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Thursday, November 14, 2024

Sentence Diagramming — a Picture of the Text that’s worth a thousand words!

I do not claim to be perfect in any way, nor am I skilled in original languages. But for many years I practiced, albeit imperfectly the discipline of sentence diagramming. By this I sought to carefully considering the relationships between clauses, phrases, and other parts of speech realizing that it is vital to understanding the biblical text. 

Here is an example. I am confident that I have gleaned the main idea and the argument of the text.  I am also confident that without sentence diagramming, I would have ended up at a different point.  I’ve summarized the results in a sermon plan.


 

“To win the favor of the world and its despots 

means to lose the favor of heaven.

To win the favor of heaven 

means to lose the favor of the world.” - Garland

 

Illustration: “Why Jesus requires assistance from Simon is not stated by Luke, who seems more interested in providing a reminder of the implications of Jesus’ faithfulness to God’s purpose for those who want to follow him in discipleship:

9: 23: If any want to become my followers, let them … take up their cross daily and follow me.

14: 27: Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 23: 26: They laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.”

                        — Joel B. Green


Theme: The Mission of Christ


Main Point: Anyone that wishes to follow Christ must join Him on Mission


The Cost of Following Christ on Mission: To join the ranks of those condemned by the world; a world that is adulterous and sinful.


The following quote was added after I first published this blog:


“The place of suffering in service and of passion in mission is hardly ever taught today. But the greatest single secret of evangelistic or missionary effectiveness is the willingness to suffer and die. It may be a death to popularity (by faithfully preaching the unpopular biblical gospel), or to pride (by the use of modest methods in reliance on the Holy Spirit), or to racial and national prejudice (by identification with another culture), or to material comfort (by adopting a simple lifestyle). But the servant must suffer if he is to bring light to the nations, and the seed must die if it is to multiply.”  - John Stott


http://www.justworshipgod.com/2015/08/12-classic-quotes-from-john-stott-cross.html?m=1





Comments or Helpful Critiques are always welcome





Sunday, November 10, 2024

When Will These Things Be? A Guide to the Olivet Discourse.

 



INTERPRETIVE GUIDELINE – THE OLIVET DISCOURSE[1]

 

The Olivet Discourse is found in Matthew 24–25, Mark 13, and Luke 21. This speech by Jesus is, at minimum, a prophecy against the Jerusalem temple and also, we see here a prophecy of Jesus’s Second Coming as Judge of the world. A faithful interpretation of the speech will honor the timestamps and the intended audience of our Lord indicated by the word “you”.

 

 

 

I

THESE VERSES REFER TO EVENTS THAT ARE TO CHARACTERIZE THE ENTIRE PERIOD FROM A.D. 33 TO A.D. 70, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE AND THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

 

Matthew 24:3–14

Mark 13:1-13

Luke 21:10–19

 

II

THESE VERSES REFER TO THE ONE SIGN THAT INDICATES THE PROPHESIED DESTRUCTION IS ABOUT TO OCCUR.

 

Matthew 24:15-28

Mark 13:14-23

Luke 21:20-24

 

III

THIS PERIOD OF UNPRECEDENTED TRIBULATION (A.D. 66–70) INAUGURATES OR INTRODUCES A TIME OF UNDETERMINED LENGTH, DURING WHICH TRIBULATION WILL BE PROMINENT, BUT DURING WHICH ALSO WE ARE ALERTLY TO LOOK FOR THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. THIS IS THE PRESENT AGE IN WHICH WE LIVE, CALLED BY LUKE “THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES” (LUKE 21:24; CF. ROM. 11:25).

 

Matthew 24:29-31

Mark 13:24-27

Luke 21:25-28

 

 




[1] With help from Storms, Sam. Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative. Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

 

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Dual Authorship of the Bible

 “Unless the Lord builds the house,

                  those who build it labor in vain.”[1]

Who is building in this familiar Psalm? Is the LORD building? Or are people building?

It was 1983. God moved into my life in transforming power. A neighbor invited me to attend his church. It was not long before the Associate Pastor involved me in a Bible Study that was studying foundational truths of Christianity. The study textbook was written by a Dr. Bruce Milne, entitled Know the Truth: A Handbook of Christian Belief. The very first section was on The Final Authorities in Matters of Faith. It covered topics like authority, revelation, and Scripture. Dr Milne gave several theories of inspiration but the one preferred, he named “supervision.” God “supervised” the chosen men who penned the pages of the Bible. I will discuss that later.

