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By
wjameskelly
– August 22, 2011Posted in: Uncategorized

It has been a wild ride these last few months. Beginning in May, my wife Karen and I spent 2 weeks in Israel, 11 weeks in South Sudan, and we’ve now been back in Canada for about three weeks. It truly has been a breath-taking experience on a few levels. God has taught us some radical stuff. He has given us clarity for our callings. He has allowed sickness and pain which inevitable taught us so much about ourselves and Him. God has been so gracious to us.

With all this said, it is good to be home. I start up my last year of my MDiv in a couple weeks. Karen is looking for a nutrition related job and continues to plug away at her certification to be a Natural Holistic Nutritionist from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.

I do want to keep this blog cooking, but I have decided to do much shorter, more often (hopefully), posts. Karen and I started working through the bible chronologically. My purpose is to examine the Character of God. I will be posting on this often I’m sure.

Lots more about our summer to come. Much Love.

For Jesus’ fame,
James

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3 Views of Hell

By
wjameskelly
– April 23, 2011Posted in: Hell, Theology

It’s been a while. And with Karen and I leaving in 2 days to spend our summer in Israel & South Sudan, I figured I would get this up before we left. With all the discussion around Hell right now, I put up a few posts before exams and preparing for these trips came.

Here is the summary of the views of Hell. I recently wrote a paper on this and based on my readings and how I understand the various teams, this is what I have determined:

3 Views of Hell
First Steam Second Steam
Eternalist (1) After death, those that reject Christ are sent to Hell, a place of torment and horrific punishment; how exactly that looks we are not sure (metaphorical) (2) Hell is a literal eternal fire where weeping and gnashing of teeth literally occur.
Annihilationist (1) After death, those that reject Christ are immediately “annihilated” or as my Grandpa likes to say, “gone 6 feet under, and that’s it.” (2) After death, those that reject Christ receive a period of punishment based on the sins committed on earth and once their punishment is complete they seize to exist.
Universalist (1) After death, those that reject Christ receive a period of punishment based on the sins committed on earth, and then are sent to heaven for eternity (2) All people are saved and directly after death meet God and spend eternity with him

Interested to hear feedback on this.

I will be posted weekly from Israel and South Sudan! Would love to have you stay posted with me.

For Jesus’ fame,
James

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What is Universalism?

By
wjameskelly
– March 13, 2011Posted in: Hell, Questions

As I defined in my last post, Universalism is the thought that all people will eventually be saved and living for eternity in God’s presence.

The theory of Universalism is first found in the writings of Origen (c. 185-254). Origen, one of the first Christian theologians suggested that, “even Satan himself would eventually be welcomed into everlasting bliss.” Throughout the middle ages, the theory dissipated but since the enlightenment, the theory has reemerged.

Universalists use the following arguments in scripture to support their claim:

  • Jesus brings justification to all | Romans 5:12-21
  • “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” | 1 Corinthians 15:20-26a
  • All will be saved | 1 Tim 2:4; 4:10; 2 Pet 3:9
  • Christ’s atonement is intended for all | 2 Cor 5:19; Titus 2:11; Heb 2:9l; 1 John 2:2
  • God’s will is for all creation with its fullness in Christ | John 12:32; Eph 1:10; Col 1:16-23
  • Final restoration of all persons of God | Acts 3:19-21; Phil 2:9-11

Here are three primary questions from Universalists followed by common responses:

Q1: How can a loving God possibly send people to eternal torment? All must agree this is a complex question. The primary argument is this: If God is love (1 John 4:16), it is therefore impossible for him to torment, as it would contradict his very character. It’s not fair, not just, and not like God. How can God be just and allow eternal punishment? It is important to point out that this question is also at the heart of Annihilationism.

Answer: How one understands God’s justice is very relevant to this debate. A common answer for the above question looks something like this: God’s principles of justice are outside humanities. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6 it says that, “God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.” In Job 34:12-15 it says, “The Almighty will not pervert justice. Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust.” If God so chooses, his justice may be to end a life. God is just. Moreover, in Matthew 8:29, demons fear Jesus had come to torture them saying, “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” The demons understood that torture was inevitable for them as enemies of God. This understanding of justice does not equate with humanity today. The problem is that theologians attempt to box God into their understanding of justice and when this fails, they flail their hands and question His justice. For “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Humanity justly deserves eternal punishment, but by God’s grace, some receive eternal life.

