Dan Kingsley .com

Just a quick post to say that I have spent the last couple of days creating a new website for James College Christian Union.

When doing this I decided that it needed to be as simple and clear as possible, while still clear and good looking!

I did this by using using div’s and then animating them to appear and hide.

Check the website out at http://www.james.uycu.org.uk

Since I got back from Spring Harvest I must have been asked the question: “Do you know anything about Spring Harvest and Word Alive, and what happened?” My answer to that question 4 weeks ago was… “yeah I think it was something to do with Steve Chalke saying something in a book about something that Word Alive didn’t like.” The most unhelpful answer ever! This topic is pretty old since the split happened back in 2007, but I thought since lots of people have asked recently, I would write something quickly on it.

OK, I realise a lot of you how read this blog probably don’t know anything about this, or just couldn’t care less! Fair enough, you might learn something if you keep reading… or just stop reading now

For people who are interested, and don’t know much about this topic. Spring Harvest is an inter-denominational Christian conference which happens over Easter over 3 weeks in both Skegness and Butlins (normally, weeks sometimes vary) which attracts about 55,000 people. Word Alive was a large student Christian conference held the week before (normally) the first week of Spring Harvest at Skegness. It was jointly organised by Spring Harvest, UCCF and the Keswick Convention. Word Alive normally attracted about 2000 people. So far no problems! In 2007, it was announced that Word Alive would be relaunched (as New Word Alive), to be held in Pwllheli rather than Skegness, and would no longer be part of Spring harvest. Now this is when people ask why?!

The simple answer (that both sides agree on) is that disagreements over Spring Harvest leadership team member Steve Chalke’s view of the atonement played at least some part in the split. That’s slightly clearer than my waffle of a statement I first came up with. There is no way I can go into this topic in massive amounts of detail, or really explain properly why Chalke disagrees with Penal Substitutiary Atonement, but I will do my best to give you a basis to find out more if you choose.

OK firstly, what is Penal Substitutiary Atonement:

Penal substitution is a theory of the atonement (how God can forgive our sins), especially associated with the Reformed tradition. It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), therefore satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins.

The debate all started when Chalke compared  God’s act of punishing Jesus in our place to a “cosmic child abuser”, in his book, The Lost Message of Jesus.

Steve Chalke has since come to confirm his view on penal substitution. In the recent book, The Atonement Debate. He says:

“Though the sheer bluntness of my imagery shocked some, I contend that, in truth, it represents nothing more than a stark unmasking of what I understand to be the violent, pre-Christian thinking behind the popular theory of penal substitutionary atonement. Thus, whilst having great respect for many of those who hold what, I readily concede, is currently regarded as orthodoxy within modern evangelicalism, I will attempt to set out through this essay why I believe it to be biblically, culturally, and pastorally deficient and even dangerous.”

Back to the split between Spring Harvest and Word Alive, UCCF said the following:

“Steve Chalke has made his dislike of penal substitution very clear by likening God’s act of punishing Jesus in our place to a cosmic child abuser. In good conscience, we simply could not allow Steve to teach during the Word Alive week. We’re very sad that after 14 years of fruitful ministry, Spring Harvest has decided to end the Word Alive partnership because we feel unable to shift on this position.”

It is interesting to note here, that it was Spring Harvest that initiated the split, not Word Alive, but it was Word Alive who refused to allow Chalke to speak during their conference.

For a bit more information on Chalke’s view check out Adrian Warnock’s site here where he has multiple posts with Chalke’s view on the topic.

OK, so I’m not going to go into a massive debate about whether Chalke is right or wrong because it would make this post even longer, and I’m by no means informed enough. But my view on Penal Substitution is pretty strong, and I do believe that we all deserve punishment for our sins, and that Jesus did die in substitution for us, and therefore allowing us to have our sins forgiven! (i.e. I disagree with Chalke). I might write a post at some point explaining and backing up why I actually believe this, but I’ll save that for another day. I would also like to say though, that I do still highly rate Chalke as a Bible teacher, but I believe he is doing an amazing job in this country with all the work that he is doing, but for him to disagree on such a core doctrine really surprises me!

I’m not going to lie, I nicked some of the general info about spring harvest, word alive, and penal substitution from Wikipedia.

This is just a short message really. Sorry I havn’t posted much recently, I have just got back to York after being at Spring Harvest for the last few days over Easter. I had such an amazing time, got challenged a lot, worshiped God, and come back with a ton of notes from all the talks and seminars which I will need to work my way through. So I will hopefully have another update at some point outlining some of the things I got from the week.

The following video was shown during one of the seminars, and I thought I would share it with you… enjoy!

I’m not going to take any credit for this whatso ever. I just found the following article on a blog by a guy from America called Bob Hamp. He works for Gateway Church in Texas. His blog can be found at http://www.bobhamp.com/ which I really recommend you visit – even though he has only just started it recently. Below is the article:

Thinking Differently.  Thinking Different.  Thinking Differently

It seems like a small difference, but these phrases reflect much more than simply good or bad grammar.  The difference between the two is the difference between freedom and bondage.

An adjective (different) describes a person place or thing.  An adverb (differently) describes an action. To think different, implies a change in the content of our thoughts.  The action would be described this way.

“Don’t think this…think that”…“don’t wear this outfit…wear that one”

The implication is to change the content, information, or data in your mind.  A woman’s perogative, right?

To think differently implies a change in the way we think.  The action would be desribed this way.

“Open the eyes of my heart that I might see the power you have extended to me, in Your Son, Jesus”

Now, using the adverb instead of the adjective,  we are not trying to change the thoughts in our mind, rather, we are making an overall change in the way that thoughts get in, and what we do with them once they are in.  Hmmmm.

Certain kinds of thoughts can only enter in through certain ways of thinking. You cannot apprehend falling in love through objective reason and logical deduction.  You might be able to describe things that happen when you fall in love through those cognitive processes; but to actually experience it…well, cognition is simply not the channel upon which love is broadcast.  The irony is, that one who logically deducts the concepts of love may consider himself to know love.

Paul says that spiritual things are spiritually understood.  This means that the kinds of  things God is broadcasting may not be fully apprehended by observation, reason and deduction.  The irony is, that one who logically deducts things about God and theology may consider himself to know the things of God.

Jesus invites us to think differently when He says “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”  The word repent, literally means “to think differently…”.  Sadly we often hear this as Jesus admonishment to think different.  We hear this as if He wants us to change the content of our minds.  ”Stop stealing, start praying, stop cursing, start giving”.  Exchange the bad content for good content.  Change the Knowledge of Evil for the Knowledge of Good.   If we think different, the best we can hope for is that, once again, we can try harder.

If we think differently, it is as if we change the lenses over our eyes, and the filters over our ears.  If we see things differently, it is almost impossible to do things the same.  Hear Jesus words differently:

“Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”…”Change the way you take in reality, because the realm of God, has come among men…”

Think differently. He is near.

I just thought I would post a quick update to let you know what is going on in my life regarding Uni work! I have just finished my last term of lectures, and am currently on my Easter ‘Holiday’. I say holiday… actually its just 5 weeks in which I need to revise for my 5 exams (which are all in the first week back after Easter, the week starting the 27th April) and also carry on working on my project (www.elec.dankingsley.com).

I am staying in York for most of the holiday since I seem to revise better in the library at uni, but I have a nice break over the Easter weekend since I am going to Spring Harvest (a Christian conference held every Easter for those of you who don’t know what it is).

So yep, its a very work based holiday