“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” -Mark 12:30-31 Some people like to say that the Great Commandment is really two commandments--- love God, love Others. I don’t like …
Continue reading Three Aspects/Commands in the Great Commandment? Reflections
I teach a class on cultural anthropology. I like to use case studies. Paul and Frances Hiebert wrote a book Case Studies in Missions. I find it very useful. (Another good book is Alan Neely's Christian Mission: A Case Study Approach.) One of cases in the book by the Hieberts had to do with a …
The Great Commandment exists in three forms== Listed as separate commandments. The first is listed in Deuteronomy 6:5 ("You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."), while the second part is in Leviticus 19:18 ("you shall love your neighbor as yourself"). Listed …
Read two things recently regarding Christian ministry in Buddhist countries. One was an interview one of my students had with a devout Buddhist from his own country. This person was fairly familiar with basic Christian doctrines and many of the differences between Christianity and Buddhism. When my student asked her about what she thought about …
I have never cared for the assumption that the foundation for Christian Missions is the Great Commission. There are reasons for this, some of which I have talked of elsewhere. However, let's take a fairly simple case as shown in two options: 1. Great Commission is given priority over the Great Commandment. Behavior is given …
Continue reading Which Comes First— Great Commission or Commandment
In "Ninety-two Questions on Humility in Theology and Science" (1999), Sir John Templeton listed as question #74: "Is trying to help in God's creativity processes a way to express our worship and thankfulness?" I suppose that is a good question. One of the seeming defining characteristics of Man is the ability to be creative, and …