Justin Taylor's Blog, page 239

How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens

My thoughts on Michael Williams's new book, How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens: A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture (Zondervan, 2012):

Average Bible readers—like me—want to answer three overarching questions when they read God's Word in reading God's word:

What's the big idea in each book?

How does each book point to Jesus?

And how does each book speak to contemporary life?

In this concise and well-written book, Michael Williams deftly guides us to the right answers.

Few books do a better job of giving us an overview of Genesis to Revelation in such a compact way.

This is the sort of book I'd love to have in the hands of every member of my church!

For each book of the Bible he provides:

a succinct statement of the theme of every biblical book
an explanation of how that theme finds its focus in Christ
a brief discussion of how the New Testament treats that theme as fulfilled in Christ
suggestions for contemporary implications
a convenient summary chart for each book of the Bible

You can read the brief chapter on Genesis here.

The Return of the Journal of Biblical Counseling

I am excited that the Journal of Biblical Counseling—after a four-year hiatus—is now back, this time online and for free.

If you are not familiar with this resource, now would be a good time to become acquainted with it. It's under the direction of David Powlision, about whom John Piper has written:

Among living authors who think deeply about the Word of God and the workings of the human soul, I know of no one who writes more perceptively or ministers more deeply to me than David Powlison. . . . There are many today who specialize in soul-care or deep, faithful grasp of biblical theology; but there are few who do both. David Powlison does both.

You can read more about the new JBC in this editorial by Powlison.

Here's just one example of one of their articles: if you are a pastor, I think this is the best thing I've ever read on the pastor as counselor.

Beale and Trueman on the Bible, Myths, Contradictions, and Inerrancy

Some clips of the Q&A with G.K. Beale and Carl Trueman at the 2011 Clarus conference on "Scripture: God Speaks" at Desert Springs Church.

Here are the books they mention at the end:

B.B. Warfield, Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

D.A. Carson and John Woodbridge, Scripture and Truth and Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon

G.K. Beale, The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism

John Oswalt, The Bible among the Myths

Andreas Köstenberger and Michael Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy

U.S. Constitution 101

For those of us who are citizens of the United States, it would be wise to learn more about our founding documents which were designed to guide our country. The Apostle Paul could say on the one hand, "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20), but he could appeal to his citizenship and the laws designed to protect his right, asking the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?" (Acts 22:25).

I suspect like many readers, my formal education skimmed lightly over the actual content of the Constitution, focusing only on the process and the key players. The result is that we have to play catch-up.

Here are a few resources to consider.

You catch watch below four half-hour lectures from Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, introducing some key points about the Constitution:

1. The Declaration and the Constitution (study guide)

Dr. Arnn argues that the American republic's meaning and proper method of operation is found in two documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He introduces the two main principles of the Declaration-Nature and Equality-and explains how they are key to understanding the arrangements of government found in the Constitution.

2. The Constitution: Representative Government (study guide)

Dr. Arnn begins to outline the key arrangements of the Constitution. The topic of this lecture is the principle of Representative Government, which he argues is the most fundamental principle of the Constitution.

3. The Constitution: Separation of Powers and Limited Government (study guide)

Dr. Arnn continues his outline of the key arrangements of the Constitution. He discusses the principles of Separation of Powers and Limited Government, and how they relate to Representation and the ideas of Nature and Equality in the Declaration.

4. Bureaucratic Versus Constitutional Government (study guide)

Dr. Arnn draws a contrast between centralized, bureaucratic rule and constitutional government.

If you want to take this to the next level, you can register for a free online, ten-week class featuring the faculty at Hillsdale expanding upon this introduction. This is essentially equivalent to the undergraduate Hillsdale course on the Constitution.

You can also purchase the course book, written by the Hillsdale politics faculty: The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, featuring 113 primary source documents.

Finally, you could pick up The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a reference book that provides a clause-by-clause analysis of the Constitution, each amendment and relevant court case, and the documents that serve as the foundation of the Constitution.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement in the Church Fathers

Garry J. Williams has a thoughtful paper here in response to some criticism.

He writes, "An author can be held to teach the Penal doctrine if he plainly states that the punishment deserved by sin from God was borne and dealt with by Jesus Christ in his death on the cross." He then works through quotes from Justin Martyr, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, and Augustine to show that they did indeed hold to the penal doctrine of the atonement."

Here is his conclusion:

How then should we read the fathers?

My plea is not for Christus Vicarius to the exclusion of all other language and concepts. Again, let Aulén have his prize. Certainly the themes of restoration and victory were present, and in some writers they were the primary categories.