The Biblical authors were not hesitant to claim their own authorship. Therefore, Luke could write, “it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you . . ..”[2]  And we also find in the New Testament that many authors were not ashamed to affirm themselves as authors. For example:

a.    “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, . . . To all those in Rome.” (Ro 1:1–7).

b.   James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the  Dispersion:” (Jas 1:1)

c.    “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles.” (1 Pe 1:1)

d.    “I have written something to the church.” (3 Jn 9)

e.    “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called.” (Jud 1).

The Doctrine of Inspiration did not make the human authors robotic, nor was it conducted (for the most part) through word-by-word dictation. Through this miracle, God wrote, and man wrote. Thus, the word that Milne uses, i.e., “supervision” is not a bad word. (I struggle to find a better word, yet I might choose the phrase, “providentially ordained.” I.e., working all things in accordance with His will.) He goes on to explain:

“This theory asserts that in the process of giving to us the Scriptures, God sovereignly supervised and ordered the background, heredity and circumstances of the individual writers; as a result, when they recorded events, meditations or sermons in writing, the words used were consciously the free composition of the authors and at the same time the very Word of God.”[3] [Emphasis mine]

So, from the very beginning of my Christian journey, I believed that God used chosen men to write Scripture. I believed their writings were largely their very own composition, yet at the very same time the very Word of God. I accepted this as a mystery, yet a necessary and essential truth. Milne summarizes: “Their inspired words, therefore, are clearly stamped as ‘theirs’ and address their immediate situation but are also in God’s providence part of his eternal Word to his people in every age.”

Much to my surprise, I didn’t realize that some people didn’t believe that. Opponents to the position that I present in this article will agree that man had a role in the production of Scripture, but they would say that the words “did not originate in man.” Although not entirely bowing to a theory of dictation, they would argue that the work of “inspiration” gave to the writers the God-thoughts. In other words, they prefer to refer to these men as recorders of the Bible, not authors. They’re problem is a misunderstanding of the word “inspiration.” The Biblical word “inspiration” does not mean as it does today. Someone might say, “God inspired me to write these lyrics.”  That is not how the Bible speaks of inspiration. Mounce is helpful here:

θεόπνευστος, “God-breathed,” occurs only here in the Greek Bible, being found rarely in pre-Christian literature. It has generally been translated “inspired,” but the niv translation “God-breathed” accurately reflects the etymology of the compound word (θεόÏ‚, “God” + πνειν [aorist *πνευ (Ï‚)-], “to breathe” + verbal adjectival ending-τος) and its meaning as asserting the divine origin of Scripture. It denotes not the manner of the inspiration of Scripture but rather its source.[4]  [Emphasis mine]

We could paraphrase 2 Timothy 3:16 accurately by rendering it: “All Scripture is sourced in God.” Of course, the position of this paper affirms that. Paul is not teaching “how” the transmission of Scripture takes place in 2 Timothy 3:16. Likewise, the ESV Study Bible comments: “The term stresses the divine origin and thus the authority of Scripture. Paul does not point to the human authors of Scripture as inspired people but says that the writings themselves (“Scripture,” Gk. graphÄ“, “writing,” which in the NT always refers to biblical writings) are the words spoken (“breathed out”) by God.”[5]

But but the reader will say, “That is fine, but what about 2 Peter 1:21, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Surely this passage will confirm that Biblical authors simply wrote what God moved them to write. It was not original to them. I respond by calling us to a careful reading of the text.

a.   The subject (v.16) is the making known to the reader, the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In short Peter is writing about the Second Coming of Christ.

b.   Peter uses the Transfiguration as a prelude or anticipation of this Return (ESV Study Bible).

c.   The Return of Christ is certain, even as it was certain that Peter experienced the glory of Christ on Mount Transfiguration. Yet the prophetic truths about Christ and His return are more certain than Peter’s experience.

d.   Peter affirms Old Testament prophecies about Christ’s return by his statement in v.21.

e.   Peter is assuring that all the Scriptural prophecies about Christ’s return were not produced by someone’s personal notions but in fact were given to them by the Holy Spirit.

