Friday Photo

This photo is somewhat inspired by Branislav Kropilak, a great photographer from Slovakia. A big thank you to Ryan Harrison for pointing this guy out.

How should we read Hebrews 11?: A Challenge to the Exemplary Approach (Part 1)

Growing up my chief exposure to the book of Hebrews came from Hebrews chapter 11. There were two reasons why this chapter was referenced or taught:

1. Verse one gives us a nice little definition of faith

2. The rest of the chapter gives us examples of men and women (shout out to Rahab and Sarah) who lived out this faith

My understanding of how Hebrews 11 should be read and taught has been heavily influenced by this approach to the chapter. I had no problem with seeing Hebrews 11 as a simple exemplary listing of great men of the faith, but I did however get bored in Sunday School when the teacher would take a look at one example per week. We were shown the example of the person’s faith and then encouraged to follow in their footsteps.

There were however, a few questions that came up while looking at Hebrews 11. For one thing, why so many examples? Why did the author have to give so many examples in chronological order rather than just giving a couple really good examples? I was told that this was just part of the author’s argumentation, he had to be thorough in his giving of examples to emphasize his point. Then there were the passages that spoke of future promises that they trusted in and looked forward to; these verses the teacher often skipped over: v. 10, vv. 13-16, v. 26, and vv. 39-40. I witnessed some impressive evasive maneuvers from various teachers when asked about the meanings of these verses. Perhaps the best answer they could conjure up was that we should follow their example in looking forward to heaven. Another question that just recently appeared relevant to me was why stop at the end of chapter 11? Could chapter 12 shed any light on the meaning of chapter 11? For the most part I was, if for no other reason than mere practicality, taught to respect the God-ordained chapter divisions.

To say the least, the exemplary reading of Hebrews 11 does not seem to fall in line with the flow of Hebrews. I see Hebrews 11 as the integral corner piece to the redemptive historical puzzle laid out in Hebrews 11-13. This chapter begins the last great “lesser to greater” argument from the writer. While Hebrews 11 does contain examples of faith, their examples are part of the lesser to greater argument. If they showed such great faith when they did not yet receive what was promised, how much greater faith should we have now looking to Jesus, the fulfiller of what what was promised?

I’ll hash this out a little bit more in my next post.

Linkage: New Southern Baptist Journal of Theology and More. . .

• The Spring 2008 edition of the SBJT (Southern Baptist Journal of Theology) was just released today.

The Journal articles include:

• • Editoral: Stephen J. Wellum, “Reflection on the Kingdom of God”
  • Graeme Goldsworthy, “The Kingdom of God as Hermeneutic Grid”
  • Peter J. Gentry, “Kingdom Through Covenant: Humanity as the Divine Image”
  • Jonathan T. Pennington, “The Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew”
  • Brian Vickers, “The Kingdom of God in Paul’s Gospel”
  • Russell D. Moore and Robert E. Sagers, “The Kingdom of God and the Church: A Baptist Reassessment”
  • Todd L. Miles, “A Kingdom without a King? Evaluating the Kingdom Ethic(s) of the Emerging Church”
  • The SBJT Forum

The articles linked can be viewed online in PDF format; to inquire about getting the entire journal e-mail journaloffice@sbts.edu

• Harold Best, former emeritus professor of music and dean emeritus of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, will be lecturing at Sojourn Community Church as a part of their Cultivate Beauty art and film festival. Dr. Best is a renown lecturer, artist and author of the books, Unceasing Worship and Music Through the Eyes of Faith. (HT: Sojourn Music)

• The guys at Christians in Context provided a really neat link to some resources by G.K. Beale on Revelation and Biblical theology which also includes a list of good books on the topics.

The SBC is in decline

 

Ed Stetzer points out that for the first time the SBC is no longer growing but is on the decline.  Here is the chart and a few of his comments.

 

 

 

“The statement, “Southern Baptists are a declining denomination” was not “officially” accurate. Until today.”

“Baptisms are at their lowest levels since 1970 with seven of the last eight years showing annual declines. Even though some might hope the decline in membership numbers is due to lack of reporting, the inescapable conclusion is that baptisms by individual churches is falling off.”

“The promise of the Conservative Resurgence was to reestablish our unwavering belief in the inerrancy of scripture. Once we had our theology in order we were supposed to reach the world—but that theological change has not birthed a missional fruit. Now is the moment for us to hone our vision and take on a bigger battle—we must battle to build upon our Conservative Resurgence and make it a Great Commission Resurgence.”

Stetzer says the decline has 3 main contributors.

The absence of young leaders and ethnic leaders in denominational life.

Denominational infighting.

(most importantly) We’ve lost our focus on the gospel.

A Reader’s Hebrew Bible

Yesterday Justin Taylor linked to the new Reader’s Hebrew Bible from Zondervan.  Today he posted some more information about the resource.  If any of you who have taken Hebrew are like me, its hard to stay on top of all the Hebrew vocab.  The new Reader’s Bible allows you to focus on grammar and parsing instead of having to check your lexicon every other word.  The reader includes footnoted definitions for all Hebrew words that occur 100 times or less.  I’m sure I’ll keep this handy next semester.

