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Thanks for Nothing: Random Acts of Kindness and What... Over the past few months, I've been hearing about some self-confessing Christians doing, promoting and priding themselves for "random acts of kindness." Have you heard about these things? It is when...

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Sermon - Glued Together by One Gospel (Eph 4:1-6) This sermon, “Glued Together by One Gospel: Maintaining a House that Needs Renovation” (Ephesians 4:1-6) , was originally preached on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church-Melville...

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Sermon - United through the Gospel: Once Separated,... This sermon, “United through the Gospel: Once Separated, Now United" (Ephesians 2:11-22) , was originally preached on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at English Worship Service of the North Toronto Chinese Baptist...

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Sermon - Loved in the Gospel: Pushing for More instead... This sermon, “Loved in the Gospel: Pushing for More instead of Cruising” (Ephesians 3:14-21) , was originally preached on Sunday, July 19, 2009 at English Worship Service of the North Toronto Chinese...

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Sermon - Saved by the Gospel: Becoming Trophies of... This sermon, “Saved by the Gospel: Becoming Trophies of God’s Amazing Grace" (Ephesians 2:1-10) , was originally preached on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church-Melville Mission...

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Biblical Inerrancy in the Statement of Faith of our Seminaries

Posted on : 04-07-2010 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : Bibliology

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Here is a survey of biblical inerrancy in the statement of faith of various seminaries:

USA:

Fuller Theological Seminary
III. Scripture is an essential part and trustworthy record of this divine self-disclosure. All the books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, are the written word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. They are to be interpreted according to their context and purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through them in living power.
http://www.fuller.edu/about-fuller/mission-and-history/statement-of-faith.aspx

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
http://www.tiu.edu/divinity/connect/whoarewe/statementoffaith/

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
I. The sixty-six canonical books of the Bible as originally written were inspired of God, hence free from error. They constitute the only infallible guide in faith and practice.
http://www.gordonconwell.edu/visitors/statement_faith

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Abstract of Principles
I. The Scriptures
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience.
Baptist Faith & Message
I. The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
http://www.sbts.edu/about/

The Present State of Nature: The “Already” of Eschatological Fulfillment (Colossians 1:20)

Posted on : 15-05-2010 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : New Testament

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D.J. Moo, “Nature in the New Creation: New testament Eschatology and the Environment,” JETS 49 (2006), 473-474:

We may now, finally, ask about the role of the natural world in this universal peace. Two points suggest that, while clearly not dominant in Paul’s argument here, a restoration of the natural world is included. First, to reiterate a point made earlier, verses 15–20 explicitly emphasize the cosmic dimension of Christ’s lordship. If the natural world is included in the scope of the “all things” that Christ rules as mediator of creation, it must also be included in the scope of the “all things” that he rules as mediator of reconciliation. Second, Rom 8:19–22 demonstrates that the world of nature has in some manner been effected by the Fall and is, therefore, in need of restoration. At the minimum, therefore, Col 1:20 confirms our findings from Rom 8:19– 22 and projects them into the present: the eschatological fulfillment of God’s promises continues, according to the NT witness, to include the “land,” expanded to the entire cosmos; and that program of fulfillment has been inaugurated already. But what will this “reconciliation” look like? With humans, as we have seen, reconciliation involves especially a restored relationship with God. With evil spiritual beings, on the other hand, it involves subjugation. What is involved is a restoration (with eschatological intensification) of the original conditions of God’s first creation. God’s people will be brought back into a relation of harmony with their creator; evil will be judged and banished; the earth itself will be “liberated from its bondage to decay.”[95] Furthermore, while the “vertical” dimension of reconciliation is clearly to the fore in verse 20—God has reconciled all things “to himself”—a horizontal aspect is probably included as well.[96] This is because the pacification of spiritual beings has specific implications for Christians’ relationship to them: because God has subjugated them to himself, they have been “disarmed” and no longer have the power to determine the destiny of God’s people. Therefore, we might suggest that the reconciliation secured by Christ means that nature is “already” restored in principle to that condition in which it can fulfill the purpose for which God created it and thereby praise its Creator (cf. Rev 5:13). At the same time, reconciliation may also imply that Christians, renewed in the image of God (see below), are both themselves brought into harmony with creation and, in light of the “not yet” side of reconciliation, are to work toward the goal of creation’s final transformation.

cf. Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, PNTC (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2008), 133-137.

95 Somewhat similar is Thomas Torrance’s notion of redemption as a “reordering” of the cosmos, a restoration of the God-given order present in creation (cf. Divine and Contingent Order [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981] 138; see also McGrath, Nature 175–76).

96 Several scholars suggest, indeed, that Paul’s notion of reconciliation here might be at least partially indebted to Greek and Jewish notions of the need for a cessation of the strife that char- acterizes the world (see Eduard Schweizer, “Versöhnung des Alls (Kol 1,20),” in Jesus Christus in Historie und Theologie: Festschrift für Hans Conzelmann zum 60. Geburtstag [ed. Georg Strecker; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1975] 487–501; Hartman, “Universal Reconciliation” 109–21).

Sermon - Peace with God (Romans 5:1-5)

Posted on : 01-05-2010 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : sermons

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Peace with God (Rom 5:1-5) from Alex Leung on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Peace with God” (Romans 5:1-5), was originally preached on Thursday, April 22, 2010 in Dr. Hershael York’s Christian Preaching class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

You can find more sermons by Alex S. Leung at http://sixsteps.org/category/sermons/

Un/limited Atonement or Multiple Intentions View (Four Point Calvinist Position)

Posted on : 30-03-2010 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : Theology

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God’s intentions in the death of Christ are complex not simple, multiple not single:

1) Christ died for the purpose of securing the sure and certain salvation of his own, his elect.
2) Christ died for the purpose of paying the penalty for the sin of all people making it possible for all who believe to be saved.
3) Christ died for the purpose of securing the bone fide offer of salvation to all people everywhere.
4) Christ died for the purpose of providing an additional basis for condemnation for those who hear and reject the gospel that has been genuinely offered to them.
5) Christ died for the purpose of reconciling all things to the Father.

http://post.ly/WhbT

Repentance is a Gift: What God demands, God also grants

Posted on : 19-03-2010 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : Theology

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24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant (δώῃ) them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

2 Tim 2:24-25

διδωμι has a wide range of meaning, but it is always related to “giving.” Perhaps the closest to our passage in BDAG is “grant, allow.” So repentance is a gift, but how so?

My conclusion is that there is a road that leads from a gentle heart open to the convicting working of God’s Spirit, to patterns of sin, to the hard heart in which God gives people over to their sin (Rom 1:24,26, 28).

Earlier on in one’s journey, we are sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit and repent easily. But as we continue to neglect the voice of the Spirit, as we insist on our sin, as we establish patterns of unrepentance, those patterns become more and more entrenched.  Eventually, because we are so familiar with our patterns of behavior, we don’t even see the patterns and feel totally justified in how we live.

Bill Mounce @ Koinonia blog.

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