Biblical Theology

Irenaeus: Against Heresies

/ davidsschrock

Irenaeus1 [For the next week, I am going to post a series on Irenaeus’ and his view of Scripture, his use of biblical theology, and his employment of typology in his polemic work: Against Heresies.  The content is not ground-breaking, but a simple attempt to understand how this Apostolic Father read Scripture and put the two testaments together.  Hopefully, it will help us better appreciate the shoulders that we stand on and how we might better interpret the Scriptures.]

[The bulk of these posts are from a paper I wrote earlier this semester on the subject.  Reading Against Heresies proved to be very enriching, and I hope that if you follow the analysis presented here over the next few days as it relates to Biblical Theology and biblical interpretation that you would be spurred on to read his book, Against Heresies.  The first two books are very hard to read as they deal with the intricacies of Gnosticism; the final three books are incredibly insightful and full of biblical exposition.  I highly recommend them.]

In Against Heresies,[1] Irenaeus of Lyons presents a biblically rigorous defense of historic Christianity in the face of second-century Gnosticism. Over the course of this week we will examine Irenaeus’ interpretive method in Against Heresies, and assert that contemporary Bible scholars, theologians, and pastors would do well to consider Irenaeus’ theological hermeneutics and to imitate those interpretive methods that prove faithful to Scripture (cf. Heb. 13:7). Of his interpretive methods, three deserve unreserved affirmation: 1) against Gnosticism, Irenaeus rejects theological accommodation that superimposes philosophical systems onto the biblical text; 2) against Valentinus, the Bishop of Lyons affirms Sola Scriptura with its doctrinal entailments—inspiration, inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority; and 3) against Marcion, Irenaeus defends the Bible’s unity by proposing a robust biblical theology. Expanding this last point, we will analyze Irenaeus’ typology asserting that his typological method should be adopted with some significant modifications and caveats.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

[1] Irenaeus Adversus haereses, trans. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson under the title Irenaus Against Heresies, in The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Ante-Nicene Fathers [ANF], American ed., vol. 1 (United States: Christian Literature, 1885; reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004), 309-567.

Messiah in the Old Testament: A Rap

/ davidsschrock

In class today, Dr. Jim Hamilton released his latest attempt at poetry, only this time it was delivered in the form of a rap.  Following in the footsteps of another SBTS Professor’s Philosophy Rap, Hamilton’s “Messiah in the Old Testament” surveys the Old Testament world of the Bible, pointing all things to the seed-crushing son of God, Jesus Christ. 

This illuminating and engaging rap culminated a rich, intra-textual look at the Bible that Dr. Hamilton provided in his class by the same name– “The Messiah in the Old Testament.”  I look forward to his forthcoming biblical theology, where much of the material will be published. 

Here are the first and last three stanzas:

God promised a seed, who would crush the serpent’s head
Adam and Eve hoped in what God said
This can be seen from the naming of the wife
Whereas death was promised, the promised seed means life …

…So if you want to know what Jesus said
On the road to Emmaus from the law and prophets
Beginning from Moses, in all that was written
Opening their minds, explaining what was hidden 

Look to the writings of the New Testament
Where the men taught by Jesus tell us what he meant
They show us how to read the OT
And Jesus sent the Spirit to help you and me 

So spread the good news that the battle is won
The curse is reversed, the new age begun
We long for the day when he returns
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come, Lord, come.” 

I hope you will read the rest and return to your Bible’s singing the songs of the savior–in whatever style you prefer–rap, country, gospel, folk, or rock.  You can read the rest of this faith-enriching, biblically-informing rap here.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Looking for the Kingdom of God in the Book of Ezekiel

/ davidsschrock

When was the last time you preached Ezekiel?  Not from Ezekiel, but Ezekiel.  Not Ezekiel 16 and God’s graphic castigation of Israel’s spiritual whoredom; not Ezekiel 36 and the promise of a renewed heart and a clean spirit; not Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones; I mean Ezekiel, the whole thing? 

