Winter Bible Conference, Grace Church Tallahassee

Grace Church of Tallahassee, Florida is hosting a Winter Bible Conference January 25–27, 2013. I’ll be speaking on the Holy Spirit. Here are the session topics and times:

Friday, January 25, 7pm, The Holy Spirit and Old Covenant Believers
Saturday, January 26, 9am, The Promise of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Saturday, January 26, 10:45am, The Holy Spirit in John
Sunday, January 27, 9:45am, They Holy Spirit in Acts
Sunday, January 27, 10:45am, The Holy Spirit in Romans

If you’re in the area, I would love to see you there. If you’re not in the area, you can get my take on these topics here.

Amen: Credo Interview with Schreiner on Biblical Theology

The first few questions and answers from the Credo Interview with Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner on his new book, The King in His Beauty:

There has been something of a “renaissance” in the publication of “whole bible” theologies in recent years. Where does your contribution stand in relation to these other works?

First of all I think we should celebrate the publication of whole bible theologies. What an encouraging sign that Christians in our age want to understand the whole counsel of God. Evangelicals, in particular, play a leading role here, for we believe that the scriptures cohere, that there is a unified story instead of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Second, I won’t mention all the other works that have been written, but I can say I have read and profited from them immensely. Generally speaking my work is less technical and hence more accessible than some of the works out there. I wanted to write a book that a busy pastor, college student, or interested layperson could grasp and understand. Whether I have succeeded or not is for others to say.
Third, I wanted my book to focus especially on scripture itself instead of what other scholars say. I wanted to show inductively by quoting or referring to scripture that the theology I presented was in accord with what the biblical writers were saying. This is not to say that I didn’t learn a great deal from many other scholars in my research and study. They were immensely helpful.

What are you trying to capture with the title “you will see the king in his beauty”?

The words come from Isaiah 33. I wanted to emphasize why it matters that the Lord is king. The story is about God conquering Satan, sin, and death. But why would we want to be on the winning side? It is because in the new creation (the new Jerusalem, the new heavens and earth) we will see the king in his beauty. We will be enraptured by our God and Jesus Christ forever.

Its been a fairly common theme in academic circles that a whole bible theology cannot be done or should not be done. Some suggest that labeling the Jewish Tanakh as the “Old Testament” is inherently racist and/or imperialistic. What’s your take on the “possibility” of a whole Bible theology?

Your question relates to what I said in answer to the first question. As evangelicals we believe in a unified story, in a canon that coheres, in a narrative that goes somewhere. Academic scholarship has typically maintained that there are different and even contradictory theologies in the scriptures. But as evangelicals we believe in diversity with an overall unity. Is our stance imperialistic toward the OT? It all depends upon your stance toward biblical revelation. We believe that the message of Jesus and the apostles, rightly interpreted, points toward an old covenant and a new covenant. We don’t believe we are imposing our own biases on scripture but receiving and transmitting the revelation given to us. We understand why those from other perspectives would disagree. The exclusivity of the Christian gospel has always been scandalous.

The question of “method” in particularly acute when attempting the bridge the Hebrew and Christian canon. What is your approach to “method” in terms of historical reconstruction of the literature, the reading of individual texts, and relating them across the canon?

I don’t engage in historical reconstruction in writing my biblical theology. Instead, I accept the canonical shape of the scriptures and the text as it has come down to us as the source for biblical theology. I read the texts from a certain perspective. I assume they are telling a unified story, but I also believe it is imperative to listen to the contribution of each writer and piece of literature.

New Year’s Resolutions

1) Resolved: in stray and sundry moments when I find myself waiting in line or sitting in traffic, to meditate on the Scripture I know and seek to apply it to life rather than fretting about the way I could be using that time to study more Scripture.

2) Resolved: to obey Deuteronomy 6 and repeat the words of the Bible to my children when we rise up and lie down, when we sit in the house and walk by the way, and to talk with them about the truths of holy Writ.

3) Resolved: in view of the fact that marriage is a mini-drama of the gospel, to love my wife as Christ has loved the church, as this is the epic adventure of my life.

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I wrote these for Towers for New Year’s Day 2012 and now post them here.

Through the Prince Not Proud

The one who gave life, entered into life.
The one who spoke the curse of death took the curse of death.
The one who defines good and evil, who is nothing but good, took evil on himself.
The holy one gave himself for the unholy,
The righteous for the unrighteous,
The undying for the dead.

The Son of God became a son of man
So the sons of men could become sons of God.

The one who made everything was unmade so that we might be remade.
The Creator entered the creation to be killed by creatures so he could roll back death and bring about the new creation.

Death could not hold him.
Sin could not stain him.
Hell will not stand against him.
You will not outrun him.

Jesus will reign!

God has answered Satan’s shout of triumph with the baby’s cry.

