Tag: biblical theology

The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 iii)

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Book of Revelation, craig koester, Dispensationalism, hermeneutics, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show show to his servants the things that must soon take place. (Revelation 1:1, ESV)

The Things that Must Soon Come to Pass

The opening verse of this book undermines all interpretations that try to make John’s Revelation a coded history of current events. As Craig Koester helpfully recounts in the first part of his concise commentary Revelation and the End of All Things, there is a long history of misinterpreting Revelation in this way. All such interpretations have one thing in common, the predictions they make never come to pass. Modern dispensationalists now avoid making predictions and so resort to probabilities. This kind of thinking leads to ridiculous concepts like the Rapture Index. So, when John writes that God wished to show his servants “the things that must soon take place”, the “soon” refers to those things that the intended recipients of John’s letter were experiencing and about to experience.

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The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 i)

Posted in Bible, Book of Revelation, Dispensationalism, hermeneutics, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Learning to Hear What John has Written

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:1-3, ESV)

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Noah and the Flood — What’s Going on in Genesis 6-9 Part 2: Living Idols

Posted in ANE, Biblical Theology, Church Fathers, hermeneutics, J.I. Packer, noah's ark, Revelation, Rikk Watts, Scripture, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

At the end of this post, some of you may be wondering what all this has do with my promise to explain what I think is going on in the story of Noah and the Flood. Yet, I ask your patience and refer you back to my insistence that context literary, canonical and historical is of utmost importance when it comes to interpreting Genesis 6-9. (Previous Post)

In the Image of God

Recent discoveries (relatively speaking) have shed light on the meaning of many biblical phrases and concepts that share resonances with similar phrases and concepts in the broader Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) context. Continue reading “Noah and the Flood — What’s Going on in Genesis 6-9 Part 2: Living Idols” →

Noah and the Flood — What is going on in Genesis 6-9? Part I: The Big Picture

Posted in ANE, Bible, Biblical Theology, Genesis, hermeneutics, interpretation, noah's ark, Scripture, TheologyTagged , , , , 4 Comments

Given the amount of posts that I have devoted to a critique and satire of the teaching of Ken Ham and his organization Answers in Genesis, I think it is about time that I presented my own views of this well known but often poorly understood narrative. (See Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis Posts)

The first thing to note about this story is that it does not appear in isolation and should not be treated as such. Furthermore, the narrative as we currently have it was written at least 2500 years ago and this historical reality ought to inform our interpretation of the text as well. Continue reading “Noah and the Flood — What is going on in Genesis 6-9? Part I: The Big Picture” →

How Ken Ham & Answers in Genesis Led Me to Accept Evolutionary Theory

Posted in ANE, Answers in Genesis, Apologetics, Bible, Biblical Theology, Bruce Waltke, Christianity and Science, Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Evolution, Fundamentalism, Genesis, hermeneutics, Inspiration, Ken Ham, Revelation, Scripture, Teaching, Theology, TraditionTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Ken Ham and the folks at Answers in Genesis (AIG) often suggest that what leads people, including biblical scholars, to propose interpretations of the early chapters of Genesis that differ from a “literal” interpretation of Genesis akin to AIG‘s own is a desire to conform their understanding of Scripture (and doctrine) to modern scientific theories, i.e. “deep time”, the Big Bang, and, of course, the theory of evolution. In other words, the suggestion is that beliefs about evolution and the age of the universe not only precede but drive Christians to seek alternate interpretations of the early chapters of Genesis that better accommodate modern scientific theories.

The polemical and apologetic narrative usually sounds something like the following from a 2011 post condemning the work of Wheaton College professor John Walton:

Why are we seeing more and more bizarre and elitist ideas (e.g., William Dembski—see previous blog post for details) coming out of Christian academia? I believe it is a form of academic pride, largely from academic peer pressure, because these people ultimately “loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43).

