Redemptive-Historical Theology Part 3: Christocentric Thinking and Ethics

There are some who will insist that Systematics and Biblical Theology are complimentary and admittedly some Systematic theologians are better than others. And yet ultimately we return to basic questions - What is the Bible? What is the nature of revelation? How do we judge and interact with it? How did the Fall affect our intellect? And how do we faithfully understand and communicate what God has spoken? Is it our task to reflect Scriptural teaching even if it results in unresolved tensions and we are forced to limit some of our concepts - leaving loose ends and unanswered inquiries? Or is it the task of the theologian as Charles Hodge (1797-1878) argued - to treat the Scripture as something like data or a 'storehouse of facts' to be organized? The theologian's task consequently becomes something like a scientific discipline with the primary requirement being philosophical training.

Sola Scriptura and The Spectrum of Scriptural Authority (V): The Holy Spirit, Epistemological Poverty, and True New Covenant Biblicism

We've considered various Sola Scriptura camps that are found wanting in their claims as well as briefly touching on some of the groups that esteem Scripture down to those who functionally despise it.

We must weigh all of these versus a genuine Biblicist rendering of Sola Scriptura. For some this is an impossibility, for others Pandora's Box that can only lead to chaos.

Vos and the Two-Age Ethics of Redemptive-Historical Theology

https://reformedforum.org/vos-and-neo-calvinism-rethinking-a-transatlantic-identity/

Bucey provides some helpful analysis regarding this rather pivotal episode in the life of Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) and his 1886 refusal to join Abraham Kuyper at the Free University in Amsterdam. The young Vos instead made his way to Grand Rapids to teach at what would become Calvin College and Seminary.

My Kingdom is Not of This World

There are few books out there that I would fully endorse, but Joshua Immanuel's 2024 work - My Kingdom is Not of This World is one of them. A friend of this website, Immanuel excels at laying out some of the basic ideas surrounding the nature of the Kingdom and the ethics that flow from it.

Blair, the Roman Beast, and The Mark (IV)

The visions in Daniel and repeated in Revelation seem to suggest the Roman Empire is the model for the Beast and indeed from the time of the New Testament to the present, the spectre of Rome haunts Christendom. From the Russian and British Empires, to the German, French, and American - all seek to emulate Rome. Whether Republican or Imperial Rome, the Western or Eastern iterations, all look to Rome as the paragon of government, the ideal they aspire to. All are inspired by its institutions and laws - and certainly its architecture. And all muse over its fall.

Herman Bavinck's Monism and Redefinition of the Kingdom (II)

One can only sit back in wonder when reading a statement like this:

It is on this basis that Bavinck can say: “There is thus a rich revelation of God even among the heathen—not only in nature but also in their heart and conscience, in their life and history, among their statesmen and artists, their philosophers and reformers.”

A Dispensationalist Voice from Yesteryear

I happened to be up in Western New York the other day and picked up Insight for Living, the radio programme of Chuck Swindoll on WDCX out of Buffalo. I tend to associate him with a generation that has now passed away. I looked him up and wasn't too surprised to find out that he's eighty-nine years old. The regional radio station FLN (the so-called Family Life Network) used to broadcast his show during their prime-times but then he was relegated to the 5am slot and I'm not even sure they run his show at all any more. They removed men like Swindoll and replaced them with sticky-sweet therapeutic types like Chip Ingram and hipsters like James MacDonald and Greg Laurie. Compared to the latter, Swindoll seems like a breath of fresh air, and so I left his show on and listened for a bit. But alas, it was not the case.

Limited Epistemology and the Place of the Lost in Cosmology (II)

Modern Christians lament the sixteenth century Copernican Shift which initiated the reformulation of not just cosmology but epistemology and more fundamental questions such as meaning, teleology, and to what extent truth can be ascertained. If man and the Earth he inhabits is not the centre of the universe, then just what does that say?

John MacArthur Continues to Disappoint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ofKxfYqGw

In recent weeks, as the media focused on the seventy-fifth anniversary of Israel's founding, I have been musing on Dispensationalism and its geopolitical influence. I happened to come across a video of John MacArthur appearing on the Ben Shapiro show back in 2018.

Ignatius on Worship as Spiritual Warfare

Recently re-reading some Early Church Fathers, I was both pleased and inspired to discover this exhortation on the part of Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred in the early second century. Quoting from the longer extant version of his epistle to the Ephesians, we read in Chapter XIII:

 Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when ye come frequently together in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his "fiery darts" urging to sin fall back ineffectual. For your concord and harmonious faith prove his destruction, and the torment of his assistants. Nothing is better than that peace which is according to Christ, by which all war, both of aerial and terrestrial spirits, is brought to an end. "For we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places."

Finding Meaning in History and the Dangers of Historicism

Following recent Christian discussions on historiography, it was inevitable that criticism directed at Historicism would eventually be put on the table. In this case the reference is to the argument for inevitable historical processes that govern human development and progress. Following in the footsteps of thinkers like Hegel, the philosopher studies these processes and by understanding them, a right view of history can be developed and with it a coherent political theory and strategy.

