Bend, Oregon Apologetics Conference: 11/7-8

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Church Elders Discuss Kingdom Triangle

The blogger at MetroPuritan (a college pastor in Iowa) talks about how he and his fellow elders read and discussed Kingdom Triangle and it's relevancy for their church:

We met yesterday. The discussion centered around the supernatural workings of the Spirit and how that looks in our church.

Let me just say, if you're a person who has to have closure- you'd be frustrated by our meetings.

We floundered around for awhile, then never really landed the plane. There were passionate discussions followed by a resolve to keep seeking God for all he wants to do in our church.

So if you're looking for a "as a result of this meeting, we are going to..." I think the closest thing I can say is "...pray with more faith."

It's so refreshing to hear how other leaders are taking Kingdom Triangle seriously for their life and their church.

In another post, the college pastor provides a helpful review of Kingdom Triangle and says, "the last 60 pages are truly prophetic for the American church. I think I would consider these 'must read' pages from Moreland, one of the great Christian thinkers of our time"

In relationship to the elder meeting, the blogger and a friend decided to do something fun with the book ... (read here)!

Moreland Responds to Bill Maher's Religulous

JP Moreland responds to Bill Maher's "Religulous" film:

Religulous presents faith as completely opposed to reason-that faith is believing any silly thing you want. But a biblical view of faith is that faith is actually based on knowledge and reason; it's not opposed to it ... Ultimately Maher-who calls himself a proponent of doubt-is a bit too skeptical for his own good. If you're too skeptical, then you'll be sure that you won't believe something that's false, but you will also fail to believe things that are true, things that might help you.

Kingdom Triangle demonstrates that you can be both thoughtful and emotionally alive without being weird.

Maher's film is in many ways a tale of got-ya moments where religious people (especially Christians) are caught acting "irrational."

But as Kingdom Triangle demonstrates, Christianity is way more nuanced about "head" and "heart" than Maher lets on.

Moreover, as JP demonstrates in Kingdom Triangle Christianity is fundamentally a "knowledge tradition" and not a privatized "faith tradition."

Moreland On The Lost Virtue of Happiness

Kingdom Triangle at New Life Church

On Sunday August 31st, JP Moreland spoke at three services at New Song Church in Irvine, CA.

JP's talks specifically emphasized the "second leg" of the Kingdom Triangle with it's emphasis on internal spiritual formation.

Of his time at New Song Church, JP said,

It was a wonderful time! People are hungry for authentic spiritual living and, based on feedback from the church staff, the message was quite impactful. We sold about 100 copies of Kingdom Triangle people were very enthusiastic about reading the book. Before the second service, I met a person who had already read Kingdom Triangle and enjoyed it immensely.

It is so very sad to me to see part of the church reject the experiential, more "mystical" aspect of our walk with the Lord Jesus, thinking that they are biblical and doing the right thing. All they are actually doing (though I believe they are well-intentioned, but, of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions) is robbing themselves of their God-given invitation to a tender, intimate walk with God. I have even seen it argued, that because Henri Nouwen was uncomfortable with the claim that Jesus was the only way, that anyone who loves his spiritual writings and promotes some of those teachings is hurting people and promoting heresy.

This sort of "argument" would not last a day when Christians were more aware of why they believed what they believed. If a person teaches about a-k, and is wrong about, say, b, it does not follow that the person was wrong about d, e and f. I seldom agree with every thing anyone teaches, including Nouwen, but there are treasures in his thought that have enriched millions to walk more faithfully with God.

Kingdom Triangle & In Search of a Confident Faith

JP Moreland teams-up with Klaus Issler in a new book that helps to expand the work of Kingdom Triangle.

In Search of a Confident Faith: Overcoming Barriers to Trusting in God was born out of the desire to correct gross misunderstandings of the nature of faith, to explain why there is such an arrangement between us and God/His Word, and provide specific, practical guidelines for developing/strengthening one's faith in the months ahead. The book gives a readable, accessible, solid biblical and philosophical treatment of faith, and it focuses on dealing with generalized doubt, specific doubts, emotional hindrances, the supernatural, and guidance.

In Search of a Confident Faith intersects with Kingdom Triangle in two ways. First, it has an an emphasis on God's special intervention in our lives as an aid to growth in God-confidence, and it thereby applies and expands Kingdom Triangle. Second, its emphasis on the role of the intellect in cultivating God-confidence is an expansion of the Kingdom-Triangle emphasis on the life of the mind.

Moreland says, "Klaus and I are very expectant about this book and, as far as we can tell, there is nothing like it out there. So it should be a fresh, refreshing read for our brothers and sisters."

More about the book and about Klaus Issler can be found at www.klausissler.com

Jolly Blogger on Kingdom Triangle

David Wayne's Jollyblogger consider's Moreland's discussion on the "empty self" in Kingdom Triangle and detects it's further significance for discerning "spiritual narcissists."

Read David's post here.