Really, who seeks discipline?

In our pleasure-seeking culture and churches so inundated with the gospel of self-gratification: Not Many! Yet for those who know Christ and are known by him, discipline is not a pain to be avoided, but a necessary and blessed part of the Christian life.  As Thabiti Anyabwile shows in his chapter on the subject in What is a Healthy Church Member?,  formative and corrective discipline are actually ”means of grace” that lead to life, liberty, and eternal happiness (cf. Heb. 12:3-11; 2 Tim 3:16-17; and Matt 18:15-20).  For a biblical perspective, consider these wise words:

Proverbs 3:11-12: My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 9:9: Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.  Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Proverbs 27:5-6: Better is open rebukethan hidden love.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

With that said, seeking discipline is not easy.  It requires the work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) and a God-given boldness (2 Tim 1:7).  Still, while we depend on God’s work in us, there are practical ways that we can grow, as we trust God to work in us as we seek him.  Here are five:

1. Personal Discipline.  Practice the personal spiritual disciplines on a regular basis.  These include Bible intake (reading, meditating, memorizing, studying), prayerr, evangelism, giving, and others.  An excellent resource for developing these personal disciplines is Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Discipline for the Christian Life.  Don’s website is also a treasure trove for resources on cultivating a life devoted to Christ and his word.

2. Informed Discipline.  Learn more on what the Bible teaches about Church Discipline.  You could do this by doing inductive Bible studies on some of the key bibliclal passages: Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5; Hebrews 12:3ff; and by reading a good book on the subject.  An excellent introduction to the topic is Jay Adam’s book, simply titled, A Handbook on Church Discipline.  Other resources can be accessed at the IX Marks website.

3. Formative Discipline.  Avail yourself of every form of Bible teaching and discipleship that your church offers.  If you are at a church that loves and labors to teach the whole counsel of Scripture, why wouldn’t you?  Church discipline is not merely corrective, it is also constructive, and one of the best ways to grow up in Christ is through the regular intake of Bible teaching available at your church. 

4. Corrective Discipline.  Memorize the steps of Matthew 7:1-5 (as it pertains to the individual in corrective discipline) and Matthew 18:15-20 (as it pertains to the steps of the church in cases of corrective discipline).  This action step builds on step 2, which requires an informed understanding of God’s reasoning(s) for church purity and unity.  Corrective church discipline is God’s ordained means for handling sin in the church, and though painful, the end result is good for the offending party and the good of Christ’s church. 

5. Proactive (“Rescuing”) Discipline.  James concludes his epistle with a heart-felt appeal to reach out to church members coming perilously close to destruction.  He says, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (5:19-20).  Ultimately, the aim of church discipline is restoration and rescue, not humiliation and accusation.  Consequently, church discipline cannot be something that we evade; it must be something we  embrace–individually and collectively.  Like James and Jude, we must “save others by snatching them out of the fire” as we have opportunity, all the while “hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (Jude 22-23).  In this way, we grow together as healthy church members.

For more on the subject of church discipline, check out this months’ e-Journal by the guys at IX Marks.

Posted in Church, Doctrine of the Church, What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: Bible, Church, Church Discipline, Donald Whitney, Jay Adams, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

To many Christians today, church membership is a non-essential or an enigma.   Be it from the proliferation of extra-church ministries (i.e. Bible camps, collegiate ministries, or other parachurches), the ever-increasing array of Christian teaching diassociated from church membership (i.e. Christian TV, radio, Bible studies, etc), the creation of hybrid-churches (i.e. multi-site, Internet and virutal churches), or the simple neglect to teach this subject in many churches (thankfully, not all), many Christians have little concept of God’s desire for Christian’s to be inseparably united to a local body of believers.  Or at least, that is how it was for me, but I don’t think I am alone.

In my own life, church membership was a truth I had to grow into.  For instance, for the first five years of my Christian life I was not a church member.  I was baptized at age 17, but not a church member until 22.  This was not a conscious rebellion against the church, but an unaddressed, ecclesial ignorance.  Therefore, it my conviction that churches and pastors today must teach on the importance of church membership, if our churches–Baptist, Presbyterian, and otherwise–will be thriving outposts of Christ’s kingdom.  In Thabiti Anyabwile’s book What is a Healthy Church Member?, the sixth mark of health is understanding and embracing this reality.

As an aside, but also as an entry into this week’s applications, let me add personally that as it concerns church membership, I have been much helped by my friends and teachers at IX Marks.  If you are not familiar with this ministry, I encourage you to take an afternoon at your nearest coffee shop or library and peruse their website.  From articles to audio interviews to straight-forward teaching on the subject, let Mark Dever, Matt Schmucker, and their church-loving peers, encourage and challenge you with biblical teaching and practical ways to grow as a committed church member.  (Perhaps, the first thing to do is to listen to Mark Dever’s SBTS 2002 chapel message: Membership Matters).   I remember listening to this sermon while mopping up the children’s building at Woodland Park Baptist Church, and thinking, “I have never heard anything like this before!”  It gave me a whole new love and priority for the local church.

After considering this neglected biblical truth in more detail, you could begin to grow as a committed member through these five points of application:

1. Take a step of obedience in one area of church membership.  Thabiti Anyabwile lists 8 characteristics of a committed church member: (1) Attends Regularly; (2) Seeks Peace; (3) Edifies Others; (4) Warns and Admonishes Others; (5) Pursues Reconciliation; (6) Bears with Others; (7) Prepares for the Ordinances; and (8) Supports the Work of the Ministry (68-70).  Does the members in your church do this?  Can you imagine if they did?  Be a trendsetter in your church: start practicing these corporate spiritual disciplines and encourage others to do the same.  Taking God at his word, and stepping out in Spirit-empowered obedience will have untold impact on you and your local church.

2. Develop a ministry of presence at your church.  Realize that your attendance matters.  In my own life, I started going to church regularly at age 17.  When I did, there was an older gentlemen who greeted me at the door every week.  In addition to the preaching of God’s word, I truly believe that his enthuiastic hospitality was one of the ways that God brought me to himself.  When we go to church, we are not simply going as consumers; we go as those upbuilding and supporting the rest of God’s people.  And when your Christian liberty “enables” you to freely skip church, it may have a negative effect on another brother or sister who is depending on your presence.  The ministry of presence is vital for all believers and should be something that we gladly live out each week.

3. Learn the names of every member of your church and use the church directory to pray for one another.  John 10:3 says that Jesus calls his sheep by name, and that when he speaks, his sheep hear him and follow (10:27).  So too, for Christians, especially church leaders and shepherds, we must be committed to knowing those in our church, calling them by name, and praying for them.  Now, with that said, I realize, some churches are ginormous–which is a technical term for “really big”–and that such feats would tempt some to pride if they learned 7,500 names.  However, within these larger churches, are smaller groups, however they are classified.  The point here is not legalism, but love!  Out of love, you should know the names of those in your flock, and by whatever means you can, learn to pray for your fellow members by names.  You may say, “I don’t know how to pray for those I don’t know.”  Well here are two ways to respond: (1) Get to know them!  Ask their name, their family situation, where they serve in the church, where they work outside the church–simply put, be curious.  This is where number 2 helps number 3.  (2) Pray Paul’s prayers for those people whom you still don’t know.  If they are believers, these are great ways to make concrete petitions for fellow-members to grow in Christ.  D.A. Carson’s book on the subject, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, is an excellent resource to help you here.

4. Inform yourself of church business.  Most churches have regularly scheduled business meetings.  As a committed member, you should know what is going on in your church.   This gives you opportunity to join in prayer with what God is doing in your midst; it gives you time to ask the pastor, elders, or other members about the business at hand; and it protects your church from the wiles of Satan who would love to bring division to your church by uninformed members making hasty, uninformed, and unspiritual comments at the meeting. (By unspiritual, I mean those comments that have not been sanctified by prayer, the Word of God, and even time– James 1:19-25).

5. Study the New Testament to learn what the church is and does.  Perhaps this should actually be the first thing you do, but either way, your commitment to the church is directly related to how important you think the church is, and the only way you can have a proper understanding of the church, is to get God’ Word on it.  One way to do this is to simply use a concordance (online, or in print) to look up every instance of ekklesia / church in the New Testament and see how the Bible uses it.  Is it speaking of a local assembly?  An abstract universal entity?  A heavenly gathering?  Or what?  Then you should ask, what is God’s intention for the church and how should we be participating in that?  Answering these questions will go along way to seeing how vital church membership is.

Overall, growing as a committed member is a process, but one promises lasting joy as union to Christ in his body promises inimitable opportunities to grow up into Christ.  As Ephesians 3:10 tells us, the church reveals the wisdom of God to the world, and is in fact the wisdom of God.  Sadly, most people don’t see it that way.  Consider these steps of application this week, and I trust that you too will see how the events that take place within the local body of assembled believers are more important than the events that occur in the Pentagon, the Kremlin, the halls of congress, or any place else for that matter. 

