Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

DAVID LIMBAUGH'S NEW BOOK - "THE EMMAUS CODE"

Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews David Limbaugh (Rush Limbaugh's brother) and a writer of no mean consequence) whose latest book is The Emmaus Code.  Limbaugh tells Lopez:

"This is the book I wish I’d had when I first became a Christian and was eager to read everything I could on the Bible and theology to accelerate my learning curve and make up for lost time. It is an Old Testament primer of sorts, with an emphasis on its Christ-centeredness. It summarizes every book of the Old Testament and shows how each one specifically points to Christ."

Some of Limbaugh's other books include Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of Christianity (2014) and Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity (2004).

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD CARE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTALISM

Sandra Richter, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, explains what the Bible has to say about the topic in just under 9 minutes.

 

THE LAND OF THE BIBLE

I think this video of Holy Land topography very helpful.  It keys off a book, Satellite Bible Atlas.  

 Here are other excellent map-based teaching videos:

 01 Introduction. Land of the Bible: Location and Land Bridge (5 min)

02 Land of the Bible: Basic Regions and Regional Variety (10 min)

03 Major Routes in the Land of the Bible (6 min)

04 Approaches to Jerusalem and the Benjamin Region, Maps 1-8 and 1-9 (12 min)

05 Southern Approaches to Jerusalem, Map 1-8 (10 min)

06 Jezreel Valley and Lower Galilee, Map 1-4 (14 min)

07 Shephelah of Judah, Maps 1-10, 1-11 (12 min)

08 Samaria, Map 1-7 (15 min)

09 Jerusalem Highway (Modern) in Judean Hill Country (6 min)

DID "THE BIBLE" TV SERIES CHOOSE THE BEST STORIES TO TELL?

I like Professor Peter Enns' suggestion on this subject (though not on many other subjects).  He cites Victor Matthews' book, Old Testament Turning Points: The Narratives That Shaped a Nation in which Mathewes cites eight turning points in the Old Testament narrative.   Enns likes Matthews' suggestions, saying, 

“The Bible” puts the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle. Although the series follows the storyline of the Old Testament, the producers opted to go more with the “big names”–let’s call it “celebrity”–approach to teaching the Bible than than the “stages of the story” approach as Matthews does.  [emphasis in the original]

That’s why Samson and Daniel each get their own hour and all we see of  Solomon is him playing with a model of the temple as a boy rather than lingering for a few minutes on how he caused a civil war.  Sheesh.

So, given the precious 10 hours, here’s what I would have done.

I would have given the last 3 hours to Jesus and the book of Acts, ending with Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. Telling the story of the Christian Bible is, after all, the point of the series, and giving about 65 years of history 1/3 of the airtime sounds right to me.

The remaining 7 hours I would divide this way.

Adam (and the flood as a transition to Abraham): .5 hours

Abraham (with Jacob and Joseph as a transition to Moses): 1.5 hours

Moses (go nuts with the plagues and the Red Sea, but don’t forget to linger a bit on Mt. Sinai) 1 hour

David  (leading off with conquest and judges and ending with the birth of Solomon) 1.5 hours

Divided Monarchy and Fall of the Northern Kingdom (beginning with Solomon’s screw ups and ending with Assyrian invasions, include a prophet or two) 1 hour

Fall of the Southern Kingdom and Return from Exile (leading off with maybe Josiah’s reforms, including Babylonian invasion, and return and rebuilding of the temple) 1.5 hours

As a transition to the New Testament, they could talk about the challenges of maintaining Jewish ways of life and frustrated messianic hopes in the centuries after the exile. Then, enter Jesus to redefine Jewish messianic hope.

That’s a lot to cover and the same sorts of adaptations would need to happen as we see in the series now. A lot would have to be left out. Still, it’s better than giving Samson and Daniel about 2 of the 10 hours, dragging out Abraham, and dealing with the post exilic period in literally one sentence.

Me: I think such a scheme makes a lot of sense.  It certainly would offer a better overall view of the narrative structure of the Old Testmant.   Enns correctly says,

. . .  most of the Old Testament is concerned about land: getting it, settling in it, keeping it, getting kicked out of it, and in the case of the southern kingdom of Judah, coming back home.

