scholarly journals The deaf cannot see: An accumulation of blindness and deafness as combined theme in Isaiah 42 and 43

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Van der Walt
Keyword(s):  
People Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People

In the Bible the words blind and deaf occur nine times in the same sentence. An accumulation of such sentences is found in Isaiah 42 and 43, where it occurs three times (Is 42:18, 19; 43:8). Blindness is also mentioned in two further sentences in these chapters. Not only is it stated that the people of God is blind, but Israel also accuses Yahweh that their way is hidden from him (Is 40:27). It is because of this accusation, pertaining to an alleged blindness on Yahweh’s side, that the question of hearing is raised. He answers to this accusation in the heavenly court with the questions ‘Do you not know? Have you not heard?’ From there on God makes it clear that seeing is dependent on hearing. In a heavenly court of law, the wrong perception that God’s people had about the exile was put straight and a new beginning for the exiles was subsequently made. The theme of blind- and deafness is thereby continued from Isaiah 1 and 6 in the verdict in the heavenly court in Isaiah 43, where it became clear that the cure for the spiritual blindness of God’s people is not related to their eyes, but to their ears.In die Bybel kom die woorde blind en doof nege keer saam in dieselfde sin voor. ’n Opeenhoping van hierdie sinne word in Jesaja 42 en 43 aangetref waar dit drie maal voorkom (Jes 42:18, 19; 43:8). Blindheid word ook in twee verdere sinne in hierdie hoofstukke genoem. Nie alleen word dit gestel dat die volk van God blind is nie, maar die volk beskuldig God dat Hy nie raaksien wat van hulle word nie (Jes 40:27). In die hemelse hof antwoord God op hierdie beskuldiging met die vrae ‘Weet julle nie? Het julle nie gehoor nie?’ Van daardie punt af maak God dit duidelik dat sien van hoor afhanklik is. Hierdie verkeerde persepsie van die volk oor God se sogenaamde blindheid vir hulle welstand tydens die ballingskap, word reggestel en ’n nuwe begin word gemaak. Die tema van blind- en doofheid word sodoende uit Jesaja 1 en 6 voortgesit in die uitspraak wat in die hemelse hof gemaak word (Jes 43). Daar word dit duidelik dat die oplossing vir die geestelike blindheid van die volk nie verband hou met hulle sig nie, maar met hulle gehoor.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Economic Wealth of God’s People from Nomadic to Post Exilic Era

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Halim Wiryadinata
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Economic Wealth ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People ◽  
Promise Land ◽  
Wrath Of God

The terminology of the economic wealth is not actually related to the poor in terms of poverty and wealth in the Bible. The terminology of wealth and poverty is not a matter of relationship to the business or economy, but they are rather to have relationships to seek the righteousness of God. Thus, one should clarify the meaning of wealth and poverty in order to seek the real meaning of the Old Testament theology. The eras of Nomadic to Post Exilic give the idea of how God dealt with the people of God in term of sinful nature. It is not the matter of the economic situation, but it is blessedness for the people who seek Him with all their heart. Nomadic era gives an idea of how God gives the promise land to the people of Israel as long as they can keep the covenant. However, throughout the history the Israelites never entered into the promise land, except Caleb and Joshua. The picture of Babylonia is the wrath of God to the people of Israel who never listen to the command of God. In conclusion, seeking God with full heart will find ‘rest’ forever and keep the promise forever more. Keeping the righteousness of God will bring justice to the poor and let the poverty be away from the poor.

scholarly journals Teologi, Studi Biblika, dan Misi

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-131
Author(s):  
Ailsa Barker
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Ministerial Training ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People ◽  
Missional Engagement ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Church

Missional hermeneutics is the interpretation of Scripture as it relates to the missionary task of the church. Four elements comprise a missional hermeneutics: 1) the missional trajectory of the biblical story being the foremost element, which also underlies the other three, 2) a narrative throughout Scripture centered on Christ and intended to equip the people of God for their missional task, 3) the missional context of the reader, in which attention moves from the task of equipping to the community being equipped, a community that is active, and 4) a missional engagement with culture and the implications thereof. Through the life of God’s people an alternative is offered, together with an invitation to come and join. Because the separation of theology from the mission of the church has distorted theology, all theology needs to be reformulated from the perspective of missio Dei and from the realization that the church is a sent community, missional in its very being. A missional hermeneutics bears implications upon the congregation, worship, preaching, discipleship, education, ministerial training, and the missionary task in multicultural contexts.