Q2: How can one’s earthly choices determine how they spend eternity? This deliberation, “leads (universalists) to conclude that in the next life God will continue to draw all people to himself until everyone freely responds to his invitation and so participates in his new world.”

Answer: First, the bible says that there is no hope for people to cross from hell to heaven after they have died. The story about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 makes this clear, “between us (heaven) and you (hell) a great chasm has been fixed” so that no one may cross over either way. Second, the bible says that how one spends eternity is based on what happens in this life, not what is done after death. And third, Jesus says in the parable of the sheep and goats that based on how we treat others we will either receive, “eternal punishment or eternal life.”

Q3: Doesn’t the Greek word for eternity (aion) also mean “age” or “period of time?” Therefore, we can’t conclude that scriptural references to eternal judgment are sound.

Answer: As defined by the most trusted Greek dictionary, Louw-Nida, aion is defined as “pertaining to an unlimited duration of time.” When translating Greek, context is king. For example, in Matt 25:46 “eternal punishment or eternal life,” use the same word, aionion. If aion means “period of time,” than one must reject heaven as well. Additionally, if we replace eternal with “period of time” in John 3:16, we get “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have life for a period of time.” Probably wouldn’t be the most famous ever with this translation.

A Universalist is often driven by their love to see people saved. They reject the notion that there is only one way to God. Often a Universalist will say something like, “all people believe in Jesus, they just don’t fully understand it to be Him right now.”

A post on Annihilationism coming soon.

For Jesus’ fame,

JK

________________

Grenz, Stanely J. Theology for the Community of God. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994. 827.

Rom 3:23 and Rom 6:23

Grenz, Community, 830.

Matt 25:31-46; Rom 2:5-10

Matthew 25: 31-46

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament : Based on Semantic Domains, electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., 1:641 (New York: United Bible societies, 1996, c1989).

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What is Hell?

By
wjameskelly
– March 9, 2011Posted in: Hell, Questions, Theology

So I just wrote a paper on Hell. It was one hell of a paper.

With all the debate surrounding Rob Bell’s new book (see below), I thought of giving a brief description of the debate, which team believe what, and why this is important. I’ve chosen not to weigh in on the Rob Bell’s book specifically because his book has not come out. I’m going to take four posts to tackle this issue.

The paradox of Hell is that its popularity is rivaled by its unpopularity. In the sphere of the postmodern church world, to hear a pastor preach on Hell is like hearing a Baptist speak in tongues, you just don’t hear it. However, in the sphere of evangelical theological debate, the topic of Hell is as fiery as ever. The debate teams are the following: (1) Universalists; (2) Annihilationists; (3) Eternalists (The term “eternalists” I created that encompasses both the literal and metaphorical view of hell). Let’s examine one at a time.

In brief, here are the definitions of each:

Universalism: all people will eventually be saved and live for eternity in God’s presence.

Annihilationism: There are two teams within Annihilationism. (1) After death, those that reject Christ are immediately “annihilated” or as my Grandpa likes to say, “gone 6 feet under, and that’s it.” (2) After death, those that reject Christ receive a period of punishment based on the sins committed on earth and once their punishment is complete they seize to exist.

Eternalism: Again, two teams: (1) After death, those that reject Christ are sent to Hell, a place of torment and horrific punishment; how exactly that looks we are not sure (metaphorical), (2) Hell is a literal eternal fire where weeping and gnashing of teeth literally occur.

I hoping to take the next three posts to provide the primary arguments from each group. Hope you can track with me and comment if you can.

Here are the details about the debate surrounding Rob Bell’s book. Again, I don’t want to discuss this here as the book has not come out but just so you’re aware of what’s going on. If you want to comment here, keep it to the debate above. Thanks.

Rob Bell video: https://www.robbell.com/lovewins/
Opposing Bell: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/02/26/rob-bell-universalist/
In response to opposition: http://blog.beliefnet.com/omeoflittlefaith/2011/02/thoughts-rob-bell.html

For Jesus’ fame,
JK

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Justin Bieber or Jesus?

By
wjameskelly
– March 3, 2011Posted in: Preaching, Random

What’s harder, being a Justin Bieber fan or a Jesus fan?

Everyone now knows. Recently, it came out that one of my buddies likes Justin Bieber. We were in a large group of people and I might have slipped up and let his secret out. Instead of denying it, he simply proclaimed:

“Its true, I like Justin Bieber!”

