Theological News On-Line

Issue 50    January 2007	'Promoting Biblical Truth by Networking Theologians'

Published by Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance

Editor: David Parker tc@worldevangelicalalliance.com
email distribution: Dr.Paul C. Murdoch Murdoch@ead.de

Welcome to WEA Theological News On-Line - this is the electronic version of our printed quarterly, WEA Theological News (ISSN 0260-3705). WEA TN On-Line is issued approximately six-weekly. The content of the printed and on-line versions overlap but are not identical. We also publish Evangelical Review of Theology. For more information, visit our website http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.com/commissions/tc 

We welcome news reports on theological matters for both versions - they can cover theological institutions, conferences, publications, faculty, trends and developments, etc. of interest to evangelical theologians around the world.

For more information on the work of the Theological Commission, contact the Executive Chair, Dr Rolf Hille r.hille@bengelhaus.de

In this issue:

•  Theological Education in Israel and the West Bank
•  ATA focus on the Prophetic Voice of the Gospel
•  Bible Commentary Projects in Africa and Asia
•  Invitation to submit articles
•  Death of Klaas Runia, a long-time REC Leader and former TC Member
•  Verbum: The Church and its Mission, according to the Apostle Paul

Theological Education in Israel and the West Bank

Leaders of the World Evangelical Alliance met in Israel Dec 1-5, 2006 to review the work of the Alliance and its many arms, and to plan for future developments. The Theological Commission was represented by Dr David Parker, Director of Administration and Publications. Reports indicated that the WEA has made considerable progress during the previous year, and has expanded its activities and consolidated its operations. Significant plans are in hand for development in the near future, including a General Assembly to be held late 2008.

A feature of the meeting was an excursion to Bethlehem and Jerusalem for learning about conditions in the West Bank and to share fellowship with evangelical Christians in the area. This event was highlighted by the formal reception into the WEA of its 128th national body, the Evangelical Local Council of Churches of the Holy Land (ELCCHL)

During his visit to Israel, Dr David Parker visited three theological institutions in the area. Bethlehem Bible College, www.bethlehembiblecollege.edu the only such institution in the West Bank, is an interdenominational college preparing leaders for the churches and society within the Arab community, headed by Dr Bishara Awad, and with a strong faculty. It also serves the local community with a range of activities including a counselling centre, the Shepherd Society which meets humanitarian needs, Bethlehem’s first public library located at the college, teaching English as a second language, a Tour Guide program and a Mass Media centre which trains students for this work and also present programs on the local media. The college also has a strong music ministry with an attractive choir. In operation since 1979, and located in Hebron Road since 1990, Bethlehem Bible College is accredited by the Palestinian Ministry for Higher Education and by MEATE (Middle East Association of Theological Education. It has an ambitious building program to allow it to fulfil its aims more effectively.

Israel College of the Bible  www.israelcollege.com established in 1990 (then under a different name), is located in the heart of West Jerusalem with extension campuses elsewhere in the country, and mainly serves the Israeli Messianic community, but it also has programs for international students. The current president is Dr. Erez Soref, a native Israeli from Haifa, with a doctorate in clinical psychology. The college is accredited with both the Asia Theological Association and European Evangelical Accrediting Association. Its faculty of more than 30 is made up of full and part-time instructors, most being Israelis and covering a wide range of disciplines.

Jerusalem University College (The American Institute for Holy Land Studies)  www.juc.edu is located by the Old City of Jerusalem and specialises in programs which enable international students to study the Bible, its languages, cultures and contextual setting in the Holy Land itself. It acts as an extension campus of about 100 academic institutions in USA and elsewhere whose students attend courses of varying duration at JUC. It is also accredited by Asia Theological Association and is authorised to grant degrees in Israel. It was established in 1957 and is now headed by Dr Paul Wright, supported by an extensive faculty of local and visiting professors.

