John Azumah from London School of Theology spoke on The Whole Gospel. He reminded us of how far the world had come from the Edinburgh conference of 1910, highlighting how the choice of him and Elaine as speakers for the conference – a black man and a woman would never have happened then.
He highlighted how the world is full of news, but not good news, the church is full of good, but nothing newsworthy. We need to create good news.
His second challenge was our narrowness on how we define the gospel:
- Christians say the gospel is Matthew to John
- Theologians often say the gospel is Genesis 3 to John
- John says it should be Geneses 1 to Revelation 22 – the whole of God’s word
John’s last key point was that the distinctive of Christianity is grace. For example, Islam accepts that Jesus is word, and that he became flesh. It’s the action of the cross and the grace that is proclaimed and demonstrated that makes Jesus unique.
big year next year for edinburgh 1910 celebrations. i might go there in june but will surely go to L3 in Cape town.