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Church, What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: Church, Church Membership, Mark Dever, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

On Sunday night, the church I am interim, Calvary Baptist (Seymour, IN), looked at what it means to be a “Biblical Evangelist” according to Thabiti Anyabwile’s helpful study What is a Healthy Church Member?  During our time together, I suggested five ways to live out a life of intentional evangelism.  In addition to memorizing an evangelistic tract and /or a series verses that outlines the gospel, consider the following steps of towards evangelistic fervency:

1. Community Evangelism.  Pray for a different ‘lost’ family member, friend, co-worker each day of the week.  Then, invite someone to church each week.  Imagine, under God, what your church would look like if every member of your household of faith took seriously these two practices–praying daily and inviting weekly.  Coupled with the faithful preaching and teaching of the gospel at your church, this exercise could bear much, much fruit.

2. Spontaneous Evangelism.  In Colossians 4:3, Paul says, “Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”  Paul not only preached boldly, he prayed dependently and recruited others to pray with him and for him, so that God would open doors for evangelistic witness.  In my own life, earnest prayers like this have regularly been answered with God-ordained encounters to bear witness for Christ.  The problem is not God’s faithfulness to answer such prayers, but my weakness to keep praying for more opportunities.  May we learn to pray unceasinlgy with Paul for open doors to spontaneous evangelism.

3. Lifestyle Evangelism.  The Great Commission instructs us that “as we go” (participle) we are to “make disciples” (imperative).  Put in one word, evangelism should be our “lifestyle.”  There are dozens of ways to do this.  Let me suggest four: (1) live a life that leads to “Why”–as 1 Peter 3:15 suggests, live a life that causes others to ask you about the hope you have in Jesus; (2) get to know people by asking questions that will lead to more informed and more specific applications of the gospel, ask God to give you a heart for people and look for ways to interject Christ into daily conversation; (3) perform ’strategic’ acts of kindness that will show the love of Christ and that instigate conversations about Jesus; and (4) commit yourself to being a regular and recruiting participant in your church’s evangelistic programs– don’t miss the joy of joining others in your church as they share Christ in your local context.

4. Thoughtful Evangelism.  Growth in anything requires time, persistence, and studied contemplation.  This is true for evangelism.  So, if you are serious about wanting to grow as a biblical evangelist, let me suggest a handful of helpful resources

• Mark Dever, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism is the first book I would recommend, as it provides an excellent discussion of what the gospel is and how to go about telling others the simple, and yet eternally signficant, message of forgiveness and hope.
• Robert Colemen, The Master Plan of Evangelism examines the life of Jesus and shows how the best evangelists are disciple-makers.  This book has been formative in my understanding of ministry, especially in the idea of spiritual multiplication.
• J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is an excellent theological inquiry into the relationship between God’s sovereignty in salvation and man’s responsibility to share the gospel with all people.

5. Discipled Evangelism.  Finally, there is no better way to grow as a “biblical evangelist” than to “do evangelism!”  And there is no better way to do that then to find a friend or older member in your church and learn from them and with them.  Timothy, Titus, Silas, and others co-labored with the Apostle Paul and learned first hand how to boldly share their faith, so too we should link arms with others in the church to grow in evangelism.  This co-laboring strengthens relations within the body and maximizes the effectiveness of the church’s witness.   If your church does not have such a ministry team, perhaps you, in coordination with your pastor, could help implement such an evangelistic unit.

In truth, evangelism is not something that we can do in the strength of our flesh.  Most of us experience great feelings of defeat whenever we think of evangelism, and yet this is one of God’s clearest instructions for us, to go and make disciples, sharing the good news with all the nations.  In fact, the Holy Spirit has been given to us for just such a ministry (Acts 1:8), and it is only as we join in what the Spirit of Christ is doing in the world that our joy is complete (cf. 1 John 1:1-4).  So, this week, let me encouage you to take hold of one of these action steps and to go forward with boldness and conviction to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.   You won’t be disappointed that you did.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Resources, What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: Evangelism, Evangelistic Strategies, J.I. Packer, Mark Dever, Robert Coleman, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

When I was in high school, my family moved into a new home, and lets just say, “It was a fixer-upper.”  I’ll never forget waking up the first morning in that ranch-style house and laying for what seemed like hours, hiding under the blankets as flies landed on my head.  Gross!  The floors were torn up with nails jutting out and the kitchen walls were covered with years of baked on grease, tobacco smoke, and other browning agents.  While my parents owned the home and the property had been transferred to them, it was evident that they had only just begun in their cleanup process.

With our relationship with God, we find something similar.  When the Triune God ransoms a sinner from the throws of hell and saves him or her from a life enslaved to sin, the condition of that sinner’s ”house” is in a word: Wretched!!  Much worse than my high school abode.  Nevertheless, the transfer of property is certani, and the conversion process is permanent.  Powerful changes will be forthcoming.

Over time, just as my family cleared out and cleaned up that dirty house, so the Holy Spirit comes into the life of a believer and gives us him or her a new priority for God’s word, a new appetite for holiness, a new love for others, and a new power to walk with God–just to name a few of the changes.  All in all, the life-changing effects of conversion are visibly evident, and as the Bible teaches this is part of God’s design.  The one-time purchase is necessarily followed by a life-time of Christian growth and sanctification.  The moment of conversion results in a myriad of Spirit-filled changes.

In this weeks chapter, Pastor Thabiti touches on this important but often neglected truth — Genuine Conversion.  As the fourth mark of a healthy church member, he sets a course to consider the reality of our conversion and to challenge us to know for sure that God has in fact moved in.  From his helpful admonitions, let me give you five ways to meditate on genuine conversion and ways you can encourage others who are clinging to Christ by faith.

1. Read 1 John and consider your own conversion experience.  On page 55, Thabiti provides a helpful set of diagnostic questions.  Take time to read the Scriptures and consider them.

1. Do you walk in the light or in the darkness (1 John 1:6-7)?
2. Do you love God the Father or do we appear to love the world (1 John 2:15)?
3. Do you love other Christians (1 John 3:14-15; 18-19; 5:1)?
4. Do you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6; 1 John 3:24b)?
5. Are you persevering in the faith (1 John 5:4-5)?

2. Invite another mature member to point out blindspots in our Christian walk.   God’s word instructs us that fellow Christians should spur one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24), likewise that we should speak the truth to one another in love (Eph. 4:15).  Yet, we should not only do this, we should also invite a trusted friend and church member to do this, by asking them to point out areas of weakness and growth.  Of course, this requires humility and a willing spirit, but the fruits of this discipline are invaluable.  

3. Make a habit of recognizing the grace of God in others.  From a great distance, I have been challenged to do this by C.J. Mahaney.  C.J.’s radical commitment to humble himself by laboring to build up others is a model for us all– see his Humility: True Greatness.  His ”others-first” mentality is only sustained by the Holy Spirit, and results in a genuine humility and gratefulness that reflects the Son of God himself.  This however, is not an exceptional kind of Christian behavior evidenced in rare Christians, it rather available to anyone who is indwelt and empowered by the Spirit.

4. With another member, set a goal to read a book about genuine conversion.  There are so many good books on conversion, salvation, and how to know the spiritual condition of one’s relationships with God.  Let me commend three:  John Piper’s Finally Alive is a basic and powerful look at conversion and the doctrine of the new birth; Stephen Smallman’s What is True Conversion? is recommended by Pastor Thabiti and looks to be a helpful, 32-page introduction to the realities of conversion; and Donald Whitney’s Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health is another reliable tool to discern the condition of your heart. 

5. With humility, patience, and love, pray for and pursue a member of your church who is walking away from Christ.   James 5:19-20 reads, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  There is nothing more loving you could do than to pray for and gently pursue a fellow church member who is drifting from the Lord.  Perhaps they have been offended and need encouragement or exhortation to make amends and be reconciled; perhaps they have been deceived and ensnared by Satan and need a word of truth to free them; perhaps they have simply grown tired and discouraged and need the loving reminder that God loves carried to them by a compassionate friend.  Whatever it is, we will not know until we go.  And Scripture is clear: We are to be our brother’s (or sister’s) keeper.  We are not to be like Cain who shed his brother’s blood, but rather like our Master Jesus Christ, we are to shed our blood for the sake of others (cf. Col. 1:24ff).

This weeks action points are the most challenging thus far– not because of their intellectual difficulty, they are pretty simple to understand– but because they demand so much from us!  In truth, it is only the genuinely converted person who would even want to attempt these things, and who in fact has the humility and power to do them.  Yet, if these action points confront you as hard, do not be discouraged.  Simply turn to the Lord who has sufficient power to make his calling and election sure in your life and to add good deeds to your faith (cf. 2 Peter 1:5-11).  

