Friday’s with Fee – The crucial role of the Spirit

Gordon Fee places a high emphasis on the Crucial role of the Holy Spirit in the theology of Paul.

All of this to say, then, that any understanding of Paul that does not recognize the crucial role of the Spirit in his theology quite misses Paul’s own concerns and emphases…My ultimate concern, for myself and for the contemporary church, is to persuade that we would do well to return to our biblical roots on this matter, if the church is going to count for anything at all in the new millennium that lies just around the corner. – Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, pg 13

New Books

Well I did it again and went out and purchased some more books.

God’s Empowering Presence:
The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul
By Gordon D. Fee

Amazon Sales Rank: #88339 in Books
Published on: 1994-07-01
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
992 pages

The First Epistle to the Corinthians
(The New International Commentary on the New Testament)
By Gordon Fee

Amazon Sales Rank: #88339 in Books
Published on: 1994-07-01
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
992 pages

The Holy Spirit:
A Pentecostal Perspective
By Anthony D. Palma

Amazon Sales Rank: #73448 in Books
Published on: 2001-08
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
303 pages

This was a gift by my friend Jerome Weymouth.

I am doing a whole new study on the Holy Spirit and the Charismata.  I am also reading the following books from non-Pentecostal/Charismatics “The Holy Spirit Contours of Christian Theology By Sinclair B. Ferguson”, and “He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit by Graham A. Cole”

NLTSB – will they give me one to review?

After waiting for months for the ESVSB to arrive I must say that I am at best ok with it.  I was afraid that it was going to take a Calvinist theological approach to it’s doctrinal pages, and commentaries.  Although I was not certain, but fairly sure that they would.  Well no surprises, when I started reading that was the case.  I do applaud them for their efforts, and for those that are Calvinist I am sure you will love it.

I cannot recommend it to anyone at my church since we do not hold to a Calvinist position.  I suppose to a mature Christian I can, but I doubt that I would.  I would be more incline to recommend the NLTSB, if I had one to review.

ESVSB is friendly towards Charismatics, but honestly if I wanted a study bible that had a  Charaistmaics/Pentecostals position I would have purchased another one.  But that is my point, I do not want a study bible that has a particular theological bent.  I already own enough of those, and don’t find them useful.

Now I understand that the NLTSB has chosen to not have a theological bent towards any camp, although I have read a few reviews that show that it may have a few here and there, but not enough to label it towards any particular theological postion.  What I do like about the ESVSB is the on-line version.  However, the NLTSB does have an on-line version as well, and I would rather invest my time with them.

Now I wonder if NLT is still sending out copies to review.  Since I am not committed to the ESVSB, and hope to find something better and less theologically in your face, maybe the NLT will become my study bible.  Choices, choices, choices.  Maybe Laura Bartlett will find it in her heart to send me a review copy.

Oh well if left to spend my own money, and I have to choose I might just invest in a high quailty TNIV fine leather reference bible.

Great Reviews to read:

• ESVSB by Nick Norelli – 3 stars
• NLTSB by Nick Norelli – 4 stars “I can honestly say that this is the best study Bible I own” – NN

I don’t understand – say what?

I was reading a post over at Adrian Warnock, and he reposted this statement.  I am unclear as to what is being said.  Is a charge being made that Arminians deny that there is “none righteous no not one”?  Is good ole’ Dr. Packer saying that Arminians don’t beleive in total depravity?  Can someone help me  understand what charge is being made by this statement if any?

adrianwarnock.com: One Point Calvinism: “This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the “five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all,”  – J. I. Packer

That is not Classical Arminian teaching as I understand it.  It sounds more like the myth’s that are propagated by the uninformed.  It is sad to see a brillent mind like Packer not be able to properly understand what Jacob Ariminus wrote.

In Christ Books Sale

During the week of October 27th (Mon.) thru. November 1st (Sat.) In Christ Books will have over 95% of all the products in the store discounted from 35% to 40% from the list price (used books discounted 20%).

Joon, did get back to me and the discounts will be applicable to on-line purchases as well, just be sure to follow these instructions:

1. Just make normal purchase on-line, but make sure to put “Fall Sale” in comment section.  Don’t worry we will not charge your credit card at this point.
2. We will contact you by email with adjusted prices and stock availability.
3. If you have changes to be made, we can do it. With your final approval, we charge your credit card accordingly.

That’s it.

Also remember the products you see on our web is not complete list of what we carry. We have a lot more in our physical store. So we encourage you to stop by if possible, or give them a call.

