Think Wink.

A Davidic king was promised (by pre-exilic prophets such as Isaiah and Micah). It would seem that when I AM brought Israel back to her land that this king would come. But Judah came back to Judea and no king arose. Instead, the promise of a Davidic king was restated (by prophets like Zechariah). Yet no king came. A question does arise in the silence, will I AM keep his word? He brought back Judah from exile as promised, not to mention the millennia during which I AM promised and then fulfilled that promise. But century upon century passes without a king. Will I AM bring his king? Read more

Peace Part 1

The “euaggelion” of Peace

Peace Part 2

It didn’t work. Shalom, “peace,” did not return to I AM’s creation through the community of Israel. The laws, the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and the kings all failed to bring Israel back to shalom. Yet here is an interesting fact, some people saw that shalom was gone. Psalm 72 is a prayer either by King Solomon or for King Solomon for the king to bring back shalom. He prayed to I AM that the king would reign in righteousness and justice and fairness. The Psalmist wanted the king to liberate the oppressed and to extend forth godliness in his kingdom. This return to a place where peace will extend from sea to sea, from coast land to coast land, and the land will be at peace. This is a prayer for I AM to move the king to guide the people back to shalom, but not just the people of Israel but to extend Israel universally. This prayer concludes with the Psalmist’s faith in I AM to answer this prayer. Through his prophets, I AM does promise to raise up a king who will deliver the people from the chaos and destruction that happened when I AM cursed the created order with the removal of shalom. Read more

Peace Part 1

The “euaggelion” of Peace

Peace Part 2

Because of the length of this post, I decided to break it into two smaller ones rather than one long one. So please see “To Fulfill What Was Spoken By The LORD 1/2″ to catch up here. I am just going to launch right into the second part of my look at how Jesus’ flight to Egypt fulfills what was spoken by Yahweh in Hosea 11:1. Read more

How Long Oh Lord

Making Sense of a Cruel World.

Reading the Text Rightly

This Christmas, as I reflect on the incarnation narrative in Matthew 2 I find myself guilty of something I didn’t realize: I blindly accepted the prophecies Matthew says Jesus fulfilled as verbal-predictive prophecy concerning Jesus. Sure I didn’t think that they were going to say “Jesus, a.k.a. Yahweh Elohim, born from a woman who has never engaged in sexual activity from the town of Nazareth in Bethlehem during a census ordered by the Roman government when Augustus Caesar was in power.” I always just accepted that the prophecies here were about Jesus. Granted it has been a while since I realized that the “Immanuel” passage was a bit more complex to see how it gets to Jesus but texts like Hosea 11:1 and Jeremiah 31:5 I never really let it sink in. But recently it hit me that I had never tried to work out how these Old Covenant prophecies point the way to Christ given their literary and historical and theological settings. Today I want to just go through Hosea 11:1 and how Jesus going to Egypt is fulfillment of what Yahweh had said through the prophet. Read more

To Fulfill What Was Spoken By The LORD 2/2

How Long Oh Lord

Making Sense of a Cruel World.

Recently I began to read the Gospel of John in light of the lawsuit that Yahweh brings up in Isaiah 40-55. I have noted many parallels between the two and can see how John formulated his Gospel writing within the framework of Isaiah’s lawsuit. This lawsuit does something for John’s writing, namely it gives a courtroom setting for his testimony to and about Jesus. The words that we translate into English as “witness” and “eyewitness” and “to testify” in the Greek are not law-court terminology. But by placing the whole narrative within the framework of Isaiah’s lawsuit, the whole text is a legal witness. Very fascinating. Read Isaiah 42:18-43:15 to really see the lawsuit that is in play here in Isaiah 40-55. However, I want to comment on some things I found in Isaiah 40-55 that I found very warming. Read more

Thoughts on the Endings of Kings and Chronicles

The Nature of Prophecy

A Key Term

Zondervan’s Koinonia blog has put up a quiz for people to test their view on how the NT authors used the OT texts. This is to coincide with the new Three Views book they are to release later. I’ll provide my results, quiz, and a link to the Koinonia page so that you can look into the book a bit more. Read more

Martin Luther and the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Second Coming Debate

Prayer for a new church

In this post we come to Habakkuk’s second complaint, responding to God’s solution to the problem of injustice in Habakkuk 1:5-11. As you read this passage, I hope that you will see a close connection between Habakkuk and two other Old Covenant prophets: Jeremiah and Jonah. Let us turn to the text now and begin the third post in introducing the context of Habakkuk 2:4. Read more

What does it mean to be “called”?

Redemptive-Historical Preaching and Charles Dennison

Interview with Dr. Mark Futato

Okay so the introductory material is going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. Here’s the reason why: there is a lot of good stuff in there to just pass up. I really love Habakkuk, my favorite minor prophet. I love the dialogue format of the book and I love some of the themes developed there. I love Habakkuk 3, especially Habakkuk 3:17-19. That chapter, and its concluding verses, are just amazing poetry to me. i love it. Anyways back to the series at hand. We just covered the opening complaint or prayer. Now we turn to God’s response and something we as Christians can take away, as we work towards our target of Habakkuk 2:4. Read more

Redemptive-Historical Preaching and Charles Dennison

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 5–Righteous by Faith

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 1

Yesterday on the Dividing Line, James White had an interesting show. First he addressed fellow Calvinists like myself and called us to present our theology (Reformed theology) with grace. It was a very impassioned plea that included an apology from Dr. White himself. Then he spent about 30 minutes talking with a chap from London who is an Arminian/Open Theist. That was a very interesting exchange, including Dr. White walking through the Greek of John 6:37-45 (I have a page here at Think Wink where you can follow along; open a new tab or window and click on the Greek New Testament link at the top of the blog). Then he concludes the show addressing charges of false prophecy in Ezekiel and biblical inerrancy. I love it.

A Text Critical Look at Luke 23:34

“Christopher Hitchens” on the Divinding Line

James White on Steve Gregg

This is the third post on Mark 1:11 and its three sources of Genesis 22LXX; Psalm 2:7 LXX; and Isaiah 42:1 LXX. This post will conclude our examination of how Jesus is God’s Son (Genesis 22), Son (Psalm 2:7) and Servant (Isaiah 42:1). Let us get the scene of Mark 1:9-11 in front of us from the NET,

9 Now in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. 10 And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight.”

Again let us see the Greek text of Mark 1:11 and Isaiah 42:1 before us so that we can see the parallels.

Mark 1:11 — καὶ φωνὴ ἐγένετο ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα
Isaiah 42:1 LXX — Ιακωβ ὁ παῖς μου ἀντιλήμψομαι αὐτοῦ Ισραηλ ὁ ἐκλεκτός μου προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου ἔδωκα τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπ αὐτόν κρίσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐξοίσει
Read more

Son, Son, or Servant and Mark 1:11 Part 1

Son, Son, Or Servant and Mark 1:11 Part 2

“Son of Man” and Jesus