Legal Gospel-Centered Literature in China

January 17, 2011January 17, 2011 / davidsschrock

Michael Haykin gives an encouraging report on a developing missions opportunity in China. It is called the Robert Morrison Project, and it is working to produce gospel-centered, Reformed literature in China–a country known for its antagonism towards Christianity. Here are some of the statistics:

About the year 2003 it became possible to legally publish some forms of Christian literature in the People’s Republic of China. Ten years ago, legal Christian publishing was barely on the radar screen, but today the situation is far different. The demographic and publishing statistics are staggering:

- In the year 1800, 90% of the Christians in the world lived in North America and Europe. Today, about 60% of Christians live in the so-called “two-thirds world” (Africa, Asia, the Middle East). However, Christian publishing in general, and Reformed publishing in particular, has made a weak transition at best to these new regions. The center of gravity for Reformed publishing is still the English-speaking world.
- The church in China is 80 to 100 million in size and continues to grow at a rapid rate.
- China’s adult literacy rate, between 2003 and 2008, is reckoned to stand at 93%.
- There are 167,000 bookstores in China.
- 6.3 billion domestically-published books were sold in China in 2007.
- On average, the Chinese read 5 books a year and 1.7 magazines and 7.4 newspapers per month.
- Over the past ten years, more than 200 Christian bookstores have opened throughout China.
- Currently, the total number of Christian books in legal circulation in China is approximately 600, using a broad definition of “Christian.” About 50 to 60 new titles are being added each year.
- Of that 600, only about 25 or 30 have a Reformed theme.
- Many of the 600 titles now in print were published by one of the nine China-based Christian publishers that have emerged in the past ten years.

The goal of this ministry is to take Banner of Truth, Evangelical Press, and other Reformed classics–a genre that is most likely to receive rights for publication in China–and to translate them and distribute them in the near future. The cost is not cheap, but the investment is priceless. Imagine the 80-100 million Chinese Christians reading Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress, or even John Calvin’s Institutes.

This is prayerful, hopeful opportunity to feed the malnourished church in China with great Christian truth–something that may seem small now, but in time may grow to produce voluminous fruit. You can read his whole article here: The Emergence of Legal Christian Publishing in China and you can learn how to get involved here Robert Morrison Project.

Until the whole earth hears, dss

The Genre of Genesis: A Soap Opera Under The Sovereignty of God

January 9, 2011June 25, 2011 / davidsschrock

One of the most helpful things I have learned in the last few years about reading Scripture is the importance of determining the literary genre 0f any portion of Scripture. For instance, to read Daniel’s apocalyptic visions with Pauline precision is to wind up with an overly literal reading, missing the ‘visual effect’ of the apocalyptic genre. Likewise, reading Proverbs like laws etched in stone, puts too much weight on a literary form that is meant to convey probabilities that have reasonable exceptions, not laws of the universe. So reading Scripture with an attentiveness to genre is helpful in avoiding misreadings, and there are many good–short and long–works on this subject. For a whole Bible that treats the subject see The Literary Study Bible.

This week, as I was reading Genesis, the thought occurred: What kind of genre is this book, especially chapters 12-50? It is certainly narrative in its structure. Authors like Bruce Waltke and Jim Hamilton has shown in their recent works many literary devices, chiasms and the like. It is historical, in that it conveys information of people, places, and events in a factual manner and in a linear fashion. Moreover, it will develop mini biographies and include historical genealogies, all for the purpose of unfolding God’s plan of redemption and his covenantal commitments. Still, it is also a colorful book of characters and stories that, while true, capture the imagination and draw out the readers imagination like any good story book. So which is it?

It is certainly a combination of them all, but perhaps a modern analogy might be helpful. Could it be said that God’s sovereign workings in Genesis are carried out in the midst of a twisting, turing Soap Opera. Until, this week, I wouldn’t have said it that way, but in reading it again this week, that category certainly commends itself for understanding all that is going on, so long as it is always coupled with God’s inscrutable (and yet sometimes invisible) sovereignty.

Interestingly, based on the less than authoritative definition provided by wikipedia.com, Genesis would definitely fall into this category. Here is there brief description of what we know as soap operas:

The main characteristics that define soap operas are “an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations”.^[3] Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. “Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as ‘chance meetings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'”

That about sums Genesis up, doesn’t it? I think so. It makes the book less pristine and more personal. It touches the heart of the matter, that God has saved a people from sin, often times through the very act or acts of sin: “What you meant for evil,” Joseph said to his brothers, “God meant for good” (Gen 50:20). Part of God’s glorious work of salvation is his ability to save people trapped in sin, in ways that soap opera writers could never script. Likewise, such a view of Genesis encourages belief that when things in life get really, really messy, God still knows how to untie the Gordian knot, and even if it takes 13 years, as in Joseph’s case, or longer as in the case of Abraham (see Heb 11), He will make all things right in the end. Therefore we await the reckoning!

It is amazing how God has worked in redemptive history–often in ways that do not commend repeating–in order to bring about his plan of salvation. God is a merciful and patient God, and one proof is that he was able to bring through sinners like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as sinless Son who will one day liberate us from the soap operas of this life. That is good news.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

dss

Reading Genesis 1-11

January 2, 2011January 1, 2011 / davidsschrock / 1 Comment

Today I preached Genesis 1-11: “In the Beginning: Creation, Corruption, and Christ.” I love this section of Scripture because it is pregnant with so many themes that are developed in the rest of the Bible. For instance, you can see the whole pattern of Creation-Fall-Redemption-New Creation if you pay careful attention to the literary structures of the passage. The Gospel of Genesis by Warren Gage is an excellent resource to help outline these themes. So is Bruce Waltke’s illuminating outline below (An Old Testament Theology [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007], 307-08).

