Well, have you?
An iGod, I mean: it's the latest must-have accessory for 21st Century Christians. Comes complete with a Buddhist prayer wheel on the front: you just spin it, select your prayer from the drop-down menu and away you go.
Capacity: at least 20 billion prayers, and twice as many of the latest "Jesus is my girlfriend" worship songs. What's more, it takes up less space than your own brain - all you do is plug it into the space between your ears and it charges up automatically, direct from your own heartbeat, leaving you free to get on with your life at the expense of the world's poor whilst your prayers waft gently up to heaven like incense.
Even better, every one comes with 99 English translations of the Bible pre-installed, with a limited selection of foreign language versions available for unlocking on payment of a modest license fee. There's a special iRandomiser function that sends carefully selected Bible verses direct to your mobile phone, with free anti-poverty virus scanning if you subscribe to the Premium Service: never see another Bible verse that threatens to challenge the tenets of global capitalism - guaranteed!
And don't miss iGod SE: a special iRainbow textured edition with extended lifetime "iGod's Promises" warranty -- iGod SE will never fail you nor forsake you.
Sign up today for iGod eNews to receive early details of the forthcoming ultra-powerful Purchase-Driven Video Edition!
iGod: will always be with you.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sunday, September 03, 2006
World Ends Tonight
OK, maybe the world doesn't end tonight: maybe it's too early to decide. But at the end of my last post (last post, geddit? Oh alright... never mind) I said we'd be off gallivanting through the Bible in search of this penal substitution nonsense.
No need now: Norman McIlwain's done it for me, a splendid run through the Bible that takes the lid off the whole issue and demonstrates, straight from Scripture, why the penal substitution model of the atonement is up the creek without a paddle. Excellent stuff. Make sure you've got a Bible handy (or access to BibleGateway) when you read it.
Book Details
The Biblical Revelation of the Cross:
A Bible Study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - the Righteous Servant
Norman McIlwain
ISBN 0955102901 (9780955102905)
Oak Wood Publishing House, 2006
£6.99
Review
www.christianbookreviews.info/biblicalrevelationofthe.htm
No need now: Norman McIlwain's done it for me, a splendid run through the Bible that takes the lid off the whole issue and demonstrates, straight from Scripture, why the penal substitution model of the atonement is up the creek without a paddle. Excellent stuff. Make sure you've got a Bible handy (or access to BibleGateway) when you read it.
Book DetailsThe Biblical Revelation of the Cross:
A Bible Study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - the Righteous Servant
Norman McIlwain
ISBN 0955102901 (9780955102905)
Oak Wood Publishing House, 2006
£6.99
Review
www.christianbookreviews.info/biblicalrevelationofthe.htm
Thursday, August 24, 2006
An Open Letter to the Evangelical Alliance
I originally published this letter to great acclaim (believe that and you'll believe anything) in the BapChat Forum. Other members of the forum got rather uppity about it: apparently if we throw out penal substitution we throw out the entire Christian message. Bizarre, to say the least: one forum member said he was "at a loss to know where this argument has come from" — I find myself more at a loss to understand where such a twisted doctrine as penal substitution came from in the first place: punishing the innocent in place of the guilty? What strange concept of God or of justice ever gave rise to this idea??
Dear Friends at the EA,
I was saddened and disappointed by the stance taken by the EA over penal substitution in your article Atonement & Unity in the March/April issue of IDEA.
I endorse wholeheartedly the belief that Christ died in my place, that he paid the price for my sin. I disagree intensely with the insistence that the concept of penal substitution is essential to our understanding of what that means.
In making the concept of penal substitution a cornerstone of its belief the Evangelical Alliance is doing precisely what the Pharisees did of old: planting a hedge around the law. To take this route is to take an isolationist stance and the EA ceases to be an alliance of evangelicals: it becomes an exclusivist body representing but one sector of evangelicalism. Rather than leaving "scope for diversity", the Board of the EA is essentially closing the door on dialogue and giving a green light to witch hunters. It is a sad day indeed for the EA.