If you did decide to preach Ezekiel, where would you try it out?  Would it be a trial run in a Sunday School class?  Would it be at youth lock-in–you’ve got to be there all night anyways?  Would it be to a group of eager seminarians?  Or would it be at one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention?

This weekend, a good friend of mine, Grant Gaines, had the opportunity to preach to Bellevue Baptist Church (Memphis, TN), and he delivered an outstanding message. Challenging BBC to see the kingdom of God, he preached the whole book of  entitled: “Looking for the Kingdom: The Message of Ezekiel.”

His three points were: There is Sin to be Punished, chapters 1-24; There is an Enemy to be Defeated, chapters 25-32; and There is a Kingdom to be Established, chapters 33-48.  His faithful message exemplifies canonical preaching, biblical theology, and a Christocentric hermeneutic.  I encourage you to listen to it yourself, to consider his example, and to look for the kingdom–and if you have the chance: Preach Ezekiel! 

For more examples of preaching the Bible book-by-book, see Mark Dever’s The Message of the Old Teastament: Promises Made and The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept .

May we all be unashamed to preach Christ from every verse, chapter, and book of God’s inspired Word.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

The Fox and the King: Irenaeus on Methods of Correlation

/ davidsschrock

In Against Heresies, Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. AD 130-200) writes a colorful depiction of those who use extra-biblical philosophies and schemas to interpret and understand the Bible.  Contending against Gnosticism and one of its leading teachers, Valentinus, Irenaeus writes:

They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavor to adapt with an air of prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support.  In so doing, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth…

Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilful artist out of precious jewels, should then take this likeness of a man all to pieces, should re-arrange the gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a fox, and even that but poorly executed; and should then maintain and declare that was the beautiful image of the king which the skilful artist constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by the artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect transferred by the latter one to shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the jewels, should deceive the ignorant who had no conception what a king’s form was like, and persuade them that that miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king. In like manner do these persons patch together old wives’ fables, and then endeavor, by violently drawing away from their proper connection, words, expressions, and parables whenever found, to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions (Against Heresies 1.8.1).

In recent years this kind of extra-biblical accomodation can be seen in Liberation Theology, Feminist Theology, Black Theology (i.e., James Cone), and Environmental Theology—to name only a few.  Using superimposed grids to interpret the Bible, the end result is always a distortion of the biblical theological understanding of the Truth.  In the twentieth century, theologian Paul Tillich, coined the term “Method of Correlation” to describe this kind of dialectic approach to the Scripture, in which he advocated an interpretive method where philosophy supplied the questions and theology and the Bible gave the answers.  The problem is that modern philosophy asked the wrong questions, and thus all biblical appeals were slanted by the question.

In reading Irenaeus, we are reminded of the high stakes of theological construction and the humble dependence we must have on the Bible to not only supply us with ‘biblical answers’ but biblical methods for reading the Scriptures well.  Many have gone before us who have read the Bible, quoted the Bible, memorized the Bible, and gone to hell, because they did not read it as it was intended (cf. John 5:39; 2 Cor. 2:14-16).

A helpful diagnostic of proper methods of interpretation is is Graeme Goldsworthy’s Gospel Centered Hermeneutics, while anything by Kevin Vanhoozer will help think through these matters on a scholarly level; Twentieth Century Theology is a helpful survey of theologians who have misinterpreted the Bible through means of theological accomodation.

May we pray for illumination and perspire in our studies to understand the Scriptures as God’s message of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Male Maturity in an Age of Adolescence

/ davidsschrock

I love Biblical Theology that informs daily living, and I love my son, so I have two great reasons to commend Owen Strachan’s three-part series on “A Biblical Blueprint for Manhood.”  Owen, a good friend who I greatly respect, traces out biblical wisdom for raising young men who are strong, on the alert, standing firm in the faith, acting like men, and doing all things in love (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13-14).  Considering age-graded aspects of biblical boyhood, adolescence, and manhood, these CBMW blogs esteem biblical wisdom over and above anything which the world has to offer.  Here is an excerpt:

Many young men about to graduate from college seem to realize that adolescence is getting a bit old. It’s slightly weird to dress and talk and look like a high-school boy while pushing into the twenties.  Yet such men have precious little sense about what to do with that realization.  So they lose themselves in a sea of self-indulgence, floating with a vague sense of shame and inadequacy.  In the past, American manhood was biblically informed and defined by certain events and experiences.  Now, many men do nothing but drift.  Though the Bible does not spell out in a single passage the way a boy becomes a man, it does include some poignant exchanges that provide clarity in the presence of confusion.

