All Things Seen & Unseen

'Then the preacher said the most provocative words that church congregations need to hear and act on today. The most significant piece of 'furniture' or fitting in this building are :   the doors through which you will all leave at the end of this service and go out into the world.' I ended with the above words in my last post. I'm a bit crabby at the moment. Yes, I know, good Christians are not supposed to get irritable , fractious , fretful , cross , petulant , pettish , crabbed , crotchety , cantankerous , disagreeable , miserable , morose , peppery ,  edgy , impatient , querulous ; etc but I am.  I think my crabbiness has to do with the fact that the visible, institutional church doesn't get it! But then I have to remember that for many years I didn't get it either until a rude, Dutchman woke me up out of my dogmatic slumber.  So I have nothing to boast about. None of us does. The church is in such a parlous condition in Australia that none...

The revising of dispensationalism we talked about in the last post in turn gave way to a th ird form of dispensationalism wh ich began in the 1980s called progressive dispensationalism (PD).  One of the major features of this new dispensationalism was that its adherents began to subject one of C. C. Ryrie's defining criteria -literal interpretation- to closer examination and found it wanting. At the same time, dialogue took place between some dispensationalists and nondispensational 1 theologians which brought about more understanding and greater unity between the two opposing groups. The PD group believes that God has one plan of salvation. T hat plan is being unfold ed through a series of different ad ministrations (dispensations) but they emphasise the unity of the dispensations.  However, the PD group still hold s to the main dispensational tenet that Israel and the Church are distinct ; nevertheless, they also h o ld that both receive blessings through the A brahamic...

Before we outline a development in the classical dispensationalism of Darby, Scofield and others, I invite readers to look at Charles C Ryrie (b.1925) in a 7-minute You Tube interview explaining dispensationalism.  Ryrie's teaching in the video is clear and easy to follow even if basic; and importantly, his work in 1965 led to a revised dispensationalism taking form. Ryrie (1965, 1995) laid down three essential characteristics unique to dispensationalism 1 in his printed work: first, a consistent difference being maintained between the Church and Israel; second, the adherence to 'literalism' or a 'plain' reading of scripture (as opposed to allegorical or 'spiritual' readings); and third, more controversially 1 , the belief that God's primary intention in creation was His own glory (as opposed to man's salvation).  But in this process some notable differences between the Darby-Scofield view and mid-20th century views emerged. For whereas in tra...

The People of God as One People These posts in this series are an att empt to deal with some of the complicated issues s urrounding the identity of the people of God as the one p eople of God . They examine how the Church and cultural Israel are related within the b roader scope of the s everal types of eschatology (end-time stud y ). For t he complexity of the issues has led to a multiplic ity of differing viewpoints that can be confusing without some road map : using some type of classification of views is one way to create order in an otherwise t angled scene.  

* The denomination that I am a part of seems wedded to the idea that full-time ministers of Christ only exist within the congregational structure. Therefore, it clearly implies that all the work done by the 'laity' (an abominable term btw) is outside the ambit of the Body of Christ. Just to make myself clear: I am NOT talking about involving the non-ordained 'laity' in congregational work such as song-leading, worship-leading, taking up the collection or dispensing the elements for Holy Communion. All of these tasks need to be done but the 'laity' spends most of its time outside the confines of the congregation.

I was conf ronted 30 years ago with a different form of the message cont ained in this book by James Thwaites (a Pentecostal), and it still faces me today. Some book titles are arresting and The Church Beyond The Congregation is one of th ese. However , it is more than just arresting because it is very easy to misunderstand what the book is proposing by simply interpreting its title within our normal categories. It's a creational given that we do this and it's das hed difficult to modify or abandon our settled categ ories. I could start by asking, what is the Church? Su ch a simple que stion but it is easy to get the answer wrong according to New Testament (NT) terms. The normal understanding of the Church is that it is only the institutional structure, the congregation that Sunday-by-Sunday meets to hear the scriptures read, to break bread, to pray and fellowship (Act 2.42). If you would like a snap shot of this regular view, Google 'the Body of Christ...

I am an evangelical looking for an Anglican congregation which still values the Prayer Book (PB). Australian Anglicans have three major prayer books dated: 1662 ( Book of Common Prayer ), 1978 and 1995 but it's hard to find evangelical congregations which use the PB. Some will use tiny bits out of the PB but it's hard to describe their liturgy as dependent on the Anglican Tradition; what is presented could equally be found in any non-conformist denomination. Usually members of such churches will boast about this absence of Anglican liturgy as if this is a good thing. (I suppose it can be if the formal liturgy has become lifeless and routinised but this process can happen within non-conformity too.) Last Sunday I finally found an evangelical Anglican church where good expository preaching was given and the PB liturgy was used. My, it was good! I had almost given up hope. The church is the Church of St Edward the Confessor in Blackburn South, Melbourne, Australia. I...