"North American evangelicals tend to read the Bible through an individualistic and spiritualized lens. Built into that lens is the idea that future-individual-salvation of the soul is the center of Christianity. The lens causes many evangelicals to interpret all else in relation to this center... As long as this lens is in place, much of the Biblical holistic gospel will either be spiritualized, rejected or considered an appendix to the gospel."
- The gospel is both individual and global. Both the individual blessings of justification by faith, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life and the global blessings of reconciliation with God, reclaim of creation, and social justice are immensely important.
- Jesus proclaimed the radical idea that salvation has nothing to do with race and nationality but just faith, which drove His contemporaries nuts.
- The Old Testament scripture foretold the coming Christ (Isaiah 61), but when Christ preaches on this (Luke 4), He makes it clear that only part of the prophecy was fulfilled at that point. It had become, and remains today, "the favorable year of the Lord," though when Christ returns it will be "the day of vengeance of our God."
- Similar to D-Day (when the war turned to an inevitable win for the Allies), the victory for the Kingdom has already been won, but VE-Day (when the soldiers came home victorious) is not yet here. We need to continue fighting for the Kingdom until there is a witness in all people groups.
- The Lord's Prayer acknowledges that God's name is hallowed too irregularly, his Kingdom has come too little, His will is done too infrequently, and that God can change this situation. Our prayer, as a rebellion against the status quo, should reflect this.
The session closed with this clip: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJtSWqedMK4).
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