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Doctrine of Salvation, What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: 1 John, Calvary Baptist, Conversion, New Birth, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

What does it mean to be Gospel-Saturated? 

That is what we considered on Sunday night — this post is a few days late — when we took another look at Thabiti Anyabwile’s book What is a Healthy Church Member?  His third mark of a healthy church member is to be filled to overflowing with the gospel of Jesus Christ–that is, Gospel-Saturated. 

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery [or dissipation] but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  If I had to take a guess at what gospel-saturation looked like, I would say that just as someone is under the influence of alcohol, gospel-saturation would look like someone who is visibly manifesting the fruit of the Spirit and boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ–after all, to be most “Spiritual” is to be most Christ-centered (cf John 16:13-14).  Consider the apostles on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  

In thinking about growing in gospel-saturation, here are five suggestions to help you grow in your understanding and application of the gospel. 

1. Memorize the Gospel.   Obviously, your confidence in the gospel is only as good as your knowledge of it.  The best way to do this of course is to read the Bible, because from Genesis 3:15 to Revelation, the whole Bible is a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Yet, for a new Christian or one who has not spent a lot of time in the Bible, one of the best things you can do is memorize the turning points of the gospel– things like that God is the holy creator who made us for his glory, that all mankind is sinful and desrving punishment, that the sovereign plan of salvation has been in effect since the fall, and that Jesus Christ’s law-fulfilling life, substitionary death, and justifying resurrection and victorious ascension have secured salvation for all those who repent from sin and believe on Him.  This would be a start.

Here are a few other resources to help you memorize the key turning points of the gospel.  Select one and memorize it–and more importantly memorize the Scriptures contained in each–so that you can better know the gospel and share it with others.

• Two Ways to Live (Matthias Media)
• The Quest for Joy (Desiring God) 
• GRACE Tract (Southern Seminary)

2. Learn to summarize the Gospel in 30 Seconds.  Call this the Elevator Gospel.  If you were in an elevator, on the 95th floor of Sears Tower and the cable snapped, could you share the gospel in the 30 seconds you had before impending death?  Or for those twitteratis out there, could you tweet the gospel in 140 characters or less?  These guys did. 

Now hear me: THE POINT IS NOT TO SHRINK THE GOSPEL!!!  Or to think that the gospel can be distilled into less than the full canon of Scripture.  But, THE POINT IS to so imbibe and embrace the gospel that you are able to communicate it at any time, anywhere, to anyone.  The goal is to arm ourselves with the gospel so that we can preach to ourselves or witness to another, which leads us to our next two points.

3. Preach the Gospel to yourself.  The gospel does little good for others, when it is not first changing your life.  Because we sin repeatedly every moment of every day, we need to learn how to apply the gospel to ourselves.  To paraphrase Martyn LLoyd-Jones, we need to spend less time listening to ourselves, and more time preaching to ourselves.  This is the model of David in Psalm 103:1, where he commands his soul to bless the Lord (cf Psalm 42-43).  Yet, to do this we must fill our minds with heart-stirring gospel truths.  As you seek to preach the gospel to yourself, consider just a few verses to begin with: Psalm 103:1-5; Lamentations 3:21-26; Romans 5:1; 8:1; Galatians 2:16-21; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:9-2:2.  For more gospel-saturating verse suggestions, see Desiring God’s Fighter Verses.

4. Think about the Gospel.  This sounds simplistic and obvious, but really, how much time do you think about the gospel?  For you own sanctification, gospel meditation is necessary.  As you encounter sin, you must take time to see how the Cross of Jesus Christ is the singular, God-given means of forgiving your sin, cleansing your righteousness, and building up your faith.  See C.J. Mahaney’s book, The Cross-Centered Life, for more here.  At the same time, gospel-rumination prepares you for creatively sharing the gospel with others. 

What do I mean?  Well, I can remember the time that walking on the boardwalk in Virginia Beach, coming back from a Campus Crusade evangelistic outreach, I was approached by a jewelry salesman offering som “mighty fine watches and rings.”   Like a dunce, I said no thanks and moved on.  I thought later, what if I had replied, “No, I am not interested in any of your jewelry, because I already have the pearl of greatest price!  Can I tell you about him?”  Now that would have been quite an evangelistic conversation starter, but because I wasn’t thinking that way I missed that opportunity.  So, we must learn to think (creatively) about the gospel, so that as we fill our minds with Scripture and meditate on the gospel, we will be more equipped for the next traveling salesman.

5. Order your life around the Gospel.  In What is a Healthy Church Member? (p. 43), Thabiti suggests that Christians should order their daily and weekly routines in such a way that they are constantly on the look out for gospel-sharing opportunities.  Whether at the grocery, Starbucks, the gym, the neighborhood park, or the local newstand–if those still exist– we should look for people with whom we can build relationships and share the good news of Jesus Christ.  In doing this, we are fulfilling the Great Commission and letting the Holy Spirit work in us to confirm the gospel we believe. 

Now, with these five suggestions in place, I can already hear some detractor saying that I have shrunk the gospel by advocating a 30 second, memorized list of verses.  Maybe.  But that is not my aim, so much as I am trying to think how we, as finite witnesses, can better know and make know the gospel.   In sum, I am simply trying to think through ways of practically applying the gospel to daily life.  I would love to hear how you do it, and how we can better become gospel-saturated Christians.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: good news, Gospel, Gospel-saturated, Nine Marks, sharing the gospel, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?, witness

Whether you know it or not, you are a theologian!  

Being made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28), you are irreversibly created to think thoughts about God.    But whether or not you are a good ‘theologian’ is another story.   While everyone thinks about God — even the atheist who denies his existence — the unanswered question is “Do you think true and right thoughts about the triune God who made you?” 

Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:47 reminds us that the Word of God “is not merely a trifle, it is your life!”  Accordingly, we who want to grow in our relationship with God, who want to be healthy church members are those who must grow in our knowledge and love for the “macro-story” of the Bible.  In truth, our salvation and knowledge of God depend on it. 

Studying the second mark of Thabiti Anyabwile’s book, What is a Healthy Church Member?, this weekend at Calvary Baptist Church (Seymour, IN), I suggested 5 ways to grow as  “biblical theologians,”  and I share them with you now:

(1) Find a Bible reading plan and set a course to read the Bible cover-to-cover. This exercise will familiarize yourself with God’s wise and gracious plan of salvation and insure that you see over the course of a year or two all that God has done in this age and in the age to come.  There are many helpful reading plans that can set your pace, as well as, resources to shed light on the Bible as you read. D.A. Carson’s two books,  For the Love of God: Volume 1 and For the Love of God: Volume 2 are excellent companions to your journey through the Bible.  Likewise The ESV Study Bible is another excellent reference for reading the Bible.

(2) Read an introductory book on Biblical Theology.  If you are new to the idea of biblical theology, Vaughan Robert’s book, God’s Big Picture is the best introductory work on the subject.  An intermediate work that also has an informative section on how to interpret the Bible is Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan.  For advanced “biblical theologians,” Geerhardus Vos’ Biblical Theology is the standard.   

Finally, whether you are a novice or an expert in biblical theology, let me encourage you to invest $35 in The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology – no single resource is better written to help you see the broad strokes of the biblical story.  Its short treatments of every book of the Bible and hundreds of articles–again short–will illumine many key themes and ideas present in the Bible, but often missed on account of unfamiliarity.  In the word of Nike, Just Do It!   

If you have kids, God’s Big Picture Story Bible is just as critical.  Rejecting the moralism that fills so many children’s story Bibles, God’s Big Picture Story Bible synthesizes the Bible into 40 managable chapters–short sentences and captivating pictures.  It takes the biblical themes of God’s King, God’s People, and God’s Place and shows how they all relate to Jesus.  It is excellent! 

(3) Read the Bible with eyes open to the intra-textual connections between the OT – NT connections.  Looking for ways that the OT promises, prepares, and pictures the coming of Christ is one of the most rewarding aspects of the Old Testament Scriptures.  How else can we read the Old Testament, but as New Covenant Christians.  See John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44-49; 1 Cor. 10:1-11; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Heb. 1:1-3; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:19-21 for examples of how the New Testament authors read the OT. 

(4) In your Bible, write down personal cross-references when you make any inter-textual connection.  For instance, when you see Isaiah 7:14 quoted in Matthew 1:23, or when you read the story of the serpent being lifted up in the desert in Numbers 21, scribble in the margin the John 3:14-16 connection.  There is no better way to get around the Bible then to install a personal set of markers and street signs that will help you remember that you have been here before.  Yes, this does presuppose that you are reading the Bible :-) 

(5) Learn from the experts.  Matthew, John, Paul, the author of Hebrews, Jude, indeed all the NT authors were Biblical Theologians par excellence.  Fortunately for us, they have left us with plenty of samples of how to relate the Christ of the NT to the promises of the OT.  For instance, notice the way Matthew begins his gospel applying the OT to Christ; read Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 where he traces biblical history from Abraham to Solomon; study Paul’s sermons in Acts 13 and 17 to see his reading of the OT (cf. Rom. 4; 9-11; Gal. 3-4); or examine the book of Hebrews and the way it presents Christ as superceding all of the OT offices, sacrifices, and promises. 