Related posts:

    -  WEIRD THINGS HAPPENED ON THE SET OF 'THE BIBLE'

    -  HISTORY CHANNEL'S "THE BIBLE" REACHED 13.1 MILLION VIEWERS

    -  WHY THE BIBLE SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

    -  ORAL TRADITION AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

TIM KELLER ON BIBLE INTERPRETATION: "OLD TESTAMENT LAW AND THE CHARGE OF INCONSISTENCY"

Tim Keller pastors  Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the well-received author of many books, including The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,  The Meaning of Marriage, and Counterfeit Gods, among others.  He frequently speaks at Veritas Forums on university campuses and has twice been invited to speak at  Google headquarters in California (here and here).   His sermons are available here.

In this "Redeemer Report" for June,  Keller addresses an issue that Christians confront time and time again: namely, ignorance about the structure of the Bible as universally understood by Christians.  Here is what Keller has to say about Bible interpretation:  (HT: Justin Taylor)

I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because “they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.” What I hear most often is “Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts—about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t you just picking and choosing what they want to believe from the Bible?”

 

It is not that I expect everyone to have the capability of understanding that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God’s plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological advisor) before leveling the charge of inconsistency.

 

First of all, let’s be clear that it’s not only the Old Testament that has proscriptions about homosexuality. The New Testament has plenty to say about it, as well. Even Jesus says, in his discussion of divorce in Matthew 19:3-12 that the original design of God was for one man and one woman to be united as one flesh, and failing that, (v. 12) persons should abstain from marriage and from sex. 

 

However, let’s get back to considering the larger issue of inconsistency regarding things mentioned in the OT that are no longer practiced by the New Testament people of God. Most Christians don’t know what to say when confronted about this. Here’s a short course on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament:

ALBERT MOHLER ANSWERS THE QUESTION: "THE BIBLE CONDEMNS A LOT, WHY FOCUS ON HOMOSEXUALITY?"

The accusation is "Christians take certain biblical condemnations seriously while ignoring others."  R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, responds:

Are conservative Christians hypocritical and selective when it comes to the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality? With all that the Bible condemns, why the focus on gay sex and same-sex marriage?

Given the heated nature of our current debates, it's a question conservative Christians have learned to expect. "Look," we are told, "the Bible condemns eating shellfish, wearing mixed fabrics and any number of other things. Why do you ignore those things and insist that the Bible must be obeyed when it comes to sex?"

On its face, it's a fair question. But it can be posed in two very different ways.

First, the question can be asked to suggest that the Bible's clear condemnation of sexual sins can simply be set aside. The other way of posing the question represents a genuine attempt to understand how the Bible is to be rightly applied to life today.

GEORGE WEIGEL - CHILD SACRIFICE IN 21ST CENTURY AMERICA

As I've written before, anything George Weigel writes is well worth reading and pondering.  What he says in this short essay will be familiar to students of the Bible but it may come as a shock to others.  Weigel writes:

The Hebrew Bible is not for the squeamish. And its harshest maledictions are called down upon those who practiced the abomination of child-sacrifice.

Thus the Psalmist:

“They sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons/they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood./Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the harlot in their doings./Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage./… they were rebellious in their purposes, and were brought low because of their iniquity” (Psalm 106:38-40, 43).

And the prophet Ezekiel, delivering the word of the Lord:

“And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?... Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you, and diminished your allotted portion, and delivered you to the greed of your enemies…” (Ezekiel 16:20-21, 27).

Thirty-nine years after Roe v. Wade created an unrestricted abortion license in the United States, and during the week when hundreds of thousands of Americans pray and march for life, all Americans ought to ponder these words—and the kind of country to which Roe v. Wade led.

Click through for more, including terrible statistics of abortion rates in New York City.

ASTROPHYSICIST HUGH ROSS' NEW BOOK - "HIDDEN TREASURES IN THE BOOK OF JOB"

I have some major problems with Hugh Ross treating the book of Job, with its magnificent poetry, as significant for current discussions on science and origins, but I haven't read the book so I can't say more at this point.  That said, the following interview is fascinating.  Hugh Ross speaks with unusual clarity.  You will be glad you took the time to view it.   Pat Robertson interviewed Ross on the 700 Club today, October 19, 2011.

