Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that owns more sunglasses than Johnny Depp.
As I continue to rewrite and expand my old book The Untold Story of the New Testament Church, a number of ideas have stood out.
There are four that have to do with the kingdom of God and apostolic strategy. Each strategy sheds light on the New Testament as well as God’s mission today.
The article is a chapter from Frank’s upcoming book. You can freely download a draft of the article here.
The Doubting Christian
Fantastic article! Can’t wait for the revised version.
Johnny Depp’s sunglasses, LOL!
“…the ageless purpose of God is to expand the fellowship and communion of the triune God.”
Wait a minute, with all due respect as you are one of my very favorite authors, I thought that God is one, not “triune” (three one?).
“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! Deut.6:1
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Mark 12:29
“As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.” Is.47:4
For your Maker is your husband,The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.” Is.54:5
“The LORD is one, And His name one.” Zech.14:9
I’m not sure how I can be one of your “favorite authors” since the Godhead is a central point of all my books and ministry. How you missed that I have no idea. Yep, God is one as well as triune. Read the blog post on the triune nature of God and go from there. The theme is in virtually all of my books and many audio messages. We’ll never properly understand the ekklesia, the Christian life, or mission without that understanding. All of it finds its taproot in the fellowship of the Godhead.
Dude, how can you miss this? It’s a center piece of Frank’s writings. Like he said, read his article on the subject. I found it for you – https://www.frankviola.org/2011/03/15/rediscovering-the-triune-nature-of-god/
Frank, your books “Reimagining Church” and “Finding Organic Church” are breathtaking in how they trace everything back to the communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, the triune God.
Keep up the awesome work and don’t get discouraged.
Thank you!
I would not go so far as to say that Paul intentionally sought “to convert a well-to-do person who owned a home.” While that may have happened in God’s providence, it was not his manner or pattern, or an example “of my ways which be in Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:17). The person of peace in Luke 10:6 is not necessarily a rich homeowner either.
The problem with this logic is that ONLY people who were well-to-do could afford a house in the first century. Well-to-do isn’t “rich” (we have no evidence that the first-century Christians had villas which were owned by the uber wealthy), but it does mean that they were well off and were not poor as most of the people were during that time. Lydia (who underwrote Paul’s ministry), Priscilla and Aquila (who hosted the churches in three different cities and had enough money to travel, which was expensive in that day – Corinth, Ephesus, Rome), Gaius (Titius Justice), Jason, Philemon, etc. were all well to do. So I stand by that point. 🙂
Thank you for your response, and labor in the Lord. I appreciate the discussion. Our conversation together in Christ increases our knowledge and understanding. We are sharpened by it.
The Oxford Dictionary lists rich and well-to-do (affluent, wealthy, etc.) as synonyms. Distinctions between those terms is a matter of semantics.
My main concern is a possible misreading of Paul’s intent and making it an apostolic directive (converting well-to-do homeowners).
Also, I cannot confirm “that ONLY peopIe who were well-to-do could afford a house in the first century.” I don’t think Luke 10:5-7 assumes that. The less well-to-do were not homeless.
Mark, rich and well to do aren’t the same. As I explained, rich people owned villas. They were the uber wealthy Christians didn’t during the first century. That strata of the population, which was tiny, wasn’t yet penetrated by the believers.
Only those who were well to do owned homes, and those large enough to house a church. Why don’t you start consulting modern scholars and their work on people like Lydia, Philemon, Jason, Gaius in Corinth, etc. The poor lived in insulas. I didn’t say they were homeless. Luke 10 doesn’t say anything that contradicts what I’ve said.
Since January, I’ve read over 100 books by historians and scholars on the first century in prep for my upcoming book. I have no time to document all of this in a blog post to relieve your skepticism. I’m not making this stuff up. But you can believe whatever you wish, even if it’s historically false. 😉
Mark, Frank is right about this. If you still doubt him, you should read some books on this subject and get educated.
Great article Frank! Love it.
“That God’s perfect will be done on heaven as it is in earth.”
Is this a typo?
Typo fixed on the blog. I don’t have a proof reader for blog articles so sometimes mistakes sneak in. They are fixed on the blog when someone points them out.
Great word! Excited for the new book!
Excellent stuff
The eternal purpose is the main point of scripture. I was in one meeting in Hong Kong where the Christians there were meeting to be built as the New Jerusalem. The Spirit was pouring out on me because I saw God is the Source; New Jerusalem His Bride is the destination and we should draw a straight line between the two! Indeed. The straight line is where the strongest flow of the river of God is! This direction would do more for the salvation of mankind than anything else could do.
“He (Paul) was seeking to reclaim the nations for God. He was tracing the Gentile nations that rebelled against the Creator in Genesis 10 until he came to “the end of the earth” in his day. His goal was to bring in what he called “the fullness of the Gentiles.” This is fascinating. Thanks for zooming out and bringing the Meta View into focus. I feel like we can’t full develop as Christ-followers and “apprentices” of the Kingdom without some understanding of God’s big POV — Point of View.
Thx. That point and many others like it are explained in INSURGENCE, the book, with biblical support.