[HT: David Wood]
Category Archives: Interviews
Lambeth 2008: A Conversation
For all of you interested in knowing about what happened at the Anglican 10 year meeting last month, please watch this video from August 1st where the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, Greg Venables, is interviewed about the happenings at Lambeth in July 2008.
N.T. Wright on the Colbert Report
This is a good interview on Wright’s latest book, Surprised by Hope. I would encourage everyone to buy it and read it if they want to get a better understanding of the Biblical teaching on Heaven and the New Creation. Enjoy the interview from last night’s report.
Master Christian Apologist: Stephen Colbert
This is an awesome example of GOOD Christian Apologetics being applied against an agnostic scholar (Bart Ehrman). The best part about it is the fact that it is Stephen Colbert telling Bart Ehrman that an agnostic is just an atheist without balls! 🙂
Here it is… Enjoy! Please comment and share your thoughts and reactions.
Stephen Colbert hands a monkey plate to Ken Miller
Notice the dichotomy that Miller brings to the forefront by claiming the Bible is a spiritual document and therefore cannot address scientific ideas. This may seem true at first glance, but it is only a bad ploy that many evolutionists use to snuff out the Bible’s claims about the creation account. It is true that the Bible is not a sciencetific document and that the Bible is not trying to give scientific details about the creation. BUT, please note the BUT…
The Bible is an historical document. This is very important for people to understand. If we do not ackowledge that the Bible records accurate historical material about the creation account, then where does that leave us with the rest of the 66 books of the Bible? You don’t have to be a scienctist to record the fact that God made the world in 6 days… I mean, come on people!
On the point of creation/evolution, the Bible has much to say about this in terms of the historical record. Both modern evolution and Biblical creationism are addressing the issue of history and where man came from. Therefore, on that point, the two must either agree or one of the two be proven wrong and thus a lie.
If evolution is true, then man is not made in God’s image. If evolution is true, then we humans are not special creatures made to rule the creation by reflecting God’s glory into it.
Here’s the video:
[HT: Christendom]
Midlands Bible College Interviews Dr. Darrell Bock
I would like to point everyone to a very interesting and informative interview with Dr. Darrell Bock that was recently conducted by Midlands Bible College. He discusses a variety of topics and it is very enjoyable to read. Here is an excerpt:
A short while ago, you wrote widely on matters relating to the DaVinci Code. Is this subject something that you intend to keep at the top of your agenda?
Well, not the DaVinci Code, but I do plan to keep writing in areas where the culture interacts with the Jesus and the Bible. There are so many crazy ideas out there. I distinguish between Christianity, where Jesus is unique and Messiah versus Jesusanity, where Jesus is just a great religious teacher but he is not Messiah nor unique. I will continue to write about the difference and the issues tied to that discussion.
What impact, long-term, do you think the DaVinci Code and similar works will have on the general public perception of the historical Jesus? In other words, do you think the negative effect of these works will be short lived?
It actually is that the DaVinci Code reflects issues that have been in the public square and now, popularized, reflect how many people are coming to see Christianity as a political creation of Constantine that has little, if anything, to do with the historical Jesus. Now Constantine did have a tremendous impact on Christianity, but the theology of the church long predates him as does the church’s view of Jesus, as that is rooted in the experience of the disciples and Jesus’ own teaching. But fighting the impression made by this other story that now shows up in novels and TV specials on Jesus and Christianity is going to be an ongoing task for the church—and many in the church have no idea how to respond to such claims. They sense these alternative ideas are wrong but do not know what to say when “experts” or books say otherwise. Thus the church needs to do a better job of instructing its own on such idea.
For Christians who want to know more about this, there any other books or resources that he would recommend?
There are dozens of books in the DaVinci Code. However there are very few on the early history of Christianity that deal with these issues. Among those that exist are my The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth behind Alternative Christianities; Craig Evans’ Fabricating Jesus; Dan Wallace and two others have Reinventing Jesus. My blog at www.bible.org/bock also discusses these issues now and again. (Read More…)
Interviews worth reading
Mark Dever interviews Kent Hughes about life and preaching.
R.C. Sproul interviews Ben Stein about his new documentary on intolerance toward intelligent design.
Al Mohler interviews Eric Redmond about Jeremiah Wright and Black Liberation Theology.
See also the partial transcript and Rev. Redmond’s pre-primer on the issue.
Monergism interviews Tim Keller about apologetics and his new book.
Adam Cheung interviews Tom Schreiner about his forthcoming book, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ.
Justin Taylor interviews Craig Blomberg about The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.
Westminster Bookstore interviews John Muether about his new biography of Cornelius Van Til.
