10 Theological Reflections on Genesis 1:1

There can be few more controversial chapters in the Bible than Genesis 1. As we look at it we must remember that it is above all a theological explanation the origins of the world. So I want to offer 10 theological reflections on the chapter.

1. God is eternal- existing outside time
2. In the beginning there is nothing except God- there is other rival or competing force. Therefore everything else that is has been created.
3. God created all things- He is eternal, matter is not.
4. God exists in Trinity- it offers a pre-trintitarian vision of God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit
5. God is separate from the world that He has created.
6. God created by simple fiat- His word is powerful
7. Creation is orderly- it is not random and chaotic
8. There is nothing that exists outside of God that He has not created
9. God is all that is real since He alone exists outside creation
10. There is only one true God- the God revealed in Genesis 1

Rowan Williams Exegetical Soft-Shoe Shuffle

I once read that Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, had a problem being understood. The problem was that his thought is so profound that it confuses those of us with lesser intellects.
I’ve just read his comments made to Toronto theological students regarding Paul’s comments on homosexuality in Romans 1. It seems that according to Williams, the apostle Paul has the same communication problem. What seems plain in Romans 1 to the ordinary reader is in fact just plain confusing. Seemingly when Paul writes about men being filled with ‘shameful lust’, ‘committing indecent acts with one another’ and being guilty of ‘perversion’ he was not condemning homosexuality. He is according to Williams not making a primary point about homosexuality but about self-righteousness. Instead he was urging Christians not to judge one another. At the same time Williams agrees that Paul and his readers regarded homosexuality as immoral and being so on the same basis as idolatry.
Williams argument that homosexuality is not condemned and condemned at the same time is just too profound for me! I think I’ll stick with Paul who wrote, ‘I did not come to you with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed the wisdom of God.’ Unless of course I’ve misunderstood this as well.

Jonathan Edwards on Hell

Jonathan Edwards is often caricatured as being all fire and brimstone. This is usually based on his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of Angry God. Many have probably heard the title but few have read the sermon. Of course Edwards’ great crime in the eyes of 21st century man is not really his powerful and vivid preaching on hell but that he had the temerity to mention hell at all. If there is a hell nobody today wants to talk about it.

Edwards logic was rather different. If there was a hell people needed to be warned about it- that was the loving thing to do he said when he preached on the subject at his daughter Jerusha’s funeral. That he preached such vivid sermons on the subject was itself part of the warning. For he realised that people needed not a notional idea of hell but to recognise it in all its imminent and eternal fury. For as he remarked in another less well-known sermon, you could enter hell in an instant and once there, you are there forever.

He doth Protest too much

I confess I have not read too much Dawkins. There is little real engagement with ideas. Despite the scientific facade his approach to the idea of God has really too much of the ‘yah boo’ about it. In an article in the the Times newspaper he seeks to defend himself against certain key criticisms. In the course of the article he makes the rather strange comment “If subtle, nuanced religion predominated, the world would be a better place, and I would have written a different book.” What an unusual comment for a man arguing that God is a delusion. Suddenly his argument has swung from being about God to being about religious fundamentalism. It becomes ever clearer, as the article reveals in several places, that Dawkins real problem is not a theological one but a cultural one. Where his rant- for that is mostly what it is- is against the ranters.
Dawkins does not like to deal with detailed theological ideas- much harder work than ranting I suppose. if he did he would realise that at the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that since God is the centre of the universe- not man- and that since man finds his happiness in God, those who believe in God are right to be passionate. Furthermore that that passion arises not from a state of the jury always being out but from real convictions about the living God
Read Dawkins article at

Off the Beaten Track

I must admit Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller would not be my usual fare but it was recommended to me so I picked up a copy. It was at once infuriating- he has terribly self-consciously hip style of writing; puzzling- at times he left me wondering what exactly he viewed as the essence of the Christian faith; funny- the Don Rabbit and Sexy Carrot cartoon is worth the entrance fee alone; and insightful- both in terms of the Christian faith and (post) modern culture. If you read it you will no doubt enjoy it. But it requires some discernment with regard to Don’s message. I suspect we learn more about Don Miller from the book than we do about the Christian faith.