You can read them all here: 

A Blueprint for Manhood, Part 1: The Problem, a Solution, and the First Few Years of a Boy’s Life

A Blueprint for Manhood, Part 2: In Adolescence and Beyond, the Importance of Living for Others

A Blueprint for Manhood, Part 3:Maturity, Singleness, and the Legacy Every Man Can Leave

May we be biblically-reformed men, and for those who are bringing up boys, may we pray for and work towards shaping young men who walk wisely by fearing God, loving others, picking up the cross daily to follow Christ–the true man!!!

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Intimate Allies (pt. 4): A Biblical Theology of Marriage

/ davidsschrock

Intimate Allies: A Biblical Theology of Marriage

The Bible speaks of marriage from Genesis 1 to the end of the book of Revelation… We will conclude our meditation on the Bible’s vision of marriage by exploring God’s design for marriage and sexuality as it unfolds in the narrative of Scriptures.  As we do this, we will have a glimpse at an incredible mystery.  Our marriage reflects another marriage.  God speaks of our relationship with him as a marriage.  It is amazing, but our relationship with God is so intimate that it can be understood only in light of the passion that is to be shared within a marriage union (Dan Allender and Tremper Longman, Intimate Allies [Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1995],348-49).

Concluding their book on marriage, Tremper Longman and Dan Allender, sweep across the Scriptures considering the height, depth, breadth, and length of God’s love for his covenantal people.  They begin with the original creation of marriage in Genesis 1-2 and its subsequent Fall (Gen. 3).  Cast out of the Garden, they consider marriage in the OT, particularly in the Song of Solomon and the book of Hosea.  Moving into the NT, they conclude their biblical survey in Revelation 19:6-10, where God’s eternal and eschatological purposes for marriage are seen, and they conclude with culmination of all things in the summation of every marriage in Christ (cf. Luke 20:27ff).  Though brief and constrained to edit many important BT aspects of marriage, they give a helpful overview of the important turning points of marriage in the Bible.  They write:

Marriage as an institution, if not a particular relationship, can now give us a taste of heavenly realities.  It is a lens that enables us to peer into our depraved demands and into our anticipated full redemption when we are drawn into the wonder of the marraige ceremony of the Lamb.  Each moment of marriage is an anticipation of that moment when we will walk down the aisle to the Lamb’s waiting embrace.  It is also the anticipation of the day when we will ejoy the most profound, the most intimate, the most sensual (remember we will have heavenly bodies), the ultimately satisfying of relationships.  Our union with God will ignite and solidify our relationships with one another.  Truly, male and female will be one flesh again (361-62).

The Scriptures do paint a powerful portrait of God’s love for his redeemed, and they should give us pause to consider that love and the way in which our own marriages embrace and embody that heavenly reality.  Christ and his death on the cross has everything to do the day-to-day rigors of marriage.  Marital spats should be reoriented by the grace demonstrated on the cross, just as marital bonds should be strengthened by the unrequited love of God’s covenantal commitment.  It is a wonderful thing that the heavenly marriage of Christ and his church beckons us to press on toward that eternal union.  Our routine relationships are dignified by this glorious truth.  As Longman and Allender remind us, “our marriage[s] reflect another marriage,” and thus our lives have the potential to receive and reflect the glory and grace of the love of Christ.  This is good news that should strengthen our marriages.

May we continue to grow in grace and in truth in the love that is captured in the biblical theological vision of marriage culminated in Christ and the church.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

 

Biblical Theology Visualized!!!

