A fascinating array of speakers!
After prayers led by the chair of the Congregational
churches of Bulgaria we went into a Bible reading led by Professor Thomas
Schirmacher, so very involved in the world evangelical alliance, and in issues
of human rights with people of other Chrisstian traditions and other faith
groups.
He led us through an exposition of II Timothy 3:14-17
pointing out the way Timothy draws on his mother and grandmother and on Paul to
value the scriptures: their authority leads to a life of good.
This morning Patrick Nullens of the Evangelical Theology
Faculty at Leuven spoke on the theme
The Moral Authority of Scripture and the hermeneutics
of love 2 Timothy 3:16-17
If, as Jesus
suggests in Matthew 22:34 the whole of the law and the prophets hang together
on the two commandments, Love God, love your neighour,
If, as I
John 4:7ff suggests, God is love and there is a need for his people to love
Should not ‘love’
be the over-arching theme to guide the way we read the Scriptures?
He invited
us to think what would happen if it were!
Very
powerful stuff!
Professor
Schirmacher reflected on the recent occasion when the Lausanne Declaration that
had brought together evangelism and social action in mission in the evangelical
world. Whereas, first time round the
disucssions had been lengthy focusing on the nature of evangelism and the
nature of mission, this time round the starting point was the twofold command
of Jesus on which the whole law and the prophets hangs together. He commented that taking that as the starting
point there was little time spent on arguing the pros and cons of that approach
to evangelism and social action … the precious time was devoted, on the other
hand, to working out the way in which those two commands can be worked out in
practice in thewhole range of issues facing us in the modern world.
It’s the
white space that counts at such gagtherings as this.
During the
coffee break I shared in conversation with Joel from the Geissen Seminary,
reflecting on his approach to Revelation.
A wondkerful conversation in which I shared, to his amusement, my use of
the same two arm movements in my two recent sermons on Revelation. It was good to check out my reading of
Revelation with someone who has giv en it such study and to find someone
app;roaching it in much the same way.
He suggested
two hermeneutical principles in coming up with a reading that are most
appropriate in Revelation – two ways of reading the Scripture that’s
helpful.
One to ask
whether your reading of the passage (especially in Revelation) would speak to
the original readers helpfully. What
help would it be in Ephesus when facing
trials and tribulatijons to know that something was going to happen in 2000
years time? Not much, he suggested. Rather Revelation is about the here and now
in Ephesus and then the here and now in every subsequent generation facing
trials and tribulations. Up to chapter
16 or 17 it’s about what’s going on – and only then about the hope of glory and
ultimate things. Even then they have
something to say to the here and now.
The second help is when stuck to see if there’s any help in the Old Testament (eg Ezekiel or Daniel)
He referred
to Richard Bauckham who suggests that apocalyptic writing such aS you find in
Revelation is about what’s ‘actually going on’ in a world of troubles. See it
that way and it will speak powerfully into any and every situation that faces
trials and tribulations.
All powerful
stuff!
But now it’s
time for lunch!
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