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Inspiration and Incarnation (Part IV and Final): A Review of Peter Enns’s Book 

Posted in ANE, Bible, Biblical Theology, Commentaries, Education, Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, hermeneutics, Inspiration, Ken Ham, Revelation, Scripture, Theology, TraditionTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In the fourth chapter of Peter Enns’s  Inspiration and Incarnation, Enns turns his attention to the question of how the New Testament authors use the Old Testament. It is a question of hermeneutics or interpretation. Thanks to Rikk Watts at Regent College it is also one of my favourite topics in Biblical Studies. So, as with much of this book, I come at with preformed opinions. As I indicated in the previous post, I thought if I were going to find something “disagreeable” in this book it might come in this chapter. Yet, again, I found nothing in this chapter that accounts for the negative and sometimes viscious reaction of some evangelicals against Enns and his view of Scripture. Continue reading “Inspiration and Incarnation (Part IV and Final): A Review of Peter Enns’s Book “ →

Advent, Christmas, and Nativity Part III: Because there was no room in the . . . Hey, where’s the Inn?

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Christmas, hermeneutics, TraditionTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

In the previous post in this Advent series, I suggested that Mary was not likely full-term on the 70 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. So, she was a lighter load for the little donkey that may or may not have made the journey with them. I have also saved Joseph, the patron Saint of Canada, from any accusations of being so insensitive as to make his full-term wife ride a donkey.

It is possible that Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem.But depending on how far along she was in her pregnancy, she may have even have walked at leisure alongside her husband. Is that such a bad picture to have leading up to the Nativity? These newlyweds strolling along the path to Bethlehem, enjoying one another’s company, and talking about plans for the future. Maybe Joseph was filling his wife in on the quirks of his family in Bethlehem. Continue reading “Advent, Christmas, and Nativity Part III: Because there was no room in the . . . Hey, where’s the Inn?” →

Ham-Handed Hermeneutics VI: More Hippo, Less Ham

Posted in ANE, Answers in Genesis, Augustine, Bible, Biblical Theology, Christianity and Science, Church Fathers, Evolution, Exodus, Genesis, Gospel, hermeneutics, Ken Ham, N.T. Wright, Philosophy, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Or the Harmonization Temptation

This post continues and concludes (for now) my engagement with Augustine’s On the Literal Meaning of Genesis.
I simply want to note some of the intriguing and insightful elements in this work. I will give particular attention to Augustine’s suggestion that Genesis 1 presents God’s causal creation of all things, including human beings, while Genesis 2 describes the formal or material creation of human beings which for Augustine is God’s ongoing creative activity. Finally, I suggest that one of the errors that is common to Ham, Augustine and many errors is the desire to harmonize Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

[For related Ham-Handed posts follow these links: Augustine I, Augustine II, Augustine III)

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Sons of God, Daughters of Adam, and the Nephilim (Genesis 6:1-5)

Posted in Aliens, ANE, Bible, Biblical Theology, Commentaries, Genesis, hermeneutics, PoliticsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

In my recycled posts about aliens in the Bible, I poke fun at some popular Christian authors who argue that UFOs are real, aliens are really demons in disguise, and therefore suggest that the Bible tells us we will be deceived by these demon-aliens. Often UFO and alien abduction enthusiasts read alien visitation into ancient texts, ancient artifacts, and structures. Who really built the pyramids? Why are gods from the heavens?

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Genesis 3: When is a Snake not merely a Snake?

Posted in ANE, Bible, Biblical Theology, Education, Genesis, Philosophy, PoliticsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

While I highly recommend Michael Cosby’s Intepreting Biblical Literature (see my post on this textbook), I have yet to read a textbook where I agree with everything in it. In his chapter on the Primeval History or Genesis 1-11, Cosby writes the following, “The talking snake in Genesis 3:1-5 is merely that — a snake.”

So, when we get to this moment in a classroom setting, I usually put this quote on the screen followed by the question in my title:

When is a snake not just a snake?  Continue reading “Genesis 3: When is a Snake not merely a Snake?” →