We note then that 2 Peter 1:21 is not a general statement on the authorship of Scripture. It is affirming that no human being of their own origin or volition could predict the Coming of the Lord. Those prophecies could only exist because of the pheromenoi of the Spirit — bringing, bearing work of the Spirit on the human author. So, back to my argument. The text of the Bible is for the most part[6] “wholly” belonging to the human author and “wholly belonging to God.”[7]

This mystical dynamic that occurs in the creation of holy Scriptures is not unlike the mystical union between the two natures of Christ. It is well known that for much of the first three hundred years of Church history, believers were engrossed in shaping and describing this Union of Christ, correcting and refuting error. The tendency was to make one Nature of Christ superior to the other or misrepresent one of the natures. The same can be true about the mystical authorship of the Bible. There will be those who make too much of the human effort and those who make too little of it by overshadowing it with Divine authorship. Warfield, I think strikes the balance that is needed (Notice the sounds of Nicene in this quote.):

“The human and divine factors in inspiration are conceived of as flowing confluently and harmoniously to the production of a common product. And the two elements are conceived of in the Scriptures as the inseparable constituents of one single and uncompounded product. Of every word of Scripture is it to be affirmed, in turn, that it is God's word and that it is man's word. All the qualities of divinity and of humanity are to be sought and may be found in every portion and element of the Scripture. While, on the other hand, no quality inconsistent with either divinity or humanity can be found in any portion or element of Scripture.”[8]

Warfield constrains us to think this through carefully. There is nothing contrarian or inconsistent with the Human/Divine authorship reality. They are distinct yet inseparable. Every word originates from both and can be found throughout Scripture. They are at no time inconsistent with each other. This is profound. The well-known theologian A.H. Strong will affirm that you can never look at Scripture, anywhere as “merely human” or “merely divine.”[9]   Strong will then make this provocative statement: “Inspiration, therefore, did not remove, but rather pressed into its own service, all the personal peculiarities of the writers, together with their defects of culture and literary style.”[10]  Grudem expands,

“In cases where the ordinary human personality and writing style of the author were prominently involved, as seems the case with the major part of Scripture, all that we are able to say is that God’s providential oversight and direction of the life of each author was such that their personalities, their backgrounds and training, their abilities to evaluate events in the world around them, their access to historical data, their judgment with regard to the accuracy of information, and their individual circumstances when they wrote, were all exactly what God wanted them to be, so that when they actually came to the point of putting pen to paper, the words were fully their own words but also fully the words that God wanted them to write, words that God would also claim as his own.”[11] [Emphasis mine]

Charles Hodge builds on that when he writes, “Moreover, as inspiration did not involve the suspension or suppression of the human faculties, so neither did it interfere with the free exercise of the distinctive mental characteristics of the individual. If a Hebrew was inspired, he spake Hebrew; if a Greek, he spake Greek; if an educated man, he spoke as a man of culture; if uneducated, he spoke as such a man is wont to speak. If his mind was logical, he reasoned, as Paul did; if emotional and contemplative, he wrote as John wrote. All this is involved in the fact that God uses his instruments according to their nature. The sacred writers impressed their peculiarities on their several productions as plainly as though they were the subjects of no extraordinary influence.”[12]

God yet used and providentially superintended every aspect of the human authorship with Divine purpose. They were authors of literature such that their personalities, culture, language, abilities were all incorporated so that their authorship was a true reality. I even will go as far as to say along with Lewis: “There is a . . . sense in which the Bible, since it is after all literature, cannot properly be read except as literature; and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are.”[13]

Because the Bible is given to us by Human/Divine authorship and we are careful not to deny the human part, we therefore realize that if we do not read the Bible as literature, we will not understand God’s inspired Word. To be clear, the human author, the historical and cultural context, the genre, the language, the sentence structure, the syntax, the flow of thought, and so on, all contribute to proper interpretation and understanding. To dismiss the literary structure of the Biblical authors will in the end mar the truth of Divine authorship. The Bible teaches that it is directly and sovereignly inspired by God and is therefore to be submitted to in how He has inspired it. “If we acknowledge its authority, we must bow to it at this point too: in its dual claim that it is God’s inspired Word and that we should approach it with reverence and submission. To take another view is to stand in opposition to clear biblical teaching.[14]  [Emphasis mine]

The Bible student, the preacher, the teacher, the author, will then carefully engage with the human author, looking to understand his personality, the cultural, historical context that he is writing in and his own purpose for composing his literature. His grammar, his style, his sentence structure, his flow of logic and so on become essential to the interpreter. At the same time, this student will recognize that the human author is not ever inconsistent with other authors, that what he writes is free from error and he carries the very words of God in all their authority, sufficiency, and power.




[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ps 127:1). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 1:3). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

[3] Milne, Bruce, Know the Truth, InterVarsity Press, 2012

[4] Mounce, W. D. (2000). Pastoral Epistles (Vol. 46, pp. 565–566). Word, Incorporated.

[5] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2342). Crossway Bibles.

