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.

What do these two seemingly unrelated famous men share in common? As Steve puts it, “To attempt to understand the development of the Church worldwide without any reference to the work of the Apostle Paul is a bit like trying to trace the development of pop music without mentioning Elvis, or the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Michael Jackson and U2 all put together."

Following on from last week’s episode, Steve continues to look at the many ways Paul’s writing has been used to justify some of the church’s worst mistakes. From racism to homophobia, it’s hard to believe there is anything redeemable about Paul’s texts. As Steve puts is, “…it is no surprise that for too many he is the author of structural social exclusion.” But what happens if we start again with our interpretation of Paul? And how do we do that? Pre-order your copy of Steve's latest book, now, here: https://openchurch.network/lostmessageofpaul

This week, Steve begins a new conversation – a serious conversation that he invites us all to participate in; a conversation about the apostle Paul. Aside from Jesus, Paul is the dominant figure in the New Testament. His words have had immeasurable influence – but he also shoulders the blame for some of the church’s worst mistakes such as slavery, misogyny and homophobia. Pre-order your copy of Steve's latest book, now, here: openchurch.network/lostmessageofpaul

Paul is often referred to as “the great excluder” and is used by many to defend a legalistic view of Christianity. But what happens, Steve asks this week, if it’s not that the rules don’t matter, but the principle behind them matters more?

This week Steve continues to expand on what does “being human” involve and asks “what does living well really mean?” During Paul’s time, people were consumed with false idols and an unimaginable amount of Gods. It’s easy to write these individuals off as prehistoric, but Steve argues the same issue plagues humanity today. “The only difference is that we’re far more direct now; power, money, sex, leisure, self-interest, health and beauty – but the values and characters of our gods have remained stubbornly the same.”

In this week’s Chalke Talk, Steve shares how by deciding to follow Jesus as a teenager, he gained a great sense of connection to the huge meta-narrative of creation. Making good ethical decisions is not something that just happens – it takes years of determination and practice. But without a connection to a big story, Steve argues, it is almost impossible to have the determination and resolve to keep trying to be the best possible version of yourself. BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE here: https://bit.ly/2R99ffL

In this week’s Chalke Talk, Steve describes how the Ten Commandments have been misunderstood throughout history. Rather than a set of instructions sent by God to spoil our fun, they are instead a fantastic way of understanding God’s love for his creation. Steve challenges us to understand how we interpret our ethics as a series of principles to live by rather than seeing any commandment or part of scripture as a narrow set of rules to follow.

This week Steve reflects on his experience working with vulnerable people with Oasis and how important hope, the truth we believe about our selves, is to bright future.

Steve suggests, “To really pray is to allow the contents of your prayer to possess you; to allow it to become YOUR vision, your passion, your longing, your commitment.”

Following last week’s Chalke Talk, Steve asks what does a person who places their ‘faith’ rather than their ‘belief’ in Christ actually look like? BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke and other notable guests, here: https://openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

This week Steve picks apart a modern misconception about the church. And it’s one that both church-goers and those who don’t fall for time after time: everyone puts their faith in something. BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke and other notable guests, here: openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

This week Steve picks up on an old parable, which begs the question that underlies our behaviour as Christians. Is following Jesus a matter of making ourselves more comfortable and secure, in theology and day-to-day life? Or, is it a revolutionary u-turn that takes after the example of Jesus, including a willingness to sacrifice our privileges for the oppressed, forgotten, insignificant and powerless? BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke and other notable guests, here: https://openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

This week Steve continues to look at the ways in which we’ve misunderstood the meaning of the cross. Whether it’s underestimating or overstating its importance, something so central to the Christian faith has also become a central debate. But Steve argues that “the cross has become, not just central to the gospel, it has become the whole gospel.” And that’s problematic for multiple reasons. The cross is nothing without the resurrection and vice versa. And moreover, it’s the resurrection that fuels our understanding of the gospel going-forward. BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke and other notable guests, here: https://openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

Since Steve first commented that “God is a God of love, and ultimately loves everyone” he’s received numerous questions online and in-person about how this reconciles with different parts of the bible. One particular question he receives frequently is “If God loves everyone, what as the point of Jesus’s life?” In this week’s Chalke Talk Steve responds to this question with, “the cross isn’t about God’s anger, instead, it is about humanity’s anger, cruelty, violence, and longing for retribution – and God’s dogged love.” BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke and other notable guests, here: https://openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

Since last week when Steve concluded that "the good news is for all," many people have got in touch to ask, "if that is the case, then what is the point in being a Christian? In this week's Chalke Talk Steve responds to that important question.

This week Steve puts forward the question that has troubled Christians throughout the ages and into today: “If God's grace is real grace – amazing, undeserved, non-discriminatory, in-containable, extraordinary grace – then why wouldn’t it apply to everyone regardless of their geography, their religious beliefs or their capacity to believe in God or not?” BOOK TICKETS for IN THE NAME OF LOVE: The Bible, Gender Identity, and Same-Sex Relationships, a one-day event with Steve Chalke an other notable guests, here: https://openchurch.network/InTheNameOfLove

Steve argues, "Although life in our globalised, multi-faith, multi-cultural world, highlights freshly some big questions for the Church, in truth, they are only ones which have always been there." And Salvation is one of those big questions. For those who argue a more deterministic view there's an implicit "us and them" perspective which mischaracterises who God is: love. But yet, this is something we all wrestle with.

