The Master’s Seminary Journal 30, 2 (2019)

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online. Individual essays are available from here, and the whole issue is available as a pdf here. I struggle with the somewhat strident tone and theological stance of some of essays published in this journal, but the volumes often contain interesting and valuable pieces. In this case, I’m particularly curious to read the final article on application and implication in preaching.

Editorial

F. David Farnell

Are the Canonical Gospels to Be Identified as a Genre of Greco-Roman Biography? The Early Church Fathers Say ‘No.’

Liberal-critical and evangelical-critical scholarship has recently attempted to identify the Gospels with the ancient style of writing known as Greco-Roman biography. The author has already established this position as highly tenuous, reflecting a cycle in New Testament studies that often seeks novelty in interpretation (cf. Acts 17:21, καινότερον—”new,” “unique,” “novel”). A close examination of the nascent church Fathers, especially as found in the first great church historian, Eusebius, reveals that the early church decidedly rejected the Greco-Roman historiographic tradition. Prominent early Fathers deprecated the quality of historians like Thucydides and Plutarch who are now identified with the Gospel tradition in New Testament scholarship. Instead, the early Fathers identified the historiography of the Gospels with the Hebrew tradition as evidenced in the Old Testament, reflecting the historical genre of Old Testament promise, now seeing the fulfilment of those promises. They also affirmed the absolute trustworthiness and accuracy of the canonical Gospels as produced of the Holy Spirit of truth. Once again, critical scholarship, being influenced by the Enlightenment, has chosen to disregard the voice of the early church as the nature of the Gospels.

Jamie Bissmeyer

Job’s Eschatological Hope: The Implications of Job’s Redeemer for Social Justice

The purpose of this article is to identify the person of Job’s perspective on issues pertaining to social justice, in order to show that Job places his hope of social justice issues being resolved in God’s unique ability to make a just society in the end times. First, background material to the book of Job will be explained, to give context to Job’s statements about a Redeemer. Second, statements in the book of Job regarding the oppression of the poor by the wicked in society will be examined, in order to establish that the book of Job relates to social justice issues. Third, Job’s own perspective on social justice issues will be examined. Fourth, Job’s solution to social justice issues will be explained, with a focus on Job 19:25-26. Finally, Job’s solution to social justice issues will be applied to current social justice issues faced by pastors. 

Carl A. Hargrove

And How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher? A Biblical Theology of Romans 9-11

Romans 10:14 (“And how shall they hear without a preacher?”) and accompanying verses are frequently used completely out of context for ordinations or missionary commissioning services, as if in these verses God is calling for preachers to be sent out. Other preachers and teachers completely omit Romans 9-11 in much or all of their teaching or preaching and, by default, these verses have no influence on their theology. As this article will show, these Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures: (1) Are not rhetorical questions asked by God; (2) rather they are part of God’s answers given by means of the apostle Paul as to His trustworthiness and omnipotence, particularly related to His Word. Further, (3) when “the fulness of the Gentiles has come in,” this will also mean that “the partial hardening of [national] Israel,” has ended and thus Romans 11:25 will be fulfilled, (4) as Israel’s Deliverer will come from Zion and through the blood of the New Covenant, He will remove their sin and ungodliness from a promised Jewish remnant, (5) ultimately blessing the entire world of redeemed Jews and Gentiles.

Cory M. Marsh

A Dynamic Relationship: Christ, the Covenants, and Israel

As recently highlighted in Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum’s Kingdom Through Covenant (2012), furthered by Wellum and Brent Parker’s Progressive Covenantalism (2016), the notion of covenant is both popular and controversial within biblical theology. While these two works focused on forging a via media between dispensational and covenantal theology, occupying the center of the debate on all sides were questions related to Christ and His relationship to the biblical covenants. The current article explores questions raised from these and other works related to Christ’s relationship to the covenants and defends the only option consistent with a literal methodology: Christ relates to each of the biblical covenants dynamically as recipient, fulfillment, and/or mediator – and does so without collapsing any promised future for national Israel.

Jay Street

Romans 7: An Old Covenant Struggle Seen through New Covenant Eyes

Romans 7 is possibly one of the most cherished texts in church history. But it is also one of the most controversial passages in Scripture. Many resonate with Paul’s ambivalence and insist that Paul is speaking about the Christian’s daily struggle with sin. Others strongly disagree and purport that Paul’s struggle is too defeating for the Christian life, and he must be speaking for unbelievers. However, it will be argued in this article that both sides of the debate have been speaking past each other for centuries because both sides are asking the wrong question. This is not a passage about whether Paul is speaking as a Christian or not, but whether Paul is speaking as someone under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. Thus, when the reader’s perspective is properly adjusted, he can rightly ascertain Paul’s spiritual status in the passage – Paul is speaking as a believer under the Old Covenant before the inauguration of the New Covenant.

David Beakley and Johann Odendaal

The Reformation’s “Macedonian Call” to Africa – the Long Way Around

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the influence of the Reformation came to Africa. The article is divided into two sections. The first section explains how the Reformation was stopped in North Africa through two problems: indigenization lacking doctrine, and doctrine lacking indigenization. The second section details the open door for the Reformation through the German Baptist mission work in South Africa. Finally, the article concludes with recommendations for creating sustainable mission work through a focus on strong discipleship model along with a commitment to indigenization of church leadership.

