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Cross Vision 11 – Cosmic War

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A summary of chapter 12.

So far, writes Boyd,

‘We’ve seen that the cross teaches us that at the center of the story of what else is going on in the OT’s violent portraits of God is the truth that Yahweh is a humble sin-bearing God and that God brings about judgments by withdrawing his restraining Spirit to allow sin to punish sin and evil to vanquish evil.’

Now for another aspect of this.  The NT construes the crucifixion of Jesus as the decisive battle in the age-long conflict between God and Satan. …

Biblicism: a failed project?

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In the course of a review of Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture, Robert H. Gundry summarises, first, what Smith means by the word ‘biblicism’:

‘Biblicism means an emphasis on the Bible’s “exclusive authority, infallibility [or ‘inerrancy’], perspicuity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability,” though not every version of biblicism contains all these ingredients—at least not all in equal measure.’

Then, according to Gundry, Smith notes that this set of emphasis produces ‘pervasive interpretative pluralism’, with the result that:

‘Evangelical Christians differ widely on what they should believe and how they should behave; and their differences include important as well as unimportant matters.

…

Cross Vision 10 – Doing and Allowing

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In chapter 11 of Cross Vision, Greg Boyd attempts to draw a sharp distinction between what God does, and what God allows.

According to Boyd, this is a distinction which is often obscured in the OT.

In Ex 12:12, for example, Yahweh tells Moses: “I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals”.

In v23 of the same chapter, however, we read, “When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”…

F.F. Bruce – a ‘liberal evangelical’?

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Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910-1990) was one of the most distinguished of the evangelical biblical scholars who flourished during the second half of the 20th century.

I have often thought of Bruce as a ‘liberal evangelical’ (whereas I would characterise his fellow-Scot William Barclay as an ‘evangelical liberal’).  Make of that what you will.

In Re-views by an Evangelical Biblical Scholar, Robert H. Gundry ponders Tim Grass’s biography: F.F. Bruce: A Life.

In the process of his review, Gundry summarises the (slightly uneasy?)…

2 Cor 12:7 – ‘A thorn in the flesh’

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12:7 So that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me—so that I would not become arrogant. 12:8 I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Murray Harris (Navigating Tough Texts) identifies the following characteristics of Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’:

1.…

2 Cor 12:12 – ‘The signs of an apostle’

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12:11 I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. 12:12 Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds.

Two questions may be raised.  An exegetical question: do these ‘signs of an apostle’ to refer to miracle-working, or more broadly to a life and ministry consistent with that of an apostle? …

The biological basis for gender-specific behaviour

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Based on Gregg Johnson, in Recovering Biblical manhood and womanhood, ch. 16.  1997.  Available online.

1. Ethological observations

Among most higher social mammals males

  • are more aggressive
  • take dominant leadership roles
  • are more territorial and competitive
  • are more reactive and less cautious

Females:

  • are more involved in parenting
  • tend to socialise more horizontally and equally with other females
  • are cautious in mating, seeking out more dominant males
  • are more concerned with parenting, nurturing and maintaing pair bonds
  • are less confrontative and combative and more interested in building and maintaing social bonds
  • are peacemakers, seeking conformity to group expectations

From anthropological studies:

  • ‘Males are almost always the rule makers, hunters, builders, fashioners of weapons, workers in metal, wood, or stone.’
…

Jn 20:29; 2 Cor 5:7; Heb 11:1 – Faith and sight

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Jn 20:29 – ‘Jesus said to [Thomas], “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”’

2 Cor 5:7 – ‘We live by faith, not by sight.’

Heb 11:1 – ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.‘

The danger for preachers (and others) is to appeal to these texts to support the idea that [Christian] faith does not rely on evidence; that it is a leap in the dark.…

Rev 13:18 – ‘His number is 666’

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Rev 13:18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.

There have been two main ways of explaining this number.

1. The number of Nero

This is been the identification traditionally and in much recent scholarship.

In Greek and Hebrew, numbers were written using letters of the alphabet in the 1st century, and in that language the letters making up ‘Nero Caesar’ add up to 666.…

The Ascension of Christ

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Lk 24:50 Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 24:51 Now during the blessing he departed and was taken up into heaven.

The ascension is described just three times in the NT (Mk 16:19; Acts 1:9).  But it is referred to in eleven other books.

It is intimated by our Lord in Jn 6:62; 7:33, and anticipated in Psa 68:18 (cited in Eph 4:8).

1. Its manner

It was not a mere disappearance, as at Emmaus.…