Theology
Tag Archive

By In Politics

Easter: The ABC of our Faith

We need to continually return to the root of our faith, to those first historical events that propel us to move forward as a people. The Church Calendar helps us to never outgrow the life of our Lord from his birth to his Ascension.

The Resurrection is the foundation of our faith. In modern evangelicalism, we tend to view the Resurrection of Jesus merely as validation or proof that the crucifixion accomplished what it was supposed to. In other words, the Resurrection is lovely because now the death of Jesus means something, and we get to spend eternity in heaven. But the Bible ascribes more significant value to the empty tomb.

The Four Gospels navigate us through the life of Jesus and give us a glimpse into the meaning of the Resurrection. But if we simply build our thinking around the Four Gospels, we will have an incomplete view of who we are and who Jesus is. The Four Gospels are not enough. We need the entirety of God’s Revelation. In other words, “If our gospel begins and ends on Good Friday, it is impoverished.”a 

Though we glory in the cross, though we preach the cross, though we love the old rugged cross, the cross is not enough! And I make that statement very carefully. As one scholar stated, “If the story of the prodigal son was only based on cross-theology, there would have been only forgiveness, but no joy and feast.” The message of the cross is incomplete without the Resurrection. The cross and the Resurrection can never be separated.

The Resurrection not only validates the cross, but it is a sure sign that we are shadows of our future selves. We are now partly what we shall be. This reality is apparent as we enter into the Acts of the Apostles: the early Church began to live out their Resurrection among the nations. In fact, “the preaching of Jesus’ Resurrection is arguably more pervasive than the cross in the book of Acts (Acts 2:31; 3:26; 4:2; 33; 10:41). The Psalms most quoted in the New Covenant are Psalms 2 and 110, which speak directly of Jesus’ Resurrection and exaltation. Cyprian once wrote: “I confess the Cross, because I know of the Resurrection…since the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.” This is back to basics! We are a cruciform people, but if we overemphasize the cross, our identity is incomplete.

So, let us consider a few implications of the Resurrection, keeping in mind that the Resurrection is more than a confirmation of the cross, but it is the foundation of our faith. Paul makes this point when he says that without the Resurrection, we are of all people most to be pitied. He does not say this about any other event in the life of Jesus.

First, the Resurrection is the objective grounds of salvation. We often look at the cross as the grounds of our salvation, but God saves us by, in, and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul makes this explicit when he says in Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” In I Corinthians 15:17, Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” But aren’t we justified and forgiven on account of Jesus’ death? Of course! Romans makes that clear! For the Apostle Paul, the Resurrection is the vindication of Jesus as the Faithful Son and as the righteous sin-bearer.

It is “the creative power of God that imparts life to soul and body.” This is who we are. We are nothing more, nothing less than saints united to the Resurrected Christ. This is the objective ground of our salvation.

Secondly, the Resurrection is not only the source of our justification, our right-standing before God, but the Resurrection is also the power that drives our sanctification; that is our growth in King Jesus. Some theologians have referred to this as anastasity, from the Greek anastasio, meaning Resurrection. Anastasity is the way the Resurrection flows into our lives. I confess this is in many ways is revolutionary to Christians who have never considered the Resurrection in this light. What the cross of Jesus does for us is to bankrupt our pride, it sobers our minds when we become full of ourselves, and it pulls the plug on any naïve triumphalism. When we are tempted to be proud of any accomplishment, we need to look no further than the cross of Jesus to give us an enlightened view of what Jesus had to suffer to take our sins.

But the Resurrection is the other necessary and prominent part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and part of God’s people. We cannot only have a theology of the cross because a spirituality that meditates only on the cross could potentially reduce us to self-loathing, spiritual insecurity. The impression, then, is that we remain, pathetic, lowly sinners, miserable wretches, unable to do one good thing for God even though we are justified by the event of the empty tomb.

I suggest this is a pietistic simplification of the Christian life? Anglican scholar Michael Bird summarizes best our status:

Some Christians might feel humble when they tell everyone how pathetic they are; a form of self-deprecation. Rightly so, we should be the first ones to share our struggles with others, but let us not think less of ourselves that how God thinks of us. “If God thinks well of his Son, He thinks well of you. If God loves His Son, He loves you, for you are partakes not just of his sufferings, but also of his glory.b

Finally, the Resurrection calls us to a new way of living. Paul says in Colossians: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things.” Some have interpreted this to mean that we are to be so heavenly minded, that we ought to abandon our earthly concerns. After all, this world is merely passing by. But I think this interpretation lacks a fundamental understanding of the role of the Resurrection in the mind of Paul. Who are we? We are resurrected saints. This is the most basic foundation of our humanity as Christians. And if we are resurrected saints, where does the resurrected Christ now abide? He abides at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Where Christ is we are. We are to act and live as if we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. We are to have a heavenly perspective on our earthly life. This reality is to have an impact on our present. Our status in Jesus Christ calls us toward the goal of faithfulness.

