Bible and Mission

  In Romans 13.1, Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (ESV). The notion that everyone should be subject to governing authorities is sometimes misinterpreted as a subjection to authorities simply because they are in authority.   This is a mistaken view.   Paul is saying that people are under authorities because their authority is derived from God and because their authority rests on their exercising the law.   In saying so, he is not offering some new insight or political theory.   His point was uncontroversial. Plato’s Laws begins with the accepted view that state laws ultimately derived from the gods.   So, for example, the Cretans believed that Zeus gave their laws to them and the Lacerdaemonians (Spartans) believed that they received their laws from Apollo (1.624).   This belief is not a mere nod to religious devotion. ...

  From time to time, I have written articles about socialism, communism, and the Church.  This post provides links to these articles and to related articles. Socialism, Communism, and the Church: Biblical Teaching versus Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism The Wild Misuse of 'Fascism' by American Socialists and Its Threat for Christianity Social Cohesion, Populism, and the Church's Prophetic Role in the State The Particular Danger of Socialist Countries with National Health Care Practicing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia The Aims and Means of Communist Revolutions and Possible Developments for Mayor Mamdani's New York Church and State Relations in Light of Three Proposals for the Purpose of Government Why Open Borders? And What Should Christians Do? What is Fascism--and Do We Need to Worry about This in the American Presidential Election? The Pursuit of Greater Meaning in Community: Communism, National Socialism, Radical Islam, and the Church Script...

  Romans 1.26-27 makes the point that God gave humans ‘up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves’ (1.24, ESV) such that they engaged in lesbian and gay acts.    It reads: For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. What has been rather obvious to interpreters of this verse for nineteen centuries has recently been challenged by revisionist interpreters who wish to make a place for homosexuality in the Church.   Don Fortson and I have explored the issue in Scripture and the Church’s history in detail. [1]   We have shown that the right interpretation of Romans, consistent with the rest of Scrip...

  How do we know what is the better choice between two morally right proposals?   Ethics is not just about what is or is not morally right.   It is also about how to choose between two right actions.   I will here compare Marcus Tullius Cicero’s (106-43 BC)   answer to this question to what Paul says in his letter to the Romans, focussing specifically on one of his points: having the right social instincts about God and fellow humans. In discussing how to choose between two moral actions, Cicero says that we must weigh matters according to four sources ( De Officiis 1.152): prudence social instincts courage temperance Note that these correspond to the four Greek cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance.   Cicero is offering a Roman correction to these by emphasising what is practical.   He defines prudence as ‘practical knowledge of things to be sought for and of things to be avoided’ (1.153).   He corrects the idea ...