Carl A. Hargrove

Implication and Application in Exposition, Part 2: Principles for Contemporary Application

A significant concern for the expositor is navigating the relationship of interpretation and application. A part of the navigation is understanding the complement of the implications of a given text to the proper application. Teachers and expositors who want to make meaningful application of the passage or verse must bear in mind appropriate principles if they are to navigate from the ancient context to their contemporary audiences; if not, there will be misapplication on the one hand or not using the Scriptures to bear on the actions of listeners on the other.

Reviews

The Gospel Transformation Bible

Forthcoming from Crossway, and so based on the ESV, is the Gospel Transformation Bible. Further information, including a positioning video with reflections by several contributors, is available here.

I can be a bit of a cynic when it comes to the seeming proliferation of study Bibles, but I’ll be interested to take a closer look at this one.

Here’s some of the blurb from the Introduction:

‘The goal of the Gospel Transformation Bible is twofold: (1) to enable readers to understand that the whole Bible is a unified message of the gospel of God’s grace culminating in Christ Jesus, and (2) to help believers apply this good news to their everyday lives in a heart-transforming way. Our hope is that, as Christians throughout the world learn to see the message of salvation by grace unfolding throughout Scripture, they will respond to God with greater love, faithfulness, and power.’

Later on, more is said about the second goal of helping readers apply gospel truths to their everyday lives.

‘Faithful application typically answers four questions: 1) What to do? 2) Where to do it? 3) Why to do it? and 4) How to do it? Previous application-focused study Bibles have emphasized the first two of these questions. The Gospel Transformation Bible, while not ignoring the first two questions, seeks to be a primary resource for the latter two. Contributors’ notes indicate how the unfolding gospel truths in any given passage of Scripture motivate and enable believers to honor their Savior from the heart – in short, how grace transforms them.’

A pdf sampler is available here, including sample chapters from six books of the Bible, as well as an introduction to the bible.

In addition, the whole of Jeremiah (with Introduction and Notes by Graeme Goldsworthy) is available here.

Biblical Interpretation and Application Reading Room

From Tyndale Seminary comes this full and helpful list of books on biblical interpretation and application with links to Google Books.

J.I. Packer et al. on Reading the Bible

Justin Taylor, at Between Two Worlds, draws attention to the availability of a 10-page excerpt from the ESV Study Bible on ‘Reading the Bible’, containing the following mini essays.

J.I. Packer

Reading the Bible Theologically

Leland Ryken

Reading the Bible as Literature

John Piper

Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God

David Powlison

Reading the Bible for Personal Application

R. Kent Hughes

Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship

Peter Enns on Reading Exodus (3): Contemporary Significance

Peter Enns, Exodus, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000).

In the Introduction (downloadable here) to his commentary on Exodus, Peter Enns reflects on the three interpretive steps utilised in the NIV Application Commentary series:

(1) Original meaning
(2) Bridging contexts
(3) Contemporary significance

When it comes to contemporary significance, Enns begins by saying that we typically approach the question of application by assuming (1) that the passage has to ‘speak to us where we are’, and (2) that it has to be ‘practical’ in terms of pushing us to do something. Both assumptions, he holds, are right and wrong.

The problem with the first assumption is that much of the Old Testament is narrative, recording ‘a story about something that happened, and therefore it is not… apparent how that story should be applied’ (31).

But he makes it clear that the problem is not so much with Exodus:

‘When we think of application, we tend to think of ourselves as the immovable point and the Old Testament as something that has to be brought into our lives. We think that it has to speak to our circumstances without always considering whether it is our particular circumstances that the Bible is designed to speak to’ (31).

He goes on:

‘There is another way of thinking about application. The book of Exodus is not waiting there for us to bring it into our world. Rather, it is standing there defining what our world should look like and then inviting us to enter that world’ (31).

Exodus tells us what ‘God is like, how he thinks of his people, the lengths to which he will go to deliver them, and the proper response of God’s people to this great deed’ (31). Moreover, as Christians, we understand the story in the light of the Christ who completes the story, ‘and then we begin to see more fully how this story affects how we look at ourselves and our God’ (31).

On the second assumption (that application has to be ‘practical’), Enns notes that application may also be to change how we think, how we grow in our understanding of God and his love, or even to lead us to worship.

He wonders whether contemporary society obliges us to ask ‘What’s the payoff?’, as if to suggest that if there is nothing demonstrable or practical as a result of interpretation, then it must inevitably lack worth. He is not advocating Bible study as a mere intellectual exercise, but wanting to say that ‘“practical” application need not always translate into something we do. Rather, what may be in order is to change how we define “practical”’ (32).

In short, summarising the three steps:

‘This commentary attempts to explain Exodus in light of Christ’s coming. In doing so, I have tried to listen as carefully as I can to what the story would have communicated to ancient Israelite readers of the book. The theology of the book pushes me outward to consider how that theology fits into the whole story, a story that culminates in the person and work of Christ. It is knowing how the story ends up that forms the proper context within which we are “in Christ” (to use Paul’s words) apply those words to ourselves’ (32).