Easter is the most basic fact of our humanity. It is who we are. It is because of the bodily Resurrection that we live, breathe, and have our being in a Christ who shows mercy, rather than a Christ who condemns us. The Resurrection of Jesus vindicated Jesus as the bearer of the ugliness of sin, so when he looks at our Lord sees beautified saints. We can never take that for granted. Our standing before the Father causes us to love one another more fully, to serve one another more sincerely, to embrace a more robust view of hope, to feast more abundantly, and to worship the Risen Christ with greater passion. Easter is the abc of our faith. If it is anything less, we are most to be pitied, but thanks be to God, Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

  1. Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology, 436.  (back)
  2. Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology, pg. 445  (back)

Read more

By In Theology

Reading Genesis with Origen

The homilies of Origen, one of the Church’s earliest and most seminal theologians, give a window into the tone of early Christian exegesis. Peering into that window can help open the eyes of 21st century expositors to the Church’s historical tradition of creative, exciting, and compelling exegesis. I want to give a brief and cursory consideration of Origen’s Bible reading from his first homily on Genesis with an eye to how we, conservative Reformed and evangelical interpreters of Scripture, can learn from his approach. This is neither meant to be a critical interaction, nor a blanket endorsement, but rather an appraisal that sifts through the at-times unhelpful and bizarre to find what might be helpful in our present context.a


Beginning in Christ

The first words of Origen’s first homily on Genesis address, appropriately, the opening verse of Scripture: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” How does Origen exposit Genesis 1.1?

What is the beginning of all things except our Lord and “Savior of all,”  Jesus Christ “the firstborn of every creature”? In this beginning, therefore,  that is, in his Word, “God made heaven and earth” as the evangelist John  also says in the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word… “

Homily 1.1

Origen’s comments on this verse reflect his hermeneutical presupposition, that the Christian reader does not come to Scripture prima facie, but rather we always read and hear the text in and through Christ. Henri de Lubac, a 20th century Catholic ressourcement theologian strongly influenced by Origen, puts it well: “For a Christian to understand the Bible means to understand it in the light of the Gospel.” (Catholicism, p. 178) God has definitively revealed Himself in the person of His Son, and there is now no going behind that.

Our conservative evangelical tendency is to look for the grammatical-historical interpretation of the text as the primary meaning, and to (maybe) go from there to types, to how the text foreshadows Christ or the life of the Church. Origen shows us, in the pattern of patristic exegesis, that for the Christian the Christological is the primary meaning of the text. Our task when reading the Old Testament is not to find or pick out what things might be pointing to Christ; Jesus has already solved that for us. All of Scripture is fulfilled in Him, in His life, death, and resurrection, and in the continuing life of His body, the Church.

(more…)
  1. Full disclosure: I am not an Origen scholar, nor am I a scholar of patristic exegesis more broadly. In fact, I’m rather new to Origen. I write this aware of my ignorance (it has to count for something when one is not ignorant of one’s ignorance, right?) of the philosophical discussions at play. Yet, this ignorance and lack of expertise notwithstanding, there are basic patterns and principles of exegesis shown by Origen that can be highly illuminating and instructive for us.  (back)

Read more

By In Interviews, Podcast, Theology

Episode 40, Vocation as Sacred Work, KC Podcast

For our 40th show, Pastor Brito interviews KC contributor Pastor Dustin Messer concerning his recent piece published at the Theopolis Institute entitled Sacred Work in a Secular World. The discussion begins with a false distinction between “full-time Christian ministry” and “secular work” so mistakenly proclaimed in the evangelical church. Dustin traces the history of vocation in the work of the Reformer Martin Luther and articulates a fuller vision of vocation based on the creation account of Genesis. Messer concludes by discussing how he would encourage a young person who is uncertain about what vocation to pursue.

Additional Resources:

Sacred Work in a Secular World by Dustin Messer

Visions of Vocation by Steve Garber

Quotes from Interview:

“Most folks start in Genesis 3 to think about vocation…but if you start with the Fall explaining what’s wrong with work you can lead people to believe that work is just a necessary temporal good… We should go to Genesis 1 and ground your view of vocation in the creation of the world.”

“God is ruling over all creation through mortal humans and he has chosen a church for his mission so that what you do has real meaning and value.”

