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Our theology: “now and not yet”
(Membership class 2)
Membership agenda: 1.25.08-2.17.08
• NHF Vision statement
• unto the coming of the kingdom of christ: our theology [Now and not yet]
• in the entirety of our lives individual and corporate: our spirituality and ecclesiology [unity and diversity]
• to broadcast the majesty and mercy of god: our missiology [here and there] New Hope Fellowship exists to broadcast the majesty and mercy of God in the entirety of our lives, individual and corporate, unto the coming Kingdom of Christ.
1Pet. 2.9 But [we] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His wonderful light. 10 Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are the people of God; once [we] had not received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, [we are urged], as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against [our] soul. 12 [Let us] live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse [us] of doing wrong, they may see [our] good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.
story, History, Mythology
The Amnesiac
“…[T]here is no way to give us an understanding of any society, including our own, except through the stock of stories which constitute its initial dramatic resources. Mythology, in its original sense, is at the heart of things.’ In other words, the narrative stories which are lived out in the world of human experience are a product of bedrock, first-order myths that essentially constitute a worldview…. I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’ Alasdair Macintyre
Pre-modern Worldview [Mythology of God]:
(S.)
“Christianity had so penetrated the Western world that whether or not people believed in Christ or acted as Christians should, they all lived in a context of ideas influenced and informed by the Christian faith. Even those who rejected the faith often lived in the fear of hellfire or the pangs of purgatory. Bad people may have rejected Christian goodness, but they knew themselves to be bad by basically Christian standards – crudely understood, no doubt, but Christian in essence.” James Sire
(Quoted in Millard Erickson, Postmodernizing the Faith, p. 24.)
Modern Worldview [Mythology of Man]:
The central myth of modernity is evolution. In calling evolution a myth, I’m not saying that it is or isn’t scientifically established. I am saying that is not how people come to evolution. The vast majority of people who believe in evolution do so not at the scientific level. They have not arrived at their conviction based on rigorous research into carbon dating, the fossil record, the Pleistocene epoch, and the Cambrian explosion. They are there because it makes sense of the world around them. It gives them an understanding of how we got here and what drives us.
(S.)
The Post-Modern Worldview [MythologieS]:
“What has replaced the worldviews that once sought to encompass the whole of existence in their understanding are now privatized worldviews, worldviews that are valid for no one but the person whose world it is and whose view it is. They qualify as worldviews because postmoderns are still addressing questions about what is ultimate (the answer is nothing) about the meaning of the universe (the answer is that it has none) and about human experience.” David Wells
(David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs, p. 74.)
Johnny Depp.
Today there is no one overarching mythology but mythologies. They can be broadly categorized as Science and Technology, Politics and Economy, Arts and Entertainment, Health and Beauty. The basic divisions of what you find on the burgeoning magazine racks of your local bookstore/ café. In the absence of Mythology, humans created to worship imbued with the power to create become an idol factory. So, today, everyone from Oprah, U2, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama are no longer entertainers, musicians, technicians, and politicians they are myth-makers. This is why we don’t just buy and listen, we worship. For mythology always points to the divine and we were created for God.
The mythology of self
The culturally Christian message and the Biblically Christian message are two different things. The first helps the world conformed to its goals but it cannot transform the world to align with the goals of God. It puts the gospel in the same frame of self, when it is the frame itself that needs to be changed. Because the frame informs us what it is all about, and the frame of the world always put self at center. If we ignore the Bible’s own framework then we will simply take its contents and put ourselves at center. The reason why we worship idols instead of God is because they do not challenge our central idol: our selves. Our idols take the forms of Science and Technology, Politics and Economy, Arts and Entertainment, Health and Beauty, because we want to broadcast ourselves as smart, or wise, or powerful, or creative, or beautiful, or strong. The culturally Christian message does nothing to challenge the gods of this world. This is why the cultural Christian wants to think of Christianity in terms of religion (do’s and don'ts) rather than true worship (passionate joy). Idol worship always works this. Harvest god/ fertility god/ weather god.
Leslie Newbigin
The theology of God
What is the difference between mythology and theology?
Consummation
Coming of Christ Return of Christ
Creation/
Fall
Redemption
Taken from Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Story: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 150.
Example: David and Goliath
Matt. 11.11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Gen 15.4-6 > Ex 32-34 > 2 Sam 7 > Jer 31.31-34 > Jn 1.14-18 > 2 Cor 3 > 1 Pet 2 > Rev 5.6-10
Ex 34.5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, [cf. Ex 33]
Is 7.14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Jn 1.14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
2Cor. 3.18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
1Pet. 2.9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Rev. 5.6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
New Hope Fellowship exists to broadcast the majesty and mercy of God in the entirety of our lives, individual and corporate, unto the coming Kingdom of Christ. |
