Themelios 44, 2 (August 2019)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Fulfill Your Ministry

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Never Say ‘the Phones Are Quiet’

Jason DeRouchie

The Mystery Revealed: A Biblical case for Christ-Centered Old Testament Interpretation

This study provides a biblical-theological foundation for a Christ-centered hermeneutic. It overviews both Old and New Testament texts that identify how the primary audience that would receive blessing and not condemnation from OT instruction would be Christians enjoying the benefits of Christ’s eschatological, redemptive work. Jesus himself provides both the light for enabling us to see and savor what is in the OT and the necessary lens that influences and guides our reading by filling out the meaning – at times by supplying unknown interpretation and other times by clarifying, expanding, and deepening the human authors’ implications. For us to grasp the full meaning of the OT’s history, laws, poems, and prophecies, we must read them through the light and lens of Christ.

Peter R. Schemm Jr. and Andreas J. Köstenberger

The Gospel as Interpretive Key to 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:16: On Christian Worship, Head Coverings, and the Trinity

God’s good design for man and woman is to be practiced in all of life, especially in the worship of the church. Apparently, the behavior of some women in the Corinthian church was dishonoring both to God and their husbands. Whatever the exact nature of the problem, it had now become a gospel matter in public worship. Therefore, Paul seeks to apply the gospel – especially the idea of giving glory and honor to God, as Christ did – directly to the issue at hand. The purpose of the article is to show how the gospel itself is the interpretive key to this particular section of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (10:31–11:16).

Mark L. Strauss

A Review of the Christian Standard Bible

The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) is a 2017 revision and replacement of the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), first published in 2004. The Translation Oversight Committee was co-chaired by Thomas Schreiner and David Allen. The CSB follows the same basic translation philosophy as the HCSB, a mediating approach between formal and functional equivalence, similar to versions like the NIV, the NET Bible and the CEB. The CSB removes a number of the HCSB’s idiosyncracies, such as the use of “Yahweh” for the tetragrammaton (YHWH). Most significantly, the CSB departs from its predecessor by positively embracing “gender-accurate” language, for example, by translating the Greek ἀδελφοί as “brothers and sisters” when the referent includes both men and women. In general, the CSB is a significant improvement over the HCSB in terms to both accuracy and style.

Coleman M. Ford

“Striving for Glory with God”: Humility as the Good Life in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily 20

Basil of Caesarea (c. AD 330–379) presents humility as the essence of the good life in his Homily 20. Humility was the chief virtue based on Christ’s own humility. Thus, true happiness was only possible through a life of humility. In this essay, I first assess the biblical and theological rationale for humility according to Basil in contrast with prior Greek and Roman notions of humility. Next, I analyze how Basil depicts humility in terms of “glory” in his Homily 20. The bestowal of glory is a gift of God and can only be achieved through a life of humble imitation of Christ. This notion gives Basil’s hearers the proper perspective to understand how the good life is lived in Christian perspective. I conclude with some practical implications for understanding Basil’s conception of humility as the good life.

C.J. Moore

Can We Hasten the Parousia?An Examination of Matt 24:14 and Its Implications for Missional Practice

Among the many possible motivations for mission participation, the eschatological motivation for missions has recently grown in prevalence. Many missionaries speak of their work as “hastening” or “causing” the Parousia. Because of a desire to see Christ come back “sooner,” the eschatological motivation has often led to missional malpractice, due to a lack of nuance and humility in biblical exegesis. Particularly, the eschatological motivation frequently leads to pragmatic practices that should be avoided, practices that hurt rather than help the Church’s mission. In this article, I examine Matt 24:14, the verse used most often in defense of the eschatological motivation for missions. Along the way, I offer my modified view, one that frees the missionary to simply proclaim the gospel of Christ with a proper recognition of God’s sovereignty over both salvation and the Parousia; and still – in some mysterious way – we can be sure that our gospel proclamation indeed plays some role in the second coming of Christ.

Jackson Wu

The Doctrine of Scripture and Biblical Contextualization: Inspiration, Authority, Inerrancy, and the Canon

This essay explores the relationship between contextualization and an evangelical doctrine of the Bible, with a special emphasis on biblical inspiration, biblical authority, biblical inerrancy, and the biblical canon. Readers will see how the doctrine of Scripture leads to a biblical view of contextualization. How might a robust doctrine of Scripture practically improve our approach to contextualization, both in principle and practice? This article not only affirms the importance of contextualization; it also identifies biblical boundaries for contextualization. In the process, readers consider specific ways to apply one’s doctrine of the Bible.

Zachary Breitenbach

The Insights and Shortcomings of Kantian Ethics: Signposts Signaling the Truthfulness of Christian Ethics 

Immanuel Kant proposed what he considered to be the one true ethical system – a system rooted in pure reason, without recourse to grounding morality in God, that sought to explain universal moral truth. This article argues that Kant’s ethical system, despite grounding morality purely in reason and in light of its own philosophical failures, contains significant insights that serve to illuminate the philosophical attractiveness of key biblical ethical principles. The article highlights three insightful objectives of Kant’s ethical view and compares them to three crucial ethical principles that are taught in the Bible. It then contends that Kant’s view of ethics fails to accomplish his desired objectives and makes the case that a biblical understanding of ethics succeeds. The shortcomings of Kantian ethics serve as a signpost to the truth of Christian ethics.