A Must Read for Evangelicals

Above all Earthly Pow’rs is the fourth part of David Wells ‘trilogy’ examining contemporary evangelicalism in North America. I read the first two volumes- which were okay- and skipped the third (a verdict on the first two?) This however is a must read. It is an extremely powerful book(no pun intended!). Its great strength is to show how we have beocme immersed in our culture and how that culture has shaped us. Whilst it is directed primarily towards North America it has much to say to us on this side of the Atlantic where we catch cold every time American evangelicalism sneezes. Wells has his critics- who doesn’t?- but this really is a must read. Not least because of Wells own passionate affirmation of the gospel.

More Twaddle from an Atheist

I’ve just read Shirley Dent’s article in the Guardian The Bible:Unbelievably Good In it Dent an atheist states ‘The fact that they are all untrue should not deter us from remembering the benefits of reading the religious texts at the heart of our cultures.’ Is she trying to tell us that there is not one iota of truth in the Bible- factually, historically, culturally? So what is the value of the Bible according to Dent? It is so that we can understand a cultural heritage that is rooted in the book. If Dent is correct then surely we need to understand what it was that inspired men like Bunyan to root their work in the Bible. It was a deep conviction not simply that the Bible was a cultural source but that it is true.

A Premature Forecast?

Like many I enjoy Alister McGrath’s books with their lucid prose. He has it seems a simple way of putting across otherwise complex ideas. His book The Twilight of Atheism is no different as he skilfully exposes the soft underbelly of atheism. However I have 3 reservations about the book.

1. I wonder does his simplicty sometimes descend into over-simplification. Is atheism really the spent force he suggests? Whilst I agree with much of his analysis I am not convinced that atheism is just as outmoded at this point in time as he suggests. Perhaps more late afternoon than twilight?

2.A few of his views descend into caricature e.g. on puritanism and the French revolution, which leaves me wary of how he dismisses in cavalier fashion some of the ideas I am not as familiar with.

3. As he does in his book Bridge-Building I think he once again rather too glibly dismisses the Reformed response to these questions. And once again in doing so I think he somewhat misrepresents the Reformed postion.

On the whole a good read but the nagging doubts are there.

Coming to a Church Near You

Until I read Don Carson’s book ‘Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church’(Zondervan,2005) I was not aware of the emergent church as a phenomenon. As I read the book however I realised that whilst I knew nothing of the emergent church as a movement I was familiar with many of its trappings and how they were becoming part of the evangelical scene- a reaction against confessional evangelicalism, an emphasis on evangelism as storytelling, a greater emphasis on symbols in the church, an emphasis on church as a holistic experience, not to mention the reworking of the atonement by Steve Chalke and the language ‘belonging before believing’ etc.
Carson provides a powerful critique of the movement whilst acknowledging some of its strengths. Even if like me you have not been conscious of the emergent church as a movement this book is well worth reading. It is worth reading because the trends that it has set in motion will undoubtedly impact our churches in this day of ecclesiastical meltdown. And it will help us see clearly where some trends which appear worthwhile are in fact heading. Not least it helps give a clear vision of the significance of maintaining the distinctives of historic evangelicalism.

Sprurgeon, Mutiny and National Repentance

This year marks the 150 anniversary of the Indian Mutiny/Rising/First War of Independence- take your pick. It was to say the least an horrific affair with terrible atrocities carried out by both sides. One of the striking things about the event was at its height Queen Victoria called for a public day of fast, humiliation and prayer. On that date CH Spurgeon delivered a sermon to 24,000 people at Crystal Palace, that great monument to Victorian progress. There are of course a number of things striking about Spurgeon’s sermon. Notably his views of colonialism which are, as one would expect, very much of his time.
But perhaps the most striking thing is his idea of participating in a day of national repentance. For who could imagine such a thing happening today? Who could imagine 24,000 people gathering to hear a man preach on a call to national repentance as he highlights public vice in all parts of society? Yet only 150 years ago there was that widespread recognition that God does not deal with whole nations calling them to repentance. As Spurgeon declared, ‘there are such things as national judgements, national chastisements, for national sins- great blows form the rod of God which every wise man must acknowledge to be, either a punishment of sin committed, or a monition to warn us to the consequences of sin, leading us by God’s grace to humiliate ourselves, and repent of our sin.’
How often do we think of what God is saying to our nation today as He gives us over to the consequences of sin that is not only tolerated in our midst but celebrated?
There will undoubtedly be much talk about the events of the mutiny in the coming months. We may even go through the charade of offering a politically correct apology on behalf of our nation- for the sins our forefathers committed. But we will not take time to heed the lessons that national catastrophes ought to call us to examine our nation before God and to repent of our sin.
You can read Spurgeon’s sermon at www.spurgeon.org