Chalke Talk

The notion of “eternal punishment,” is not only misinformed, Steve argues, but it’s also not what Paul nor Jesus made of the afterlife. This leads many people to the question, “What about the sheep and goats”? The infamous passage that so many believe gives us a glimpse into “the judgment day.”

This week Steve continues on from last week with how we've misunderstood the doctrine of hell, particularly what Paul thinks about it. As Steve has said over and over again, our western-framed understanding of eternal damnation would just not have registered for Paul. But as many people will say, Steve recognises, "Paul was a follower of Jesus and not the other way around." So what did Jesus really mean when he spoke about hell, particularly the word Gehenna.

The judgement of God, and often his followers, is frequently cited as the main reason that turns people away from Christianity. A religion that is meant to be about love, it seems, cannot be about judgement as well. This is exactly the point that Steve tackles in this week of Chalke Talk.

It’s a common misconception, and common because we often don’t realize we’re making it. Steve asks, this week, Why do we think Paul thought like us? Paul wasn’t westerner, a modernist, liberal nor a conservative. He was deeply a product of his culture, and his encounter with the gospel.

Following on from last week’s Chalke Talk, questioning why an often misinterpreted idea of the afterlife still makes its home in mainstream Christianity, Steve asks is every exclusion a failure of love?

Would God, who is described as the definition of pure love, punish people with infinite and eternal torment based on decisions and actions taken in their few short years of life on earth? Or, similarly, did Paul understand God to be vengeful and bigoted, as he is often painted, or a God that loved each of and believes in each of us to start with?

Chalke Talk 85: Would The God Of Love Choose To Condemn Anyone To Everlasting Punishment? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 84: Did The Apostle Paul Believe In Hell Or Damnation? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 83: Has The Church Misunderstood The Afterlife? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 82: What’s Beyond The “ABC’s” Of Christianity? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 81: A God Of Love, Or Megalomanic? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 80: What Is The Opposite Of God's Love? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 79: Was Luther's Mistake The Biggest Misreading Of The Bible Ever by The Open Church Network

Ephesians 2:8-9, argues Steve, has been at the core of both our misunderstandings but also heated debates since the reformation. Grace is a free gift, but where it gets difficult, Steve argues, is around “Grace through faith. Surely it’s about one or the other. Grace or our faith? It is either a free gift or a very big effort.” Buy Steve's book here: openchurch.network/lostmessageofpaul Buy tickets to Steve's upcoming conference here: http://bit.ly/2LB2PYL

This week is the release of Steve’s latest book The Lost Message of Paul! As such, he asks the question in this week’s episode of Chalke Talk that the book is centred around: has the church misunderstood Paul, badly? In answer to this, he’s already received some questions as to whether this book is meant to be anti-bible or anti-church. Tune in for yourself and make sure to get a copy of the book before Thursday when the pre-order discount ends. You can pre-order your copy of Steve's new book, Lost Message of Paul, here: http://bit.ly/2VDOhrU Buy your ticket for THE LOST MESSAGE OF PAUL a one-day conference exploring the wider themes of the book here: https://bit.ly/2QIllhD

Last week, Steve argued that “saved by faith alone” is possibly a “doctrine of straw.” This week, he continues to argue, in line with the message of his upcoming book “The Lost Message of Paul,” that this doctrine of straw is responsible for so much of Protestant Theology. And thus, how we’ve misunderstood Paul.

 You can pre-order your copy of Steve's new book (pre-order discount ends on Thursday 20 June), The Lost Message of Paul, here: http://bit.ly/2VDOhrU Buy your ticket for THE LOST MESSAGE OF PAUL a one-day conference exploring the wider themes of the book here: https://bit.ly/2QIllhD

“Most informed Christians know that Luther had a problem with the New Testament book written by James. He called it an ‘epistle of straw’ and campaigned to have it removed from the Bible.” And it’s exactly why, a glossed over but important fact, that brings Steve to this week’s episode of Chalke Talk. You can pre-order your copy of Steve's new book, Lost Message of Paul, here: http://bit.ly/2VDOhrU RSVP for the BOOK LAUNCH with Giles Fraser on June 13th here: https://bit.ly/30S30TX Buy your ticket for THE LOST MESSAGE OF PAUL a one-day conference exploring the wider themes of the book here: https://bit.ly/2QIllhD

Does part of our misunderstanding around Paul comes from the fact that his letters are so often used to bolster preachers’ pulpits? As Steve puts it, in this week’s episode of Chalke Talk, “Old-time preachers could get away with yanking a couple of verses out of Paul’s overall thought (or anyone else’s for that matter) out of context, and then ‘spinning’ them as a prop to support their own pre-developed ideas. But we have a name for that now; we call it fake news.” You can pre-order your copy of Steve's new book, Lost Message of Paul, here: http://bit.ly/2VDOhrU RSVP for the BOOK LAUNCH with Giles Fraser on June 13th here: https://bit.ly/30S30TX Buy your ticket for THE LOST MESSAGE OF PAUL a one-day conference exploring the wider themes of the book here: https://bit.ly/2QIllhD

“Jesus is Lord” is often viewed as a resounding imperial call, when actually it’s root is about living life radically. This week Steve takes looks back at the Roman Empire. an empire under which Jews, like Paul, were subjugated. As Steve puts it, “for Paul, to follow Jesus as King was the ultimate act of political revolution; because it was about liberation FROM the pursuit of power and self-interest rather than liberation THROUGH the pursuit of power and self-interest.” To say Jesus is Lord, therefore, in a time where Augustus had passed away a mere 20 years beforehand was extremely subversive. You can pre-order your copy of Steve's new book, Lost Message of Paul, here: http://bit.ly/2VDOhrU

“The culture we inhabit is just like the air that we breathe." And this week, Steve argues that trying to understand the Apostle Paul without understanding his culture will fail to give us the full picture.