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Pastor Jeff Lilley

Jesus Links - Something to Think About - Jesus Links - 0 views

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    Just the ramblings of an old Pastor and Servant of God. Some exciting, some boring, some to get you thinking, some to make you laugh and some to make you cry. This is a place for me to get some stuff I am currently working on in focus. With a few reflections on life in general, occasional asking of your opinion in different projects and aspect of development of new studies and Ideas, and a few observations, stories and accounts on what I've been doing and observing on an hourly, daily, weekly or up to the minute reports.
Pastor Jeff Lilley

Bible Study - Romans - Chapter Four - Bible Study Romans - 0 views

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    The purpose of this Bible Study is to offer a Unique, Interesting and Fun way to study the Bible. Our goal is to provide everyone with a detailed, step by step, verse by verse Bible study. Understanding the Word of God are essential tools and are vital in our day to day struggles against the enemy.
J. B.

Euangelion: Love Wins 2 - 0 views

  • Have we somehow misunderstood or twisted the truth of what Jesus came to do? Well, this is a huge question that would require survey of Gospel accounts let alone a wide-ranging study of Gospel presentations today. Neither of which did Love Wins provide. So, it is certainly an overstatement.
  • many Christians sitting in our churches are secretly asking them, but afraid to raise them publicly.
  • I’d be shocked if we conducted a survey of people in our churches and not many of them were either pluralistic or universalists. There is the official teaching of the church and then there is what the Christians who sit in the pews believe. Often these are two very different things.
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  • Do you really mean to say that the central truth of Christianity is about getting out of hell and into heaven? Or, are you presenting this as Rob's view? If so, I'd have to disagree with you. Can you elaborate?
    • J. B.
       
      If we understand Hell as a place of separation from (right) relationship with God and a place of being subjected to the wrath of God, then isn't this at the very heart of the gospel? 
  • it is not accurate by any stretch to call orthodox a view that (1) tends toward universalism, (2) presents a “second-chance” theology, and (3) argues that nothing of what is central to the Gospel story is about “getting in”. This view can claim the label orthodoxy about as much as those found among the Gnostic Gospels. Sure there were so-called Christians used these texts and who thought of them as Christian Scripture, but they were on the very fringes of early Christianity representing only a very small minority.
  • Well we haven't defined heaven yet which is important in such a discussion, but yes I think a central aspect of Jesus teaching was getting into the soon coming kingdom which I equate with heaven.
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    The first (or second?) part of a review of Rob Bell's "Love Wins."
J. B.

Do not Ask for whom the Bell tolls…… A Chapter by Chapter review of 'Love Win... - 0 views

  • in the Preface there is the disclaimer— ‘nothing in this book has not been claimed before within the parameters of the broad stream of historic orthodox Christianity’  (p. x).   As it turns out, and as we shall see, this is actually not quite accurate, if one is referring to creedal or confessional or conciliar orthodoxy.  If one means no more that some church father somewhere at sometime said something like this before, whether we deem him to be making an off-handed comment or not, then perhaps this claim can stand.
  • What is entirely missing from this chapter is any sort of discussion of sin, sin as the alienating cause of human lostness,  sin as the reason why persons are not going to heaven.  Let me be clear that I think Rom. 1.18-32 is crucial to this question.  Unfortunately Rom. 1 is not dealt with in this first chapter and what texts he does cite he does not treat in any detail.  Rather Rob sort of flits from one text to the next like a butterfly hoping to drain the tiny bit of nectar in each flower.
  • people are not condemned to hell or judgment for what they have never heard about God.   What Romans 1 says is that the reality of God and God’s power is evident in all of creation, and people are judged for what they do with the light about God that they have indeed received.  What Paul says they do is that while they know God exists and is powerful, they refuse to acknowledge God,  the most primal sin of all. In other words,  most of the questions Rob raises in Chapter One are entirely irrelevant.     People do not go to Hell (whether in a handbasket or by some other means of conveyance)  due to ignorance of God or of Christ. 
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  • Rob wants to suggest that a just or righteous or holy or judging God is somehow not good news. Tell that to the oppressed Christians in North Korea.   Tell that to the ordinary citizens of Libya longing to be set free from a wicked and brutal dictator.  Tell that to the Jews during the Holocaust in WWII.   In a sin-soaked world,  Good News involves both redemption and judgment, both vindication and liberation, both holiness and love.    The God of the Bible is holy love.  Not love without holiness which would fail to deal with the cancer called sin.  And not holiness without love, for if that was the way God related to us all— no one could stand.     The Good News of and about Jesus Christ, who will be the final judge of the world, is that justice, mercy and grace are all a part of this story.
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    The first of an eight part review of Rob Bell's book "Love Wins." By Ben Witherington III
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