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Officially Defected

I have officially defected over to Wordpress - come on over, it's nice here - check the continuation of this blog at www.jonohall.com

Did Jesus Understand Himself as God?

Western orthodoxy, not least within what calls itself "evangelicalism," has had for too long an overly lofty and detached view of God. It has always tended to approach the christological question by assuming this view of God and then by fitting Jesus into it. Hardly surprisingly, the result has been a docetic Jesus. This in turn generated the protest of the eighteenth century ('Jesus can't have been like that, therefore the whole thing is based on a mistake') and of much subsequent historical scholarship, not least because of the social and cultural arrangements that the combination of semi-Deism and docetism generated and sustained. That combination remains powerful, not least in parts of my own church, and it still needs a powerful challenge. My proposal is not that we know what the word god means and manage somehow to fit Jesus into that. Instead, I suggest that we think historically about a young Jew possessed of a desperately risky, indeed apparently crazy, vocation, riding into Jerusalem in tears, denouncing the Temple and dying on a Roman cross - and that we somehow allow our meaning for the word god to be recentered around that point. (NT Wright – The Challenge of Jesus)

Harold Camping, the End of the World and whether Bad Theology is Always Wrong?

It was May 20th and I was with some men who have been very formative in my own Christian development. I made a flippant remark about it being the end of the world tomorrow (due to the false prediction of Family Radio's Harold Camping that Jesus would return on May 21st). One of the guys I was with said he saw the hand of Satan in this sideshow which essentially made Christian belief a laughingstock. The other guy I was with said he thought it could be helpful as at least it made the world think about the End Times. All three of us knew that Jesus would not return on May 21st due to the clear teaching of scripture. All three of us were also convinced that Jesus could not return "at any moment" without warning due to Jesus and Paul's explicit teaching on the "signs" to look for, and therefore thought that the widespread dispensational view which has become popular in the US in the last 100 years (a view didn't even exist before 1830) that there will be a secret rapture is a terribly misguided deception. However the alternate approaches to wrong theology made me stop and think - Is wrong theology always bad?

In his letter to the Philippians Paul rejoices that some are preaching the Gospel out of envy and rivalry while he is in prison. Does this mean that we should rejoice if people are getting it wrong, no matter what they are saying. I don't think so, Paul is pretty clear what he thinks about people teaching bad theology - they are false teachers. In Philippians there is no mention of such bad theology just bad motivations so this is a little bit of a red herring - it seems like bad theology is still bad.

My Own Journey of Bad Theology

It is probably germane to this blog to reveal a little of my journey. I grew up in church, the Methodist tradition, the House church tradition (if you can use that word), the Charismatic and the Pentecostal tradition. I was not often challenged to think deeply. In fact it would not be unfair to say in some settings there was a distinctly "anti-intellectual" emphasis and flavor. I can think of numerous occasions where I was told that God was trying to bypass our minds to get to our hearts. I recall someone's experience where Jesus told him that when he got to heaven God was not going to require of him perfect theology. Being fairly bookish and with a weakness of over analysing things I accepted these challenges as legitimate and I certainly appreciated the challenge to greater heart devotion to the Lord. Despite this however, it still bugged me that if things are wrong, they should be tested and rejected as such, if not we are in danger of succumbing to every wind of teaching and heresy. I really did want to worship God with my mind as well as my heart, my soul and my strength.

Because I grew up in a more Charismatic/Pentecostal setting, I grew increasingly aware of the "orthodox, straight laced heresy hunters" who would point out all the errors not only of the tradition I was a part but the churches which I had visited. The spirit of such guys was always mean and unhelpful. I really think if they lived 400 years ago, they would have been at the front of the line to burn the heretics. Theirs really was the gospel of being right - although not before God, but before the jury of the religious right. All these guys proved to me was that both sides were wrong. They often had a smidgeon of truth in their articles, but mainly it proved they were unloving, unfactual, unrighteous and just plain wrong. But the question remained, will we ever get our theology right and does it even matter.

