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June 5 - August 26, 2019
The proper context for interpreting the Bible is the context of the biblical writers—the context that produced the Bible.1 Every other context is alien to the biblical writers and, therefore, to the Bible. Yet there is a pervasive tendency in the believing Church to filter the Bible through creeds, confessions, and denominational preferences.
As a biblical scholar, it’s easy for me to agree with that suspicion—but over time it has widely degenerated into a closed-minded overreaction that is itself detached from the worldview of the biblical writers.
Modern Christianity’s view of the unseen world isn’t framed by the ancient worldview of the biblical writers.
But the biblical writers and those to whom they wrote were predisposed to supernaturalism. To ignore that outlook or marginalize it will produce Bible interpretation that reflects our mind-set more than that of the biblical writers.
The original morning stars, the sons of God, saw the beginning of life as we know it—the creation of
The story of the Bible is about God’s will for, and rule of, the realms he has created, visible and invisible, through the imagers he has created, human and nonhuman. This divine agenda is played out in both realms, in deliberate tandem.
Without genuine free will, imagers cannot truly represent God. We saw earlier that the image of God is not an attribute or ability. Rather, it is a status conferred by God on all humans, that
This passage clearly establishes that divine foreknowledge does not necessitate divine predestination.
God does not need evil, but he has the power to take the evil that flows from free-will decisions—human or otherwise—and use it to produce good and his glory through the obedience of his loyal imagers, who are his hands and feet on the ground now.
The verse is indeed alluded to by Paul in Romans 16:20, where he mentions the prospect of the serpent being crushed (not just his head, and not just bruised). But the crushing isn’t performed by Jesus, the son of Eve and risen messiah. Rather, Paul has God crushing the serpent under the feet of believers!
It had to be expressed in sophisticated and cryptic ways to ensure that the powers of darkness would be misled. And it was. Even the angels didn’t know the plan (1 Pet 1:12).8