Drew Hunter

Hebrews and the Typology of Jonathan Edwards 

In appreciation for the recent resurgence of interest in biblical theology and typological interpretation, this article considers Jonathan Edwards’s typological interpretive practices and principles. The article examines what Jonathan Edwards’s interpretive reflections on Hebrews reveal about his typological interpretation of the Old Testament. The article then shows the unique contribution that Edwards’s principled typological method makes to current discussions about typology and the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

Book Reviews

More from the Centre for Public Christianity (August 2019)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Mark Greene (full disclosure: long-standing friend of mine and colleague at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) in which he considers ‘our problematic experience of work, shares three key things that the research suggests make work enriching rather than soul-destroying, and tells stories of workplaces that are doing things differently.’

Echoes of Blessing #5: A Confident People

The LORD remembers us and will bless us:

he will bless his people Israel,

he will bless the house of Aaron,

he will bless those who fear the LORD –

small and great alike.

May the LORD cause you to flourish,

both you and your children.

May you be blessed by the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 115:12-15

Offering an elegant reminder of what faithful prayer looks like, Psalm 115 holds together words about God and words addressed to God. In doing so, it echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6, but takes us on a journey to hear the full force of those reverberations.

‘Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory’, the psalm begins. And the grounds for this resolute refusal to receive any of the glory which rightly belongs to the Lord flow out of his covenant commitment to us – ‘because of your love and faithfulness’ (115:1). The honour goes to the one who loves us deeply, who stays faithful to his people through history.

Not that we’re always fully aware of this. Or that we don’t feel the pinch when others ask, ‘Where is their God?’ (115:2). Where, indeed?

The psalm tells us: ‘Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him’ (115:3). Unlike idols ‘made by human hands’, God is not a mere object of worship, but the living Lord, sovereign over all creation. Idols, complete with all their body parts, look like they have the capacity to deliver on their promises. But they can’t. It’s the Lord who has a mouth, eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet, and vocal chords that work. He’s the real God who can speak and act in the world.

So, we can trust in him, the psalm says, because he is our ‘help and shield’ (115:9-11). He fights for us. He protects us.

Then, hearing those echoes at last, comes a threefold assurance for all of God’s people – ‘small and great’ – that blessing rests upon the person who trusts in the Lord. We can be confident, the psalm says, that ‘the LORD remembers us and will bless us’, that his blessing extends beyond the present to future generations, that ‘the Maker of heaven and earth’ has unlimited resources with which to bless us.

Our journey through the psalm brings us to a place where we can be bold, right where we are, even today. How? In our resolve to put God’s glory above our own. In our commitment to trust him in spite of the bemusement and even belligerence of others. And in daring to believe that he will bless us as we do so. In this is our confidence.

Centre for Public Christianity (August 2019)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Steven Garber (now of Regent College, Vancouver), ‘a fascinating conversation that ranges far and wide – from karma to stoicism, from Vàclav Havel to Peter Singer, from the Smashing Pumpkins to U2 – and delves into a vital question: what does it mean to be human?’

Echoes of Blessing #4: A Broken People

How long, LORD God Almighty,

will your anger smoulder

against the prayers of your people?

You have fed them with the bread of tears;

you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.

You have made us an object of derision to our neighbours,

and our enemies mock us.

Restore us, God Almighty;

make your face shine on us,

that we may be saved.

Psalm 80:4-7

The Psalms are a lifesaver for those of us who struggle with knowing what to pray – because they give us a voice. Where we don’t always have the words, they give us the words.

The words in this particular psalm come from a place of brokenness. In case we’re in any doubt, the central prayer comes not once, not twice, but three times: ‘Restore us... make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved’ (80:3, 7, 19).

That refrain is deliberately reminiscent of the priestly blessing in Numbers 6, where Aaron and the priests affirm the sheer delight God takes in his own: ‘the LORD make his face shine on you.’ Except, the people felt they were no longer experiencing that promised blessing of the Lord.

They’d perhaps been feeling it for some time. ‘How long?’, they ask. That question is found in a number of psalms. Sometimes it’s because devastation has come at the hands of others and it’s a plea for God to step in. In this case, though, the people are painfully – and tearfully – aware of their own culpability, of God’s anger smouldering against them, of being mocked by others. Is it possible for God’s people to be derided by unbelievers because God himself brings it about? Apparently so.

Here is a cry of anguish from God’s people who are grieved by their own failure and distraught that God seems distant or even absent from them.

What do they pray? What do we pray? We return to the one we know to be faithful even when we’re not, to what we know to be utterly true about his promises to us, and to plead with him to step in and show his face: ‘Restore to us your special presence – your shining, smiling face that brings deliverance and blessing.’

So, what is it today that you would want to cry out to God for? For yourself? For people in our congregation? For the church in our land? For your friends and neighbours? For your place of work? For our world? Take the words of the psalm and make them your own: ‘Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.’