Which Tradition is Right?

Because of this battle largely between the New Churches and the Reformed Churches, it seemed that many of my friends became confused. What was truth and who decides what truth is and because of such disagreements I have known several friends who have turned to older traditions. To the Eastern Orthodox Church, to the Roman Catholic and to the Anglican Church. While I truly appreciate different traditions and the good things that all traditions can bring to the Body of Christ. All traditions have the same problems; weak and broken people. The reason why many will jump ship to become Orthodox or Catholic is because of the belief in Apostolic Succession. This is a belief that Jesus commissioned His disciples, who commissioned their disciples, who commissioned their disciples in turn. This means the church of today (be it Catholic or Orthodox) can trace their authority back to Jesus and in this way they are authorized as THE true church and in this way they become the arbiter of truth. The evolution of this belief was to counter Gnosticism in the second and third centuries and it was useful then to counter the belief that Jesus had secret disciples with secret teaching. It was useful then, but even then it was at risk of abuse with certain churches falsely claiming an apostolic foundation to increase their prestige and importance. However the belief in Apostolic Succession has outlived its usefulness, it became a power play by about the fourth century and it has remained so. It is not an argument for blind faith in human traditions. All of the guys who claim Apostolic succession are as bad if not worse than the rest of us. Roman Catholics are hugely implicated in anti-Semitism throughout the centuries in addition to large scale child abuse in the last century. The Orthodox are not spotless when it comes to collusion with the Mafia, organized crime and everything that that entails. And the Anglican Church, well I had a Chaplain at College who was evangelistic in his sexual immorality, urging students that a “promiscuous stage” was perfectly normal, while he was very open about his homosexual exploits. All of this has led me to believe that while human traditions are not necessarily good they are also not necessarily bad, but when it is all said and done they can not supersede the word of God.

On the other side of the argument it is important for us to understand that our interpretations of the Bible are not the Bible itself. This should make us less forceful about proving our point, but should not lead us to give up the battle for truth. There are certain points from the scriptures that are as Mark Driscoll so nicely puts it “close handed issues” they are fundamental to our beliefs and the church believed in such things so much that we find them in very ancient creeds and statements of faith, issues such as the divinity and the incarnation of Jesus, The very real problem of sin (and how that is defined), the atoning work of Jesus etc. We must contend for these points as sound doctrine and not back down. While Jesus is not going to ask me if I had perfect theology when I meet him. I think he will have some things to say if I redefine “sin” as “not sin”. That said other theological points are a little more open handed. While I love my reformed brothers commitment to the Bible, I cannot accept their view on Predestination which creates a view of God which I find untrue to scripture. These open handed issues do not put in jeopardy the salvation of an individual.

So in conclusion, I believe bad theology is always wrong and we should strive for sound doctrine. Did Harold Camping's bad theology matter? Well it certainly did to the duped guys who spent their life savings on advertising the end of the world, and on a wider scale it proved to a wider audience (including Christians) that those who talk about eschatology are kind of crazy. Considering that much of the bible is concerned with eschatology, this is not a little worrying. Having said this I think we must all be humble enough to accept the fact we will all have some bad theology be it in thought or in action (yes, how we act does reflect what we believe). But let us not give up the fight: there is absolute truth and that absolute truth is found in the Bible, but the Body of Christ at large needs one another to encourage us in our weaknesses, so that when it is all said and done, the body of Christ will come to maturity.

