The Weekly Newsletter of Christianity Today International
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I find Jesus a difficult person to understand. He calls his boldest disciple Satan. He furiously cleanses the temple. He tells ambiguous parables that confuse even his closest followers. Jesus attracts huge crowds only to perplex them by telling them to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
After a lifetime of sermons, I have yet to understand Jesus, and I don't expect to anytime soon. So, it's easy for me to turn to Paul, who spells out doctrine and defines the Christian life. "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." Somehow, I find that an easier proposition. Though Paul's example is hard to follow—he was martyred after all—it's less confusing than Christ's life.
But even Paul stirs controversy. In the current issue of CT, author Simon Gathercole evaluates an academic trend that proposes a "new perspective" of the apostle. This new look proposes that the Reformers, like Martin Luther and John Calvin, drastically misread what Paul meant regarding justification by faith. It's an important trend; these ideas are likely to influence the sermons you hear.
Christian faith may be simple, but the Christian life is challenging, as both Jesus and Paul testify.
Christianity Today International has 11 magazines filled with insightful and inspiring articles. Each week the editors pick several they think you'll enjoy and place them in the right-hand column of this newsletter. We hope you'll scan the titles and find a few that will interest you.
Blessings,
Rob Moll, Associate Editor
Christianity Today Magazine
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 What Did Paul Really Mean?
'New perspective' scholars argue that we need, well, a new perspective on justification by faith.
by Simon Gathercole
Pick up any recent Bible commentary or theology textbook, and you will read about something called the "new perspective on Paul." Seminaries have buzzed for decades about how they might apply to Paul the new light shed on Judaism. Some advocates of the new perspective conclude that the Reformers have led Protestants to misunderstand the all-important doctrine of justification. Finish this article.
Also:Further Reading on the New Perspective
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My husband and I teach children's church. I was telling the boys and girls, ranging in age from four to eleven, that we all are born in sin, but by grace are saved through faith. One of the younger girls first looked puzzled, then said quite seriously, "I wasn't born in sin. I was born in November."
—Peggy Jones
Marion, Virginia
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The Tithing Challenge
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Back-to-School Block Party
For many kids, August means stocking up for school. But school supplies are not always affordable for the lower-income black community in the heart of Oklahoma City.
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Head Joins the Body
Ex-Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch recounts his self-destructive rise to stardom, and the major changes in his life since praying to God for deliverance.
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Joel Rosenberg's Epicenter now a direct-to-video documentary, Exorcism director on Chesterton; The Ten's crude commandments; and more.
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