Tag: New Jerusalem
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Best of It: The Story and the Mission (Part 4)
[Series Index] We continue Chapter Six, "The Story and the Mission," in John Stackhouse's' Making the Best of It. Yesterday we ended with this observation by Stackhouse: Implicit in this vision of the New Jerusalem and fundamental to the Christian ethos is what I call the principle of "win-win-win." Shalom is an all-embracing life of…
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MEC: Recap of My Concerns
We are about to turn specific passages from Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren, but before we go there, I want to recap my central observations and clarify my perception of some key issues. My primary concern over the last eight posts has been McLaren’s claim that we live with a “suicide machine.” He generally…
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Imago Dei and the Material World (Part 3)
Throughout most of history, the Church has taken an instrumental view of human work and economic activity. There is no question that work has such value. Through our labors, we provide food, clothing, and shelter. Work sustains us so we can do those distinctly human activities like worship God, meditate on who God is, educate…
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Theology and Economics: Eschatological Implications
Observations The biblical narrative begins in a garden and ends in a city. The narrative begins with God creating humanity and giving the mission of filling the earth as eikons of His glory and authority. The story ends with people of all nations united in God and filling the New Jerusalem as eikons of His…
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Theology and Economics: Why Economics?
I have not said much about one economics up to this point in this series. I am using the term economics in its broadest sense, "The science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, or the material welfare of humankind." (1) Many will agree that economics is important but will…
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Theology and Economics: The New (Jeru)shalom
When Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jews were looking for a messiah to gather all the Jews to Israel, overthrow the oppressors, and restore shalom. Exactly how this would happen and when was a much-contested issue. Still, these three elements were prominent within most Jewish eschatology. The gospel of Luke takes the story of…
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Theology and Economics: Renewing Shalom
Earlier, I mentioned a city in Canaan called Shalem. The earliest reference to the city was 1850 B.C.E. in Egyptian texts. Baal was the god of all nations in the Near East, except for Egypt, and each locality had its own version of Baal. Shalem was the Baal for its region. It was in the…