Author Archives: admin

Does Proverbs teach a ‘prosperity gospel’?

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According to Britannica, the prosperity gospel is the teaching

‘that faith—expressed through positive thoughts, positive declarations, and donations to the church—draws health, wealth, and happiness into believers’ lives. It is also referred to as the “health and wealth gospel” or “name it and claim it.” Central to this teaching are the beliefs that salvation through Jesus Christ includes liberation from not only death and eternal damnation but also poverty, sickness, and other ills. Adherents believe that God wants believers to be richly blessed in this life and that physical well-being and material riches are always God’s will for the faithful.

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Ten Commandments for the Marketplace

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Sharing the concern of the Book of Proverbs for taking faith into the marketplace, Dr. Carnegie Samuel Calian has developed

“Ten Commandments for the Marketplace”

1. Treat individuals as sacred. People are more than means to another’s end.

2. Be generous. The benefits will exceed the cost in the long term.

3. Practice moderation. Obsession with winning is dehumanizing and idolatrous.

4. Disclose mistakes. Confession and restitution are necessary means to restoring ethical character.

5. Arrange priorities.…

The role of the twelve disciples

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The role of the Twelve during the time of Jesus’ ministry was fourfold:

1. Disciples of their Master.  Like other Jewish disciples, they live with their master, attend to his interpretation of Scripture, and are expected to commit his teaching to memory.  Some, at least, would be expected to pass on the teaching of their rabbi.  It was unusual of Jesus to choose his disciples: usually, the disciples would choose their rabbi.

2. Extension of Jesus’ ministry.…

Christ in the Proverbs

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Daniel Doriani points out four ways in which Proverbs paints an accurate and vivid picture of our Saviour.

What follows is a summary of this article.

1. Jesus the good worker

Many Proverbs mock laziness, e.g. Prov 24:30-34; 26:14f; 20:13, and praise hard work, e.g. Prov 10:4–5; 12:9, 11, 14, 27; 16:26; 18:9.

Jesus knew that he must work while he had opportunity, Jn 9:1-5.  He worked hard, Jn 5:17, toiling through the night as he prayed , Lk 6:12, teaching his disciples, Jn 13:30–17:26, and suffering for his people, Mt 26:36–75.…

Preaching: Christ-centred, God-focused, or Trinitarian?

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I have sometimes wondered if enthusiasm for Christ-centred preaching can lead to a neglect of God-centred, or, indeed, a fully-rounded Trinitarian approach.

This is touched on by Sidney Greidanus, in chapter 5 of Preaching Christ From the Old Testament.

Greidanus agrees that ‘christological preaching’ can indeed sometimes slide into ‘Christomonism’, the preaching of Christ isolated from God.  Some, such as Wilhelm Vischer, held that

‘the theological exposition of the [Old Testament] writings within the church can be nothing other than Christology.’

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What was God doing when John was beheaded (Mk 6)?

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Ian Paul remarks that, in preaching from the account of John the Baptist’s beheading, it is tempting to take an anthropocentric approach, in which:

‘It is…a game of consequences, [with] each stage of the drama unfolding tragically but with some inevitability into the next. What happens if you are born into a family whose patriarch is a ruthless but insecure tyrant (Herod the Great) who forged a regime from nothing and was a monumental builder, but achieved this by having his own wife and two sons executed?

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What language(s) did Jesus speak?

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According to Peter G. Bour:

‘Given his environment, it is certainly possible that Jesus had some ability in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew, and was able to use each in the appropriate setting.’

Pate cites Stanley Porter:

‘Jesus would probably be best described as productively multilingual in Greek and Aramaic, and possibly Hebrew, though only Aramaic would have been his first language, and Greek and Hebrew being second or acquired languages.’

Taking each of these three languages in turn:

1.…

“Follow me”

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Jesus’ command: “Follow me” might at first sound like: “Come with me.”

Scot McKnight writes:

‘The most important words Jesus said to his disciples were “Follow me.” To Levi Jesus said, “Follow me” (Mark 2:14). To a less-than-certain-about-following-Jesus-person Jesus said, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:22), and to the crowd and his disciples, Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

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Masters and slaves in Christ

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In the course of a discussion about Jonathan Edwards and slavery, John Piper notes:

I believe that the New Testament ordered human relationships in Christ in such a way as to transform the master-slave relationship into something so different from “owner” and “property” that what remained was no longer recognizable as slavery in the traditional sense. To say it another way, when the New Testament instructions to masters and slaves were obeyed, what was left of the master-slave relationship was not a relationship of owner and property.…

John Calvin on errors in Scripture

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I appreciate the work that Wyatt Houtz has done in demonstrating John Calvin’s approach to various apparent discrepancies in the Bible.

Here’s briefest of summaries.  In most cases, I have elaborated in my Bible Commentary on the various passages.

Gen 1:14:16 – Calvin knows that the Moon is not larger than Saturn, and that the Moon is a dark opaque body and not a luminary.  Calvin concludes that the author of Genesis is justified in using unscientific language, in order for God’s revelation to be understood by ordinary people.…