AUDIO: SPURGEON'S SERMON ON "PROVIDENCE AS SEEN IN THE BOOK OF ESTHER"

Most evangelicals acknowledge some familiarity with Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), the great English preacher of the 19th century.  The other day I came across a rendition of Spurgeon's sermon on Esther that I thought utterly superb.   The man did such a good job I thought Spurgeon must have sounded much like him.  Spurgeon's sermon was originally preached Nov. 1, 1874 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England.

The great 20th century German preacher, Lutheran theologian, and university professor, Helmut Thielicke, held Spurgeon up as a preacher to be emulated.  In his book Encounter with Spurgeon, he wrote:

In the midst of the theologically discredited nineteenth century there was a preacher who had at least six thousand people in his congregation every Sunday, whose sermons for many years were cabled to new York every Monday and reprinted in the leading newspapers of the country, and who occupied the same pulpit for almost forty years without any diminishment in the flowing abundance of his preaching and without ever repeating himself or preaching himself dry.  The fire he thus kindled, and turned into a beacon that shone across the seas and down through the generations, was no mere brush fire of sensationalism, but an inexhaustible blaze that glowed and burned on solid hearts and was fed by the wells of the eternal Word.  Here was the miracle of a bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed (Exod. 3:2).  p. 1

I'VE BEEN BUSY PREPARING A SUNDAY MORNING BIBLE CLASS ON EXODUS

I've not had time to do the amount of blogging I usually do.   Sunday mornings I am leading a discussion at my church on "God and History: Exodus 1-20."   We had our first session last Sunday and we have eight more to go.   For background preparation I am making my way through two outstanding commentaries:  Philip Graham Ryken's Exodus (1200 pages) and Douglas Stuart's Exodus (800 pages).  I can't recommend these two books highly enough.  Ryken's book offers scholarship and devotional richness intimately wedded together; every page crammed with nourishment for mind and heart.  Stuart's book complements Ryken's.  Both read so nicely it is a pleasure to pick up and "read some more" in either.

VIDEO FROM GOSPEL COALITION CONFERENCE: PANEL ON "WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM YEARS OF PREACHING CHRIST FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT"

At The Gospel Coalition national conference held recently at McCormick Place in Chicago, a helpful panel discussion took place on the topic, “What I’ve Learned from Years of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament.”  Owen Strachan quizzed veteran preachers Alistair Begg, Mark Dever, and Philip Ryken (President of Wheaton college and former senior pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pa).   I found this a really interesting discussion.  From the BibleMesh website:

The discussion began with how each person came to be convinced of a Christ-centered preaching model of the Old Testament. There we discussed how each pastor came to the personal conviction that Christ should preached from all of Scripture. Next, we covered more esoteric topics like how do preachers preserve the moral sense of Scripture without abandoning the gospel–or, the question that makes every young preacher’s knees knock–how do we preach Christ from the Song of Solomon?

Sprinkled throughout the discussion were resources mentioned by each of one of the contributors. Below are several of them:

• Leonhard Goppelt, Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New (Eerdmans) (Editors note: Highly recommended)
• John Bright, The Kingdom of God (Abidington Press)
• Edmund Clowney, Unfolding Mystery (P&R)
• Graeme Goldsworthy, The Goldsworthy Trilogy (Send the Light)
• Sam Logan, Preacher and Preaching: Reviving the Art in the Twentieth Century (P&R) – Ryken mentioned specifically Edmund Clowney’s article.
• Mark Dever, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made (Crossway)
• D. A. Carson, G. K. Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker)
• Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Eerdmans)

Another videotaped panel discussion available for viewing is "Getting to Know the Gospel Personally as One Grand Narrative" featuring Kent Hughes, David Jackman, and Ligon Duncan.

Me:  I've discovered more resources here.

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The Gospel Coalition Panel: Getting to Know the Bible Personally as One Grand Narrative →

Gospel Coalition Panel Discussion: What I have learned after years of preaching Christ in the Old Testament

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Owen Strachan
3 Comments

    
    

At The Gospel Coalition national conference, BibleMesh was able to conduct three panel discussions. This is the first of the three, entitled ““What I’ve Learned from Years of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament,” in which I (Owen Strachan) asked three veteran preachers, Alistair Begg, Mark Dever, and Philip Ryken, what they have learned after years of preaching Christ in the Old Testament.

