Faith | Books | Culture
The two witnesses in Revelation had invited much speculation over the years. Some have identified them as Moses and Elijah, some as the church and Israel, and many more views besides.
While some ambiguity may exist in the best of interepretations, I think the book of Revelation itself provides solid evidence for taking the witnesses as representative of the whole church. [Read more…] about Who Are the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11?
Since I conceive of God as impassible, Spirit, simple, then my conception of God differs from someone who sees him as passible and similar to us (though much greater) on a scale of being. When we think of God, we think of two different entities. It’s not the same.
Granted, many people think of God as “greater” than us but on our scale of being today. It is a problem, but the real issue lies with how we talk about God from the Bible. If history is our only context when we interpret Scripture (and not theology/metaphysics), then it is evident that we will only speak of God who participates in history in ways similar to us (though much greater than us).
That still results in a God unrecognizable to Christian theology as expressed in creeds and confessions. Pastoral theology then cannot stop at teaching Scripture within its historical context. It must take the next step to interpret it within its theological context—the reality of the triune God and incarnate Christ.
We sometimes speak about our sinful nature. Which of course we have. The law of sin uses our flesh to further its aims (Rom 7:25). Yet one possible liability with using the phrase “sinful nature” entails what Paul Dirks recently described as a competition of opposing natures.
I would add that the phrase sinful nature implies that sin has a substantial nature. In other words, it would mean that sinful natures have a created existence because the only things that exist are those created by God. God did not create sin, and therefore it is impossible for sin to have substantial existence. Rather, sin only corrupts God’s good creation like rust on metal. It is not a thing but a corrosion of things.
A better way to speak of the power of sin comes directly out of Paul. He speaks of the flesh* and its passions and desires. By using such language, we can speak accurately about sin and also discover concrete ways to defeat sin since we will know what it is.
Speaking of a sinful nature as such can often obscure sin’s real power by making it sound like a dualistic force that we have to fight in a battle like in the ancient teaching of Manichaeism.
That is not the case. And here is why. [Read more…] about Do We Have a Sinful Nature? Better to Say, We Have Passions And Desires of the Flesh.
Christians are supposed to be new creations whose lives exhibit the power of God (2 Pet 1:3ff). As new creations, we walk and live by the Spirit. Even knowing this, many of us struggle to understand what it looks like to change by the Spirit. We attend regular churches full of regular people who don’t appear very much like Spirit-indwelled new creations. What are we missing?
The answer to these questions involves understanding how we change, what the power of God means, and why sin still exists even among Christians. [Read more…] about What does it look like to change by the Spirit?
The development of dogma idea doesn’t make sense when it comes to the central motifs of Trinity and Christology. The linguistic precision certainly grew, but such language flowered from the seed of revelation about who God was and who Christ is in the NT writings.
You cannot read 1 Cor 8:6-7 in which Christ the Lord is inserted into the Shema and think, “Gee, this is just some human that Paul and his churches worship.” Being baptized into the singular name of the three (Matt 28) meant that early Christians already worshipped God via their baptism and confession. [Read more…] about From Christ to Creed: Did Theology Grow?
Professor Christopher Seitz self-consciously follows the canonical approach of Brevard Childs while also engaging in a theological interpretation of Scripture. In this way, Childs reads Scripture theologically and critically. This methodological mixture draws together two often competing ways of interpreting Scripture.
To slightly exaggerate the case, Interpreters privilege either theological or critical tools depending on their social location (the church or the academy). Seitz attempts to do both. This attempt alone makes The Elder Testament an interesting and somewhat provocative read.
I say “somewhat” because recent scholarship has made similar attempts. Seitz’s attempt, however, to my knowledge, most clearly builds on Brevard Childs’ canonical approach for the sake of theological understanding. [Read more…] about The Elder Testament by Christopher Seitz. A Review.