[HT: JT]
Bishop bucks views of heaven: NT Wright Interview at Tennessean.com
N.T. Wright’s recent visit to Nashville, TN, included an interview with the Tennessean. It includes some very interesting comments regarding hell and the final state of those who reject God’s Glory and Gospel. While I do not share his views on hell in full, I would say that his heart to see the world renewed is a blessed hope and central teaching of the Bible that we should all think about regularly and share with our family and friends. Below I have reproduced the article found here:
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Bishop bucks views of heaven
Long-held notions not biblical, he says
By BOB SMIETANA
Staff Writer
Heaven is not retirement on steroids, where people sit around doing whatever they like, with nothing but time on their hands.
Instead it’s more like going on vacation. You rest, relax, stop and smell the roses, and then get back to work. At least, that’s what the Bible says.
“The book of Revelation talks about God making us kings and priests,” said N.T. Wright, bishop of Durham, England, and author of Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. “It isn’t just salvation and now you can sit back and relax. It’s that we are saved to be God’s agents and stewards in this new creation.”
Wright who was in Nashville on Tuesday speaking at West End United Methodist Church, believes the notion of going to heaven after death isn’t found in the Bible. Instead, he says, God brings heaven to earth.
“It’s like this world with all the beauty and the grandeur and the power,” he said, “but unfettered by death and decay.”
The Church of England bishop says that he isn’t trying to come up with a new or inventive view of heaven and resurrection. Instead, he is trying to point people to the Bible.
“The odd thing is that I don’t think I am saying anything remotely unorthodox,” he said. “I am trying to give people back some bits of the Bible they have forgotten about … Resurrection may be crazy, but it is what Christians are supposed to believe.”
That’s a notion that appeals to Scotty Smith, founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin. Smith is currently preaching a series on heaven based on the book of Revelation.
He says that evangelical Christians, in particular, have replaced a biblical view of heaven with a romanticized view.
“It (heaven) is going to look a little more like this world than a place filled with cherubs sitting around and singing Bill Gaither songs,” Smith said. “The story the Bible tells is one of redemption, not replacement.”
Resurrection is the focus
Wright, appointed bishop of Durham, a diocese south of Scotland, in 2003, says the Bible and the Christian creeds speak more about resurrection than about going to heaven.
“Without resurrection you are left with a theology which says that the present world of space, time and matter is just junk, and God is going to throw it in the trash,” he said. “If you say this world is basically junk and trash, you can exploit it, you can exploit people. You can abuse the world, and you can abuse people and it really doesn’t matter.”
This focus on resurrection and not just getting to heaven also appeals to Gavin Richardson, director of youth ministries at Faith United Methodist Church in Hendersonville.
“It’s not just ‘get Jesus and you are good to go’,” he said.
In all his talk of heaven, Wright still believes in the reality of hell. He says that, in the end, people are free to choose to be separated from God.
“The Bible doesn’t talk about heaven and hell side by side. The Bible talks about God bringing all things on heaven and earth together. Heaven and earth will be joined. That is the great renewal and God’s victory over evil and suffering and death,” he said. “At the same time, the Bible talks about the certainty of final loss for those who choose not to worship the God in whose image they were made. And it seems to me that the New Testament doesn’t leave us with the option of saying all will be saved. I often wish it did, but it doesn’t.”
A Modern Day Indiana Jones!
Holy Saturday: Anticipating the Resurrection
In honor of Holy Saturday, here is a good interview with N.T. Wright regarding the resurrection of Jesus.
Below is an excerpt…
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At the National Pastors Conference in San Diego, PreachingToday.com’s Brian Lowery got to interview N. T. Wright about his latest book—Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church—and how it relates to preaching. Since we are all in the midst of the Easter journey, his words are timely, challenging, and above all else, hopeful.
Preaching Today: In your book Surprised by Hope, you talk about a deeper understanding of hope “that provides a coherent and energizing basis for work in today’s world.” How has that deeper understanding influenced your preaching through the years?
Bishop N. T. Wright: [Studying] the Resurrection for an earlier book, Resurrection of the Son of God … ended up rubbing my nose in the New Testament theology of new creation, and the fact that the new creation has begun with Easter. I discovered that when we do new creation—when we encourage one another in the church to be active in projects of new creation, of healing, of hope for communities—we are standing on the ground that Jesus has won in his resurrection.
New creation is not just “whistling in the dark.” It’s not a kind of social Pelagianism, where we try to improve things by pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps. Because Jesus is raised from the dead, God’s new world has begun. We are not only the beneficiaries of new creation; we are the agents of it. I just can’t stop preaching about that, because that is where we’re going with Easter.
For me, therefore, there’s no disjunction between preaching about the salvation which is ours in God’s new age—the new heavens and new earth—and preaching about what that means for the present. The two go very closely together. If you have an eschatology that is nonmaterial, why bother with this present world? But if God intends to renew the world, then what we do in the present matters. That’s 1 Corinthians 15:58! This understanding has made my preaching more challenging to me, and hopefully to my hearers, to actually get off our backsides and do something in the local community—things that are signs of new creation. (more…)
