All Things Seen & Unseen

It may be thought that debates about what constitutes 'salvation' are just arguments for theologians in academia. However, as someone has rightly said, 'ideas have legs'. That is, ideas don't just swan around in some academic ether but become embodied in preachers' hearts and minds, and in words and actions. Hence, members of congregations become affected. Dispensationalism And Salvation Dispensation alism has been defined in p osts on my One People Of God blog 1 as a view taken of many Bible issues on a radical theological distinction between Israel and the Church. In short, two people of God exist: one earthly, Israel; and one heavenly, the Church.

An understanding of the People of God as a priesthood of all believers derives from the New Testament.  In 1 Peter 2.9-10 it says that C 1 hurch is a 'chosen race' (ASV), 'a holy nation, a royal priesthood and a peculiar [a people who are his possession and therefore, a special] people'. 2   In short, the Body 1 of Christ is a 'priesthood of believers' (see also Rev 1.6, 5.10, 20.6).

Cloudstreet is an elaborate epic poem with the grand interwoven themes: death, life and the life hereafter;  love, tragedy, evil, grace, God, luck, time and times, the extraordinary, chance, water and sky. This Australian book's action takes place between 1943, towards the end of WW2 up to the mid-1960s. The central issue of cloudstreet [spelled in lowercase] is a literary examination of the formation and continuance of family and identity. Without the 'we' of one's family, the 'I' cannot exist authentically. Cloudstreet is a double-storey house in poor repair at No. 1, Cloud Street in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It becomes home to two working-class families in needing repair: the house owners, the Pickles (Sam and Dolly: Rose, Ted and Chub) believe in luck and get mainly the bad; and the tenants, the Lambs (Lester and Oriel: the girls, Hattie, Elaine, Red and the boys, Quick, Fish, and Lon) who once believed in God but have lost faith in him, and no...

We've been watching a DVD series, South Riding 1 , and it's got the usual Christian character who is held up for ridicule. He is judged harshly because he is a hypocrite. The character is a married, Methodist lay preacher -always fertile soil for Christophobia- who is committing adultery with a seductive, decepti ve Delilah. He is conscience stricken about what he is doing but she can always bend him to her wishes.