Created in the Image of God - Continuously Outpouring

We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring—we were created in that condition, at that instant, imago Dei. We did not graduate into being in the image of God; we were, by divine fiat, already in the image of God at the instant the Spirit breathed into our dust. Hence we were created continuously outpouring. - From "Unceasing Worship" - Harold Best

My Debt to David Pawson

After the great Wall Street Crash of 1929, the world entered one of the worst economic depressions it has seen. It effected not only the US, but spread across the Atlantic to the shores of Great Britain. One of the young men that lived through the dark days of this depression was a soft-spoken Northumbrian in the North of England who would later run a very successful hill farm with sheep and cattle. In the midst of the economic depression a University Professor from the local town of Newcastle also saw a greater spiritual depression that needed solving in the midst of the young men and as a result started a young men’s discipleship group named The Dilston Road Young Men’s Group. The young Northumbrian lad called Tom Hall, became a disciple of Jesus through this group and also largely as a result of the University Professor, a certain H. Cecil Pawson the young lad became a Methodist local preacher. Thomas Hall was my Grandfather and “the Prof” was the father of David Pawson.

David Pawson is now an 81 year Bible teacher nearing the end of his course and he recently came to Kansas City and taught 24 60-90 minute messages over the course of a week (quite a feat for someone in their 30s, let alone someone in their 82^nd year) I have the greatest respect for this saint of God and since he left I have felt compelled to write a small piece outlining my debt to him.

Not only did David’s father have a great impact on my Grandfather’s life, but he also became somewhat of a mentor to my own father. Giving input regarding entering the Methodist ministry, first as a lay preacher and then eventually to literally “sell the farm” and enter into full time Christian work. Although my eldest brother Wesley was born on the farm, it was not a life that I was destined for and from my earliest days I can only remember Dad being in ministry. Sometime early in his ministry Dad was chatting with the Prof about good Bible teachers in England. When talking about some of the finest teachers the Prof made a comment that shocked my Father – The Prof thought that although the men they were talking about were all fine teachers, he could think of no finer teacher than his own son David. My father had known David on and off growing up however it was not long after this that Dad started to listen regularly to the recorded talks of David coming from his church Millmead in the town of Guildford.

After the Prof died it was to David that my Father would travel for advice and biblical insight, for a brief period travelling together as part of Youth for Christ and helping launch a well-known camp in the UK called Spring Harvest. It was also in the early 80s when David suggested to my Father that a new church fellowship be planted in our hometown of Hexham. I believe around 60 people gathered in our crowded front room on that Saturday, and I remember spending some formative years as part of that fellowship. Hexham Community Church still exists http://www.hexhamcc.com.

It was only in my later teens and early twenties that the link with David began again. My parents (who had moved to several places around the UK) moved back to the North East of England and in particular to the West End of Newcastle, only a few houses away from David’s childhood home. I began to listen to David’s teaching., really for the first time as an “adult” I had since an early age known that the Lord has no grandchildren, only children. I needed to grow up and David’s teaching amongst others was most helpful in this “growing up” process. I remember a few times when he came to visit for a cup of tea being slightly in awe. Nevertheless, I was growing in my faith and for this I thank David.

It is only in recent years that I have begun to recognize a calling on my own life to teach that my respect for this teacher has again been heightened. A few years ago he came to teach in Kansas City and stayed with Shari and I for the visit. At the close of the visit he prayed with us a couple and gave us some sound advice. He said that he had noticed all the things I was doing and noted was too busy. He told me all the things I was doing were not of the Lord because the Lord was not a hard taskmaster. He therefore told me to write down all the responsibilities I had and to ask the Lord about each of them. I had to determine if I was doing something out of faith in the Lord or not – if the Lord had not led me and it wasn’t of faith it was sin… gulp.

I knew he was right. He had however highlighted something that was confirmed again and again by all the voices of spiritual authority in my life. The Lord had called me to teach. This is a frightening prospect in one respect as I recognize that the Lord holds teachers to a higher degree of judgment (James 3:1). However the other side of the coin is worse, if he calls me to teach and I disobey I am in a far worse situation.