Finally, if Biblical Theology is still a mystery, let me encourage you to simply keep reading.  The Spirit of Christ will open your eyes to the truth of God’s word as you come to the Bible with humility and faith.  As Paul told Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Tim 2:7). 

God has not freed us from thinking, but he has promised to help.  He has promised that his word will never return void (Isa 55:10-11), that the one who studies it will be refreshed and rewarded (Ps. 19:7-11), and that he given us his Holy Spirit who will lead us into all truth (1 John 2:27).   Remember: the men who confounded the world with the wisdom of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ were ordinary, uneducated fishermen who had simply been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). 

May that be said of us too!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, What is a Healthy Church Member? Tagged: Bible, Biblical Theology, Interpretation, Nine Marks, Reading the Bible, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of the First Baptist Church (Cayman Island), has written a very helpful book for local churches and church members.  Addressing concerns about the spiritual health of church members, Pastor Anyabwile in his book What is a Healthy Church Member?  gives 10 corporate disciplines that mark a healthy member of Christ’s body.

Last night, the congregation of Calvary Baptist Church (Seymour, IN), looked at the first mark: Healthy Church Members Are Expositional Listeners.

Here are the five application points from the evening service.  They are ways that Christians can grow stronger in their understanding and application of God’s word.  I encourage you to incorporate them into your own weekly routine and to challenge others to do the same.

1. Read, pray, and prepare BEFORE the Sunday message.  Take time to read the passage of Scripture that will be preached on the coming Sunday.  If you don’t know what that passage is, ask your pastor and tell them that you will be praying for and preparing to hear his message.  (For those at Calvary, the next sermon will cover Colossians 1:24 – 2:5).
2. Take notes DURING the message.  Purchase a good notebook and take notes each week.  Over a lifetime of expositional listening, you should acquire a virtual commentary on the entire Bible as your pastor preaches the whole counsel of God.  Pastors: Preach the whole counsel of God! (Acts 20:27).
3. Tell someone what you leared AFTER the message.   Either for the purpose of evangelism, edification, or further understanding, take time to talk to someone about the sermon you heard last Sunday.  This can be a great way to invite someone to church or to minister God’s truth to another believer.
4. Send your pastor an email to clarify a question.  The Lord has given pastors and teachers to the local church so that the saints may be equipped for the work of service and grow in the Word of God (cf. Eph 4:11-16).  So, in other words, God has placed men in churches who know the Bible and love to share it with others.  Take advantage of these gifted leaders, and learn from them, so that you too may be a greater biblical witness.
5. Listen to sermons from faithful expositors on the Internet, radio, or video.  Since we live in an electronic age, one where God’s word is so readily available online, let me urge you not to miss out on some of today’s premier Bible teachers.  Below is a list of some of my favorite preachers — men who have proven themselves to be faithful expositors of God’s word.

Alistair Begg is pastor of Parkside Community Church in Cleveland, Ohio.  Pastor Begg is a Scottish pastor who has come stateside.  He is a faithful and illuminating teacher of God’s word with a witty sense of humor.

Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  Pastor Mark is a truth-telling and big-hearted pastor whose commitment to the local church has shaped a generation of young pastors–including Pastor Anyabwile, who formerly served with him in D.C.  Pastor Mark will often preach large portions of Scripture, even whole books of the Bible.  His book-length sermons have been collected in a two-volume work called The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made and The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept.

John McArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, is perhaps the premier biblical expositor alive today.  His commentaries on the New Testament are a treasure-trove of linguistic-historical-cultural exposition of the Bible.  His expositional preaching is filled with biblical insight and truth.

Russell Moore is a teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church (Louisville, KY) and Dean of Theology at Southern Seminary.  Dr. Moore is a gifted biblical theologian whose penetrating exposition illumines the Scripture with captivating references that range from Wonder Woman to the Wal-Mart Breakroom. 

John Piper, pastor of Bethelehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, describes preaching as “expositional exultation.”  As seen in Nehemiah 8:12, understanding God’s word results in joy.   Pastor Piper’s siren call for joy in God is seen powerfully at work in his expositional preaching.

Finally, two preachers who are dead but still speak through the medium of recorded sermons are W.A. Criswell (1909-2002) and Adrian Rogers (1931-2005).  Standing for the truth in an age of modernist drift, Criswell and Rogers preached the word of God with expositional power and consistency.  Older generations in the church will remember these biblical stalwarts; younger generations need to learn of these spiritual forebears.

This week I pray that our church and your church would be filled with expositional listening.

For the glory of Christ and his church, dss

Posted in Church, Doctrine of the Church Tagged: Exposition, Good Preachers, Nine Marks, Preaching, Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?

What is the New Perspective on Paul?

Over the last few months, this subject along with the biblical doctrine of justification has caught a lot of media attention.  From the release of John Piper’s book on the subject confronting N.T. Wright (2007), to Wright’s response (2009), to the series of panels and discussions found here at SBTS (2009), there is much that has been said. 

In case you haven’t had the chance to keep up with the discussion–one that is important and having an impact in the church already (think: Rob Bell and Brian McLaren)– here is your chance.   Here is a run-down of four online resources that can help fill in the gaps and get a handle on the New Perspective, which really isn’t new at all (read Galatians).

(1) Last Spring, Dean of Boyce College, Denny Burk led a panel discussion on the subject of N.T. Wright’s new book, Assessing the Piper-Wright Debate on Justification.  Burk was joined by SBTS professors Tom Schreiner, Mark Seifrid, and Brian Vickers.

(2) As a follow up, on September 8, 2009, Albert Mohler led a panel discussion with SBTS Professors Tom Schreiner, Mark Seifrid, Denny Burk, Brian Vickers and N.T. Wright and the Doctrine of Justification. Video.  Audio.

(3) Just before the panel on-campus, Albert Mohler, on his radio program, interviewed John Piper and Ligon Duncan to converse about justification by faith and the New Perpective on Paul.  The Challenge Of The New Perspective To Biblical Justification (August 27, 2009).

(4) Today, Tom Schreiner lectured on this subject as well.  Here are his 4 majors points:

1. Proponents of the New Perspective are too optimistic in their re-constructions of Second Temple Judaism.  
2. The New Perspective misreads the works of the laws, even if they contribute some helpful nuances in understanding the Judaism into which Christ and Christianity was born.
3. The New Perspective wrongly argues that Paul was only called, not converted.  In truth, Paul saw a radical distinction between his life before and after his Damascus Road encounter with the risen Christ (cf. Acts 9, 22, 26).
4. The New Perspective misunderstands justification as being only covenantal faithfulness.  The righteousness of God fulfills the covenant through judgment and salvation, but justification is not co-extensive with covenant faithfulness.

(The audio is not up yet (9/16/2009), but will be soon.  Check SBTS Resources).

In sum, the New Perspective on Paul is a major issue in New Testament studies, systematic theology, and in the church at large today.  Through the popular works of N.T. Wright it is becoming more mainstream as it appeals to growing anti-Western notions in society and as it diminishes the God’s justice meted out on those whose sin offends his holiness.  That is news that every sinner wants to hear, its just not the biblical gospel (cf. Rom. 1:1-7).  In the end, it redefines and distorts grace.

The New Perspective, as a theological subject, is one that faithful teachers of God’s word should become conversant with, in order to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. 

Suggested Bibliography (in chronological order):

Thomas Schreiner, The Law and Its Fulfillment: A Pauline Theology of Law (1993)

D.A. Carson, P.T. O’Brien, and Mark Seifrid (eds.), Justification and Variegated Nominism: Volume I: Complexities of 2nd Temple Judaism. (2001)

D.A. Carson, P.T. O’Brien, and Mark Seifrid (eds.), Justification and Variegated Nominism: Volume II: Paradoxes in Paul. (2004)

Stephen Westerholm, Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The ‘Lutheran’ Paul and His Critics (2004)

Brian Vickers, Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness: Paul’s Theology of Imputation (2006)

John Piper, The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright. (2007)

N.T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision (2009)

By Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, dss

Posted in Audio, Doctrine of Salvation, Resources Tagged: Brian Vickers, Denny Burk, Faith, Grace, Justification; N.T. Wright, Mark Seifrid, New Perspective, SBTS, Tom Schreiner, Works

As a Financial Aid director, who gets to speak regularly with people who are thinking about how to pay for school, I urge you to hear R. Albert Mohler’s sober reflections on the cost of education and the bondage that comes when taking out loans to pay for school.

