Think Wink.

In the previous post, I mentioned I was asked about the book of Jonah and my thoughts on the text as a whole. In response I said I think that the story of Jonah shows: 1.) The character of God, first seen in Exodus 33:19Open Link in New Window; 34:6-7; 2.) God’s promise to Abraham was to redeem all creation, not just Abraham’s posterity, and Abraham was to be the vessel through which this redemption comes; 3.) Israel had become blinded by her position as Yahweh’s elect people and ignored her function as the channel through which God’s promise to redeem creation, not just Israel, comes into the world; 4.) Only in Jesus the Messiah was/is/will God’s plan to redeem his creation through Israel to be carried out and accomplished. In the previous post I looked at point 1 and how Jonah highlights the character of God, as first seen in Exodus 32-34. In this post, I want to continue going through the points of my answer. Read more

Reflections on Jonah

Reflections on Jonah Part 3

Interview with Dr. Mark Futato

Yesterday I was asked by one of my youth and friends from Kansas City what my take on the prophet Jonah and his story as told in sacred Scripture. I went back and reread the story and looked to what I felt were some of the main points that the author, presumably Jonah but may be not, was trying to make. After some reflection, I think that the story of Jonah shows: 1.) The character of God, first seen in Exodus 33:19; 34:6-7; 2.) God’s promise to Abraham was to redeem all creation, not just Abraham’s posterity, and Abraham was to be the vessel through which this redemption comes; 3.) Israel had become blinded by her position as Yahweh’s elect people and ignored her function as the channel through which God’s promise to redeem creation, not just Israel, comes into the world; 4.) Only in Jesus the Messiah was/is/will God’s plan to redeem his creation through Israel to be carried out and accomplished. Read more

Reflections on Jonah Part 3

Interview with Dr. Mark Futato

Reflections on Jonah Part 2

In his sermon on the final judgment, Jonathan Edwards made this observation about that Day for his beloved saints,

How comforting it is for saints to know that their Redeemer is appointed to be their Judge. The same One who spilled His own blood for them has determined their ultimate fate. There is no doubt that they will obtain what has cost Him so much to purchase.

Oh, what joy it will be for them on that last day to lift up the…ir eyes and behold the very Person in whom they have trusted for salvation, fled to for refuge, and whose voice they have often heard, inviting them to Himself for protection and safety, coming to judge them.

It truly is a comfort to know that the one who died and rose for me is the one who will pass sentence upon me on the Last Day. I am confident that the Messiah will honor his own death and resurrection on my behalf when carrying out God’s contention against this evil age.

A taste of My Friday Morning

A Blissful Headache

Two Goals for the Summer

Back in August I wrote two blog posts weaving my way through Psalm 72. In the first post, Justice and Psalm 72, I discussed the meaning of “righteousness” as the psalmist here uses it and looked at its impact upon my understanding of the New Testament’s use of “righteousness.” Suffice it to say, I find myself more inclined then, as I do now, that the traditional formulations of “righteousness” language is deficient due to the much needed impact of the Reformation of the 16th Century. However, righteousness, especially God’s righteousness, cannot be located solely in a sphere of merit theology and legalism. God’s righteousness is active and does more than merely declare someone to be righteous or wicked, but also acts according to that verdict, namely resurrecting Jesus and those who are in his kingdom from the grave.

Then in the second post, Domain and Psalm 72, I discussed the poem in a little bit more depth. But I saw there that the poet prays that Yahweh will expand the borders of the kingdom to include the whole world which would thus bring this saving righteousness of God to the whole world through the king and his kingdom. The wicked of the entire earth will be defeated by God through his king and the righteous poor will be prospered. God grants the king his own righteousness, and then gives the whole world that righteousness by bringing the world under the domain of his king.

In the following post, I want to conclude my look–yes I wrote the first two in August and it’s now March, my timing is off–at Psalm 72, namely Psalm 72:15-19. Read more

James 4 and Psalm 24

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 1

Pre-Pre-load Psalm

One of the things about the Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke that has always baffled me has been the fulfillment passages where Matthew will say that event X fulfills prophecy A. But when I read prophecy A in its OT context it doesn’t make any sense. What Matthew records as the fulfillment isn’t what is being promised by the prophet. Last Christmas I covered Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 (see Part 1 and Part 2). This Christmas I want to cover Matthew’s use of Jeremiah 31:15 in Matthew 2:18. Read more

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 1

A Loving God??

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 2

In my previous post I defined the gospel in terms of how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. That is to say, they viewed the gospel as God fulfilling his promises made to Israel to establish a new creation by his Spirit, ruled by his Servant-King from the house of David, ending Israel’s exile, and drawing the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness into the light of this new Israel in this new creation. God fulfilled these promises by raising up Jesus of Nazareth, who came and took dominion over the present evil age and creation, offered up his life as an atoning sacrifice for his people’s transgression, and was resurrected as the firstfruit of the new Spirit-wrought creation and the king over that new creation.

