Revelation and Faith according to The Nativity

I’ve only caught snatches of the BBCs Nativity, but two scenes interested me. When Gabriel appears to Mary he doesn’t tell her the news.  There are no words from on high here.  No, no, that would be oppressive and authoritarian.  Instead he invites Mary to look within to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit gives [...]

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Not a scuttling underbelly

Unlike the scuttling basements of many a blog page, the comments section of Christ the Truth is its most redeeming feature.  For those who only get the RSS feed you are missing out. I thought I’d give you excerpts from some of Paul Blackham’s comments which would otherwise languish in the blog’s underbelly. Jesus – [...]

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A conversation between Calvin and Barth on revelation

CALVIN:  Above all we must recognize that God stoops to reveal Himself. BARTH:  Above all we must recognize that God stoops to reveal Himself. CALVIN:  No but it’s a stooping revelation. BARTH:  Yes but it’s a stooping revelation. CALVIN:  But what we see is God in His condescension. BARTH:  Amen!  We see God in His [...]

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Evangelists and Apologists note: The six things that have already happened

Through Christ, the Triune God has already revealed Himself unmistakably in every aspect of creation so that humanity is without excuse. Against Christ, humanity has taken knowledge into its own hands and so barred the door against all claims from above. In view of Christ, God has handed humanity over to its chosen futility, locking [...]

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Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Revelation Alone

I’m halfway through Mike Reeves’ excellent lectures on a theology of revelation.  Go and listen now if you haven’t done already. Maybe I should put them somewhere prominently and permanently on the blog because they explain much better than I can the thinking behind ‘Christ the Truth’.  To be an evangelical theologian is to have [...]

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Thawed out Thursdays

The dumb thing about blogging is that you’re always burying your old stuff with whatever nonsense occured to you in the shower that morning.  Almost 500 posts on it occurs to me that newer is not necessarily better and, apart from Bobby, I’m not sure how many of you were following the blog from the [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 6 (final part)

Christ must be proclaimed biblically. Nothing has been said yet about the character of the preacher.  This has been deliberate.  It’s not the character of the preacher but the character of the word that is determinative.  It’s not ultimately the skills, gifts or even godliness of the preacher that will bring the word home to [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 5

Christ must be proclaimed biblically Hopefully it is not a new thought that Christ is the Word of God.  Perhaps, though, it is a new thought to consider preaching as the word of God.  Therefore some may wonder whether we have lost the vital importance of Scripture as the word of God. Absolutely not.  Without [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 4

Go to theology network for the full paper on preaching.  I’ll post it here in chunks.  Be great to talk about it if you want to comment.   We’ve made the claim that preaching is God’s word when Christ is proclaimed biblically.  Now we will tease out some implications of this central conviction:   Christ [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 3

Go to theology network for the full paper on preaching.  I’ll post it here in chunks.  Be great to talk about it if you want to comment. The Word of God In saying that preaching is itself the word of God, it should be made clear that the bible has a vital role.  The law [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 2

Go to theology network for the full paper on preaching.  I’ll post it here in chunks.  Be great to talk about it if you want to comment. The Speaking God Let’s begin at the beginning.  Our God is the Speaking God.  The eternal life of Father, Son and Spirit has ever been an out-going, communicative [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 1

Go to theology network for my paper on preaching in full.  Here I’ll post it in chunks.  Be good to talk about it if you want to comment…  Introduction It is often said that the real issue in preaching is not ‘How to?’ but ‘How can?’  How can a preacher stand before a congregation and [...]

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Creation preaches Christ — Creation cannot save

This is in response to Orange Mailman’s question on my last post: Creation preaches Christ.  Creation cannot save.  I definitely want to uphold both things.  And Romans 10 is a great place to highlight both.  Verse 14: How can they hear without someone preaching?  Verse 17-18: Psalm 19′s Word of Christ goes out to the ends [...]

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Creation’s voice proclaims… what?

As we’ve been thinking about how to know God (and how not to) we’re basically thinking about the subject of revelation. It’s common when speaking of revelation to treat two categories – general revelation (God made known through nature and conscience) and special revelation (usually meaning ‘the bible’).  Now of course such a distinction can [...]

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Christ the Truth

So then, Christ, the Image of the invisible God must be our starting point if we want to know God.  We can’t begin with reason, we can’t begin with religion, we can’t begin with creation.  It is simply not the case that these things provide us with a sub-Christian starting point to which can be added Christian [...]

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How not to know God – creation

Previously on Christ the Truth: We must begin all theology with the Word of God – Jesus. This means ruling out other starting points, such as… Reason and Religion Now we consider creation as another false foundation for theology.  Not, of course, that the heavens are silent about God – they pour forth speech day [...]

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How not to know God – religion

So God is known in Jesus alone. This means He is not known through human reason. It also means He is not known through human religion. The Bible often engages with other religions. Never does it assume that such religions have any revelatory insights to offer. Numbers 33:50-53; Deut 7:1-6; 12:1-3; 29:16-18; 32:15-21; Psalm 96:4-5; [...]

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How not to know God – reason

Last time we made the claim that knowledge of God and salvation by God go hand in hand.  Only those who have been saved by God know God.  At the same time, coming to know God is another way of describing being saved by God. Therefore all those truths we hold so dear about salvation [...]

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