And as a theological student who loves the Bible and believes that every word is God-breathed and inerrant in its original autographs, I commend to you Dr. Mohler’s discussion with New Testament scholar and biblical theologian, Dr. Gregory K. Beale. 

You can listen to both on The Albert Mohler Program from September 4, 2009.  The cost of education comes before the ten minute mark; the cost of discounting the Bible comes after the 10 minute mark.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Audio, Doctrine of Scripture, Financial Aid Tagged: Albert Mohler, Christian Education, Financial Aid, Gregory Beale, Inerrancy, Loans

Simon Gerrit De Graaf  was a minister of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands during the early twentieth-century (1889-1955).  During the course of his ministry he wrote a four-volume work called Promise and Deliverance.  It is a comprehensive set of lessons tracing the redemptive story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation.  While long in content, its original intention was aimed at teaching children how to read the Bible with eyes to see the grand story of “promise and deliverance.”  Here is what the Publisher’s Note says in Volume I:

Each chapter of Promise and Deliverance begins with a short discussion of points to bear in mind when studying the story or telling it to children. After this introductory section, the author formulates the story’s main thought in a single sentence. For the sake of emphasis, this sentence is set off from the rest of the text and printed in italic type. Then comes the narrative itself, which makes up the bulk of the chapter. Since some readers will also want to use the narrative sections as a story Bible aimed at older children, the narrative is presented in slightly larger type than the background material at the beginning of each chapter, which is not intended for reading aloud.

So, much like Jonathan Gibson’s The Story of a Kingdom , De Graaf’s work looks to be an excellent resource in studying the Bible diachronically, that is along the lines of redemptive histor.  In a brief review, Drew Goodmanson remarks, “De Graaf does a great job moving beyond the ‘moral lesson’ or ‘typical point’ used in the stories of the Bible to seeing OT stories as foreshadows of Jesus and all part of the redemptive plan of God.”   That is the kind of reading that we need more of, especially for children. But here is what makes it even better– the whole set is now available online for free. 

Paiedea Books, which publishes the four-volume work, has put each volume up online and has made available at no cost a great resource for understanding Biblical Theology and for reading the Bible better.  I would encourage you to check them out yourself.

Volume I : From Creation To The Conquest of Canaan

Volume II : The Failure of Israel’s Theocracy

Volume III: Christ’s Ministry and Death

Volume IV: Christ and the Church

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Resources Tagged: Biblical Theology, Promise and Deliverance, Reformed Theology, Simon De Graaf

Writing on the relationship between systematic and biblical theology, John Murray writes with great balance, saying

Systematic theology is tied to exegesis.  It coordinates and synthesizes the whole witness of Scripture on the various topics with which it deals.  However, systematic theolgoy will fail of its task to the extent to which it discards its rootage in biblical theology as properly conceived and developed.  It might seem that an undue limitation is placed upon systematic theology by requiring that the exegesis with which it is so intimately concerned should be regulated by the principle of biblical theology.  And it might seem contrary to the canon so important to both exegesis and systematics, namely the analogy of Scripture.  These appearances do not correspond to reality.  The fact is that only when systematic theology is rooted in biblical theology does it exemplify its true function and achieve its purpose (John Murray, “Systematic Theology: Second Article,” WTJ 26, no. 1 (1963), 44-45).

Well said.

(HT: Brian Payne, from his doctoral dissertation, The Summing Up of All Things in Christ and the Restoration of Human Viceregency: Implications for Ecclesiology, SBTS 2008, p. 15)

Posted in Biblical Theology, Quotes, Theology Tagged: Biblical Theology, Brian Payne, Exegesis, John Murray, Systematic Theology, Theological Method, Westminster Theological Journal

Michael Horton’s Covenant and Eschatology: The Divine Drama is a book about theological method.  Unashamed of his Reformed heritage, the Westminster professor, draws on the redemptive-historical insights of John Calvin, Hermann Bavinck, Geerhardus Vos, and others, to speak to issues of post-modern literary theory and the narrative theology of George Lindbeck, Hans Frei, and Nicholas Wolterstorff.  As Kevin Vanhoozer puts it, “Messieurs Lindbeck and Wolterstorff, meet Geerhardus Vos and Herman Ridderbos!”  The result is an erudite and creative proposal that instructs Christians to conceive of the Bible as a Divine Drama.

In brief, Horton employs biblical theology and speech-act theory to show how this biblical drama–God’s acts of redemption and his interpretive revelation– should be the starting point for doing theology.  In this regard, Horton’s proposes an inductive method of doing theology.  Still, he relies on other theologians and philosophers to shape his thesis.  He depends heavily on Post-Reformational theologians and appropriates many of their redemptive-historical insights to combat and correct the modern philosophy and postmodern literary theory.  Yet, like Kevin Vanhoozer, Horton is adroit in gleaning from postmodern theories and philosophical instrumentation to better articulate what the Bible is doing.

The book is broken into two sections: “God Acts in History” (ch. 2-4) and “God Speech” (ch. 5-9); however, the contents of each chapter seem to move from one problem area to another.  In other words, instead of delineating a clear line of explanation, Horton responds to the problems and counter-proposals as he sets forth his case.  In this, he makes countless contributions to the subject of theological method; however, it is challenging to finish this book with a step-by-step program for ‘doing theology.’  Nevertheless, in the narrative of his book, there are four ideas that find repeated attention and that Horton sets out from the beginning.  They are a redemptive-historical method, an analogical mode (of discourse), a dramatic model, and a covenantal context.  We will consider these in turn.

First, Horton argues that we should read the Bible along redemptive-historical or biblical-theological lines.  Following the Dutch-American Reformed tradition, Horton conceives of biblical theology as an organically-connected development in biblical history–one that is laced with eschatological anticipation.  In this way, eschatology is not simply a systematic loci, but an interpretive lens.  Promise-fulfillment is the basic structure of the biblical narrative.  And the entire Bible itself takes on an escalating covenantal shape.

Horton contrasts the Platonic dualism that has lurked within the church from Augustine to Bultmann with the biblical, “two-age model”  which integrates history and eschatology.  Whereas the former sets up an unbiblical noumenal-phenomenal antithesis, the latter places eschatology within history and sees one age following another.  Jesus inaugurated the age to come with the ratification of the new covenant–the shedding of his blood on the cross– and his triumphant resurrection/ascension.  Today, we await the culmination when the King of Kings comes again.  Thus, according to Horton, we should read the Bible redemptive-historically.  I agree.

Second, Horton addresses the subject of biblical language.  Is it univocal, equivocal, or analogical?  He argues for the last of these three, and shows how and why proposals that turn away from analogical discourse result in aberrant doctrines.  For instance, in chapter two he shows the difficulty of fusing liberal, God-denying action in history with biblical & orthodox language (e.g. when Bultmann uses the language of resurrection, he is not speaking of physical, historical event).  Horton supplies four possible ways that the Bible and the world relate: (1) “mythological-symbolical-metaphorical” language where the God has spoken in his word but not in a way that comports with history, (2)  “communal interpretation of natural occurencce” where God acts providentially in history but does not provide sufficient interpretation of explanation, thus communities of faith are left to devise their own meaning, (3) “narrative interpretation” in which the Bible gives a plausible explanation of reality, but which may not in fact correspond to reality, and (4) “immanent interpretation” where belief is held that God lives, moves, and has his being in the world–this is a panentheist approach that blurs Creator and creation.

Horton lists all these to show the competing (and false) models in the church and academy today and to argue for a view of the Bible that recounts both God’s acts in history, as well as his covenantal speech found in Scripture.  God acts in his works and in his words, and Horton emphasizes that while the Bible only gives us analogical expressions of the God who acts and speaks, these analogical accomodations are true interpretations of God’s work of redemption.  He goes further though, asserting that Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, is in fact the univocal center of revelation, and that in him their is a univocal and irreducible core to the revelation of God in redemptive history.

Third, building on the redemptive-historical storyline and the way that God reveals himself through redemptive acts and inspiring nterpretive speech, Horton shows that this results in a divine drama where the world is a stage, the Bible a script, the people of God actors, and the covenantal structures (e.g. circumcision and the sacrificial system under the Mosaic administration; baptism and the Lord’s supper under the New Covenant) serve as visible props to reenact the drama.  This dramatic ideal is not held exclusively by Horton.  Hans von Balthasar developed it at length in his 5-volume Theo-Drama, and before that John Calvin even appealed to theatrical language.  More recently, Kevin Vanhoozer has appealed to this understanding in his The Drama of Doctrine. 