For a 21-year dude to admit this to a group, it’s bold, it’s risky and it takes a lot of self-confidence. For that, I applaud this man! The galleries reaction was obvious…oh no…man down, man down! Dudes exchanged grinning looks around the room. A few comments were made, none as good as, “dudes gots the feva!” or “baby, baby, no!” Our friend was now an outlier.

But I got thinking how that impacted my friend. How did these reactions affect his fanhood? Interestingly, those eye-piercing exchanges, those witty comments and the awkwardness in the room all led to this: my friend’s fever to be a stronger belieber GREW! He was now segregated as a minority and guess what, it made him stronger. It’s a big reason Bieber is famous – you either love him or hate him. And those on either side band together and their fever grows.

And then it hit me:

Bieber fever is more contagious than Jesus fever.

In the world of Post-Modern Global North, when I say I like Jesus, people MIGHT exchange mocking looks, and MIGHT think differently of me, but most likely they’ll reply, “good for you. I’m glad you have something to believe in.” More and more people don’t care what you believe and its impact on people’s faith in Jesus is devastating.

I want something to rally behind! Deep down, I want to be on the fringes and believe in something radical. It fuels me. Its why solders in war become like brothers. Their fight together bonds them.

More and more people like Justin Bieber because more and more people hate Justin Bieber. More and more don’t like Jesus because more and more don’t care whether you like him or not.

Why: Because our message of Jesus has been so polluted no one cares.

When someone teaches that Jesus is always happy, avoids conflict, forgives everyone and doesn’t send anyone to hell, they don’t get it! Deep down, people don’t want that Jesus. They want radical Jesus. The real Jesus! People want to follow someone who is on edge, who pushes the status quo, who is drastic. People want to follow someone who stands before leaders and calls them out (Matt 23). People want to follow someone that only few can because it’s so intense (Luke 13:22-30). People want to follow someone that is so radical it threatens their life (John 19). Jesus is that and so much more. And it is this message people need to hear!

People want to be hard-core fans. And frankly, with the Jesus many teach today, most would rather follow Justin Bieber than Jesus.

For Jesus’ fame,
James

7

Can God change his mind?

By
wjameskelly
– February 28, 2011Posted in: Ethics, Questions, Theology

We’ve been talking a lot about Prayer with our church community at Lincoln Road. The big theological question I’ve been wrestling with is this:

Can God change his mind? And how does this impact why I pray?

What I struggle with are the scriptures that say God changed his mind because of the cry and plea of the people. For example, when God gives Moses the 10 Commandments and Moses comes down from the Mountain and finds the people worshipping the Golden Calf they made, the bible says that God was so fiercely angry he wanted to destroy the nation but Moses pleaded with him and the bible said God “changed his mind” Exodus 32:14 (or also Jonah 3, Deut 32:36, Jer 26:13; 19)

It seems that in the Jeremiah passages God changes his mind by people stopping to sin and repenting.

THAN, in numbers 23:19 it says God “does not change his mind” …… now I havn’t studied the context of these statements in depth but at first read they seem to cause some issues. (Also, 1 Sam 15:29, Job 23:13, Isa 31:2)

BUT with Hebrews 6:17 it seems to be saying that with the things that God promises he will not change his mind but for the things that he has not promised, perhaps he can change his mind?

Our resolve to this issue dramatically impacts our prayer life. If God can change his mind, then prayer has a clearer purpose it seems. But if God knows what I need before I ask him (Matt 6:8) and He controls my destiny (Job 23:14) than why pray?

My friend Pete pointed me to Luke 22:31-34 that says Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would stand up instead of denying him three times….well Peter did deny Jesus three times. What was the impact? Peter grew in humility and his faith did grow but he needed the denying to occur to receive that humility it seems.

Interesting stuff. Any additional thoughts?

For Jesus’ fame,
JK

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Holy Spirit…huh?

By
wjameskelly
– February 18, 2011Posted in: Uncategorized

What is or who is the Holy Spirit? Christians talk about it. The world talks about “spirits.” Alright, what’s what. Or who’s who?

So I’ve had a few posts on Holy Spirit thus far, but I haven’t addressed the biblical background of the Holy Spirit. In order to go into a little more depth, I’ll explain who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does and examine four general categories of the Spirit in scripture: Spirit in Torah, Spirit in Prophets; Spirit in New Testament; and Spirit Tradition.