MEANING OF "YAHWEH" - "I AM PRESENT"

Kenneth Way of the Talbot School of Theology writes:

I recently read an article by a renowned scholar in an obscure publication that really got me thinking.  The article was by the prolific Jewish commentator, Jacob Milgrom (“The Desecration of YHWH’s Name: Its Parameters and Significance” in Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature…Presented to Shalom M. Paul, eds., C. Cohen, et al., 69-81. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2008).  Towards the end of the article Milgrom makes some compelling suggestions about the  meaning of the name YHWH based on the testimony of God himself in the account of the burning bush (Exodus 3:9-15).

Basically, Milgrom suggests that the significance of the name Yahweh revealed here is not so much about God as the Existent One (“I AM”) or as the Creator (the “One Who Causes to Be” [this was D. N. Freedman’s interpretation published in Journal of Biblical Literature in 1960]).  Rather, the significance of the name YHWH which is revealed in this passage for the first time is that God is the Present One (“I AM PRESENT”).

DOES SCIENCE HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THE "EXODUS" AND THE PARTING OF THE RED SEA?

First, the Biblical text, Exodus 14:21,22:

"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.  (22)  And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." (English Standard Version)

Has science any thing to say?  Enter Carl Drews and a story about his research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research by Anna Maria-Basquez, "Boulder scientist's research affirms parting of the Red Sea"  (Via VirtueOnline).   (Click to the end of this post for two YouTube demonstrations and further elaboration.)

"From his office in Boulder, scientist Carl Drews, having never been there, can—with Google Earth Pro imaging on his computer—pinpoint the location his research points to as the new theorized location of the Biblical miracle of the Crossing of the Red Sea.

The technology can zoom in on the place in Egypt where Moses and the Israelites escaped death when waters parted, according to the Book of Exodus. His virtual “pushpin” comes back with images of what is now predominately agricultural land, with orchards, irrigation canals and grape fields indicating vineyards. 

It is in the Eastern Nile Delta, between Pelusium and Qantara, and 75 miles north of the most popular theorized place in Egypt, which has been the Suez Canal.  And it’s travelable by foot.

“One of the places right in the middle of the crossing shows what looks like a hotel and some type of building,” said Drews, a member of Epiphany Anglican Fellowship in Boulder, a congregation under the umbrella of the Anglican Mission of the Americas out of Rwanda. “It would be fun to knock on their door and to say in Arabic, ‘Do you know that Moses walked right by here.’ It would probably elicit a form of disbelief. But perhaps people would say, ‘Well, maybe...’”

His own research elicited all but disbelief. In fact, it made the miracle ever more real, said the researcher who claimed to have always been enchanted by the miracle in the Book of Exodus.

“For anyone who always believed this happened, somehow it’s still a thrill to see it supported by scientific finding,” Drews said.

BEST DEFENSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

So says Gordon Wenham and Christopher J.H. Wright of Paul Copan's Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Baker, 2011).  Wenham and Wright are Old Testament scholars of the first rank.  Their opinion carries weight, as does the exuberance of a galaxy of other excellent scholars found at the end of this blog post.

Gordon Wenham says:

“Lucid, lively, and very well informed, this book is the best defense of Old Testament ethics that I have read. A must-read for all preachers and Bible study leaders.”

Christopher J. H. Wright says:

“This is the book I wish I had written myself. It is simply the best book I have read that tackles the many difficulties that the Old Testament presents to thinking and sensitive Christians and that give such ammunition to the opponents of all religious faith. Paul Copan writes in such a simple, straightforward way, yet covers enormous issues comprehensively and with reassuring biblical detail and scholarly research. Use this book to stock your mind with gracious but factual answers in those awkward conversations. Better still, give it to those who are swayed by the shallow prejudice of popular atheism without reading the Bible for themselves. I strongly recommend this book. We have wanted and needed it for a long time.”

I learned about the book from Justin Taylor who links to a synopsis found in Copan's own blog post:

Dr. Sandy Richter - "The Epic of Eden"

Ben Witherington reposted on his blog a solid interview with Professor Sandra L. Richter on the relevance of the Old Testament.  After reading the excellent interview, I went to Amazon to investigate her book, The Epic of Eden:  A Christian Entry into the Old Testament.  I browsed the "search inside this book" feature and copied the following two insightful paragraphs.