As with his emphasis on “two-world” model mentioned earlier, this historical progression of people and plot, which is sovereignly written and directed by God himself, overturns the static, platonic view of reality.  Instead of a purely vertical understanding of the platonic cosmology, with the earthly, material world somehow reflecting the timeless, immaterial noumenal worls, the Bible as Divine Drama puts the story on a horizontal axis that is moving from Creation to Consummation.  Simultaneously, the biblical drama casts God as the intervening hero who descends from heaven to earth to wisely, powerfully, and gloriously deliver his people–this is seen typologically in the OT and definitely in the NT with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Fourth, Horton develops this drama along the unifying theme of the biblical covenants.  He maintains that biblical canon itself is a covenantal document (a la Meredith Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority), and that the revelation of redemption contained therein reflects the gracious initiative of God to save a people for himself, a people who journey in this age as pilgrims but in the age to come as partakers of the Kingdom of God.  As Horton works out this proposal, he on more than one occasion emphasizes the necessity of a theology of the cross, over against a theology of glory.  The Christocentric reality is that the covenantal pattern of the Bible is that those who will enter into glory must travel the road of redemption as sojourners and sufferers (cf. Phil. 2:5-11).  He critiques any reading of Scripture that purports an overrealized eschatology, and he cautions those of us in covenant with Jesus Christ to realize that the cross comes before glory.

So overall, Horton’s proposal is compelling, even if it is hard to follow at points.  His argumentation is strong and his knowledge of biblical theology and postmodern philosophy is vast.  Furthermore, it is obvious that his intention is not to advocate a system of theology.  This is seen in the way that he answers objections from liberal theologians on his left and the way he challenges hyper-conservative theologians on his right.  He aims to traverse a narrow path between “experiential-expressivists”  who subvert the Bible to contemporary prejudices and “cognitive-propositionalists” who in the name of orthodoxy reduce the Bible to a series of eternal truths and miss the narrative, historical, and eschatological framework of the Bible. 

Similarly, Horton’s use of speech-act theory and double author discourse does not distort the text or run into the rocks of Tillich’s method of correlation.  Instead, Horton deftly employs philosophical language to articulate what the Bible is in fact doing.  This selective use of literary theory and philosophy, along with his repeated appeals to biblical theology, serves as a needed corrective against extreme liberalism and reductionistic biblicism.  Against both of these polarities, Horton is emphatic on the covenantal structure of the Bible, the way in which God has time and again redeemed a people for himself, something that the Divine Drama is continuing to do today.  Which leads to a final point.

Horton concludes his work with a chapter on the “Community Theater” where he suggests ways in which the twenty-first century church is called to perform the drama found in Scripture.  Appealing to the likes of Calvin, he shows how preaching the Word, performing the sacraments–his word, not mine, and effecting church discipline display for a watching world the Divine Drama.  Thus the church is to appropriate the speech and acts found in the biblical narrative, the language of the covenant, and to continue walking by faith in the redemption once for all accomplished in Christ and once for all delivered (read: spoken) to the saints.  While the objective work of redemption and revelation is completed, its local reenactment by the redeemed people of God will continue until the end of age.

On the whole, Horton’s book is an enriching proposal on how to do biblical and systematic theology.  It is not for the faint of heart, though.  It is a technical work that requires background knowledge of contemporary theology and Post-Reformation Reformed theology.   Simultaneously, it is a book that while written clearly could be structured better.  The book is generally organized by the four emphases consider here, but the execution of explaining these ideas is lacking.  Nevertheless, his main point of reading the Bible redemptive-historically, analogically, and covenantly comes through, and his model of a Divine Drama is one that helps unify the gap between theory and practice.  I commend Horton’s book to you and hope that it helps you delight in the God who acts and speaks!

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Book Review, Hermeneutics, Theology Tagged: Biblical Theology, Covenant and Eschatology, Divine Drama, Hermeneutics, Michael Horton, Systematic Theology, Theological Method

In his chapter on the way God speaks in the Bible, Michael Horton quotes Gabriel Fackre to argue that God’s speech comes to us through a unified series of prophetic utterances that God commands that we hear and believe.  Fackre posits,

The Bible is a book that tells an “overarching story.”  While imaginatively portrayed, it is no fictive account, having to do with turning points that have “taken place” and will take place, a news story traced by canonical hand.  Its “good news” is about events in meaningful sequence, unrepeatable occasions with a cumulative significance internal to their narration (in contrast to “myth” that dissolves uniqueness, expressing what is always and everywhere the case) (Covenant and Eschatology: A Divine Drama [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002], 145).

Horton goes on to commend us to hear God’s unified Word instead of attempting to see God,

A theology of vision corresponds to a theologia gloriae [a theology of glory], while a theology of promise [i.e. one that comes by hearing, cf. Rom. 10:17] corresponds to the theologia crucis [a theology of the cross].  The former craves an unmediated encounter with the sacred in a realized eschatology, while the latter patiently and joyfully receives the mediated encounter with a personal God in the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ tension that belongs to faith rather than sight (145).

 May we come to the storyline of Scripture not to vainly see God in some sort of mystical/magical way, but rather to hear the words of our Christ, and walk by faith anticipating the day when we will see him face to face. 

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Doctrine of Scripture, Hermeneutics, Quotes, Theology Tagged: Bible, Covenant and Eschatology, Gabriel Fackre, Michael Horton, Speech-Act, Wordof God

I am not a big fan of visual aids.  So, when I preach or teach, I do not use powerpoint and rarely use other forms of multimedia to explicate the biblical text.  There is much to debate here, but as a personal conviction, I aim at–i.e. pray for and work at– letting the Word of God speak in and through the words that I speak.  Why?  Because the word of God is effective and the Spirit is able.  Likewise, visual imagery has a way of overshadowing the text and effectively dulling us from the power and precision of God’s Word (Heb. 4:12-13). 

Yet, with that said, there are still times when visual imagery helps us discern Scriptural truth, where without the “visual aid” we would not understand the biblical text as well.  For instance, in 2005, as I stood on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple mount, the Kidron Valley, and the Valley of Hinnom, the drama of Jesus’ last supper, arrest, and trials before Pilate and Herod took shape in my mind as I imagined him walking with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and then back through the City of David to encounter the unrighteous judgments of his accusers.  All told, passages of Scripture like Matthew 26-28 and John 13-19 were illumined by the geographical imagery of Jerusalem

Still, coming back from Israel, I realized that a “holy land experience” is not necessary for understanding the Bible, even if it provides visual images for biblical texts.  Thus, I learned in a fresh way, that the word of God is sufficient for everything I need to know and love God.  As 2 Peter 1:4 says, through our knowledge of Christ (as found in Scripture), God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Deut. 29:29). So while my travels in Israel were profitable for visualizing the Bible, such a pilgrimmage is not necessary for salvation and sanctification. 

With that grid in place–namely that visual aids can be selectively helpful for understanding the Bible– I introduce a ‘visual aid’ that I ran across today, and which prompted thoughts of Exodus 19-24 and Hebrews 12.

As you ponder the picture, consider Moses words in front of Mount Sinai:

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up (Ex. 19:16-20).

This electrifying image of a thunderstorm on top of a volcano in Chile provokes images of  what it must have been like to encounter the living God at Sinai.  Yet, that historical event, which may have looked something like this, is not spectacular because of its atmospheric power,  as much as its redemptive-historical significance.  Consequently, as terrifying as such an image is, Scripture tells us that the people did not fear the cosmological occurence, nearly as much as the One who stood behind the smoking curtain and SPOKE (cf. Deut. 4:33).  What terrified the people was not just the smoke on the mountain, but the Word of God itself.  Listen to their plea:

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was (Ex. 20:18-21).

What this picture and these texts remind us is that God’s world is frightening, and he is present in the world; but his word is even more fear-producing and his presence to save and to judge is mediated through his Word.  Accordingly, the people of God begged Moses for a mediator, and God was pleased to speak to them through Moses (Deut. 5:28-33).  The people’s fears were both incited by God’s Holy Word, and allayed by God’s merciful mediator.

The same is and should be true for us.  In the fullness of time, God sent another mediator, a greater Word, His own Son, Jesus Christ to confirm the words spoken at Sinai and to speak to God’s people as a sympathetic mediator.  Hebrews 12, in fact, says this very thing recalling the temptuous events at Sinai to beckon us to believe in Jesus Christ with greater fear and faith.  Consider these fearful words

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Heb. 12:18-25).

While we can picture Sinai, we have no way to preview Zion, but here is where the sufficiency and severity of God’s word is most powerful: The truth of the matter is that Zion is more awesome–terrible and glorious–than anything visible today.  Visual aids cannot helps us discern Zion, only God’s word can do that.   We can only apprehend Zion’s reality by faith in God’s word.  Thus we prepare ourselves for the kingdom’s arrival by meditating on God’s Word and prayerfully anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ, the final Word and the perfect mediator.