[6] I write “for the most part” because in some cases, God Himself to the author to write something, e.g., Moses in Exodus, or John in Revelation. These examples are few. Most of Scripture comes from the human author and Divine author.

[7] Frame, J. M. (2006). Salvation belongs to the Lord: an introduction to systematic theology (p. 66). P&R Publishing.

[9] Strong, A. H. (1907). Systematic theology (p. 212-213). American Baptist Publication Society.

[10] Ibid,

[11] Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 81). Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

[12] Hodge, C. (1997). Systematic theology (Vol. 1, p. 157). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[13] https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/c-s-lewis-on-holy-scripture/

[14] Milne, Bruce, Know the Truth, InterVarsity Press, 2012

Monday, November 4, 2024

Thinking 'Christianly' About the News

"I hate the news."  That's what I thought recently. I have heard of sleepless nights to full on depression from Christians who drench themselves with news. They admittedly call themselves "news junkies". My contempt for the news is due to what I see it doing to news junkies. Christians can gather together in twos or larger groups and the news becomes the foremost topic of conversation. That can't be right. "I hate the news!" 

I am a product of my father who believed the adage that a Christian man should have a Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. That statement is attributed to the theologian Karl Barth. Unfortunately, like so many quotations, it is incomplete.  The actual quote reads: "Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”  I also read recently the following excerpt from Begg and Ferguson from their book: Name Above All Names.

"There is, then, this great cosmic dimension to the kingship of Jesus. He is the source, the sustainer, and the goal of all created reality. “The universe was made by Him, is providentially sustained by Him and is utterly dependent on Him.” As Christians we must learn to think properly, biblically. Then we may watch CNN or BBC News, or read the New York Times, or make our way through the Wall Street Journal without joining the ranks of the gloomy or singing in the choir of the fearful. To be in Christ is mind stretching and life transforming. It is a mind-altering experience to bow before the authority of what is said concerning this cosmic Christ, who reigns over all. It changes our perspective on everything.

So we may learn to begin the day affirming that “Christ is King. Jesus is Lord!” It is important to develop the practice of affirming central gospel truths as we waken to the new day, saying to ourselves, “The Lord God omnipotent reigns. This is the twenty-fifth of January (or whatever); today the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Yes, I saw the New York Times before I went to sleep last night. I have it on my iTouch. I did look at the BBC report before I went to bed last night. I saw all about Gaza. I saw all about Zimbabwe. I saw so much to disturb and distress. But Christ reigns from the beginning of the day to its end—every single day of my life.”" [1]

Recently I thought of Susanna Wesley. On May 12, 2019, I brought my congregation a Mother's Day message on the life of Susanna Wesley. In it I said, "Early in her life, she vowed that she would never spend more time in leisure entertainment than she did in prayer and Bible study." Her discipline gave thought to the idea: I wonder if the Christian "news junkie" should give equal time to prayer and the study of God's Word in relation to time spent watching or reading news on all forms of media?   Perhaps the reader would take it as a challenge. 

Here's part of a prayer I read recently from the Valley of Vision:

Rectify [Put right, correct] all my principles 

by clear, consistent and influential views of Divine Truth. [2]

 

__________________________________________________

1. Name above All Names Copyright © 2013 by Alistair Begg and Sinclair B. Ferguson Published by Crossway

2. The Valley of Vision, , The Banner of Truth Trust, p255.

 

Saturday, October 5, 2024

IS TGC MAKING A SHIFT, LEFT?


Question? Are we seeing a shift in TGC toward egalitarianism from a complementary position? Or is it simply “a generous complementarity?”  





1.        Why we need women in Ministry. Dr. Michael Kruger https://youtu.be/iVnnHdoS3Nk?si=oT8FD9n3FQ4plfU-

 

2.        How men and women must labor together for the good of the Church. TGC Podcast with Collin Hansen, Jen Wilkin, Kori Porter and Michael Kruger. https://youtu.be/CJs2lJgAKyI?si=aKRd4ATjxS86TtT4

 

3.        Knowing Faith Podcast. The Evangelical Leadership Crisis. Jen Wilkin, JT English and Kyle Worley. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/knowing-faith/id1274228164?i=1000671653743


 

Q1? Has the current complementary position been something less than generous?

Q2? Is there a Biblical category that defines an “office” for women?

Q3? What is meant by “visible female leadership”? What does that look like? Is there a Biblical warrant for such a position?

Q4? Does the family analogy of the Church require the imprint of mother/father roles?

 


Comments are appreciated.