Archive for June, 2007
Does the God in American Evangelicalism Produce Fear?
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 33:8-19
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8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 13 The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; 14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. 16 The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
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This Is So Unreal.
Growing up as a kid, I watched professional wrestling. My favorite growing up was Sting with his blond hair and face paint that transformed into the Crow image from the movies. He was so fun to watch. After my sophomore year of high school, I kind of stopped watching the show. The story lines just weren’t entertaining any more, if I did watch it was to see if the Rock would say something funny. Then I picked up wrestling again during my tenure at SBU when most of my friends in the dorm watched the show. It was a male-bonding experience like no other. To this day, my wrestling buddies are the ones I speak with most.
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Sunday Morning Drive
This morning as I was driving to church, I had an epiphany of sorts. I posted a while back about limiting the atonement, but I really couldn’t articulate it back. It made sense to me in my head, but I couldn’t repeat what Piper had said in my own words. But this morning as I was driving to church, I finally did it! I was finally able to articulate how I define Limited Atonement or Particular/Definite Redemption.
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Wednesday and Thursday
If you did not know, DesiringGod is offering all of their books in their online store for FIVE DOLLARS ($5)! This is only online and only on June 27 and 28. If there is a book by Piper that you have really wanted, then that is the time to get them. I plan on buying Future Grace and/or What Jesus Demands from the World. For those of you who want to understand what Piper means by “Christian Hedonism” check out Desiring God. If you want to see the exegetical foundation of unconditional election and predestination in Romans 9, check out The Justification of God; beware this book is an actual exegetical work written for scholars to read, not the lay person; if you get it, make sure you have the ability to check out his translation of the Greek and Hebrew languages. If you want to see an early exegetical defense of the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith then get Counted Righteous in Christ. I really recommend everyone taking advantage of this opportunity for extremely cheap resources.
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My Millennial Views Pt. 6: Amil. or Postmil.?
The conclusion I draw from this study is that the millennial kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. It began at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and it continues to be built as we speak through the calling of God’s elect. Now, here’s where the debate takes another turn, at least for me as an antichiliast (chiliast comes from the Greek for 1000), or someone who does not believe in a literal millennium. To what extent will this kingdom reach? Will it be a kingdom relatively equal to that of Satan’s kingdom, growing concurrently with each other. Or is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ overtaking the kingdom of Satan? This is where I want to turn the discussion in this series.
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Irresistable Grace
With Paul the calling is not mere sound, not a stentorian proclamation, not solely a polite and gracious invitation. It is God’s choice of His people with an invitation so revealingly personal, so sweetly insistent, and so cogently presented that the invited one gladly accepts it and comes to the feast…It is an act as well as an invitation. It is the eternal choice of God actuated in our experience.–Dr. L. E. Barton, Amazing Grace, pg. 169.
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My Millennial Views Pt. 5: A Jewish Kingdom?
Now, there is a question I want to ask. We live in a time where in 1948, a tiny nation called Israel was reformed. Jews from around the world returned to the land given to them in Scripture. To do that, the people of Palestine, the Palestinians/PLO/PLA were displaced and without a home. Many Christians see this Jewish state a fulfillment of prophecy. It is one step closer to the millennial kingdom. Some people don’t see a connection at all. If we are going to understand this kingdom and its nature, we need to answer the Jewish question. Is this a Jewish kingdom? Although my two previous posts say that the millennial is a spiritual kingdom in this present age and eliminate much of what it would take for the kingdom to be Jewish, I would like to come to this point anyways for argument’s sake.
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My Millennial Views Pt. 4: Revelation20:4-6
Today I turn to the last section of this incredible passage in John’s revelation of Jesus Christ, Revelation 20:4-6. This is where the whole crux of the matter is located. In here one word, that appears twice in the text, determines whether or not my interpretation of the binding is what John had in mind when he wrote it. George Eldon Ladd writes, “If we can find and answer to this question [how to interpret the resurrection in this text], we shall have the key to the solution of the millennial question in this passage” (Millennium, 35).
There are two questions I want to focus on: who is spoken of in this text to reign with Christ for a thousand years; what did John mean by “came to life” and “This is the first resurrection”?
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My Millennial Views Pt. 3: Revelation 20:1-3
This is the first post that will deal with the millennial passage of Revelation 20:1-6. I have broken the passage up into two sections of the text: 20:1-3 and 20:4-6. This post will deal with the first three verses of Revelation 20. In this post, and the next post, my arguments will follow that of amillennialist, Anthony Hoekema, even though I consider myself predominantly a postmillennialist. The question is why? It stems from the comments of noted postmillenialist, Loraine Boettner, when he writes of Hoekema’s treatment of Revelation 20:1-6, “Hoekema’s interpretation of the very important section, Revelation 20:1-6, is, I believe, essentially correct” (Millennium, 202). Again on page 47 of Millennium, Boettner refers the reader to Hoekema’s exegesis. Thus many of Hoekema’s exegetical arguments will be followed. With that bit of preface, I am ready to begin.
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My Millennial Views Pt. 2: Reading the Bible.
Before actually getting to the text of Revelation 20:1-6, I feel I must address a major issue: how to read Scripture. There are two things that most people forget to do when they come to the book of Revelation. First, they don’t realize and take into account the type of literary genre they are reading. They say they are reading the passage literally but they don’t know what it means to read something in the sensus literalis or the literal sense. Secondly, they start their prophecy study with the Old Testament in the events concerning the Parousia instead of the New Testament. I want to take a few moments to talk about why it is important to understand these two principles correctly when interpreting Scripture, let alone eschatological passages.
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