scholarly journals Towards a New Homiletic

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Liz Shercliff
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Feminist Methodology ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
New Homiletic ◽  
Women Preachers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Church ◽  
Shared Narrative

Feminism’s contribution to homiletics so far has arguably been restricted to exploring gender difference in preaching. In 2014, however, Jennifer Copeland identified a need not merely to ‘include women “in the company of preachers” but to craft a new register for the preaching event’. This article considers what that new register might be and how it might be taught in the academy. It defines preaching as ‘the art of engaging the people of God in their shared narrative by creatively and hospitably inviting them into an exploration of biblical text, by means of which, corporately and individually, they might encounter the divine’ and proposes that in both the Church and the Academy, women’s voices are suppressed by a rationalist hegemony. For the stories of women to be heard, a new homiletic is needed, in which would-be preachers first encounter themselves, then the Bible as themselves and finally their congregation in communality. Findings of researchers in practical preaching discover that women preachers are being influenced by feminist methodology, while the teaching of preaching is not. In order to achieve a hospitable preaching space, it is proposed that the Church and the Academy work together towards a new homiletic.

scholarly journals Jean-Marc Éla’s Hut and Empty Granary: Rethinking the Social Significance of Theology in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Ugochukwu Iheanacho
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
God's People ◽  
Village Life ◽  
The Church

Jean-Marc Éla, in his book My Faith as an African (1988), articulates a pastoral vision for the church in Africa. According to Éla, the “friends of the gospel” must be conscious of God’s presence “in the hut of a mother whose granary is empty.” This awakening arises from the capacity of theologians “to catch the faintest murmurs of the Spirit,” and to stay within earshot of what is happening in the ecclesial community. The vocation of an African theologian, as a witness of the faith and a travelling companion of God’s people, obliges him/her “to get dirty in the precarious conditions of village life.” Decades later, this thought of Éla echoes in Pope Francis’ pastoral vision: “I would prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its security” (Evangelii Gaudium, 49). The purpose of this article is to espouse the pastoral vision of Éla in light of the liberating mission of African theologians. This mission goes beyond armchair theologising toward engaging the people of God “under the tree.” With the granary understood as a metaphor for famine—and famine itself being the messenger of death—the article will also argue that the “friends of the gospel” are not at liberty to shut their eyes and drift off to sleep with a clear conscience, amidst a declining African social context.

Creation, Sin and Its Curse, and the People of God: an Intertextual Reading of Genesis 1-12 and Acts 1-7

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-160
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People ◽  
Genesis 1

AbstractThis essay offers an intertextual reading of Gen 1-12 and Acts 1-7. Specifically, it considers how three soteriological themes (i.e., creation, sin and its curse, and creation of God's people) play a central role in the narratives of Gen 1-12 and Acts 1-7 and how reading these narratives intertextually can enhance one's appreciation for the evocative power of these themes in Genesis and for their distant echoes in Acts.

Building the “Wall of Separation”: Construction Zone for Historians

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-880
Author(s):  
W. Clark Gilpin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
American People ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Roger Williams ◽  
The Church

The argument of Mark deWolfe Howe's The Garden and the Wilderness turned on the contrast Howe drew between two uses of a single phrase: “wall of separation.” Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in 1802, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” More than a century and a half earlier, in 1644, the colonial advocate of religious freedom Roger Williams had employed the same phrase in a letter to his theological opponent, the Reverend John Cotton of Boston. According to Williams's reading of the Bible, the people of God—Jews and Christians—were “separate from the world,” and, “when they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made His garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world; and that all that shall be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world, and added unto his church or garden.”

scholarly journals Die kerk en mense op straat in die informele behuisingsgebiede in Mangaung/Bloemfontein

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Verster
Keyword(s):  
Informal Settlements ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
Informal Community ◽  
The Church

The challenges posed by informal settlements are enormous, also in the Bloemfontein/ Mangaung area. The question asked in this article was how the church can reach out to people on the streets and in the informal settlements. Research was conducted to establish the views of the church and the task it has from randomly approached people on the streets. The Bible speaks positively on the task of the people of Israel and the church to reach out to foreigners. The church in informal settlements should see the people on the streets as its responsibility. A very important aspect is to gain structures in the informal community for the churches to be present in a more concrete way. Although the church remains the people of God and is not limited to structures, the presence of structures can in many ways enhance the positive help and influence of the church in the community; even to the people on the streets.

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