Links of Interest

• The Princeton Theological Review (PTR) is available free of charge HERE
• A new blog devoted to gender and equality HERE
• Tim Keller at UPenn and WTS HERE
• Michael Horton and company discuss the contemporary evangelical piety as a “Gospel of personal relationship” HERE
• The fourth volume of Herman Bavinck’s “Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation” is finally available HERE

Stuff Going On

Here are a few links from around the web.

• Mark Husbands’ list of 10 books for young theologians. (Here)
• Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation was debated at DTS. (Here)
• Scot McKnight reviews Roger Olson’s book Reformed and Always Reforming. (Here)
• WTS Bookstore has Tim Keller’s The Reason for God at 45% off. (Here)
• G.K. Beale’s lecutre on The Temple and the Church’s Mission. (Here)

 

Wheaton Theology Conference

Falling tortuously late this year are the Boyce College “Spring Reading Days,” or as some of us rebellious students dare to call it, “Spring Break.” As I’m sure many of the other contributors to this blog can attest, the rest is much needed. So how do you ask are we going to spend this week off from our draining theological studies? Well the answer of course is attending the Wheaton Theology Conference. Just when we thought we would get a break from “being all spiritual” (substantial sarcasm), a few of the Carver 319 contributors and I are heading up to Chicago to the conference entitled “Rediscovering the Trinity: Classic Doctrine and Contemporary Ministry.” While I was saddened to hear that the keynote speaker, Dr. Miroslav Volf, would not be able make the conference due to personal circumstances, the fill-in, Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer, is more than capable of handling the job. Vanhoozer is the research professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and recipient of Christianity Today’s book of the year award in the category of theology for his book Drama of Doctrine (2006). Many of the contributors here at Carver 319 have been encouraged by his writings and lectures and are quite excited to hear from Dr. Vanhoozer. Hopefully we will have time to blog about the conference while we are in Chicago next week and I’ll be sure to post on here if audio from the conference becomes available.

Schedule of the Conference:

Thursday, April 10

11 a.m. CHECK IN AND WALK IN REGISTRATION

1:00-1:30 p.m. OPENING WORSHIP

1:30-3:00 p.m. THE TRINITY AND SCRIPTURE

Edith Humphrey
John Flett

3:30-5:00 p.m. THE TRINITY AND THE CHURCH

John Witvliet
Gordon Smith

5:30-7:00 p.m. CONFERENCE BANQUET

7:30-9:00 p.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS #1

Kevin Vanhoozer

Friday, April 11

8:30-10:20 a.m. THE TRINITY AND CREATION

Jonathan Wilson
Steven Studebaker

10:35-11:15 a.m. CHAPEL MESSAGE: “The Trinity”

Edith Humphrey

1:00-3:00 p.m. THE TRINITY AS SOCIAL?

Mark Husbands
John Franke

3:30-5:00 p.m. THE TRINITY AND MISSION (Barrows Auditorium)

Robert Lang’at
Keith Johnson

3:30-5:00 p.m. THE TRINITY AND EVANGELICALISM (Wilson Suite)

Fred Sanders
Craig Carter

7:30-9:00 p.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS #2

Kevin Vanhoozer

Saturday, April 12

8:30-10:00 a.m. THE TRINITY AND PROCLAMATION

Leanne Van Dyk
Philip Butin

10:30-11:45 a.m. SPEAKERS’ PANEL

12:00-12:30 p.m. CLOSING WORSHIP

Goldsworthy at Southern

Graeme Goldsworthy recently delivered the Gheens Lectures at Southern Seminary. I highly encourage all of you to listen to these important lectures on Biblical Theology, and be thinking about how you can use it in your ministries and lives. Here is the audio, his books, and a few pictures I shot. I was at the very back, so I couldn’t get many good shots off.

1. The Necessity and Viability of Biblical Theology /mp3

2. Biblical Theology in the Seminary and Bible College /mp3

3. Biblical Theology and Its Pastoral Application/mp3

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Books by Graeme Goldsworthy

1. Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics — $18.25 - Monergism
Binding: Hardcover
Page Count: 340
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN#: 9780830828395

2. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture — $17.99 - Monergism
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Eerdmans
ISBN#: 9780802847300

3.The Goldsworthy Trilogy — $9.87 - Monergism
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 581
Publisher: Paternoster
ISBN#: 9781842270363

4. According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible — $16.50 Monergism
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 251
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN#: 9780830826964

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- bm

Lints on the Reality of a Cultural Rationality

Evangelicals must accept the reality of a ‘cultural rationality.’ This is not to say that we have to accept the authority of modern culture’s plausibility structures; but in order to communicate effectively to others, we will have to recognize where they stand with respect to the message we mean to bring — what they will consider plausible without argument because their culture has established those beliefs as plausible, and what will need special explanation or defense.

- Richard Lentz, The Fabric of Theology, p. 120.