Wednesday, December 24, 2003 :::
Nothingness On Furlough
Colossians 1.17
In the beginning,
The Word decreed energy strings,
Each one singing,
Shaping manifold things.
But ex nihilo nihil fit,
Unless Creator fasten it,
And so with Strong Force far and nigh,
Word binds the like-charged nuclei,
Sustaining each and every atom
Of every daughter and son of Adam.
Including the stubbornly autonomous
Who nailed the Word upon a cross,
Never dreaming that the love so real
Of Him who suffered bleeding, bare,
Played the strings that sang like steel,
And in obedience pinned him there.
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 1:35 PM
Thursday, August 07, 2003 :::
THEOLOGY PROPER AT THE AREOPAGUS
Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, Athens, has continued to astound me over the years. Now I'm realizing how much theology he compressed into a few short sentences. I do believe these few verses from Acts 17 can settle the controversy over man's freewill and put to rest the "Open Theism" hypothesis:
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being...
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 10:41 PM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 :::
Iphigenia, Isaac and Jephtha's Daughter
Theodore H. Feder and Hershel Shanks, in "Iphigenia & Isaac: Saved at the Altar," (Archaeology Odyssey, May/June 2002), describe the parallels and differences between Euripides' story of Iphigenia and the Genesis 22 story of Isaac. There are also close parallels between Iphigenia's story and the story of Jephthah's daughter (Judges 11): much is made of their virginity in each case, the rash vows of Jephthah and Agamemnon are similar. The main difference between the two stories is that Iphigenia is saved and Jephthah's daughter is not.
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 10:25 AM
Monday, May 19, 2003 :::
THE DAY OF THE LORD IN MICAH
Micah follows Amos, prophesying between 740 and 700 BC. In Micah 2.3,4, The Day of the Lord, typified in the then impending invasions, is also the Day of Israel's humbling. In the prophets. the two ideas are developed together. God's purposes come to a climax when the power of the Holy People is "finally broken" (Dan. 12.7).
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 10:23 PM
Monday, May 12, 2003 :::
THE RELEASE OF SATAN
An amillennial (or "realized millennium") view interprets the binding of Satan in Rev. 20 as describing the victory of Christ over Satan at the cross. Critics of the amillennial interpretation point out the absurdity of claiming that Satan has been bound and no longer deceiving the nations for the last 2,000 years. However, there is another detail, often overlooked, that creates serious difficulty for the amillennial interpretation: Rev. 20.7 and following states that "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations..." How does the amillennial view interpret Satan's release at the end of the "millennium"? Is Christ's victory at the cross to be undone at some future point? God forbid! The fact of Satan's release at the end of the thousand years strikes me as fatal to the amillennial interpretation.
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 9:51 AM
Friday, May 09, 2003 :::
The Lord spoke through Amos around 760 BC, warning Israel of the disaster that would come upon them at the hands of the Assyrians (722 BC).
Amos 3.11 ¶ Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses."
The first references in Amos to "that Day" are to "the day I punish Israel for her sins." Integral to this prophecy is the doctrine of the remnant:
Amos 3.12 ¶ This is what the LORD says: "As a shepherd saves from the lion's mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved, those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches."
The reason for the impending judgment was idolatry (of course), injustice and self-indulgence (Amos 3.13-4.1). The divine cure was deprivation (Amos 4.2-13).
The predictions of "the day" of Israel's punishment (at the hand of the Assyrians) flow seamlessly into Amos's warning about the Yom YHWH (Day of the Lord):
Amos 5.18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light.
Clearly, the breaking forth of God's judgment by means of the Assyrians typifies, and manifests the character of, the yet future Yom YWHW (Day of the Lord).
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 11:14 AM
Friday, May 02, 2003 :::
Amos 5.18: The fact that Israelites "longed" for the Yom YHWH (Day of the Lord) indicates that it was already a well-known eschatological concept in the 8th century BC, at least among [the schools of] the prophets. AND it was understood in the popular mind as a positive thing, presumably entailing the glories of the messianic kingdom.
Thomas Edward McComiskey, in his commentary on Amos, writes:
>>The unique contribution of Amos to the eschatology of the OT is his teaching about the Day of the Lord. He stressed that it is a time when the Lord will judge all sin, even in his own people. The gloomy portrayal of that day in the prophecy of Amos reflects the fact that Amos’s hearers were for the most part guilty of transgression. For them that day would hold no ray of light (5:18-20).
>>Another day is coming, however, when hope will shine with glorious promise (9:13-15). The Davidic promise will be realized in the restoration of David’s kingdom, and Jews and Gentiles will be united in the kingdom of David’s greater Son.<<
I disagree only with McComiskey's figure of speech, "Another day is coming…" In spite of Amos's phraseology shifting in 9.13 from "Day" to "days," both the judgment and the shining forth of the promised Davidic kingdom occur in the same Day.
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 11:05 AM
God dwells above time and the Yom YHWH (Day of the Lord) is a reality above time. It is a 'coming' day (Mal. 4.5), but that does not preclude it breaking in upon us in history. It begins to make sense that the historical cataclysms of Israel were seen by the prophets as manifestations of the Yom YHWH, the present _and_ coming reality.
::: posted by Roderick of TMin at 9:03 AM