What Gage and Waltke show is how Genesis 1-11 teaches us to read the rest of the Bible. The explicit metanarrative in Scripture moves from Creation to New Creation, falling with sin, rising with Christ. Notice how in the outline below that Noah and Abraham come as Christ-figures who anticipate the greater rest (Matt 11:28) and the fulfillment of all the promises (2 Cor 1:20).

Creation: Genesis 1:1 – 6:8

A Creation out of chaotic water with divine blessing (1:1-2:3)

B Sin involving nakedness, seeing/covering nakedness; curse (2:4-3:24)

C Division of humanity into the people of God and the enemies of God (3:15-4:16)

D No descendents of sinful of murdered younger, righteous Abel (4:8)

E Descendents of sinful Cain: builds a city (4:17-24)

F Descendents of chosen son Seth: ten generations to Noah (5:1-32)

G Downfall: unlawful unions – men & women / marriage (6:1-4)

H Brief introduction to a faithful savior: Noah (6:5-8)

Re-Creation: Genesis 6:9-11:32

A’ Creation out of chaotic water with divine blessing (6:9-9:19)

B’ Sin involving nakedness, seeing/covering nakedness; curse (9:20-23)

C’ Division of humanity into the people of God and the enemies of God (9:24-27)

D’ Descendents of younger, righteous Japheth (10:1-5)

E’ Descendents of sinful son Ham: builds multiple cities (10:6-20)

F’ Descendents of chosen son Shem: ten generations to Terah (10:21-32)

G’ Downfall: unlawful union – men / government (11:1-9)

H’ Brief introduction to a faithful savior, Abram (11:27-32)

Our God is worthy of infinite praise for he is patient with sinners and perfect in his wisdom to bring salvation in his Son from eternity past to eternity future. With Paul we sing: “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” Genesis 1-11 is an astounding passage that flickers with the light of God, light that will only grow brighter as the Scriptures continue until the light of the world comes to dwell with man (John 1:1-14).

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Creation by the Numbers

January 1, 2011 / davidsschrock

Today many in our church and all over the world began their yearly Bible reading plan. I did. And one of the features found in Genesis 1 is the fact that God made plants (v. 12) and animals (v. 21), “according to their own kinds.” While scientists, Bible scholars, and Christians apologists have argued for the origin of the species, the Bible is clear that God is the originator of all life. He spoke the world into existence (Gen 1; Psalm 33:6), and no matter how long that process took, it is clear that he is the Creative Genius behind it all. (Personally, I hold to a Young Earth position due to the disbelief that death existed before sin, which is clearly dated in Genesis 3, about 6,000 years ago).

Yet, in this brief post, my point is not to argue the age of the earth or the meaning of yom (‘day’) in Genesis 1, but rather to marvel at the endless fecundity of God’s creation. Today I came across Wikipedia’s entry on “Species.” In it is a list of all the plants and animals in the world. In a word, it is astonishing! Consider the sheer numbers of life-forms on the earth, all created by God.

The total number of species (estimated): 7–100 millions (identified and unidentified), including:

5–10 million bacteria;^[15]
74,000–120,000 fungi;^[16]

Of the identified eukaryote species we have:^[14]

1.6 million, including:
- 297,326 plants, including:
  - 15,000 mosses,
  - 13,025 Ferns and horsetails,
  - 980 gymnosperms,
  - 258,650 angiosperms,
    - 199,350 dicotyledons,
    - 59,300 monocotyledons,
  - 9,671 Red and green algae,
- 28,849 fungi & other non-animals, including:
  - 10,000 lichens,
  - 16,000 mushrooms,
  - 2,849 brown algae,
- 1,250,000 animals, including:
  - 1,203,375 invertebrates:
    - 950,000 insects,
    - 81,000 mollusks,
    - 40,000 crustaceans,
    - 2,175 corals,
    - 130,200 others;
  - 59,811 vertebrates:
    - 29,300 fish,
    - 6,199 amphibians,
    - 8,240 reptiles,
    - 9,956 birds,
    - 5,416 mammals

It has taken thousands of people over hundreds of years to amass this list, a list of all the creatures God created and their offspring.

In truth, Elihu declare in Job 34:14-15, “If he [that is God] should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.” Thus, according to the Bible all the species owe their existence to God, and it is worth meditating on the estimated numbers above. While these numbers are not exact due to the difficulties of subdividing species, they do represent this singular facet of God: He is unfathomably creative and prolific in the production of his creation. If it is true that no sparrow falls to the ground a part from his knowledge (Matt 10:29), then it coheres that no life is born apart from God’s germinating spirit and no life ends apart from his sovereign decree.

He is the Supreme Creator, the God of the Nations, and the one who has made man in his image to rule over creation. Moreover, when man failed to rule over the earth uprightly (cf. Ecc 7:29), God sent his Son to become a man, to perfectly rule over all the species that God created. I am doubtful that each of these ‘species’ was created in the Genesis account, it seems more likely that the ‘kinds’ in Genesis 1 were higher up in the taxonomic hierarchy (maybe genus or family), but it is certain that God created in the beginning an expanding myriad of plants and animals, represented in the list above. These life-forms had the capacity for incredible replication and speciation. While many fight over Genesis 1 for good reason, we shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees: God is the glorious creator of all the earth, who has fashioned a world that is filled with life, fecundity, beauty, symmetry, wisdom, and so much more. And even though this in a world overrun with sin, disease, and death, his incredible creation is evident. How much better will the New Creation be when sin will be eradicated and mankind will finally rule over a perfect creation with Christ on the throne.

As we begin the year, may we worship the Triune Creator and look at creation as a hymn book of praise for our infinitely wise Creator. As Revelation 4:11 sings, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by you will they existed and were created.” Upwards of 100 million of them!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss