Sunday, June 23: Eschatology 1: Thinking Apocalyptically

This week, we began the very last section of our year-long exploration of Christian doctrine: eschatology. We looked primarily at Paul's rich eschatological theology.

Almost done!

(I was out of town June 16, so no class.)

Audio

Outline

Sunday, June 9: Ecclesiology 4: The Sacraments

In finishing up ecclesiology, we discussed the church's central rites: the sacraments (ordinances in evangelical parlance, though it's not just semantics; there's a big difference between the two terms).

Audio

Outline

Sunday, June 2, Ecclesiology 3: The Holiness and Catholicity of the Church

Finally getting caught up. Apologies for the delay.

Audio here.

Outline here.

We didn't making it to apostolicity, the final mark of the church. C'est la vie!

Sunday, May 26: Ecclesiology 2.2: The Unity of the Church, Continued

This Sunday we finished up our discussion of the oneness of the church (i.e., church unity).

Listen here.

Outline is the same as the May 19 entry.

Coming up: the other three marks of the church: holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity; the sacraments; and church tradition. After that ... the end—that is, eschatology, the study of the end.

Sunday, May 19: Ecclesiology 2.1: The Unity of the Church

In week two of ecclesiology, we started in on the "marks of the church," the four identifiers Christians confess in the Nicene Creed: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We got halfway through "one." Not a good pace for the number of weeks left before the summer, but church unity is an important but neglected discussion in evangelicalism today, so I was willing to dwell on it for a while.

Listen here.

Outline here.

Sunday, May 12, 2013: Introduction to Ecclesiology (and Pathways update)

On April 21 we finished up the doctrine of grace with a follow-up discussion on issues surrounding predestination. On April 28, I taught on the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of deification (outline here). We had great discussions both weeks, but my recording device was MIA. We didn't have class on May 5 because of the GCC Men's Retreat.

That gets us up to May 12, when we basically discussed J.I. Packer's essay "A Stunted Ecclesiology? The Theory and Practice of Evangelical Churchliness," as an introduction to ecclesiology, the study of the church. If interested, that essay would get you up to speed on the discussions. (Again, I didn't get it recorded, unfortunately.) See the outline here.

Sunday, April 14: Doctrine of Grace 2: Issues with Predestination

That's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek title. I do have issues with certain formulations of predestination, but we in class today we focused on a few of the more thorny areas of predestinarian thought, namely, limited atonement and free will.

I thought it was a great discussion. We certainly didn't resolve any of the deep paradoxes, but I felt we were able to approach these topics in a way that pointed out some of the more problematic interpretations while affirming the earnest efforts among some to deal with the truly difficult aspects of (read: mystery) of predestination. What's more, we were able to come to a place where we both affirmed the biblical and theological necessity of predestination and realized that the rational, human logic of predestination breaks into a million brilliant, resplendent pieces on the shoals of God's mysterious and transcendent love in Christ.

Audio

(No handout)