And as you do so, remember that some broken things are restored because they’re precious, because they’re loved. God remains, to this day, in the restoration business.

Ink 3 (Summer 2019)

The third issue of ink, published by Tyndale House, Cambridge, is now available, this one including a special focus on ‘how Mediaeval scribes preserved the Old Testament’.

UK residents can sign up here to receive issues through the post, but the publication is also available as a pdf here.

Mark A. Noll on the Rise of Evangelicalism

I’ve recently had reason to scan the five volumes of ‘A History of Evangelicalism’, published by IVP. I was reminded that I wrote a review of the first volume when it appeared back in 2004, which I have pasted below for any who might be interested.

Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys, A History of Evangelicalism (Leicester: IVP, 2004).

An older, wiser Christian once encouraged me to keep a history or biography and a work of theology on the go alongside my regular Bible study. No prizes for guessing that I’ve not managed to follow that piece of advice much in the last twenty years. When I have managed to do so, however, the sense of ‘duty’ I’ve felt has been more than outweighed by the benefits I’ve received. It was with that mix of ‘here’s something I really must do’ alongside ‘this will really be for my better good’ that I approached this volume, once again grateful for the wisdom of my friend. Of course, those who actually enjoy reading history and biography won’t require any such encouragement.

I was particularly drawn to this book as it’s the first in a projected five-volume series on the history of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world, co-edited by Mark A. Noll and David W. Bebbington, with authors writing from the USA, Scotland, England, and Australia. Whilst recognising its Reformation pedigree, evangelicalism, according to the series, was constituted both by individuals and the network of relationships shared by those who were involved in eighteenth-century revivals, and also by certain convictions and attitudes which have been maintained since. Hence while evangelicalism is fluid, ‘cohesion has always been present, both from the common original commitment to revival and from the strength of shared convictions’ (18). The series promises to provide an orientation of sorts to ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, with the story told from the perspective of an evangelical commitment, and yet also as part of the cultural, political, and intellectual history of the times in which evangelicals have inevitably found themselves.

Noll, a first-rate historian of American evangelicalism, provides the first installment up to the mid-1790s. As such, the book could be usefully read in tandem with his American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), a collection of essays showing how evangelicalism has been quick to adapt to trends in culture, such as consumerism and individualism, or his more substantial America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), on the marriage of religion and politics. Even without those volumes, Noll’s research is evident here in the full footnotes and lengthy bibliographies.

The book itself contains nine substantial chapters, topped and tailed with an introduction and afterword, moving through the period of revivals (1734-1738), fragmentation and consolidation (1738-1745), development (1745-1770), and diversification (1770-1795). Most of the coverage is devoted to Britain and the colonies that became the USA, and the account embraces well-known figures such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, the Countess of Huntingdon, John Newton, William Wilberforce, Hannah Moore, alongside a gallery of lesser-knowns.

Chapter 2 (‘Antecedents’) shows how eighteenth-century evangelicalism arose out of three earlier movements: the international Calvinist network, especially of English Puritanism; the pietist revival from central Europe; and a High Church Anglican tradition of rigorous spirituality and organisation in voluntary societies to promote personal piety and service to others. (This last one was a surprise to me since my own evangelical tradition taught me to be suspicious of high church activities!) Noll seems to place most significance on the second of the three – the pioneering place of the German-speaking Moravians – showing that the evangelical revival began in the heart of Europe, and that the similar series of movements that arose in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the British colonies in North America were following precedents set out seventy-five years previously.

When it comes to offering ‘explanations’ for the revivals (ch. 5), Noll is happy to affirm the movement of the Spirit before considering the nature of the human agents, the flow of history, and the shifting of societal structures, all combined in someone like George Whitefield, an earnest preacher of ‘new birth’, but also an ‘expert marketer of the gospel in the new open spaces of British imperial commerce’ (143), demonstrating the work of the the Spirit through ‘channels of influence from the domains of ordinary history’ (144).

Through all this, evangelicals retained an interest in the affairs of the world, perhaps seen most notably in mobilisation against the slave trade (ch. 8). But the strong pietist tradition has tended to lead to inward focus rather that outward action (ch. 9). Emphasis on personal experience has been a feature of evangelicalism since the mid-18th century. Edwards and John Wesley who were first-rate intellectuals (and whose massive legacy lives on today) nonetheless maintained that personal experience of God was vital.

Noll includes a significant section on hymnody, which has been crucial to evangelicals from the days of the Wesleys onwards. Hymns fulfilled a teaching function, focusing mainly on human sin, resulting alienation from God, and the redemption provided through Jesus’ death. Hymns were revolutionary in terms of how they were sung, printed, memorised, and quoted. And they also had ecumenical appeal: Charles Wesley despised the Calvinism of Augustus Toplady, and Toplady had no love for Wesley’s Arminianism – but they sang each other’s hymns!

All of this adds up to a stimulating and encouraging narrative overall. Those who know the terrain better than I will be able to point out the gaps in Noll’s account; I, for one, was glad on this occasion to have taken the advice of my wise mentor all those years ago.