Penal substitution is a model for interpreting our understanding of what Christ achieved on the cross. It is not an absolute. The absolute is far simpler: God was in Christ reconciling us to himself.
Precisely how he did that remains an open question: but we know that Christ died outside the city wall, not within the artificial confines of any human constructions, dogmas or doctrines. I find myself standing as a leper outside the community but I know that at the foot of the cross Christ accepts me and cleanses me -- and continues to welcome sinners irrespective of any so-called "core truths". Did Jesus ask that thief crucified alongside him about his core beliefs? Were any of the early disciples asked to sign statements of faith?
I urge the EA: don't go down this isolationist route, don't put up barriers to belief. Fling wide the doors and proclaim the evangel, the outrageous good news of God's grace that brings us all together, grace great enough and generous enough to tear down every barrier: grace that emerges not from our belief in God but his belief in us, his reaching out to us in mercy rather than in wrath.
Let us ask the questions and hold the debates about the mechanics of the Cross, but let us not pretend to have arrived at any absolute understanding of the mystery of God's love. It's the same arrogance that nailed Christ to the Cross in the first place which seeks to nail down our understanding of how the Cross works: once again Christ is crucified by his own people.
May God have mercy on us all.
Yours in Christ,
Pilgrim
Over the next few posts I'll be taking a close look at what the Bible says about the Cross and the atonement...
Dear Friends at the EA,
I was saddened and disappointed by the stance taken by the EA over penal substitution in your article Atonement & Unity in the March/April issue of IDEA.
I endorse wholeheartedly the belief that Christ died in my place, that he paid the price for my sin. I disagree intensely with the insistence that the concept of penal substitution is essential to our understanding of what that means.
In making the concept of penal substitution a cornerstone of its belief the Evangelical Alliance is doing precisely what the Pharisees did of old: planting a hedge around the law. To take this route is to take an isolationist stance and the EA ceases to be an alliance of evangelicals: it becomes an exclusivist body representing but one sector of evangelicalism. Rather than leaving "scope for diversity", the Board of the EA is essentially closing the door on dialogue and giving a green light to witch hunters. It is a sad day indeed for the EA.
Penal substitution is a model for interpreting our understanding of what Christ achieved on the cross. It is not an absolute. The absolute is far simpler: God was in Christ reconciling us to himself.
Precisely how he did that remains an open question: but we know that Christ died outside the city wall, not within the artificial confines of any human constructions, dogmas or doctrines. I find myself standing as a leper outside the community but I know that at the foot of the cross Christ accepts me and cleanses me -- and continues to welcome sinners irrespective of any so-called "core truths". Did Jesus ask that thief crucified alongside him about his core beliefs? Were any of the early disciples asked to sign statements of faith?
I urge the EA: don't go down this isolationist route, don't put up barriers to belief. Fling wide the doors and proclaim the evangel, the outrageous good news of God's grace that brings us all together, grace great enough and generous enough to tear down every barrier: grace that emerges not from our belief in God but his belief in us, his reaching out to us in mercy rather than in wrath.
Let us ask the questions and hold the debates about the mechanics of the Cross, but let us not pretend to have arrived at any absolute understanding of the mystery of God's love. It's the same arrogance that nailed Christ to the Cross in the first place which seeks to nail down our understanding of how the Cross works: once again Christ is crucified by his own people.
May God have mercy on us all.
Yours in Christ,
Pilgrim
Over the next few posts I'll be taking a close look at what the Bible says about the Cross and the atonement...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
It had to happen
Yes indeed, the mighty blogosphere beckoned, Pilgrim747 took off and here's where we landed: One Blog, One Lord. One Faith too, for that matter. And the One Baptism bit, whilst we're at it.
Truly astonishing: if it's this easy, how come I didn't get here sooner? No matter: it's late at night and I have to go... as they say, watch this space. So long, and thanks for all the fish. Oh drat... just given away who my favourite author is...
Truly astonishing: if it's this easy, how come I didn't get here sooner? No matter: it's late at night and I have to go... as they say, watch this space. So long, and thanks for all the fish. Oh drat... just given away who my favourite author is...
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