ATA focus on the Prophetic Voice of the Gospel

The Asia Theological Association has announced that the theme for its next General Assembly will be ‘The Prophetic Voice of the Gospel in Contemporary Asia.’ The theme will be related to various aspects of Theological Education, globalisation and nation-building in a multi-cultural society. Acting General Secretary, Dr Bruce Wintle, announced that the Assembly will take place August 6-10, 2007 in Manila, The Philippines. For more details: bcwintle@ataindia.com  

Bible Commentary Projects in Africa and Asia

Biblical scholarship and exposition is being advanced in Africa and Asia with two significant projects. In Africa, the first one-volume commentary, of almost 1600 pages, written exclusively by African theologians was launched on July 5, 2006 in Kenya. Edited by Dr Tokunboh Adeyemo, former General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA), with nearly 70 contributors—all of them from Africa—it adopts a section by section approach geared to local needs and interests,

The main commentary is supplemented by more than 70 articles on biblical backgrounds, introduction, and especially on cultural issues facing the African church, such as HIV/AIDS, persecution, angels/demons/powers and funeral rites. There is also an extensive glossary of terms, and biographical details of contributors. The 7-year project was strongly supported by SIM and many Christians around the world. It is published in Africa in English and French by WordAlive, with another edition for the rest of the world by Zondervan [http://www.zondervan.com/media/samples/pdf/0310264731_samptxt.pdf]

Meanwhile work progresses on the ambitious Asia Bible Commentary Series. The 45 volume series sponsored by the Asia Theological Association with Dr Brian Wintle and Dr Bruce Nicholls as general editors, is aimed at providing high quality exegetical material interpreted in terms of local Asian cultures and presented in common English which is suitable for a wide readership. With each volume prepared by a team of at least two writers from Asian, Pacific and Middle East seminaries, the series is being made available in an Asian edition priced for wide circulation in the region and another edition for the global market.

Six volumes are already available, while five more are at an advanced stage of preparation. Some are prepared in local languages and will need translation. General Editor, Dr Bruce Nicholls, recently made an extensive tour of 18 participating seminaries, and expects steady progress by the time of the ATA General Assembly in August 2007.

Invitation to submit articles

The Lausanne organisation has issued an invitation for readers to submit articles for consideration for publication in their journal, Lausanne World Pulse (www.lausannworldpulse.com  The titles and deadlines are as follows:

•  April: Contextualizing the Gospel, deadline 1 March 2007
•  May: Evangelism and Discipleship, deadline 1 March 2007
•  July: Education and Training for Missions and Evangelism, deadline 1 April 2007
•  September: Unto the Least of These, deadline 1 June 2007
•  October: Reconciliation and Evangelism, deadline 1 July 2007
•  November: HIV/AIDS and Holistic Evangelism, 1 August 2007
•  December: Evangelism and Worship, 1 October 2007

Articles should be 1200-1800 words and should be submitted in English. Articles may also be sent in the native language of the author so that both versions will be posted online. Responses should be sent to Naomi A. Frizzell, (nfrizzell@lausanneworldpulse.com) Director of Communications, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, CINA-MailScanner hat einen möglichen Täuschungsversuch durch "www.lausanne.org" festgestellt. www.lausanne.org  on

Death of Klaas Runia, a long-time REC Leader and former TC Member

The death of leading Reformed theologian, Dr Klaas Runia (b 1926) has been announced. As well as taking a prominent role in his own denomination, Dr Runia was well known in wider evangelical circles, and was a member of the WEF Theological Commission in the 1980s. He was the author of "The present-day Christological debate" (Inter-Varsity Press, 1984).

Richard van Houten wrote in The Reformed Ecumenical News Exchange, Dec 2006:

On October 14, Prof. Klaas Runia, a former President of the REC, passed away. Klaas Runia first came to the REC as a representative from the Reformed Churches in Australia. He was elected President of the REC in 1968. After he returned to The Netherlands in 1971, he was also delegated to the REC by the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. He subsequently served four more terms on the REC executive, then called our Interim Committee. Runia was a people’s theologian. He served for many years as Rector of the Theological University of Kampen, but was also editor of the popular weekly newspaper, Centraal Weekblad. From there he wrote weekly articles making the theological world available to church members across the Netherlands. Likewise, in the REC he brought theology to bear on our practical work, and frequently was the one who found just the right way to express something that different people could accept. He served in years of terrible tensions in the REC, struggling with theological changes in his own church and an advocate for those suffering under apartheid. He was a voice of wisdom and grace during many debates, and I believe he was a major factor in keeping the REC together in a time of stress. On behalf of the REC, we extend our sympathy to his family and his many friends.

Verbum: The Church and its Mission, according to the Apostle Paul

No 7: January 2007

By Dr. Robert L. Plummer, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY.