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

For all those who love seeing the intra-canonical connections of the Bible, this visualized cross reference is for you!  See the description below:

This diagram arose from a collaboration between a Carnegie-Mellon Ph.D student and a Lutheran pastor to create a grand map of Biblical cross-references: “We wanted something that honored and revealed the complexity of the data at every level –- as one leans in, smaller details should become visible. This ultimately led us to the multi-colored arc diagram… The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.”

(HT: Tim Challies)

DA Carson on Biblical Theology and Preaching

/ davidsschrock / 6 Comments

While speaking at a conference this weekend at Omaha Bible Church on the topic of suffering, D. A. Carson gave a trenchant overview of Biblical Theology and Preaching.  His points are worth pondering and applying.

 

1. Biblical Theology directly addresses massive biblical illiteracy now prevalent in many of our hearers.  Preachers who only preach small portions of Scripture, who take “six years to preach through Matthew,” do a disservice to their congregations and deprive them of large swathes of Scripture.  BT preaching contends against biblical illiteracy.

2. Biblical Theology considers the major turning points in the Bible, not just the raw chronological story.  Preaching that highlights the covenants, the exodus, the exile, the incarnation, the resurrection, and the cross help disciples of Christ understand his story and theirs.  This is not the same thing as mere bible story telling, like in Telling God’s Story (Vang and Carter, 2006), which simply retells the bible in survey fashion.  It is rather a forward-moving, eschatological narrative that has twists, turns, all pointing to Christ.

3. Biblical Theology enriches and encourages systematic Bible reading and is in turn enriched by those who faithfully read their Bible’s.  More than just reading the Bible for an emotional pick-me-up, congregants who see redemptive storyline in Scripture will delight in reading the OT narratives, the minor prophets, and Levitical codes with greater anticipation and understanding.  They become more accessible when they are put in biblical-theological context.  To illustrate this point, Carson expounded Genesis 39 and the biblical theological ramifications of the Joseph narrative with Potipher’s wife.  More than just an admonition to avoid sexual immorality, lust, and tempting situations (though it does affirm all of those); it shows how Joseph’s sexual purity preserved the people of Israel and advanced the kingdom of God.  Consider this quote: Humanly speaking, you and I are Christians today, saved by the blood of the lamb, because Joseph kept his zipper up!!!  This perspective is reinforced and elucidated by BT.

4. Biblical Theology demands inductive rigor in preaching Biblical books and corpora.  DAC argues that preachers must do more than systematically analyze biblical data.  In doing so, God’s progressive revelation is minimized, time and space are blurred.  Rather BT preachers must ask in every passage:  What time is it?   How does this passage fit in the biblical narrative?  On what antecedent revelation/theology is the author grounding?  And concerning biblical language, how does this particular author use his language?  Different authors at different times mean different things by their words, and so it is vital to understand the language in context.

5. Biblical Theology not only keeps historical-canonical-covenantal turning points in mind, but it also keeps inner-canonical tendons/connections tied together in Scripture, and these ineluctably point to Jesus Christ.  Carson alluded to about twenty explicit themes that run through Scripture and move the storyline framework along.  Some of these he listed were: covenant, temple, sonship, marriage, to name a few.  He cited a profitable exercise of going to Revelation 21-22, listing all of the themes and images in the two chapters and then tracing them out throughout the rest of the Bible.  This is an assignment he gives incoming students at TEDS, and it is surely something that would be beneficial to any reader of the Scriptures, for Revelation 21-22 sum up all things in the Scriptures.  William Dumbrell’s book The End of the Beginning does this very well, as does GK Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission.

6. Finally, Biblical Theology helps avoid anachronism in your preaching by developing biblically warranted inter-connections. 

7. There was a seventh point in there somewhere, but I missed it.  I encourage you to listen for yourself, pick out the seventh point, and see how God would have you apply biblical theology to your preaching.

A few other resources that DA Carson names to better grasp these issues are The Unfolding Mystery by Edmund Clowney, (I would add Preaching and Biblical Theology by Clowney), Graeme Goldworthy’s Trilogy, and Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching (cf. Him We Proclaim by Dennis Johnson and Preaching Christ from the Old Testament by Sidney Greidanus).

May we who preach the Bible, preach the whole counsel of God, and point all of our hearers to Jesus Christ through the inspired language of Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles. 