Thus as we look on the image of this Chilean mountain we are helped to imagine what it must have been like for the people of Israel to stand before God, but our hearts must not be contented to only look backwards.  By the revelation of God’s word, we are beckoned to look forward to the coming, unshakeable kingdom of God, remembering this fact: Our God is a Consuming Fire!  What happened at Sinai is only a foreshadowing of things to come.  In this respect, the visual aid above both furthers our understanding of Exodus 19-24, but fails to do the same for us and our impending encounter with God.  It is only God’s Word, written and incarnate (cf. John 1:14), that enables us to envision Zion and the reality of entering God’s presence.  Thus with fear and faith, may we respond in faith to the Holy Word of God (cf. Heb. 4:2).

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Doctrine of Scripture, Theology Tagged: Bible, Exodus, Hebrews, Jesus, Moses, Sinai, Visual Aids, Word of God, Zion

Over the last thirty years, evangelicalism has seen a strong resurgence and appeal for biblical theology.  Evidences of this are the expanding series of books edited by D.A. Carson, New Studies in Biblical Theology; the New Dictionary for Biblical Theology; and the rising appeal of the subject among younger evangelicals.  Just come to Southern Seminary, and you will find students who, next to John Piper, have been most influenced by Graeme Goldsworthy.

Yet, is biblical theology enough?  Is it sufficient for the task of theology?  Some believe it is.  Fred Sanders, for instance, in his doctoral dissertation–now published as The Image of the Immanent Trinity–argues that the doctrine of the Trinity went awry as it entered the realms of philosophical discussion and systematic exploration.  The early church fathers (i.e. Irenaueus, Tertullian) spoke of God in biblical-theological terms, whereas later theologians (i.e. Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and Augustine, to name a few) employed philosophical nommenclature and concepts to define the Trinity.  Sanders argument is that this systematizing and (mis)use of philosophical categories distorted the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, and that in order to recover a biblical concept of the doctrine we should appeal to biblical theology and a theological interpretation of Scripture.

I am not as sure.  Before beginning doctoral work in systematic theology, I would have believed it to be true that biblical theology was sufficient for doctrinal formulation, but after considering it further, I see the need for all the disciplines of theology (biblical, systematic, philosophical, and practical).  So, in this way, “biblical theology” alone is insufficient.  

Now please hear me, I am not saying that the Bible is insufficient.  On the contrary, it is all-sufficient and gives us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4; cf. Deut. 29:29).  What I am saying is that the discipline of biblical theology, reading the Bible along the lines of its progressive revelation and its redemptive-historical makeup, is a part of a greater whole.  I think that today, biblical theology can be so emphasized that the other disciplines can be overshadowed and (un)intentionally de-emphasized.  The simple point I am trying to make is that biblical theology needs dogmatics, just like dogmatics need biblical, and of course, theology is always benefitted by considering the way in which doctrines have developed and deviated throughout the course of church history.

Herman Bavinck cautions against the same thing and articulates a fuller sense of doing theology.  Consider his argument,

Scripture is not a legal document, the articles of which only need be looked up for a person to find out what its view is in a given case.  It is composed on many books written by various authors, dating back to different times and divergent in content.  It is a living whole, not abstract but organic–[this is a favorite expression of HB].  It nowhere contains a sketch of the cotrineof faith; this is something that has to be drawn from the entire organism of Scripture.  Scripture is not designed so tht we should parrot it but that as free children of God we should think his thoughts after him.  But them all so-called presuppositionaless and objectivity are impossible.  So much study and reflection on the subject is bound up with it that no person can possibly do it alone.  That takes centuries.  To that end the church has been appointed and given the promise of the Spirit’s guidance into all truth.   Whoever isolates himself from the church, i.e., from Christianity as a whole, from the history of dogma in its entirety, loses the truth of Christian faith.  That person becomes a branch that is torn from the tree and shrivels, an organ that is separated from the body and therefore doomed to die.  Only within the communion of saints can the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of Christ be comprehended (Eph. 3:18)…. Accordingly, the contrast [or independence] often made between biblical theology and dogmatics, as though one reproduced the content of Scripture while the other restates dogmas of the church, is false (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena [Grand Rapids: Baker Academics, 2003], 83).

In this brief paragraph Bavinck shows why his Reformed Dogmatics are so illuminating as he consistently expounds Scripture, scours the annals of church history, and uses rigorous logic to formulate doctrine.  Thus what emerges in his dogmatics is a biblical, systematic, and historical theology where each discipline enriches the other.  I think this model is optimal, even if near impossible to do.  What do you think? 

Since we are people of extremes, I think Bavinck’s counsel reminds us to engage all forms of theology to perceive and proclaim the glorious truths of God’s word, and only as we do that can we explore the depths of God’s all sufficient word. 

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Quotes Tagged: Biblical Theology, Dogmatics, Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics

Bright, John. The Kingdom of God: The Biblical Concept and Its Meaning For the Church.  Nashville: Abingdon,1953.

If you like Graeme Goldsworthy, you will like John Bright; and if you come to John Bright’s book, The Kingdom of God, already familiar with Goldsworthy’s According to Plan, you will recognize some similar elements.  Bright unites the entire Bible along the lines of the kingdom of God, which he defines in many places as the people of God under the rule of God.  (He does not make quite as explicit the place of God, as Goldsworthy does).  Nevertheless, the two books share some common elements, which should not be entirely surprising because of the Union Theological Seminary connection, where Bright taught and Goldsworthy studied.

In the The Kingdom of God, Bright traces the kingdom from its origins in Israel to its already, but not yet manifestation in the Church of Jesus Christ, and in so doing he has aimed to assist the “general reader of the Bible” (11) understand the continuous aspects of the Scriptures.  Wary of the History of Religion school and the hyper-typology of those like Wilhelm Vischer, Bright’s hope is to do justice to the texts of Scripture while showing how the Kingdom of God resides in them all, “in one way or another” (11).  In short, his goal in writing this book is to be faithful to the Bible, stimulating to the church, and helpful for biblical theology.  Without being overly congratulatory, I think he hits his mark.

The book is broken down into 9 chapters.  The first six are devoted to the OT, while the last three address the NT.  Of these nine, the final chapter actually becomes sermonic and makes biblical application for the contemporary church (circa 1950’s).

In the first chapter, Bright moves from the Exodus to the reign of David tracing Israel’s religion, Israel’s historical development, and the rise of kingship in Israel.  Instead of speculating about the royal themes inchoate in Genesis, Bright moves right to the Exodus and the birth of the Israelite nation.  He sets up the context of the Ancient Near East, and the ways in which God elected Israel and made covenant with them.  With rapid succession, Bright moves to the Davidic Covenant so that Genesis – 2 Samuel are covered in the first chapter of the book.

In chapters 2, Bright moves to the Davidic Kingship under God’s judgment.  He outlines the history of the day, retelling the works of the Assyrian empire and the threat they brought to Israel.  He spends much time in the book of Amos, following the argument of the prophet, who shows that all nations are under judgment and failed attempts at ethical living can only postpone the judgment of God for so long.  What is needed is a new covenant.  In this chapter, Bright asserts the distinction between Israel and the kingdom of God–they are not coextensive.  This is something he will belabor throughout his work, namely that not all Israel is Israel.

In chapters 3-5, Bright moves from the judgment of Israel to the Exile and back again.  Showing an extraordinary grasp of the history, each chapter begins by setting Israel in its geo-political context.  He explains the rise to power of foreign nations and what effect this has on Israel’s kingdom.  In this historical context, he exposits the theological message of Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah (ch. 3), and then Jeremiah and Ezekiel (ch. 4-5).  He highlights theme of “remnant” that develops in this historical context, and from a barrage of biblical texts shows how the hopes of Israel are moving forward.  Eschatological anticipation is growing along with a hope for a promised Messiah to save Israel.  Simultaneous with this messianic hope is the hope and desire for a new covenant.

Finishing the OT and moving into the Intertestamental period (i.e. Second Temple Judaism), Bright recounts Israel’s return to Jerusalem and the minimal realization of the eschatological promises.  In chapter 6, Bright once again distinguishes himself as an excellent historian by showing how two inter-locking trends developed in the corporate mindset of Israel in the centuries leading up to Christ.  First, an apocalyptic hope emerged, whereby Jews began to believe and anticipate YHWH’s fiery intervention to establish his kingdom once again in Israel.  This was coupled with a second trend in which Israelites devoted themselves to the preservation (and expansion) of the law and the keeping of Torah.  The former is reflected in Daniel, the latter can be seen developing in Ezra and Nehemiah.  Both of these are also seen in other apocryphal literature, and manifested in the various Jewish sects present in Jesus own day (i.e. Qumran, the zealots, the scribes and Pharisees).  Bright’s analysis is that these two separate themes, apocalypticism and devotion to the law, actually served to support one another–the devotion to God’s law was thought to invite God’s intervention.   Likewise, these dual ideologies served to protect the national identity of Israel in the face of Hellenism and other foreign influences. 