A Broken Back to the Glory of God (II)

The point in all this is to say – that at some point his employers may conclude that he has no future there (or no near future) and they may decide to drop him. That will mean a loss of medical coverage. Once again, it's tragic that in the flawed American system one's access to health care has all too often been tied to employment. This has made people vulnerable and in some cases it has effectively enslaved people to their employers as they live in fear of losing coverage. This is all the more true in the case of those that have chronic conditions and need regular care or rely on expensive medications. One can safely say the whole system is a mess and yet the primary driving factor of that mess – is the profit system. It's all the more egregious in the context of human health and suffering as it preys on fear and desperation.

Dominionist Eisegesis and Doctrinal Cowardice

https://caldronpool.com/the-gospel-has-many-political-implications-for-a-nation/

New Calvinist pastor Matthew Littlefield asserts that those who believe the Church should not engage in politics are guilty of trumpeting ignorance. He then proceeds to elaborate what he believes are the political implications of the gospel.

Inbox: The Glory of the Nations in Revelation 21 and the Question of Eschatological Continuity (II)

*updated 9 April 2022

Even the Old Testament casts doubt on the continuity reading of Revelation 21. Ecclesiastes, a book that is so problematic for modern Evangelicalism and Dominionism has its message spun. The end result of their exegetical machinations is that the world is not given to vanity and corruption even though Paul forcefully and explicitly reiterates this point in Romans 8 and elsewhere argues that this world in its state of curse is subject to temporality. This is in contrast with the eternal (and thus ultimately true) nature of the eschatological Kingdom. That which is temporal is impermanent. This is not Gnosticism opposing matter or the material world or suggesting that it is illusion. It's a state of existence resulting from the Fall of Man and the curse God has placed on the world – not matter as matter, but this world which includes its fallen matter subject to decay and death, a matter sundered from its spiritual moorings as it were.

Inbox: The Glory of the Nations in Revelation 21 and the Question of Eschatological Continuity (I)

Doesn't Revelation 21 teach cultural continuity? Doesn't it teach that cultural attainments will be part of our life in heaven? Are there any historical readings of the passage that specifically refute this? Are there any commentators that argue explicitly for discontinuity in reference to this passage?

Continuity here refers to the idea that cultural progress and attainments achieved in this age will continue into the age to come. In other words, advances in the arts, science, philosophy, architecture and the like will play a part in our heavenly life. Proponents of this view believe that the productions of the great artists, particularly those that were God-honouring in what they produced, men such as Bach and Rembrandt will be part of our life in heaven.

The Dark Side of Covid – The Establishment's Reordering of Society (III)

Are these concepts surrounding social credit, access, and economics harbingers of the Mark of the Beast?

The Last Prophet and the Implications of the Terminal Epoch (Part 2)

This is the End. There will be no other era of history after this but a new creation. The prophets announce these shifts in epoch, they point to their coming and indeed in one sense the Old Testament prophets pointed to the Kingdom of Heaven. But in these last days there is but one Prophet, the fulfillment of all prophetic typologies. There will be no new prophets to announce a new era. The prophecies have all been spoken – at least the revelatory prophecies have. That's how short the time is. Everything is done – Christ is coming. Even so come, Lord Jesus.****

Those who claim to be revelatory prophets today are deceived deceivers. There are no more prophets for this age – there's nothing to prophesy about. The word has been given.

The Last Prophet and the Implications of the Terminal Epoch (Part 1)

Hebrews 1.1-2 teaches us that the time of the prophets has ended with the advent of the Last Days – this provisional epoch which is related to the Coming of Christ. The Last Days are identified by The Prophet – Christ Himself.

The Poway Shooter, Replacement Theology and the Charge of Anti-Semitism

There's another related issue to the Poway Shooting. I have detected a resurgence of Replacement Theology talk. This reminds me of Hal Lindsey's 1990 'The Road to Holocaust' which contains the subtitle: Unchecked the Dominion Theology movement among Christians could lead us – and Israel – to disaster....

It's a lie with a hint of truth.

Aeons Contrasted: Kingdom Visions in Conflict (Part 4)

Rome's model was developed under the auspices of Late Antiquity and their version of Christendom was forged in what we now call the Middle Ages. They needed kings, knights, bailiffs and all the rest. And yet many thinkers within the Roman Catholic fold recognised problems with one being engaged in these occupations while at the same time holding a Christian profession. This tension is something Magisterial Protestantism failed to recognise and in fact rejected. The Reformers and their descendants saw no difficulty with these professions at all and in fact blessed those who endeavoured to fill them. Over time Roman Catholic theologians developed spiritual frameworks for Christian knighthood etc... and while Rome long resisted usury, even while utilising loopholes, by the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, Rome would cave on this issue too.