So it’s happening on the 7^th March 2016. What’s happening, you say?

Those of you who have been listening to our podcast (Podcast On the Mount) will have noticed that Jonathan and I keep talking about certain themes – the exodus, the exile, the Messiah, the kingdom of God, salvation, the promises of God, Yahweh’s return, the age to come, the prophets, vindication etc. Well, we’re putting together an event dubbed “The Emmaus Road Moments” (obviously stolen from Lk 24:13-35) to do a little bit of “beginning with Moses and the Prophets” as we shed light on why these things are important to reading and grasping the New Testament. It also gives you the chance to ask all the questions that you wanted to ask about our episodes of the podcast so far.

Over the past few years of reading and digesting scholars like Scott McKnight, Michael F. Bird, Ben Witherington, NT Wright and Richard B. Hayes, its become more and more apparent to us how important a good grasp of the Old Testament is to understanding the New Testament. Struggling with Old Testament scholars like Walter Bruggeman, Christopher J.H. Wright and John H. Walton only sunk home the feeling further. This has led us to 3 major conclusions so far.

1. No matter how much one desires to be faithful to scripture, one’s reading of the bible will be limited if one is not aware of the history and context of the books of the bible. We hope to shed some light on reading the NT with the history of the people of Israel in mind.
2. There is a huge gap between the insights that biblical scholarship has revealed about reading the bible faithfully, and what is actually taught in our churches. In essence, many of our preachers in Ghana are simply teaching received theology, some of which has been debunked years ago as no longer valid interpretations of scripture but which continue to be the norm in churches. Very few of our preachers are actually committed to serious study of the bible, and fewer still are actually trained to do so. We hope to give some of the lessons we’ve learnt about the “how” of studying the bible.
3. Jesus is the hermeneutic key to moving from simply knowing the bible to being empowered to take that knowledge and live out the kingdom. Getting that right means a world of difference to how we approach scripture. We hope to show how Jesus casts his light on the Old Testament hopes, dreams and expectations, and how disciples like Paul who are familiar with the history of the people of Israel now reframe everything they did around the coming of Jesus.

So if you will be in Accra on the said date, then you should make it a point to join us at the Good News Theologial Semianary at Oyibi, on the right side of the main Dodowa road after the Valley View University campus. We hope everyone is seated at 10 am, and we’ll serve refreshments as well. Here’s a link to google maps directions from Madina Atomic Junction to the Seminary

We intend to share the slides as well as teaching material that we used when we went through this topic ourselves with our attendees, so please register for free here so we know who is coming and also so we can send them to you after the event.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr Thomas Oduro, Principal of the Good News Theological College and Seminary for giving us the opportunity to use his facilities for this event. May his tribe increase.

See you guys soon. Bring along 2 things – a friend and your questions. I promise to answer all your questions to your satisfaction (just kidding. I’ll tell you plainly if I have no clue to your question)