Bidden om de heelheid van Gods koninkrijk - Voorwoord bij Alexander Venter

De Zuid-Afrikaanse Vineyard-theoloog Alexander Venter schreef een uitstekend boek over gebedsministry en de bediening van genezing, dat inmiddels een klassieker is: Doing Healing. Ik gebruik dit boek bij het theologisch onderwijs aan de TU Kampen en het Evangelisch College. En ik maakte er dankbaar gebruik van bij het schrijven van de nieuwe ministrycursus.

Doing Healing is (i.s.m. New Wine) nu ook vertaald in het Nederlands: Groeien in heelheid - gebedsministry en het Koninkrijk van God. Een absolute aanrader voor wie verdieping wil bij de nieuwe ministrycursus.

In deze blog kun je het voorwoord lezen dat ik schreef.

New Wine & het Koninkrijk van God (2): Jezus brengt het Koninkrijk van God

Doopdienst van de Plantagekerk (GKv) in Zwolle. Foto: Patrick Ooms

Jezus brengt het leven in al zijn volheid. Hij herstelt mensen in de liefde van God, geneest de zieken en bevrijdt wie gebonden is aan de machten van zonde en kwaad. Dit is het Koninkrijk van God! Het is gekomen in Jezus en wordt werkelijkheid door Gods Geest.

Deel 2 in een serie van 5 blogs over New Wine en het Koninkrijk van God: wat geloven wij over Jezus, Koninkrijk & Kerk? In dit tweede deel: Jezus brengt het leven in al zijn volheid.

[Deze blogs zijn overgenomen uit het eenmalige New Wine-magazine Proef!, die je kunt bestellen via new-wine.nl.]

Genezing in de tussentijd van het Koninkrijk

Welke plek hebben genezingen in het Koninkrijk dat in Jezus is begonnen? En wat betekent dit voor ons vandaag? Een aanzet voor een theologisch kader voor een genezingsbediening in de gemeente.

Ik stip drie dingen aan: de aard van Gods heil, de “timing” ervan en onze rol in de aanzegging ervan.

Dit artikel schreef ik voor een themanummer rond genezing & gebed van het kerkelijk magazine Onderweg. 

Het goede leven vieren met God (column in Onderweg)

Als navolgers van Jezus zijn we geroepen om het Koninkrijk van God te verkondigen. Maar ook als je op vakantie bent? Hoe verkondig je Gods Koninkrijk, als je voor je tentje in Frankrijk zit, met een kaasje en een glas goede wijn?

[eerder verschenen in Onderweg, 9 juli 2016]

LifeStream Europe - What does this name refer to theologically?

The name LifeStream resonates with 'live streaming': broadcasting on the internet, showing what you do realtime. As Christians we are called to ‘stream’ the new life we have in Jesus, witnessing to God's Kingdom. But what does the name refer to theologically?

Salvation & Eschatology (3): Salvation is the Coming of the Kingdom of God (Pannenberg)

The salvation of God should be understood in terms of the Kingdom of God, both Moltmann and Pannenberg argue. Jesus did not merely come to die for our sins so that his status of righteousness could be imputed to believers (as much of traditional Evangelical and Reformed theology would have it), but he came to actualize God's Kingdom in the world, to bring wholeness of life.

Last week, I explored Moltmann proposal to understand salvation in terms of the messianic Kingdom. In this blog, we'll look into Pannenberg's proposal.

[Part 10 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

Salvation & Eschatology (2): Salvation is the Coming of the Kingdom of God (Moltmann)

The salvation of God should be understood in terms of the Kingdom of God. Salvation is not about souls being salvaged from a lost world (as traditional Evangelical and Reformed piety would sometimes have it), but about God's inbreaking reign in this world.
In philosophical terms: the very substance of salvation is God's reign bringing wholeness of life.

In this blog I'll explore Moltmann's proposal to understand salvation in terms of the (messianic) Kingdom. Next week, I'll explore Pannenberg.

[Part 9 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

Salvation & Eschatology (1): Salvation is for this earth and coming in history

God's goal for us is not that we go to heaven. Our purpose and eternal destiny is on earth. God's salvation, then, is not about souls going to heaven, as in some timeless, spiritual concept of "being saved". Instead, salvation is all about this earth, and it is unfolding in God's history with the world.

In a few blogs, I'll be exploring salvation in eschatological perspective (eschatology = study of the "last things" or "the end of time"), drawing from Jurgen Moltmann and Wolfhart Pannenberg.

[Part 8 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

How to Understand Salvation? A Great Diversity in Biblical Language

The wide array of diverse (and sometimes seemingly conflicting) conceptions of salvation within the Christian tradition points at the complexity of the Biblical language on salvation. Firstly, it is not that easy to grasp the meaning of the Greek word that is translated with “salvation”, soteria. Secondly, there is a wide variety of Biblical metaphors to describe what actually happens when salvation is brought about.

So what language does the Bible use to refer to God's "salvation"?

[Part 7 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

How to Understand Salvation? Critiques on a Narrow Understanding

In the previous post in this series, we saw that "salvation" has often narrowly been understood in terms of "justification" (Reformed theology),  or "saving souls" (Evangelical theology). Over the past decades, this narrow understanding has increasingly been criticized, both by Western and non-Western theologians.

God's salvation, it has been argued, must be understood to comprise social justice, healing, and/or ecology.

[Part 6 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

How to Understand Salvation? A Typological Overview

New Wine understands God's salvation as "wholeness of life", but this is a contested concept. For mainstream Protestant theologians - and maybe even more so for the Evangelical and Reformed theologians among them - embracing the concept of “salvation as wholeness” isn’t obvious at all. In fact, it is a concept that is mostly overlooked and if not overlooked, it is often contested because of specific theological concerns.

How do the Orthodox-Reformed, Evangelical and Modern Protestant traditions perceive "salvation"? A typological overview.

[Part 5 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]

New Wine and Salvation as Wholeness

Theological debates on charismatic renewal tend to focus on its most striking features, such as practices of prophecy, speaking in tongues, healing and deliverance. My PhD-research on New Wine theology takes a different perspective, namely that of soteriology: How is salvation defined, and how does it function?

[Part 4 in a series on New Wine and systematic theology, drawn from my research master thesis Life to the Full. From Creation to Re-Creation, VU University 2014]