It was in this historical millieu that Israel’s long-awaited Messiah was born.  In chapter 7, Bright surveys the gospel accounts of Jesus coming and fulfillment of OT promises.  Chapter 8 then speaks of the birth of the church and the way in which God’s people relate to the OT community and the Messiah himself.  Bright conceives of the kingdom of God as being already but not yet, and provides a good explanation of the way in which the kingdom is transferred from the Old to New Covenant, though his Presbyterianism comes out in that within the church itself, like ancient Israel, there remains a spiritual remnant.  He interprets the field of Matthew 13:38 as the church, not the world.  Other than this, his explanation is helpful.  Again, his strong suit is his painstaking historical detail.

Finally, chapter 9 moves from the lecture hall to the pulpit.  Bright applies the biblical, historical theology of the kingdom of God to the church today.  Unashamedly, he applies much of the kingdom theology to current political events in his era.  Thus communism and the Soviet Union get much attention, but really the evils of Red Russia serve as a foil to show how the judgment of God is coming on all nations of all time, because only the kingdom of Jesus Christ will eternally stand.

In the end, his book is very helpful, especially in situating the kingdom of God in the historical contexts of the Old and New Testaments.  Bright makes constant reference of his scholastic mentor, biblical historian, William Albright.  Albright’s influence is evident, as each chapter is started with many pages of historical notes and annotations.  Bright is faithful to the Bible, showing only occasional moderate leanings (i.e. Second Isaiah, a late dating of Daniel), but his unified project affirms the authority, inspiration, and unity of the Bible.  Moreover, his writing is very readable and he often incredibly witty, using common vernacular to explain scholastic points.  One final criticism, is his theological understanding of the church.  He abstracts the kingdom of God in the New Testament to be an spiritual, invisible community, much like the spiritual remnant of the Old Testament.  I suppose this is better than equating the church with the kingdom, but I believe George E. Ladd’s work on the church-kingdom relationship, where the church serves as visible manifestations of the kingdom, kingdom outposts, if you will, is a better conception.

All said, Bright’s work The Kingdom of God: The Biblical Concept and Its Meaning For the Church is an excellent and enriching read, one that I highly recommend.  While other books on biblical theology do well to recapture the covenantal and literary structures of the Bible, you would be hard pressed to find another book that gives such rigorous attention to the historical details of the Bible.  At the same time, Bright’s emphasis on the later history of the kingdom of Israel during the time of the prophets stands out as an excellent treatment of that material. 

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Book Review Tagged: Bible, Graeme Goldsworthy, Jesus, John Bright, Kingdom of God

In his discussion of biblical history and the relationship between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church, John Bright correctly observes:

Through the Old Testament the reader senses that the focus has been continually narrowed.  It begins with the broad canvas of creation and tells of the dealings of God with the whole race of mankind (Gen. 1-11); then it narrows to the people Israel whom God had called to be the special servants of his purpose; then still further to the search for a pure Remnant within Israel fit to be vessels of the divine intention.  At the center of the Bible’s drama the focus has narrowed to one man: the Messiah, Christ. [Consider Matthew 1:1-17].  But from Christ the focus again turns outward–first to the new Israel which is his Church and then through that Church, into the entire world.  The Church is called to take up–[i.e. continue and/or fulfill, more than replace]– the destiny of the true Israel, Servant Israel, and become the missionary people of the Kingdom of God (John Bright, The Kingdom of God [Nashville: Abingdon, 1953], 232-33).

Bright’s description shapes biblical history into an hourglass with Jesus Christ at the center.  Jesus’ central place in the biblical storyline makes him the narrow and necessary passage through which all the promises of the Old Testament must come to the post-Pentecost people of God.  Well said JB.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Quotes Tagged: Bible, Christocentric, Jesus Christ, John Bright, Kingdom of God

John Bright, in his book The Kingdom of God, offers a very historically-enriching and theologically-astute presentation of the kingdom which unifies the entire Bible.  I have benefitted much from reading it, especially in the way that he looks at the people under God’s rule as a unified and yet developing body of believers.  In this outline, he is much like Graeme Goldsworthy, who emphasizes God’s people, under God’s rule, in God’s place, but Bright’s pages are more comprehensive in scope, being filled with copious details about the kings of Israel, the dynasties of foreign nations, and the who’s, the when’s, and the how’s of Israel’s history. (It is noteworthy that Goldsworthy references Bright’s work at the end of many chapters in his book According to Plan). 

In The Kingdom of God, there are many helpful subjects, but I found this description of the Bible’s intertextuality most helpful.   He writes,

The Old Testament is, therefore, as it were, an incomplete book.  It is a story whose Author has not yet written the ending; it is a signpost pointing down a road whose destination–and surely its destination is a city, the City of God (Heb. 11:10, 16)–lies out of sight around many a bend.  [The OT] is a noble building indeed–but it lack a roof!

That roof, by its own affirmation, the New Testament supplies: in announcing in Christ the fulfillment of the hope of Israel it stands as the completion of the Old Testament.  But–and this must not be forgotten–to say that is at the same time to say that it cannot be understood to itself alone apart from the Old Testament.  If the Old Testament be a building without a roof, the New Testament alone may be very like a roof without a building–and that is a structure very hard to comprehend and very hard to hold up!  It is a structure that may be put to all sorts of uses and may shelter all sorts of things, but it is a structure which may be easily be knocked down.  By this we certainly do not mean to say the New Testament is merely an appendage of the Old, or to deny Christ is himself the cornerstone of a mighty building (1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:4-7), but only to insist that it is impossible to set the New Testament apart and to construct a purely New Testament religion without regard to the faith of Israel.

The New Testament rests on and is rooted in the Old.  To ignore this fact is a serious error in method, and one that is bound to lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of the Bible message.  he who commits it has disregarded the central affirmation of the New Testament gospel itself, namely Christ had come to make actual what the Old Testament hoped for, not to destroy it and replace it with a new and better faith (John Bright, The Kingdom of God [Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1953]).

May we never stop marveling at the wisdom and beauty of God’s holy Word.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Biblical Theology, Quotes Tagged: Bible, Israel, John Bright, Kingdom of God, New Testament, Old Testament

The guys from Reformed Forum posted their recent interview with Richard Gamble, Professor of Systematic Theology at  Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and author of the recently released The Whole Counsel Of God, vol. 1.  Their conversation ranged from the relationship of biblical theology to systematics to the massive task of compiling a biblical, systematic, and historical theology to the way in which Gamble’s new volume– 1 of 3– depends upon and compares with other biblical and systematic theologies.  In addition to considering Gamble’s opus, here is the bibliography of books they discussed:

• Edwards, Jonathan. A History of the Work of Redemption. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
• Gamble, Richard C. The Whole Counsel Of God, vol. 1. Presbyterian & Reformed Pub Co, 2008.
• Jones, Charles. The History of the Church of God During the Period of Revelation. New York: Scribner, 1867.  (Cannot find it online anywhere…let me know if you do)
• Owen, John, and W. H. Goold. The Works of John Owen. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965.
• Reymond, Robert. A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1998.
• Vos, Geerhardus. Biblical Theology. New Ed. Banner of Truth, 1975.
• ———. Dogmatiek, 1910.
• Waltke, Bruce. An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach. 1st ed. Grand Rapids Mich.: Zondervan, 2007.

I highly encourage you to check out the interview. 

One more thing, they gave an introductory plug for Greg Wills new book on the history of Southern Seminary (Gregory Wills, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Posted in Audio, Biblical Theology, Resources Tagged: Biblical Theology, Reformed Forum, Richard Gamble, The Mighty Acts of God, The Whole Counsel of God

How many gospels are there?  One… Four…  More?  A new website hosted by Peter Williams, Simon Gathercole, and other Cambridge scholars looks at this question and other gospel-related subjects in their new website, 4Gospels.com.  From the looks of it, this site will serve as an excellent resource for biblical scholars and Bible readers interested in understanding one gospel in four witnesses over against a plethora of other competitors.  Here is how they describe their website: 

Welcome to 4Gospels.com, a site run by scholars and postgraduate students based mainly in Cambridge, England, providing accessible information on the 4 Gospels in the New Testament as well as many other writings which are or have been called gospels.

More importantly, these young scholars are outspoken in their affirmation of the inspiration and authority of the biblical canon and will serve the church well with what they have written and what, Lord willing, they will write in years to come.  When Via Emmaus gets an overhaul at the end of the summer, this site will definitely find a place in its recommended resources. 

For an interesting and illimunating peek into the scholastic world of Williams and Gathercole, check out their 9Marks interview with Mark Dever (Nov. 2006).

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

(HT: Owen Strachan).

Posted in New Testament, Resources Tagged: 4Gospels, Biblical Studies, Gospels, New Testament, Peter Williams, Resources, Simon Gathercole