BlogRoll Update

I have added a few more updates to my blogroll, like the NLT and ESV blog.  But what I really want to point out is the new blog by Joon Yi, owner of In Christ Books.

This book store is near my home and I often purchase books from his store.  Most of the time his prices are close enough to Amazon or Christianbooks.com.  I do believe in supporting local businesses, but this book store is not your average Christian devotional book store.  It’s a heavy hitter, and he stocks most of the books one is looking for.  You know how you think about buying a book, but not sure about it’s content, well that’s the great thing about this book store I can go there and really read and skim through some chapters to see if I really want this book or not.  He does cater to BIOLA University, so that is the reason he is well stocked.

On his blog he is posting overviews of various books, and I would think that if one were to ask him further questions I would hope that he would respond.  If he doesn’t let me know and next time I am at his store I will let him know.

Also During the week of October 27th (Mon.) thru. November 1st (Sat.) Over 95% of all the products in the store will be discounted 35% to 40% from the list price (used books discounted 20%).  I don’t know if this will apply over Internet purchases, I’ll ask him over at his blog.

Theological Word of the Week

imago dei

Lat. “image of God”

The theological concept that man uniquely represents the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27). It is debated exactly what characteristics are unique to man. The options are many: personality, eternality, relationality, volitionality, rationality, spirituality, morality, dominionality. The best option seems to be that man possesses all these qualities to a greater degree than does the rest of creation. According to the Christian worldview, the imago dei was marred at the fall, but not destroyed. Therefore, all people still represent God’s image and have dignity as his image bearers (Gen. 9:6; Jam. 3:8-9).

Ever wonder who is blogging the most?

I sometime wonder who is posting the most out of all the blogs that read on a regular basis.  I just started using Google Reader to manage all of the blogs, and sites that I visit daily.  One of the tools is the ability to get an average of how often one post at their blog.  Here are the top Ten Bloggers that I read:

1. Rightly Dividing the Word – 24.3 posts per week
2. New Leaven 16.1 posts per week 
3. Parchment & Pen – 7.9 posts per week
4. Ben Witherington III – 6.8 posts per week
5. Sunestauromai – 6.3 posts per week
6. Scripture Zealot – 5.6 posts per week
7. Theologer – 5.6 posts per week
8. Koinonia – 5.1 posts per wek
9. He is Sufficient – 4.4 posts per week
10. The Voice of Stefan – 4.0 posts per wek

Regarding the top 3, there was no suprises there,  they keep me busy.  I average 3.7 posts per week

“Tongues” or “Unknown languages” in 1 Cor 12-14?

I was pleased to read this post at the NLT blog.  I was pleased because of their consideration of how the Greek word glossa may be translated into English.  It appears that the NLT translators spent a great deal of time working on this.  I love reading the CSB translation, but being a Pentecostal I always felt that it was misleading, or trying to force a particular position in it’s translation.  I am not a Greek scholar by any means, but it is clear from the research that I have done that glossa can be translated as “Tongues” or “Unknown languages”.  In the CSB there are no footnotes to indicate this.

NLT has chosen to allow the context to dictate how it was translated.  I really appreciate what Mark Taylor said in regards to this:

So in the end we decided to use both terms. This allows the reader to get the sense that Paul might have been referring to either or both of these meanings. We were apprehensive about using the word “tongues,” because it is a technical term understood only by readers well versed in biblical teaching. On the other hand, it is the term used in Pentecostal churches to refer to the contemporary phenomenon of “speaking in tongues.” So we used both “tongues” and “unknown languages” in order to provide the broadest sense of the meaning of the passage. – Mark Taylor NLT Blog

Theological Word of the Week

Monarchianism

Greek mono “one” + arche “ruler”

Monarchianism represents a type of teaching in the early Church which sought to preserve the uniqueness of the rulership of God through the preservation of an extreme monotheism and the essential denial of a plurality within the Godhead (i.e. the Trinity). There were two main types of monarchianism: 1) The Adoptionists or Dynamic Monarchians believed that Christ was not truly God in essence, but became God sometime during his life or at the resurrection. 2) The Patripassionists or Modalistic Monarchians (modalists) believed that God was one who who revealed himself in different ways or modes. Sometimes he would be the Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. To the modalist, God is not three persons, but one person who wears three different masks. Both types of Monarchianism was condemned in the early church since it did not recognize the plurality within the Godhead and therefore denied the Trinity. Modern day modalists are represented by those of the Oneness traditions.