Read more

By In Interviews, Podcast, Theology

Episode 39 of KC Podcast: Interview with Chris Larson of Ligonier Ministries

On this episode, we examined the recent State of the Church Theology Survey produced by Ligonier Ministries. Pastor Uri Brito interviews CEO and President of Ligonier Ministries, Chris Larson. We discuss the status of Ligonier Ministries after the death of its beloved president, R.C. Sproul, and also the state of theology survey which asks a host of questions to the evangelical population concerning the doctrine of Christ, salvation, and sexuality.

Chris Larson

Chris Larson is president and CEO of Ligonier Ministries. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisLarson.

Additional Resources:

The State of Theology

A Renewed Mind, A Transformed Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Reflecting on the Life of R.C. Sproul

Quotes from Chris Larson in the Interview:

“The higher educated and the higher income brackets, the less orthodox people are across America.”

“Our politics and our sociology flow out of our theology.”

Read more

By In Culture, Family and Children, Theology, Wisdom

The Doctor Is In

Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham) is one of the participants in the Mere Fidelity podcast and is also the contributing editor of the Politics of Scripture series on the Political Theology Today blog. He blogs at Alastair’s Adversaria and tweets using @zugzwanged. This post was originally posted on his blog and reposted at Theopolis as ‘What Pastors Could Learn From Jordan Peterson’

Last night, along with a few online friends, I watched this debate on the meaning of life between William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, and Jordan Peterson, hosted by Wycliffe College. While watching it, and reflecting upon Peterson’s work more generally (about which I’ve written in the past), I was struck by some of the lessons that preachers can learn from Peterson. (more…)

Read more

By In Books, Theology

Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition

In March 2017, IVP Academic published Craig G. Bartholomew’s systematic introduction to the Neo-Calvinist school of thought entitled, Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition.

Kuyper scholars like James D. Bratt, author of the 2013 Kuyper biography Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat, have recommended Bartholomew’s book. “Agree with Kuyper or not, this is the place to go to learn, in brief, what he said, did, and wrought,” said Bratt.

Over at the Jesus Creed blog on Patheos, The Rev. Canon Dr. Scot Mcknight has two posts on the book. On December 22, McKnight overviews his familiarity with Kuyper’s work and poses the usual objection to Kuyperian thinking: the how. In the Reformed world, we have seen a variety of Neo-Calvinist interpretations from Rushdoony’s Reconstructionism to James K.A. Smith’s efforts to revive Augustine’s “permixtum of the saeculum.”

McKnight is likely familiar with this variety (and history) of its applications and expresses his nervousness at Bartholomew’s paragraph: “Mission is easily reduced to evangelism and church activities, and indispensable as these indeed are, mission is much broader. As David Bosch points out, “Mission is more than and different from recruitment to our brand of religion; it is alerting people to the universal reign of God.”

McKnight and I belong to the same Anglican Diocese, where he is Canon Theologian. While McKnight doesn’t embrace the term Kuyperian – I do and here’s one reason why. McKnight returned to Contours on December 28, 2017 and pulls up to Kuyper’s conversion story. Interestingly, this is a place where McKnight’s Anglican tradition and Kuyper can actually touch historically. Kuyper’s conversation happens while reading a popular novel: The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte M. Yonge – a disciple of Father John Keble, who closely supervised the writing of the book.

McKnight and Bartholomew point to Kuyper’s quote:

“I read that Philip knelt, and before I knew it, I was kneeling in front of my chair with folded hands. Oh, what my soul experienced at that moment I fully understood only later. Yet, from that moment on I despised what I used to admire and sought what I had dared to despise.”

It is not clear in his blog if McKnight has made (or would agree with) this connection, but I would posit that it is no coincidence that Kuyper’s conversion and ecclesiology are born out of a Yonge novel. McKnight is likely familiar with the “Tractarian/Puseyite” traditionalism (or Oxford Movement) that Yonge hopes to romantically entangle the reader with. Her inclusion of high-church, sacramental Anglo-Catholicism is essential to the historic import of the book. In Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, Bratt notes how Kuyper made the connections himself, “the hero’s funeral rite in the Church of England conveyed the comforts available from a pure ‘mother-church’ that was there to guide each step of the pilgrim’s way.”

McKnight goes on to connect Kuyper’s critique of modernity with his emphasis of separation and the sphere-sovereignty of the church. While Kuyperianism is often maligned as a political theology, McKnight, Bratt, and Bartholomew all point to his bold emphasis on the importance of the Church.

Perhaps, I am putting too much weight on Kuyper’s conversion story and its connection to the Tractarians, but they both spring from the same revolt against modernity. Both Neo-Calvinism and Anglican Traditionalism are born to combat the tides of what they saw as liberalism. It is impossible to understand the Anglo-Catholics as a liturgical movement alone, they also represented an anti-modernist political philosophy for the Church against the encroachments of “whiggery.” In a similar way, Kuyper would develop a political theology as a result of his high view of the church, as a defence against modernism, not as a tool for power or mere social engagement.