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

(HT: Unashamed Workman)

Colossians 1.6: Bearing Fruit and Growing!!!

/ davidsschrock

The gospel,
which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world
it is bearing fruit and growing–
as it also does among you… (Col. 1:6)

This Sunday I am preaching at Kenwood Baptist Church in South Louisville.  I am tremendously excited about the opportunity and about the chance to proclaim the message of the gospel which is “is bearing fruit and growing” all over the world.  In a day when economic forecasts are anything but prosperous and increasing, the hope that is found in heaven (Col. 1:5) promises to bear fruit in the lives of all those who believe.  Moreover, the proclamation of the gospel always accomplishes its fruit-producing task (cf. Mark 4), it never returns void (cf. Isa. 55:10-11).

Meditating on the truths of Colossians 1:1-8, I came across this succinct statement by New Testament scholar, Douglas Moo, in his recent commentary on Paul’s Christocentric epistle.  Consider the redemptive historical unity of his comments on Colossians 1:6 and ask how the gospel is bearing fruit in your life and all over the world.  

The language bearing fruit and growing is reminiscent of the Genesis creation story, where God commands human beings to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Gen. 1:28; see also 1:22).  After the Flood the mandate is reiterated (Gen. 8:17; 9:1, 7), and the same language is later used in God’s promises to Abraham and the patriarchs that he would ‘increase’ their number and ‘multiply’ their seed (e.g., Gen. 17:20; 28:3; 35;11).  The nation Israel attains this blessing in Egypt (Gen. 48:4; Exod. 1:7) but then, of course, suffers judgment and disperal.  So the formula appears again in God’s promises to regather his people after the exile (Jer. 3:16; 23:3).  Paul may , then, be deliberately echoing a biblical-theological motif according to which God’s orignal mandate to humans finds preliminary fulfillment in the nation Israel but ultimate fulfillment ini the worldwide transformation of people into the image of God by means of their incorporation into Christ, the “image of God.”  Colossians 3:10 echoes the same idea, referring to the ‘new self’ (the new people of God in Christ) as ‘renewed in knowledge of the image of its Creator’ (see also v. 10 and cf. 1:15) (Douglas Moo, The Letter to the Colossians and to Philemon in the PNTC [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008], 88).

May the God of all life-giving grace bear fruit in our lives and may his glorious kingdom increase until it covers the earth!

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Christ-centered, Old Testament Resources

/ davidsschrock

This week Drs. Duane Garrett, Peter Gentry, and James Hamilton discussed the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament and the interpretation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.  The lively conversation was well-attended on the campus of Southern Seminary and the discussion raised a number of nuanced issues concerning sensius plenior, typology, allegory, interpretive methods, the duplication of apostolic hermeneutics, and the extent to which the Old Testament author’s knew they were writing of Jesus Christ.  In short, they covered a range of key interpretives features of biblical theology.  You can listen to the whole discussion here, while Jim Hamilton makes some follow up comments with pertinent link in his post: How much Christ in the Old Testament. 

Here are some other resources that may prove helpful in reading the Bible and seeing Christ and the gospel in the Old Testament.

First, James Grant highlights two helpful resources on the the Old Testament concerning its canonicity and its Narrative Structure.  You can find both of these on his blog, In Light of the Gospel: The first reference is to Richard Gaffins’ “Reading the Bible as Canon”.  The other is a link is John Woodhouse on the OT Narrative.

Second, a newer series of books offers to help biblical theologians and pastors see the gospel in the OT.  The Gospel According to the Old Testament Series looks like an incredible series of reflections that highlights, as the title says, the gospel in the Old Testament.  These books are not commentaries, though.  Instead, it seems that they take aim at OT characters.  Some of the books in the series focus on David, Ruth, Elijah & Elisha, Jonah, and others.  Some of the authors are Biblical Theology heavy hitters: Tremper Longman, Iain Duguid, Raymond Dillard, and David Jackson, to name a few. (HT: Chad Knudson)

Hope you find these prophetable!

Sola Deo Gloria, dss