WHO is the Holy Spirt?
The Holy Spirit is a person. One of the members of the Trinity. You have God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. The H.S. is God living in one that believes and accepts Jesus as Lord of their life and starts following what he teaches in scripture. (1 Cor 3:16; John 14:16-18)

WHAT does the Holy Spirit Do?
1. The Holy Spirit Empowers. He gives life (John 6:63). He gives power to serve (1 Sam 16:13; Luke 4:18-19; Acts 1:8)
2. The Holy Spirit Purifies. He sanctifies (1 Cor 6:11; 2 Thess 2:13).
3. The Holy Spirit Reveals. The future (2 Peter 1:21). Himself (John 1:32; Acts 2:2-3). Direction in our life (Rom 8:14; Acts 8:29; Acts 20:22-23). Sin (John 16:8-11).
4. The Holy Spirit Teaches. Learning (John 14:26). And guides (John 16:13).

Spirit in Torah:
In Genesis 1:2 we read, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The Spirit of God is counselor even in the beginning of the world.
Genesis 1:7 “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being” The word breathe in Hebrew is the same as Spirit on many occasions. It is the Spirit that gives life. (Gen 8; Ex 14-15)

Spirit in Prophets:
Ezekiel 36 & 37: “I will give you a new heart and new spirit” There is a story in Ezekiel 37 about how God gives new life through the Holy Spirit. And in the Isaiah passages below we learn that the Holy Spirit was going to be pivotal with the coming Messiah.
Isa 11:1-9; Isa 40:13; Isa 42:1-9; Isa 61:1-3; Psalm 33:6; Job 26:12-13
-The Holy Spirit was present in the O.T., even in people, but it took on a new form in the N.T. through the death of Jesus. Now, the Holy Spirit was offered to all.

Spirit in New Testament:
Matt 3:1-12 John the Baptizer tells us that the one coming (Jesus) will give the Holy Spirit in its truest form.
Acts 1:1-11 According to Luke, the Holy Spirit was pivotal to the gospels.
Acts 2 Holy Spirit comes as tongues of fire enabling disciples to preach in a bunch of languages.
1 Cor 6:19 Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit – shows a deep dynamic of the H.S. in believers in Jesus

Spirit in Christian Tradition:
Tertullian was a early church theologian. He was the first to point out the concept of the Trinity (one person, three substance)
Augustine, probably one of the most influential theologians is Christian history, taught that the Spirit was (1) Holy, (2) love, (3) a gift
It wasn’t until the rise of Pentecostalism roughly 100 years ago that the Holy Spirit started getting recognition in theological circles.

Our systematics class is now moving onto speaking of salvation, particularly theories of atonement, which is directly connected to the course I took last semester on the Theology of the Cross. If you have any questions about the Holy Spirt, please fire away!

For Jesus’ fame,
JK

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Hello world!

By
wjameskelly
– February 7, 2011Posted in: Uncategorized

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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How to Really Live…In Response to Evil People | Jan 30 2011 Lincoln Road

By
wjameskelly
– February 7, 2011Posted in: Sermons

Sermon up from last Sunday.

Podcast Description:
Eye for an Eye or Turn the Other Cheek. Both may seem like extremes. Jesus taught and lived out the latter. Jesus taught to live active non-violence. The challenge is attainable. Are we up for the challenge?

I used this picture in the sermon, might be helpful.

Listen Here.

For Jesus’ fame,
JK

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Free Budget Template

By
wjameskelly
– February 5, 2011Posted in: Free, Marriage, Money, Personal, Random

Why do people budget? What’s the point? Can’t I just spend and hope things work out….

Over the last week the topic of budgeting has come up a few times and I thought it would be valuable to some people to have some helpful resources on budgeting.

Karen and I keep a budget. In it we put everything money related. How much we have, how much we owe, how much we give, and how much we spend. It helps us see how much we need to save that month. It helps us find effective ways to bring down debt. It helps us not feel guilty if we go out for dinner because we know we have saved and budgeted for it. And honestly, it helps us stay organized and limit fights and tension (#1 reason for fights in marriages has to do with money).

Here’s some budgeting related text I think encourage us to plan ahead and be good stewards of what God has entrusted in our care:
Luke 14:28-30: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost.”
Proverbs 27:12: “A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.”
Proverbs 15:22: “Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.”
That’s 3 of about 300 related verses.

There is so much more I would love to say about this, but for now, here are two resources to point you to.

DOWNLOAD THIS:
Kelly Home Budget Template Find the “download” button on the page. Feel free to share as well.

CHECK OUT THIS:
Dave Ramsey Budget – This site is very helpful with anything money related. Dave is a Christian Money Expert. Check out this site.

For Jesus’ fame,
JK

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