Is Bart Ehrman Right When He Says Ephesians And Colossians Were Forged?

https://isjesusalive.com/were-ephesians-and-colossians-forged/

Does the New Testament Really Have a Unifying Centre? Maybe, Maybe Not!

One of the problems with coming up with a New Testament Theology is the many diversities within the New Testament, this poses a genuine problem for interpreters who are trying to identify a theological core in the New Testament, but the problem is not insurmountable.

To restate the problem, the differences across the New Testament collection are well rehearsed: Paul versus the Jerusalem church, the Synoptics versus John, the Lucan Paul and versus the Paul of the epistles, John the Elder vs the docetists and secessionists, and then in the second century the proto-orthodox church versus the Valentinians, Marcionites, and Ebionites. Concrete examples of this diversity and divergence in the New Testament are not hard to find. Although I am convinced that one can easily reconcile James’ and Paul’s account of “faith” and “works,”[1] nonetheless, one will have to admit that they differ markedly over the application of Gen 15:6 to Christ-believers. Whereas James incorporates a standard Jewish interpretive strategy of reading Gen 15:6 in light of Gen 22:9-18 (see 1 Macc 2:52), this is an approach that Paul explicitly rejects in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 whereby Paul disallows any attempt to read Abraham’s subsequent act of obedience back into Gen 15:6 or otherwise it would make salvation based on works and not grace. Similar disparities emerge if we look at different views on food sacrificed to idols in the New Testament. The Jerusalem council (Acts 15:28-29) and words of the risen Jesus according to John the Seer (Rev 2:14, 20) expressly forbid eating food sacrificed to idols, whereas Paul treats it purely as a matter of personal conscience (1 Cor 8:1-13; 10:25-33; Rom 14:15-23). This arguably signifies different strategies for negotiating the contamination of idolatry even if everyone agreed that idolatry should be avoided. It is diversities such as these – as well as genre, perspective, situation, intertextuality, and rhetoric – that also pose a serious challenge to identifying a theology nucleus or a type of theological centre to the New Testament. How does one find a theological centre in diverse and sometimes disparate materials? Afterall, what is prominent in Paul might be peripheral to Peter. What is affirmed in Paul and Luke-Acts (Christians can live peaceably under the aegis of the Roman empire) might be repudiated in the Apocalypse of John (Christians long for the empire to be burned to the ground). What is judged to be the central message of the New Testament might not even appear in the theology of the epistle of Jude. For many scholars, a New Testament theology is merely the chronicle of a cacophony of irreconcilable conflicting interpretations and plays for power.[2] To be honest, I think it is clear that trying to curate the New Testament into a tidy and timeless theology with a homogenous core is deeply problematic because of the New Testament’s inherent diversities, the on-going and often unresolved debates taking place, and even the developments of views held by New Testament authors.

Continue: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2019/11/does-the-new-testament-really-have-a-unifying-centre-maybe-maybe-not/

12 Vital Reasons Each Of Us Should Be Part Of A Church

Do you really need to be involved in a church for God’s word?

Can’t believers just worship Jesus on their own? Why do we need to be involved in “organized religion?” It seems like a growing trend that many Christians don’t believe they need to be part of a church.

Yes, we can and should worship and love Jesus individually. But we should also worship, pursue God’s word and love him with others. In fact, it is essential and vital to our spiritual lives and health as believers.

More: https://churchleaders.com/smallgroups/small-group-articles/366660-12-vital-reasons-each-of-us-should-be-part-of-a-church.htm

6 Ways to Reach Out to Someone With Depression

https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/175197-anne-marie-miller-ways-to-reach-out-to-someone-with-depression.html

Do You Have a Heart of Gratitude?

https://alightbreaksthrough.org/do-you-have-a-heart-of-gratitude/

The Prologue of John’s Gospel

A Broadcast with R.C. Sproul

The gospel of John begins with an exalted view of Christ as the divine Logos, the Word of God. Today, R.C. Sproul explores the significance of the titles attributed to Jesus in these opening verses.

LISTEN NOW

Why the Christian Life Is a Call to Community

By Colleen Chao

I’ll never forget Miss Moss, with her Coke-bottle glasses and a disability that left her slow and kind. She loved writing notes of encouragement even though her handwriting was chicken-scratchy and sloped down the page.

And Earl Roland. He was a hunched old man who loved to pray. In the absence of an acceptable singing voice, he’d mastered the art of whistling, and he whistled loud and strong through the hymns we sang in church. So to honor him we whistled “A Mighty Fortress” at his memorial service.

I remember little old women in polyester who fawned over me, and the wrinkled man in a wheelchair who had a big black Bible and said, “But God!” (Because he knew stuff the rest of us didn’t yet understand.)

But it wasn’t just the old and the weak that made a strong impression on me.Roland and Naomi were seminary students in their late 20s when I was a teen. They never missed an opportunity to encourage me. When I graduated from high school and no one else my age was left at church, they invited me to join their young married small group. Roland and Naomi wanted children, but their arms remained empty. I watched them navigate barrenness with quiet trust, and it changed me.

More: https://churchleaders.com/smallgroups/small-group-articles/366621-why-the-christian-life-is-a-call-to-community.html

The Opportunity of Gratitude

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/victoriousliving/2019/11/the-opportunity-of-gratitude/

Magnify The Joy: Hope and Gratitude In the Midst of Illness

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/irreverin/2019/11/magnify-the-joy-hope-and-gratitude-in-the-midst-of-illness/

Gratitude For Blessings Weakens the Curses Of Depressing News

Training people to view their own life positively is increasingly important, especially because many people form all kinds of negative attitudes about life based on the news media’s constant emphasis on all the world’s evils and tragedies.

It is obvious that we all will suffer the loss of people we love to the inevitability of death. This is painful and sorrowful. Everyone also fears having a serious illness and their own eventual death. Today, fears, depression, anxiety, and frustration, create misery for an increasing number of people.

One way of influencing people to think positively about their lives is to teach them the importance of saying blessings for the many things they experience in their ordinary daily and weekly life, and at occasional extraordinary times.

Frequently saying daily blessings helps make people grateful for all the good things we take for granted. Gratitude expressed to God and to other people, for their daily activities helps us create positive awarenesses and outcomes for ourselves.

Read more: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jewishvoices/2019/11/gratitude-for-blessings-weakens-the-curses-of-depressing-news/