On the Old Testament concept of the "love of God," and especially in Deuteronomy, Dr. Richter writes:  (my underlining)

William Moran wrote an important article “The Ancient near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy,” CBQ 25 (1963): 77-85  Here Moran demonstrated that the word love in ancient Near East treaty documents (and by extrapolation in the book of Deuteronomy) was political terminology having to do with covenant loyalty—not any sort of sentimental or emotional posture toward the covenant partner.  In light of this, consider Rom. 9:13: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”  Gallons of ink have been spilt over this passage!  Could the resolution to this difficult language perhaps be found in covenant terminology?  In other words, rather than this passage communicating that God has despised Esau and his offspring, perhaps ‘love’ and “hate” were intended to communicate something akin to: ‘Jacob I have chosen as Isaac’s heir and therefore heir to Abraham’s covenant; Esau I have not chosen as heir.'  Note 19. p. 240

 On the sacrifices brought by people in ancient Israel she writes:

 W.S. LaSor, D.A. Hubbard and F.W. Bush offer a helpful summary of the various categories of Mosaic sacrifice in Old Testament Survey, 2^nd ed (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), p. 83.  It is important to realize that out of the eight categories listed, only one involved the complete holocaust of the sacrificial victim.  In contrast to what most Christians typically imagine, the bulk of the sacrificed animal was normally returned to the worshipper so that he and his family might feast together in God’s presence.  In other words, the act of sacrifice was usually a time of joyous fellowship with one’s family and one’s God at the holy site.  These holy days were truly “holidays.”  In fact, throughout the law code of Deuteronomy, which is focused on proper worship of Yahweh at the central holy site, the repeated command is to ‘eat’ and to ‘rejoice’ in Yahweh’s presence (Deut 12:7, 12,18; 14:26; 16:11,14; 26:10-11; 27:7).  God was not interested in taking from these people the little they had; rather, he was interested in them bringing a portion of what he had given them into his presence so that he might enjoy their joy with them.”  (p. 250)

This reminds me of some pages I read years ago in C.S. Lewis's Reflections on the Psalms.  In chapter 5, "The Fair Beauty of the Lord,"  Lewis wrote:

DO JOB AND ECCLESIASTES CONTRADICT PROVERBS?

From Justin Taylor's post:

Here is a helpful answer to that question from Tremper Longman’s essay, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? A Biblical-Theological Approach,” in the new book, Eyes to See and Ears to Hear: Essays in Memory of J. Alan Groves, ed. Peter Enns, Douglas J. Green, and Michael B. Kelly (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010), pp. 13-14:

---

Our presentation of the material above may lead to a misconception if not read carefully. Proverbs emphasizes the rewards that come to those who follow the way of wisdom, while Job and Ecclesiastes question the connection between behavior and consequences. Does that mean that Job and Ecclesiastes contradict Proverbs, not to speak of the other strands of the OT that imply that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people?

Close study of these books suggests a negative answer. In the first place, Proverbs does not guarantee reward to the righteous or punishment for the wicked. A proverb is simply not in the business of issuing promises or guarantees. Rather, a proverb states the best route to a desired end, all other things being equal. Most of the time it is true that lazy behavior will lead to poverty and hard work will result in a better living standard, but not always. An indolent person could inherit a fortune, or a hard worker might be wiped out by a natural calamity or a crooked administrator. Proverbs 13:23 acknowledges the latter when it says:

A poor person’s farm may produce much food,
but injustice sweeps it all away.

Another indication that Proverbs itself does not believe there is a mechanical and absolutely guaranteed connection between wise behavior and good benefits is in its acknowledgment that the fool can have wealth—even if only temporarily:

Wealth from get-rich-schemes quickly disappears;
wealth from hard work grows over time. (13:11)

But even when the wealth of fools might last, it does not really help the person:

Riches won’t help on the day of judgment. (11:4a)

Thus, a number of better-than proverbs imply that a person may have to decide between wisdom and success in life:

Better to be poor and godly
than rich and dishonest. (16:8; see also 15:17; 16:16; 17:1; 22:1; 28:6)

In conclusion, Ecclesiastes and Job do not correct Proverbs, but rather they correct an overreading of Proverbs.

BEN WITHERINGTON - "RELATING THE OT AND NT THOUGHT WORLDS"

Asbury Theological Seminary New Testament Professor Ben Witherington offers a substantial excerpt from his yet-to-be-published book, The Indelible Image (vol. 2).  Click here.  Very interesting.