James Dunn and Michael Barber on “The Role of Works at the Final Judgment
A new "4 Views" book, The Role of Works at the Final Judgment, desires to help Christian practitioners in all forms navigate one of the most contentious questions in church history: What role do works play at final judgment for believers?
We are engaging this question by letting the four contributors make their case and respond to one another. Last week we let Robert Wilkin and Thomas Schreiner speak. This week we let James Dunn and Michael Barber. It's a lengthy engagement, but I think you'll be happy you stuck with it!
So how do they answer the question, "What role do works play at final judgment for believers?"
Sneak Peek — Four Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment
Four Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment (July 2013) takes up the age-old question: What must I do to be saved? Through a discussion of biblical texts, four leading scholars discuss the degree to which one’s works are considered at the final judgment.
Contributors and views include:
Robert N. Wilkin: Works will determine rewards but not salvation.
Thomas R. Schreiner: Works will provide evidence that one actually has been saved.
James D. G. Dunn: Works will provide the criterion by which Christ will determine eternal destiny of his people.
Michael P. Barber: Works will merit eternal life.
Download an excerpt of Four Views on the Role of…
Toward a Kingdom Vision in the Classroom (Guest Post by Scot McKnight)
Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). The author of numerous books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed, Scot is the author of One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow (Zondervan, 2010). He is presently researching the meaning “gospel” in the earliest Christian communities.
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A student approached me after class and asked me if I had any “extra” copies of One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow. She said she and her friends wanted to use it in a Bible study they were doing. I asked them why they wanted to use One.Life and she said, “Because if it’s like your Jesus class, we want to talk about that stuff more than we can in class.”
A professor friend told me that she was using the book with her students for spiritual formation because she explained to me that her students no longer saw spiritual formation as simply praying and reading the Bible but as doing “deeds of mercy.”