Chalke Talk 53: Does God always get his own way? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 52: Is the Bible the Word of God, or does it point to the Word of God? by The Open Church Network

Chalke Talk 54: How do we take evil seriously? by The Open Church Network

In the past weeks, Steve has been looking at what it means to "Love others" and "Love ourselves," but this week unpacks why it is so difficult for us "to love God." Some may attribute this to a lack of faith, but Steve sees the issue as much different: "God" has been weaponised by those in power all throughout history. And as such, loving a God, who has been made out to be angry and guilt-inducing, is really difficult.

Following on from last week’s episode, Steve continues to challenge us with what does “Love your neighbour as yourself” actually mean? Thousands of years later, the challenge that command created in a deeply divided society remains extremely divided. Steve points to Matthew 8, where Jesus is confronted by the Roman Centurion. Jesus responds with, “I tell you the truth, I have not found ANYONE in Israel with SUCH great faith.” This was a deeply troubling message for the religious leaders of the day, who’s theology had neatly drawn lines between Jew and Gentile. It remains troubling for anyone today who doesn’t see people, before religions, as the first and foremost subject of the love of God.

‘‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of THE LEAST of these, you did not do for me.” This is the infamous and crushing blow that Jesus delivers to those who refuse to serve and advocate for society’s most marginalised. In this week's Chalke Talk, Steve continues to look at the theme of loving others acknowledging that Jesus was a radical, of his day, on this front. However, just like Jesus’ followers then, this is something we struggle with even 20 centuries later.

The story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ would have an identical message but a different name if Jesus were telling it today. Instead, it might be called – depending on the audience – the ‘good leaver’, the ‘good remainer’, the ‘good evangelical’, or the ‘good Trump supporter’. In the 20 centuries that has followed Jesus' radical teaching to love your enemy, very little has changed. Steve argues that we are all inclined to stick close to those who are ethnically, economically, culturally and educationally similar to us.

Paul and Jesus fundamentally disagreed on the law. Or at least, that’s the only interpretation that a literal reading of the New Testament allows you to reach. In this episode of Chalke Talk and podcast series, Steve argues that if you take every word of the Bible literally, big differences between Jesus and Paul’s understanding of the Hebrew law have to be accounted for. While it is well known that Jesus summed up the law in just two commandments, to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22: 37-40), Paul actually manages to condense it into one command: to love your neighbour (Galatians 5:14).

So, what is a Christian? This question sparks this week's episode of Chalke Talk where Steve looks at the biblical and historical context of Christian identity and how we've gotten it wrong. Steve reflects on growing up believing that Christianity is about saying a prayer. However, this doesn't really reflect the story of who Jesus was and is. In fact, it should not be overlooked that Jesus never referred to himself as a Christian; he was Jewish. Steve also adds that "originally, the ‘followers’ of Jesus were simply known as ‘People of THE WAY’; people who identified with THE WAY of life Jesus that taught and demonstrated."

What happens when we try to stop ourselves from creating God in our own image? This is Steve’s question, leading on from the previous week where we began thinking about what the “image of God” actually means. Often the image of God has been used by those in leadership to justify their autocracy and oppression of the poor. Steve finds the Genesis narrative to counter this idea that has been proliferated by so many in authority. To say we are “created in the image of God” is to say that EVERY HUMAN is created in the image of God. It’s an extremely pointed statement in favour of equality and human rights; a statement which churches have no place to ignore. Returning to the very point of Chalke Talk, Steve reminds us, “Martin Luther’s original 95 questions – nailed to that door in Wittenberg - were a challenge to the Church of his day about the way they were. The Church in our day faces equally pressing questions.”

Steve continues to think about the question of loving ourselves, loving others and loving God around a commonly quoted phrase “Imago Dei” or “in the image of God.” So often though, we are unsure of what this actually means for us, our relationships with each other and our relationship with God. Steve begins a two-part series looking at this question specifically. Returning to the original text, and the ways in which God has been understood throughout history, Steve suggests that “the image of God” is another affirmation of the loving relationship God calls us into. As Steve puts it, “I believe that we are all – whatever our history, whatever our mistakes, whatever we’ve been told, whoever we are – image bearers and representatives of the God of all creation.”

What if the Genesis story isn’t about sin, wrath, guilt, and shame, but actually a testament to God's unwillingness to abandon his creation? This is exactly Steve’s point in this episode of Chalke Talk. Steve explains that “Satan” and “Sin” do not appear in the original Genesis text, but are actually developed later in Hebrew thought, and then expounded on by Augustine and Calvin. The Genesis story, Steve argues, is ultimately a myth, or “a kind of profound fable rather than a historical narrative. But a myth which is packed with wisdom.” This wisdom is not necessarily that we are all condemned because of Adam and Eve’s actions, but instead a hallmark of God’s grace as we grow into maturity.

This week, Steve continues looking at the idea of “loving ourselves, loving God and loving others” in light of the doctrine of original sin. Created by Augustine of Hippo, and the picked up later by John Calvin, that idea that everyone is born with a sinful nature, beginning with Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden, is not only pessimistic but also deeply troubling. As Steve puts it, “I just do not believe that the lens through which the God, who is love, sees any of us is one of total depravity.” Steve goes on to question the assumptions behind “original sin,” pointing out that Genesis 1 begins with goodness, not sin.

Carrying on from the previous week, Steve builds on his assertion that Jesus excludes certain parts of the Old Testament in his preaching, such as Joshua or Judges, because they condone violence in the name of God. And that, in fact, the message Jesus came to preach was one of hope and peace.