were some Early Church Fathers who did not think this was wise and argued against such a combining of Biblical teaching and Greek Philosophy. Once such person was Tertullian, who made the famous statement:

What is there in common between Athens and Jerusalem? What between the Academy and the Church? What between heretics and Christians? …Away with all projects for a “Stoic,” a “Platonic,” or a “dialectic” Christianity! After Christ Jesus we desire no subtle theories…

Martin Luther shared the same feelings toward philosophy, calling it “the Devil’s whore.”

I have often agreed with these sentiments. I have often wanted to get back to the Bible, to just what the Scriptures teach, to strip theology from the pagan philosophical influences that have crept in over the years.

But recently, I have come to realize that this is simply not possible. Any attempt to strip theology of the pagan influences of the past, we will only replace it with cultural and philosophical influences of today — which might possibly be worse.

And aside from being impossible, stripping philosophy out of theology might also be undesirable. I have recently been challenged in one of the books I read to think of philosophy as a form of divine revelation.

The book was From Plato to Jesus by C. Marvin Pate.