Law and Gospel - tentative conclusions

Have just finished reading 'Five views on Law and Gospel'. I think the strongest case is for the Modified Lutheran view as advocated by Douglas Moo.

In short, this view sees the law of Moses as fulfilled in Christ such that Christians are no longer under obligations to the law of Moses. We are now under the law of Christ. This may include much found in the law of Moses, but we find what we are to obey based on the NT, not directly from the law of Moses. The law of Moses was a temporary administration to lead Israel to Christ. Now fulfilled in Christ, we're no longer under its condemnation, administration or demands.

Views that advocate continued obligation to the law of Moses seem to rely heavily on dividing the law into moral, civil and ceremonial, e.g. reading certain key texts as speaking of only certain parts of the law. Whilst its possible to see some of these divisions in the law, the law itself seems to mix and integrate these strands together. In the NT this division doesn't seem to appear at all, instead the law is conceived of as a unity.

Social Action - just do it!

The last in our series on social action - 8 suggestions for exercising social action:

1. Begin locally
2. Look further afield
3. Always keep as your greater aim the glory of God
4. On more complex issues, get informed
5. Consider specialising
6. Recognise the variety of gifts and circumstances among the church family
7. Live your lives openly
8. Go ahead and do it!

And some helpful websites to help keep us informed of issues:

1. Christian Concern for Our Nation
   
2. The Christian Institute
3. Lawyers Christian Fellowship
4. UCCF: Bethinking
5. Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education
   

Social Action & Evangelism

At church yesterday morning we were looking at the relationship between evangelism and social action. Central to clarifying the relationship was the idea that social action is part of our godliness. Godliness and evangelism don't compete, both are essential to the Christian life.

Then there were 5 main points about the relationship between social action and evangelism...

1. Social action is not evangelism
2. Social action may faciliate evangelism but not always
3. Social action is not needed in order to justify evangelism
4. Social action is not merely a means to an evangelistic end
   
5. Evangelism will result in social action

Helpful stuff. More to follow at church, looking forward to it!

Speed Reading

A few months ago I started to work through a book on Speed Reading. It has been incredibly helpful and I think my reading speed has almost trebled. Reading is much more exciting when you can get through books more quickly and you honestly do still take it in! Here are a few tips to improve your reading speed...

• Read in a place where you can be as free from distraction as possible and with plenty of light.
  
• Preview what you're about to read by spending a couple of seconds glancing at each page you're going to read.
  
• Don't go back over what you've just read if you think you've not taken it in, just keep going.
  
• Use a pen to guide your eyes. If you move the pen along the line, your eyes will follow and you can use this to steadily increase your speed. Push yourself doing this and you'll find you can gradually go faster and faster.
  
• If you're going to read something substantial online, print it out. Reading speeds drop by about 30% when reading on a screen.