Forget the Channel: lionelwindsor.net
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Isaiah in 7 hours – Isaiah 1-12
In September, 2010, I gave a series of 7 talks on the book of Isaiah at “Word Works”, a conference organised by the Malaysia Gospel Growth Fellowship. The aim of the talks was to give an overview of Isaiah with a view to helping people read this part of the Bible for themselves. Here is…
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Isaiah in 7 hours – Introduction to Isaiah
In September, 2010, I gave a series of 7 talks on the book of Isaiah at “Word Works”, a conference organised by the Malaysia Gospel Growth Fellowship. The aim of the talks was to give an overview of Isaiah with a view to helping people read this part of the Bible for themselves. Here is…
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Timeline for the book of Isaiah
In September, 2010, I gave a series of 7 talks on the book of Isaiah at “Word Works”, a conference organised by the Malaysia Gospel Growth Fellowship. The aim of the talks was to give an overview of Isaiah with a view to helping people read this part of the Bible for themselves. I’ll be…
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The Structure of the Book of Isaiah
In September, 2010, I gave a series of 7 talks on the book of Isaiah at “Word Works”, a conference organised by the Malaysia Gospel Growth Fellowship. The aim of the talks was to give an overview of Isaiah with a view to helping people read this part of the Bible for themselves. I’ll be…
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Word and Action
On the Sola Panel: How do you react when you notice that you or your church has a dull, dry, inactive faith, even though you are committed to God’s word? Elvis, in his song, A Little Less Conversation, gives us a model for one way that we could try to solve the problem: A little…
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Are the Gentiles included in Israel?
Μὴ γένοιτο! No way! Gentiles don’t need to be included in Israel. In fact, the opposite is true; we Gentiles are saved by faith in Christ without being included in Israel. That’s one of the apostle Paul’s big points in Romans and Galatians. We are, of course, included in the promises given to Abraham (Rom…
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Suffering and decision-making
On the Sola Panel: Is it better to choose a more difficult ministry, or an easy one? Is it more godly to choose suffering over comfort when we make decisions about life and ministry? After all, suffering makes us more like Jesus, and surely that’s good for us, isn’t it? From time to time, we…
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The quality of “Righteousness” is not strained
John Smuts is asking me some good hard questions about my view of “righteousness” as a quality (rather than a substance or a status). I’m finding the interaction very helpful.
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Jesus at work: trading places
From the Sola Panel Here’s something really interesting in Mark’s Gospel that my lovely wife Bronwyn noticed when she was reading the Bible the other day. Close to the beginning of Mark, in chapter 1, Jesus meets a man with a skin disease: And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to…
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Before you criticise any past writer, remember…
The biggest difference between today’s writing and the writing of the past is that writers are no longer put to death. Writers nowadays could never dream of having to die for what they have written. Even if writerly execution was not always common, the possibility of death was implicit in every act of writing. The…
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Rereading Doug Campbell to help us preach the gospel
In chapter 1 of his megabook, The Deliverance of God: an Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), Douglas Campbell outlines what he calls “the justification theory of salvation”, which he seems to regard as a summary of the conventional understanding of the gospel amongst the majority of Western Christians (7). If…
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Golden Rules for Learning Greek
I’m about to start teaching New Testament Greek for beginners for some people at our church. I want to start with some “golden rules”; i.e. principles that the students should keep in mind throughout their Greek learning career. I’d welcome any suggestions for further rules (even if it’s along the lines of “I wish I’d…
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A new beginning for Beginning with Moses
After some years in the wilderness, Beginning with Moses is back in action, with a new generation of contributions and a promising future. The core of the site is its “biblical theology briefings”, which aim to “state as clearly as we can that the Bible has a storyline and that this big picture must by…
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Does baptism always involve getting wet?
Of course not. Jesus, referring to his upcoming death, said: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! (Luke 12:50) There’s no evidence that Jesus got wet when he died. Paul said of the Israelites, For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers…
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The Individual and the Community in Paul
It’s been a concern of mine for some time that a number of New Testament scholars such as Tom Wright take an approach to justification in Paul which subordinates individual issues (such as personal sin, guilt and salvation) to communal concerns. The same is true in some scholarly approaches to Paul’s use of the word…
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Righteousness: neither substance nor status
I’ve noticed what I reckon is a false dilemma which has appeared over the meaning of the word “righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη). The false dilemma is pretty widespread, but here’s one example. I’ve been following Mike Bird’s excellent, informative and industriously updated blog for a while. Recently, Mike spoke about the meaning of “righteousness” as if there…
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Finally, a real blog
This site has been through a number of metamorphoses. It began as a place where I posted Greek and Hebrew vocabulary-learning tools. After a while I added a few articles and essays and random thoughts. In the last few years, I’ve been using the site to inform people about my studies and how to support…
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Talks on the Authority and Sufficiency of the Bible
Here are two talks I recently gave on the doctrines of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. Unfortunately the more detailed application is missing from the first talk because the laptop that was recording the talks ran out of battery partway through my talk! However, there’s still about 50 minutes of material in both talks.
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Hairstyles and the New Testament (Robert Cavin)
This is from my friend and colleague Robert Cavin: When we were on vacation in the south of England a few weeks ago, we stopped at Bath, England on the way home. Why? It’s the site of an ancient Roman bath. The place has the only naturally occurring, thermal hot springs in England. So, in…
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Want to support excellent Christian kids’ music? Give a few $$ (or ££) to Ben Pakula.
When I say excellent, I mean it in all senses I can think of: musically, lyrically and theologically. We–I mean me, Bronwyn, our 8 year old, 6 year old and 3 year old–love Ben Pakula’s music. It’s so true, and it’s so awesome. Those fantastic truths about our powerful God and his plan for salvation…
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Loving what God Loves
From the Sola Panel: The UK government has launched a review into occupational Health & Safety laws (OH&S). It seems to be a very popular move. Health is good. Safety is good. But the multiplication of rules purportedly designed to enforce it often leads to madness. Most of us are aware of safety rules that…
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The Greatest Expectations
On the Sola Panel: Once I got to church on time, but God arrived 20 minutes late. On the other hand, occasionally I’ve been to church and God didn’t manage to turn up at all. At least, that’s the impression you’d form if you judged by expectations. The times I remember when nobody expected God…
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The Purpose of the Law in Galatians 3
What is the purpose of the law according to Galatians 3? (This post is part of a series) The immediate question in Galatians 3:17 is that of the status of the Sinai covenant. Paul’s opponents seem to have been arguing that the Gentiles could only be blessed if they joined the covenant people and submitted…
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Re-reading Doug Campbell
Here’s something I’d like to say: I’ve just picked up a copy of Douglas A. Campbell’s The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids / Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2009). Initially, I was a bit daunted. It’s a very big and scary book, running to 1218 pages. But I’ve just realised that…
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A prayer request from an Aussie living in the Mother Country
From the Sola Panel I was listening the other day to a satirical comedy show on British Radio. The presenter was making a point about human relationships. The bulk of his satirical piece consisted of a reading from Genesis 2:18-25, in full, from the King James Version of the Bible (“And the Lord God said,…
Got any book recommendations?