But that does not mean that they excluded retributive notions. Rather than adducing general evidence of restoration or victory and using it to trump specific retributive vocabulary, we should maintain the integrity of all of the descriptions in the passages in question and allow the richness of patristic views of the cross to stand out.

Proper exegetical attention to the details of their writings, which I have begun to set out here, demonstrates that for Justin Martyr, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, and Augustine, this richness included penal substitutionary atonement.

HT: Carl Trueman

How to Love Your Spouse without Being an Idolator

Here is one of my favorite quotes from C. S. Lewis:

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.

Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all.

When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.

This has echoes of Augustine's Confessions (XI.29):

He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.

Writing to Dom Bede (April 16, 1940), Lewis mentioned a great line he spotted from Denis de Rougemont's Passion and Society about sensual love: "It ceases to be a devil when it ceases to be a god.

Lewis comments,

Isn't that well put? So many things—nay every real thing—is good if only it will be humble and ordinate.

 

Promises for Those Struggling with Unemployment

Steve Fuller offers some promises from the Bible for those who are struggling with unemployment, organized under the following headings:

Because of Jesus God will provide everything you need.
God will deliver you from problems you caused yourself.
God will bless you through wrongs others have done.
God is in complete control.
God will provide the job and income you need.
God has a perfect plan for each day you are unemployed.
God will give you full joy in Himself without a job.

See the whole post here.

Also worth reading is Greg Gilbert's post on trusting God in unemployment—part 1 and part 2.

 

Thinking about Short-Term Missions Trips

Here is a very helpful email exchange between a pastor and a missionary, seeking perspective and feedback after a team from the church came to visit the missionaries in Zambia.

Here's one insightful exchange:

Was the team an encouragement to you and your family personally? Please explain.

 

Yes, however, our encouragement is not the primary aim of a team. We actually find ourselves having to encourage them as they struggle through the cultural adjustment and difficulties Africa can present even on a short term basis. Team members are initially enamored with the newness rather than the substance of what is actually happening on the field. They explode with expression when they experience what they had always imagined Africa to be. That is fine, and thankfully this typically wears off after a week or so (or after a "running stomach" or what they believe are symptoms of malaria). I love seeing Africa through the eyes of someone who has never been there before. They become intoxicated with a continent which truly feels rugged and exotic. This is normal, but it needs to fade at some point for the sanity and effectiveness of everyone involved. We always tried to schedule slots for our teams to enjoy the beauty of "untouched" Kenya or Zambia, but these excursions were not scheduled until they worked for it. . . .

Anytime a structured team arrives the missionary's normal schedule is abandoned for a "maximum ministry exposure" itinerary. It's not artificial, but neither is it standard operating procedure. It's a high octane schedule that leaves everybody wasted. Boredom is public enemy #1 for a mission team.

Everyone steps up before and after a team. Students give their summer and raise support. Team leaders give of themselves and their "time off" to host an energetic group to a foreign land. Those who make the greatest sacrifice are the missionary wife and children. That is why it's great when team members include our family in the little things (picture below of a team member playing checkers with my son).

The greatest encouragement is when the team takes an interest in our children. Our teams had exceptional young people who "ministered" to our children. Our children are Third Culture Kids (TCK's) – true "Global Nomads." For our children to be loved by "big kids" from their "Passport Culture" is huge to their little perspective! This may have been the team's greatest ministry and certainly one of the greatest encouragements to us personally. . . .

There is so much to manage and organize to make a team of any significant size operate well. Months of planning and preparation go into a team before they "make sure their seat is not back and folding trays are in their full upright position in preparation for take-off." Our primary focus on the field becomes the "team" having an accurate vision of mission work and life. It is imperative the team receive a good understanding of a particular region, a proper understanding of biblical missions, a realistic strategy for that area, the proper etiquette necessary when working in another culture, and the dangers of creating problems for the missionary even after the team has left. Many mission teams unknowingly harm rather than help the cause because they are not dissimilar to the tourist groups that arrive to see the wildebeest migration and the East African coast. It only takes one young person with an arrogant western outlook to create problems that could take months to clear up. We have not had this experience, but know other missionaries who have. Initial impressions are always fun to watch, but a team living in the area for several months will have most of those "impressions" forced back to reality.

You can read the whole thing here.

See also Jeff Brewer's article on 10 Things to Remember When Coming Home from a Missions Trip.