Popular missiological literature often reduces the church’s missionary motivation to one major factor—the Great Commission, for example. While this sustained focus on one concept can have pedagogical value, it runs the danger of flattening the rich diversity of reflection found within Scripture. Thus, although scholars have commonly assumed that Paul’s personal evangelistic fervor was transferred to his churches, little has been done to articulate an actual Pauline theology of the church’s mission. Indeed, it should be noted that Paul rarely, if ever, commands the recipients of his letters to evangelize.

In assessing this lack of explicit missions imperatives in the Pauline letters, recent studies have reached highly divergent conclusions on Paul’s expectations of his churches’ involvement in the missionary task. To oversimplify the debate, on one side are those scholars who assert that Paul failed to envision an active, outward-directed missionary task inherited by local Christian communities (W. P. Bowers, S. Chambers, J. P. Dickson, T. L. Donaldson). On the other side are those scholars who find the debatable Pauline imperatives and other incidental evidence sufficient to demonstrate that Paul did envision an active missionary role for his congregations that in some way mirrored his own (P. T. O’Brien, I. H. Marshall, R. L. Plummer, E. J. Schnabel, J. P. Ware).

As one of the writers supporting apostle-church missions continuity, I must thank the writers on the other side for directing our attention back to the biblical text. They have demonstrated that simplistic appeals to the Great Commission or Paul’s expectation of the Holy Spirit’s work do not provide a convincing Pauline basis for church missionary involvement. And, while it is true that there is a surprising dearth of explicit Pauline imperatives to evangelize, there is not a complete absence—at least on my reading. In his recently published revision of his dissertation, J. P. Ware has made a cogent case that one should understand Philippians 2:16 (‘hold forth the word of life’) as a climactic appeal for the Philippians’ gospel proclamation in a letter that regularly highlights their partnership in the gospel’s advance. Also, when read within the context of 1 Corinthians, Paul’s commands to imitate him (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1), appear to have evangelistic implications (see my article in JETS, June 2001). Furthermore, Paul’s command to have ‘feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace’ (Eph 6:15), with its clear allusion to Isaiah 52:7, is best understood as a command to preparedness for gospel proclamation. Finally, while not explicitly imperatival, Paul approvingly speaks of gospel proclamation by both ordinary Roman Christians (Phil 1:14) and Thessalonian believers (1 Thess 1:8).

This list of debated references to congregational evangelism, nevertheless, fails to provide a convincing over-arching Pauline theology of congregational evangelism. Such a theological supra-structure, however, is found in Paul’s understanding of the gospel as God’s dynamic word. Paul makes numerous explicit references to the gospel as a powerful entity from God that accomplishes the divine purpose. Thus the gospel, whether present in apostle (Rom 15:18–19; 1 Cor 14:36; Col 1:5–7; 1 Thess 1:5; 2 Tim 2:8–9) or congregation (Rom 16:5; 1 Cor 15:1–2; 16:15; Col 3:16–17; 1 Thess 1:8; 2:13–16; 2 Thess 3:1), will continue its triumphant advance. This often overlooked theme highlights both the sovereignty of God and the power of the gospel, while providing continuity with Old Testament references to the effective ‘word of the Lord’ (e.g., Isaiah 55:10-11; Jer 20:7-9; 23:29).

As we seek to be biblically-faithful missionary Christians in our day, we must allow Paul’s understanding of mission and the church to fill out our own evangelistic reflection and practice. If the gospel truly is God’s powerful and effective word of salvation, how important it is for us, like Paul, to declare it confidently and clearly—trusting that God’s gospel will bear fruit in all the world (Col 1:6). Furthermore, as we allow Paul’s reflections to shape our own, we will see each local church as rightful inheritors of the missionary task. Indeed, as entities created and governed by the dynamic gospel, local churches can be nothing other than missionary by their very nature.

Further reading:

Plummer, Robert L. Paul’s Understanding of the Church’s Mission: Did the Apostle Paul Expect the Early Christian Communities to Evangelize? Paternoster Biblical Monographs (2006). ISBN: 1-84227-333-7.

Verbum: Welcome to Verbum-a page of thoughtful comment and insight giving perspectives and overviews of topical issues. It appears in both our print and electronic editions. Reproduction and wider circulation is encouraged. Please acknowledge as "Verbum: WEA Theological News January 2007". Contributions from readers of ideas and articles (700 words) are warmly welcomed.

WEA Theological News On-line

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