This leads me to my final debt of gratitude to David. As I have begun to give myself to teaching more and feeling the pain of how this effects the rest of my life I have looked across the Body of Christ in the western world, in the UK and US and seen a Biblical illiteracy that alarms me. Many of the leaders in the Body of Christ are making claims that are simply not rooted in the Scriptures, this saddens me as I look around at the young men (and I highlight men particularly as I see far more spiritually mature women than men) and realize the teaching is not making true disciples of Jesus I am sad and see the urgent need for a remedy of lives that are given as true disciples. The reason I mention this is because there is one group that as I look across the Body that are truly genuine about their commitment to the scriptures and they would be the new Calvinists. People who I highly respect such as John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, C.J. Mahaney and my favorite Bible School teacher Sam Storms. I love these men for their commitment to the things of God found in the scriptures and truly making disciples of Jesus, however the thing that I cannot accept as Biblical is the infection of Beza’s Calvinism and the five points of Calvinism outlined in the acronym TULIP. I do not wish to come down on ANY side in the Calvinist-Arminian debate, however I do want to be true to scripture and as I read the scriptures I simply cannot find those five points in scripture. The reason that I mention David is because of all the theologians that I most respect David would be in the small minority who falls on the so-called “Arminian” side. He is by no means an Open Theist as many in the Reformed camp are so easy to call any who are not Reformed in their theology. But he is dedicated to preaching the scripture and not a human construct and for this I am grateful.

Happy Birthday Josiah

What a difference four years makes




Today is Josiah’s birthday. He is four years old. Which means that it is four years since I was standing in an operation room in a Kansas City hospital welcoming a 1lb 12 oz little baby boy into the world. We were in the midst of planning to launch The Prayer Room on GOD TV and hiring the first media apprenticeship when Shari, who was coming to the end of her second trimester got sick; it got so bad that we decided to go into the ER to check out what was going on. A few moments after arriving the medics starting acting rather quickly trying to stabilize Shari and save the baby; Shari had pre-eclampsia, the only solution to this condition is to deliver the baby, and so after a few nerve racking days Josiah arrived at 11pm on 26th February.

The last four years have been quite a journey. Josiah spent three months in hospital. He had surgeries, Shari and I got a medical education. He nearly died a few times, we prayed, he survived, we were grateful. We were both prepared by the physicians for all manner of set backs and delays which normally accompany prematurity. The biggest challenge that we have experienced came several months after we were discharged from the NICU. While in hospital he was fed via feeding tube, out of hospital the vomiting and lack of oral intake meant that he was soon back on a feeding tube. Thus began our “feeding journey”, you can read about it more in depth earlier in the blog, the nightmare that was tube feeding did end for us and we managed to get enough calories into him orally, but that was not the end of the journey, we are still very much on the road to recovery with Josiah.

So how is Josiah doing? Well this last year has seen him start pre-school. He goes there four mornings a week (when it’s not snowing). I really think this has helped his social interaction. He loves his teachers, his therapists and his classmates. He has snack time at school, and I think the peer pressure helps him. Regarding his food, the therapy that we do with Josiah still takes a long time. We try to restrict his meal times to 40 minutes, but they often stretch out to an hour. This last year we have tried a new addition of pain killers which are supposed to deaden the “pain memories” in his digestive tract, which have led to the acid build up and reflux. This has meant that while vomiting hasn’t disappeared for us, it has significantly reduced. While he has still been getting the bulk of his calories through purees and formula, he is eating more and more table food. However all this has also meant that we do have a VERY regimented daily routine with only Shari or myself able to feed him. This has certainly been problematic at times and we look for the day when we can easily go out in an evening and leave Josiah with a baby sitter or take the boys with us and not have a trunk load of feeding paraphernalia.

The arrival of Josiah’s little brother Finn, this last year has been a blessing as well as lots of work. I am told the baby phase passes… It was unfortunate that largely due to the regimented feeding regime that we have that the whole family was not able to travel to England for my sister’s wedding in October, but this season will not last forever.

Despite the ongoing challenges, Josiah is growing (big) and learning all the time. He seems to have a very good memory for lots of things and is certainly learning how to be a mischievous little boy, who loves his little brother, his mommy and “Momma Bear” his constant soft toy companion.

I love Josiah – Happy Birthday Son