Restoration & Transformation Jan. - Feb., 2010
The Restoration Movement Fulfilled In Jesus Christ
Edward Fudge
02/08/2010 - The restoration ideal can serve a valuable purpose as a scraper, a handy tool for cleaning layers of dried and encrusted paint from the furniture in an attempt to make it shine as at the first. This can be done without glamorizing the first-century church beyond its true state as revealed in the New Testament. We must also remember that restoration is only a tool that can be helpful in serving God, not an end within itself. It is not the only tool, nor is it indispensable, for others may approach the Scriptures with a humble heart and learn what God ultimately desires, even if they never think in terms of "restoring" anything.


Transformed Into the Image of ... The Church?
Ben Overby
02/06/2010 - I must confess that I’m part of a growing number of Christ-followers exhausted by the powerlessness of our churches to both articulate the real goal of humanity and provide practical guidance toward that end. And when I say I’m exhausted, I’m not exaggerating. I’m not a virtuous man. That is to say, I’m not a good man. However, the one thing I want more than any other is to be good, to have the dispositions described by Jesus. I don’t mean that I want merely to be able to keep commandments. An old fashioned stoning can coerce people to comply. No, I want to keep the commandments because I want to keep the commandments. I want to do the right thing and want to want to do the right thing. And that’s the virtue taught by Aristotle and in an even superior manner taught and lived by Jesus. After all, it was Jesus who said we didn’t have a shot at the kingdom of heaven unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the most righteous people of his day—the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus insisted that it wasn’t enough to do the right thing. To be good people, to be filled with His joy, he insisted that our will had to be completely changed, retrained, or recreated.