Read more

By In Books, Family and Children, Interviews, Scribblings, Wisdom

A Very Kuyperian Book List

Another journey around the sun is almost complete and some of our contributors have compiled a list of book recommendations just in time for Christmastide. Be sure and plunder the Egyptian’s After-Christmas sales before Twelfth Night. (more…)

Read more

By In Books, Podcast

Episode 21: The Essential Trinity with Dr. Brandon Crowe

On this episode Pastor Uri Brito interviews Dr. Brandon Crowe, Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Brandon is the co-editor of The Essential Trinity: New Testament Foundations and Practical Relevance published by P&R.

(more…)

Read more

By In Podcast

Biblical Interpretation with Dr. Gregg Strawbridge

Originally recorded in 2015, this interview is focused on the nature of Biblical interpretation espoused by the Biblical Horizons and the Theopolis groups led by James B. Jordan and Peter Leithart.

The lectures offered at the 24th Biblical Horizons Conference, 2015, can be found and purchased at wordmp3.com. The 2015 Conference featured talks from Peter J. Leithart on Revelation, James B. Jordan (4 talks) on Joshua, Jeff Meyers (3 talks) on Wealth in Luke and Acts, Rich Bledsoe (2 talks) on Psychotherapy and Drugs, and Uri Brito (1 talk) on Christian Counseling from Jay Adams to David Powlison, and some psalmody/services and interviews.

Gregg Strawbridge, Ph.D., is the pastor of All Saints Church in Lancaster, PA. He became a committed follower of Jesus Christ at age 20, discipled in the context of a University Navigator Ministry. As a result of personal discipleship he went on to study at Columbia Biblical Seminary (M.A., Columbia, SC, 1990), as well as a Ph.D. in education and philosophy (USM, 1994)

Read more

By In Theology

Bible Study With The Church Fathers

Church Fathers Bible App Catena

An App for the Church Fathers

I recently downloaded a new Bible study tool with an emphasis on the Church Fathers. It is called Catena and it lays out interlinear commentary from the Church Fathers in a Bible app. A double-tap on a particular verse pulls up related content by Church Fathers like St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril of Alexandria. And if you aren’t familiar with a particular author, clicking on his name reveals his wikipedia page. The app describes itself as, “a collection of commentaries on the Bible from the early Church Fathers. With 35,000+ ancient commentaries, and growing, the goal is to provide the most insight possible into the Word of God.” Available for iOS and Android here.

The Hermeneutic of the Church Fathers

In 2015, Pr. Uri Brito penned an article called “Interpretive Maximalism and James B. Jordan” which came to mind as I was using this new app. In that article, a quote from Jordan explains that the commentary offered by the Church Fathers was not always limited to a strict grammatico-historical method of interpretation. Using an app like Catena could aid the modern bible student is exposing him to historical insights or alternate readings of familiar texts. According to Brito, Jordan sees the grammatico-historical interpretation to be valid, but incomplete without the aid of a rich biblical theology that also includes narrative and symbols.James B. Jordan

In a culture thirsty for an ancient faith, Reformed leaders would do well to once again reclaim the Church Fathers as their own heritage. As David Steinmetz of Duke Divinity School once noted in Christianity Today, “The Reformation is an argument not just about the Bible but about the early Christian fathers, whom the Protestants wanted to claim.” Even in their great diversity, the Church Fathers offer a consistent emphasis on the importance of personal holiness, fidelity to the church, and the importance of the scriptures to guide believers. Are the fathers important to Reformation theology? A quick glance at the number of references to Church Fathers in Calvin’s Institutes says yes.

Church Fathers in Their Context

Of Course, the best practice is reading the fathers directly and in the context of the entire work and historical period. Catena could be a tool to whet your appetite for the patristic and historical commentaries. I was first introduced to the work of St. Athanasius through the snippets introduced in David Chilton’s Paradise Restored. I then stumbled through the patristic masterpiece “On the Incarnation of the Wordwith a bit of encouragement from a preface by C.S. Lewis.

A word of warning is also due. The Christian faith did not climax at Nicaea (in the same way it’s zenith is not Westminster) and our patristic authors do not claim the final word on Biblical interpretation. As James B. Jordan puts it, “When we see that God’s history will span thousands of generations, we see how silly it is to assume that history ended in the early centuries, everything was settled, and no significant progress remains to be made.” a

  1. Biblical Horizons Newsletter, No. 62: Thinking About Church History  (back)

Read more