11 Lessons from the Elephant Room

I don't want to beat a dead elephant here, but I wholeheartedly agree with Don Carson and Tim Keller's comment that "controversy can . . .  provide a teaching moment, not least because the interest of many people is focused on the disputed issues. It is hard to deny that such a moment has arrived." Toward that end, I think Thabiti Anyabwile's most recent post, on 11 lessons he's learned from the Elephant Room controversy, are well worth reading. The more I read Thabiti's work and interact with him, the more I appreciate him. (I would highly recommend his very readable and practical and instructive new book, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, which is a great read not only for finding such folks, but also helpful for being such people.)

Here's an outline of his 11 points—followed at the end by an extended excerpt of one of them:

1.  Nothing has changed with Jakes.

2.  Something may have changed with us.

3.  Theological depth is critical.

4.  We need a practical understanding of repentance.

5.  Divisions come swiftly and easily.

6.  A lot of reconciliation and brotherly affection gets shared privately, but it's sometimes not useful to be insisted upon publicly.

7.  Our cooperation needs to be principled rather than pragmatic.

8.  Our cooperation can have a liberalizing tendency.

9.  There are descriptive and prescriptive ways of using "race."

10.  "Race" is not only powerful, it's also about power.

11.  My assumptions about my usefulness need chastening.

Here is #6—an important point for both those who think every private corrective conversation should instead be public and those who think every public corrective conversation should instead be private.

A lot of people have taken it upon themselves to be the "private conversation police."  They want to enforce a new rule for public discourse: Talk privately with those with whom you disagree before you disagree publicly.  I think that's well intended, but it's quite problematic.  Again, Carson and Keller handle this very well.  I just want to add that this desire to require private conversations before public redress has two unintended and negative consequences.

First, it means that the first persons to speak have the controlling leverage in the conversation.  That's not much of a problem unless the first one to speak speaks heresy or some false teaching.  In that case, everyone who would act to counter the falsehood is held hostage by the purveyor of falsehood!  That's a very bad outcome.

Second, the vocal insistence on private conversation, or rather the suggestion that no such conversation is happening, can actually frustrate and undermine very real private efforts at unity, restoration, and correction.  It's surprising how public comments (ironically, without first making private contact!) about perceived private failings actually complicate the very private efforts being called for.  It's also interesting to note how many unrelated parties feel entitled to know what's happening in private sessions.  They don't seem to realize that asking for private matters to be disclosed publicly might actually hinder trust and communication.  As it is, these things don't always work out.  So, it's probably prudent to use that few moments of keyboarding to instead offer a few words of prayer and intercession.

Here's a rule of thumb: If you have to speculate about whether this or that conversation is happening, you're probably not close enough to the situation to be useful.  If you can't pick up the phone and ask one of the parties, "What's going on?" then you're probably not positioned to help or insist on private communication.

Speculative and sometimes accusatory writing in public forums, in my opinion, actually do very little to help situations while doing a fair amount to complicate matters and frustrate people.  I've become a fan of the old rules of engagement: If a person speaks or publishes something for public consumption, that speech or publication is automatically fair game for public critique and correction.  It can be useful, courteous, and sometimes necessary to contact a person to be sure you've understood them correctly.  But public addresses are fair game for public redress.  This in no way releases us from all the biblical requirements for charity, grace, and the like.  But it does free us to respond where situations warrant.

On Matthew 18 with respect to blog conversations, see this editorial by D.A. Carson.

T4G Panel Discussions

The T4G panels this year will be a bit different. Rather than reflecting on the previous plenary address, they'll instead talk about some important topics currently being discussed in evangelicalism (along with some special guests—like Carl Trueman on celebrity pastors, Simon Gathercole on inerrancy, etc.)

You can watch short video introductions to each session here, or find the list below:

Celebrity Pastor: Indecent Exposure?

Moderator: Ligon Duncan

Participants: Thabiti Anyabwile, Carl Trueman, C.J. Mahaney, David Platt

Contextualization: Lost in Translation?

Moderator: Mark Dever

Participants: Matt Chandler, Kevin DeYoung, Al Mohler, Thabiti Anyabwile

Preaching: Is There a Plan B?

Moderator: Al Mohler

Participants: Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney

Complementarianism: Essential or Expendable?

Moderator: Ligon Duncan

Participants: Russell Moore, Greg Gilbert, John Piper

Inerrancy: Did God Really Say . . . ?

Moderator: Mark Dever

Participants: Simon Gathercole, Peter Williams, Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, John Piper

Gay Marriage: Now What?

Moderator: Mark Dever

Participant: Al Mohler