Previous Post I have reduced my Introduction down to three shorter pieces for ease of reading and digestion. This brief piece finishes off the exposition of Colossians 1:13-20 and leads into a preamble on the New Covenant. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 …
Category: Biblical Covenantalism
Continued from last time on Colossians 1:15b There is a great deal which might be said about the term “firstborn.” Primarily of course it concerns right of inheritance and prominence among brethren. As the examples of Isaac and Jacob and Judah and Solomon show, the first to be born is not the main idea in “firstborn” (prototokos). The primary idea involves status, not physical birth. Notice how this is true in Psalm 89:27, ” I also shall make him My …
Introduction To The Series There are all sorts of places one can launch out from when writing about the grand scheme of things in the Bible. Certain passages are just packed with theology! This has been seen and utilized by many writers down through the ages. From John Calvin to John Stott men have built solid arguments from expounding a few verses and establishing connections with the Biblical worldview. For all his faults Karl Barth is often a master at …
Introduction What I call “The Rules of Affinity” are a relatively straightforward device whereby a theological proposition (e.g. that a sinner is justified by faith) is compared with the texts of scripture by which it is supported to disclose how closely those passages agree with the proposition in question. Thus, a theological proposition may be adduced which has either direct “one-on-one” relation to a text of the Bible (e.g. justification by faith, or that God created the world), or strong …
This post responds to two by Steve Hays (link, link) 1. Revelation and Communication Steve Hays wants to return to the issue of meaning. He says I have not addressed it. He is mistaken. In the “More Responses” post I wrote: My main concern in the “40 Reasons” was God’s intention. Second to that is the inspired author. As both are benign communicators, the assumption is that they wanted their first hearers to grasp their intentions. If that were not …
I have been asked some questions which I find are better fitted to another post than an interminable reply in the combox. The questioner is my friend Paul Duncan, and I hope he will not be embarrassed if I address my comments directly to him, though with other readers in mind. Hi Paul, I am back in town and will try to answer your questions as asked in the comments on the fourth post. However, I shall have to point …
At the close of the last post I wrote: I do not know of any Christian who thinks that God will renege on the Noahic Covenant (cf. Isa. 54:9-10). As far as this covenant at least is concerned, no spiritualizing, no symbolic hermeneutics, no typologizing or allegorizing is allowed to derail the literal meaning of God’s covenant promise. What God says is what God means! As I continue with this fourth personal rule I want to build on that crucial …
In this last installment of this little series I want to try to offer some thoughts on a few things which would redress the present stalemate that much of Dispensationalism finds itself in. If you don’t agree with me that DT is not what it ought to be – i.e. that it has yet to realize what it is capable of – then these posts would not have done much for you. But if you have been thinking along the …
As some of you know, I am Founder of Veritas School of Theology, an online seminary dedicated to educating God’s people in solid dispensational and presuppositional theology at a low cost. This ministry also provides me with an outlet for my ongoing development of what I call “Biblical Covenantalism” (see here, and here): a more far-reaching and theologically balanced type of Dispensationalism. One of the things we do at VST is to place a lot of emphasis on understanding the …
In this final article in this series on the importance of the Biblical Covenants I want to outline what I believe are the important issues which ought to affect anyone who believes that the Bible should be interpreted in the same “naive” way we read personal letters, sermons, novels and other books. We must always keep in mind that the Bible is written to the “common man” not the specialist scholar. 1. Although there are recognizable dispensations within the Bible …
