God In The Whirlwind

This post is an enthusiastic endorsement of this the sixth title in a valuable series by David Wells. The time invested in embracing the concept he proposes will make your ministry both Christ-honoring and effective.

David F. Wells (PhD, University of Manchester) is the Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  In addition to serving as academic dean of its Charlotte campus, Wells has also been a member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and is involved in ministry in Africa.  He is the author of numerous articles and books, including a series that was initiated by a Pew grant exploring the nature of Christian faith in the contemporary, modernized world.

Building on years of research, writing, and cross-cultural ministry, renowned author and theologian David Wells calls our attention to that which defines God’s greatness and gives shape to the Christian life: the holy-love of God.

In God in the Whirlwind, Wells explores the depths of the paradox that God is both holy and loving, showing how his holy-love provides the foundation for our understanding of the cross, sanctification, the nature of worship, and our life of service in the world. What’s more, a renewed vision of God's character is the cure for evangelicalism’s shallow theology, with its weightless God and sentimental gospel.

Written by one of evangelicalism’s most insightful minds, this book will help you stand firm in your faith despite the changing winds and raging storms of the modern world.

Words and Their Importance

I am reading through the Pastoral Epistles this year, a chapter each day. I pay particular attention to key words and the importance the meaning each brings to the overall message. Words and their relationship give meaning to language.

The languages of the Scripture, Masoretic Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine' Greek are 'dead languages'. This means that the meaning does not change as is true in a 'living' language such as English. When a credible lexical source is consulted we discover with a high degree of accuracy authorial intent. We know with a high degree of precision what the author intended to communicate with their use of those words.

 The first word for our consideration is found in 1 Tim. 1:3 and 1 Tim. 6:3 - - different doctrine. The transliteration of this word is heterodidaskaleiv. 1 Tim. 6:3 makes clear that sound doctrine is healthy. The converse is true of a different doctrine. It is unhealthy. It produces division and strife in the body of Christ (1Tim. 6:1-10).

The proliferation of different doctrine today is nothing short of astonishing. When studying the Scripture people used to ask - - "What does that passage mean?" Now the questions is "What does that passage mean to me?" That is a very different question. It implies that the meaning of the text is assigned eisogetically, read into the text rather than exegetically, drawn out from the text.

God's word is forever settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89). The meaning never changes. 

Are you teaching a different doctrine?