Each month, I write editorial transition for the website Christ Over All. These “Intermissions” highlight the past month and introduce the next. Along the way, I offer a few reflections on Christ and Culture. Here is the most recent Intermission: ‘From Thinking about Israel to Thinking God’s Thoughts after Him.’ 

Read it and pass it along to others.

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One month into the new year, and we are on pace to repeat at least some of the events of 2020. The Chiefs and the Forty-Niners are back in the Super Bowl, and unless something drastic happens, Biden and Trump will be on the presidential ballot. At the same time, and on the same day, Biden’s Department of Justice threatened six peaceful protestors with eleven years in prison, while it comforted an anxious American populous with the wisdom of Elmo (of Tickle-Me Elmo fame). Equally, Michael Cassidy—the man who beheaded Satan’s statue—has been charge with a hate crime, while countless other beheaders-of-statues remain at large. And all of this as Gov. Abbott of Texas exercises his right as a lesser magistrate to resist the Supreme Court’s Red Carpet treatment for illegal aliens—6.3 million since 2020.

Welcome to America 2024.

It is easy to get sidetracked by all the noise in the public square, and it is equally tempting to bury our heads in the sand (or in the Bible) and to ignore it all. Yet, somewhere in between, we must stand. We must fix our eyes on Christ (Heb. 12:1) and remember that he who is in heaven laughs at those who rage against him (Ps. 2:3). Accordingly, when our governors take turns mocking God and our neighbors praise the pageantry of paganism, we must not shrink back; we must root ourselves in the unchanging Word of God. For none of the events happening around us are a surprise to the God of the Bible, and everything in the Word of God prepares us for faithful service in our generation.

To that end, we have sought to consider what Scripture says about Israel for the last month. Due in part to Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7 and Israel’s justified self-defense, and due to Pro-Palestinian groups on college campuses calling for Jewish genocide, we took up the task of thinking biblically about Israel—its place in the Bible and its place in the world today. And for the whole month of January, we offered a biblical and theological view of this concept throughout the canon until today. Brent Parker led the way with a thorough treatment of Israel as corporate Adam and a type of Christ. Steve Wellum built on that foundation and helped us to think carefully about Israel in the modern world.

In both instances, and with both podcasts, a key theme was a dogged persistence to read the Bible on its own terms. Instead of making quick and easy jumps from verses in the Bible to actions in the nation of Israel today, we must understand the place of Israel in God’s redemptive plan. Richard Lucas helped us to do that more fully with his treatment of Romans 11:26 (Part 1 & Part 2). And Trent Hunter modeled a way to think about Psalm 122, such that we might pray for the peace of Jerusalem in a way that the whole Bible commends.

At the same time, Steve Atkinson, with Christian Witness to Israel (CWI), provided a historical survey of Reformed Protestants. What did the Reformers, the Puritans, or English Baptists think about Israel? Is a focus on Israel a Dispensational commitment, or is it something non-Dispensationalists can embrace too? Steve argues for the latter and he shows how this is a common feature of Reformed thought.

Moving from the past to the present, Ardel Caneday, Owen Anderson, and Ayman Ibrahim provided commentary, respectively, on Cultural Marxism (part 1 & part 2), college education, and the founding and ideology of Hamas. Today, an unholy alliance has formed between the Marxist woke in the West and the Muslim warlords of Hamas in the Middle East. In these essays, you will find an ideological explanation for what is happening and why the Palestinians (and their supporters) cannot be good neighbors.

Indeed, spiritual warfare undergirds everything we are witnessing in 2024, and testing the spirits (1 John 4:1–6) is now a matter of understanding how political decisions are enervated by anti-Christian ideologies. In response, we cannot resort to the weapons of the world. Prayer and the preaching of God’s Word remain our calling. Yet, preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word means taking captive every thought that rises in opposition to Christ. In January, we sought to do that with the current and historical questions related to Israel.

You can find all of those articles here.

Thinking God’s Thoughts After Him: Doing Theology by the Book

For February, Christ Over All will continue to think carefully about the whole world through the lens of God’s whole Word. And we will do that by considering what theology is. In celebration of Steve Wellum’s Systematic Theology (Vol. 1): From Canon to Concept, coming out this month, we will take up the task of discussing the nature of doing theology. What is systematic theology? Historical theology? Biblical theology? How does philosophy relate to theology? And why does good theology depend upon the firm foundation of God’s Word? And how does theology inform our preaching? These are just some of the questions we will consider.

In truth, there are lots of theologies, theologians, and theological traditions that do not subscribe to the full sufficiency of Scripture. And there are others that downplay the role of tradition and turn Sola Scriptura into Solo Scriptura. Such a view may rightly affirm the authority of the Bible, but it rejects the Spirit-led insights of faithful teachers (Eph. 4:11–16). True theology affirms the Scripture and receives tradition as a necessary minister of grace to help teach the church universal.

In recent years, a recovery of tradition and retrieval has led many evangelicals to eschew various forms of biblicism—an approach to doctrine that relies heavily on biblical proof-texting, treats lightly the confessional tradition, and often feels free to reject or replace classical terminology. This has been healthy and good, yet there has also developed some approaches that endanger the enterprise of doing theology according to the Book.

Indeed, in response to various forms of biblicism, there are other trends today which may place too much emphasis on tradition. In fact, as Evangelicals and Catholics continue to work together on various projects of biblical and public theology (e.g., using prosopological exegesis, adopting the four-fold sense of Scripture, recovering Christian platonism) there exists a very real threat that such cooperative efforts will result in cross-pollination. In February, and later this year too, we will address some of these trends, as we make a case for doing theology by the Book.

Indeed, the Book is the Bible. And while we celebrate the publication of a new theology book this month, our unswerving commitment to the Bible and all that it says about doctrine and life. Thinking our thoughts after God and his Word is the theme of this month. So, join us for the month of February as we consider the best practices for doing theology.

Soli Deo Gloria, ds