Now how does the Apostle Paul fit into this picture? When one reads his letters one does not see a lot of talk about a kingdom. He rarely speaks about Jesus earthly life and ministry, his teachings and healings that demonstrated him to be the Spirit-indwelt Servant-King from the stump of Jesse. Paul speaks minimally about the kingdom, though it is not absent from his theology. He talks about the gospel in terms of Jesus’ person, death and resurrection and their meaning. He is combating a certain form of Judaism that requires Gentiles to convert to Judaism to be accepted into the people of God. So how does his battle’s over the meaning of justification and the gospel fit into the picture seen in the gospels? Read more

One More Question

Truth, Salvation, and “euaggelion”

When I think of “euaggelion” or “gospel”…

Having examined both the Old Testament story, that serves as the background, and the story of Jesus of Nazareth, I feel it is time to begin to define the gospel, the εὐαγγέλιον. Within this framework that I established, I observed everywhere in the New Testament where εὐαγγέλιον or εὐαγγελίζω (”I bring good news”) appears. In the Gospels and Acts, the most common theme that was attached to “gospel” is that of “kingdom.” Paul attaches it to Jesus Messiah, both in Jesus’ person and work. In the Gospels and Acts, God’s fulfillment of the promises made about a Davidic Messiah as well as Jesus’ resurrection are also tied into the use of the term “gospel.” Paul most often seems to use “gospel” as a technical term more than anything, thus it is important to see this term as encompassing both Jesus’ person and work. The following is my attempt to define the gospel as the New Testament defines it. Read more

The Jesus Christ Gospel According to Mark pt 1

The Gospel: Defined

A Key Term

Four hundred years of history transpires between the last promises made by Yahweh to his people and Yahweh’s next move. Yahweh has promised to completely reverse the current world order that his people, Israel, are living in. No longer will they live on a planet that his hostile against them. No longer will the nations rule over them. No longer will they be a nation that is a point of laughter to their neighbors. No longer will they be ruled by a king who leads them astray from blessing and into curse. No longer will they disobey their covenant, and bring upon themselves the wrath of their God. God is going to recreate the world, raise up a Servant-King-Priest who will reign over Israel in this new earth. And Israel will be a light that will draw the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness and back to their Creator. Yahweh has promised and Yahweh is about to deliver. Read more

It’s Very Familar

One More Question

The Gospel: Defined

With the newly released Manhattan Declaration, from November 2009, comes a bit of controversy. The document in and of itself is controversial in what it asserts, namely the encouragement and engagement of civil disobedience to uphold certain principles. It is controversial because leaders in Protestant-Evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy have signed this document and encourage others to do the same. It is also controversial because to get these groups together “the gospel of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1) has not been clearly defined, thus other leaders–especially Evangelical–have refused to sign the document and encourage others to refuse to sign it as well.

In light of this and other considerations, I have decided to take an opportunity to present my definition of the gospel of Jesus Messiah. But to do that, I want to first tell the background story to the gospel. I feel that because the Bible is the story of God–both from and about–one needs to know the story before defining any single part of it, like the gospel. Read more

It’s Very Familar

The Gospel: Towards a Definition

One More Question

I will be the first to admit that I was not pleased with the election of Barak Obama from a political standpoint. From a racial and civil point of view it was great to finally see a man who was not white get into the oval office. That was a great step forward for the US. But from the perspective of the policies he supports and will enact as president, I couldn’t be more unhappy. That being said, I would never in a million years call the man the Antichrist. May be in the sense that he stands against Christ in issues like marriage and life, but not the label associated with the eschaton. However, someone put together some Youtube videos that indicate just that (I admit that the author/narrator of the vids says to think about the connection but that no assertions are being made. But the tone and the most obvious implication that appears to come from the vid is that Obama is the Antichrist.). Dan Wallace writes up a nice response to the videos–and provides the links to both videos as well.

Some good news has come out of the NFL, namely that the Philadelphia Eagles have signed Michael Vick to a two-year deal. Vick was recently released from prison, not too far from where I lived in KC for a while, having been convicted of dog-fighting and torturing animals. He served a two-year sentence and missed the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Many players and teams and fans–including myself–felt that Vick should be given a second chance, and he was. Erik, from the IrishCalvinist blog, makes a very keen and deeply troubling observation. That is cruelly torturing and killing dogs put Vick in prison for two years (and I’m not disagreeing with that sentence that Vick served nor am I saying the crime wasn’t horrible; I love my dog) but no one goes to jail for murdering humans because abortion is a choice. Why do humans value the life of animals more the life of their own species? That is backwards in a very fundamentally flawed way. Why is that?

What a country we live in.

“Loved More/Loved Less” Vs. “Loved/Hated”

Everyone Loses It At Some Point

A Picture of the Christian Life in Captain America