God has brought proud Satan low

through the prince not proud
born on the night not silent
in the stable not clean
to the heir not honored
with majesty not recognized
by those who will not repent
but beheld by those who are naught in the eyes of the world.

The babe has been born
The dragon defeated
Salvation accomplished
Good news has come
Will you believe it?

The word became flesh, and tabernacled among us. We have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

What Jesus Did at the Incarnation

The infinite, unlimited one, became finite and took the limitations of a baby.
The immortal, undying one, became mortal and took a body that could die.
The omnipresent, everywhere one, located himself in one spot.
The invisible, unseen one, became visible and his glory was beheld.
The all wise, all knowing one, learned obedience and laid aside omniscience.

 

Guest Post from Adam Richardson: 52 Hours with My Son Jon

My friend Adam Richardson and I were students together at DTS. After Seminary, Adam served as a missionary in Russia for eleven years, and he is now pursuing a PhD at the University of Leicester, doing his work at Tyndale House, Cambridge. At the time the events he relates below took place, he was in Seattle for a brief furlough and a few routine medical appointments.

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God has given our family the priceless gift of perspective. I want to share that 52-hour experience with you.

It was Tuesday morning Dec 16, 2008, and I was doing what most of you were doing – year end work and meetings wondering when and how I would shop, when I got the call.

“Adam this is Dr. Shreuder (Jon’s pediatrician. Jon was 3.) Jon’s lab results came back; you need to take Jon immediately to Children’s hospital for a blood transfusion. He has acute anemia. They are waiting for him on the sixth floor; his room is ready. Take several days’ worth of toys and books.” My mind flooded with questions – could I give the blood for him? Is the transfusion safe? What then? Why would we be there several days? As I am thinking of all this, the doctor continued: “Normal blood contains many fluids, and red blood cells should be about 35-40% of that. They carry oxygen to the body. Jon’s RBC count is not 35-40% but 9%. Meaning, he has about 25% of the oxygen carrying power he needs. His body has compensated with his heart working in overdrive, but this could lead to heart failure.” That’s when the world stopped rotating.

Heather and I hastily packed and headed to Children’s Seattle; they were waiting. They explained that he would soon begin a 16-hour transfusion of four pediatric units of RBC’s only. This should bring him out of the danger zone. For the first time we asked what could be causing this – why his bone marrow had stopped producing RBC’s. She spoke in general terms, but we caught the gist. There seemed no good news answers. He had only complained that his “tummy hurt” so we took him in for some blood tests. And now, hours later, we were about to get a transfusion to treat the symptom caused by inactive bone marrow. Wow.

Meanwhile, my dad who is a physician was communicating with me over the phone; he got the lab report, ran it by his people and gave us the first shaft of light – a viral condition called TEC that that temporarily suppresses the marrow and resolves on its own like most viruses. It affects 1 in about 200,000 children; maybe Jon would be the one. In light of alternatives, we were actually now HOPING for this illness.

They moved us to another room and started the transfusion. There would be no time for me to donate since they have to test, treat and specially package donated blood. Praise God someone had seen fit to give their blood so my son could receive it in his hour of need.

To experience the full force of our shock at Jon’s comment (I will relate in a minute), I want to set the scene – It’s now Tuesday evening and Jon has been in a hospital bed for over 4 hours (12 to go this round), wires everywhere, and arm splinted with an IV. We have no assurance when or how this will end. That’s when Jon blurts out, “This is the best party ever!” After all, Grammy sent balloons, he’s eating candy canes, watching the movie “Cars” for the third time, he got to pee in a jug (perk for a boy), his bed has a good stash of toys, ride bikes in the hospital halls (a childrens’ hospital), and to top it all off – Santa’s elves came to visit him to take his list straight to the Pole.

Bottom line is this – everything turned out as a best case scenario. As for the transfusion, the first round got his RBC count from 9 to 21. They kept us an extra day and gave Jon another four units of RBC’s and got his count up to 31. Close enough to discharge. As for the diagnosis – TEC was it. Basically, it’s the freak happenstance of some virus that he picked up (and has already gone) that just happened to have the exact combination to Jon’s physiology and opened the vault, suppressing his bone marrow for a period of 2-8 weeks. It is not contagious; millions of other children could get the same virus with no effect. The body should recover “on its own” (amazing design isn’t it?) in a matter of weeks with no long term anything. Our follow up visits confirmed his recovery.

What did we gain from this?

* SIMPLICITY – Walking out of the hospital on December 18th I still didn’t know what would be under tree (seriously), but I knew we’d all be there together. Our extended family of faith reached out as well with prayers and notes and calls. If your biological family is small as you celebrate this Christmas, know that your spiritual family is huge – and we are glad to be a part of it.

* SACRIFICE – For about six weeks until he recovered, some stranger-saint’s red blood cells were running through my son’s body to bring him oxygen and nutrients. I was at the blood bank on Monday morning rolling up my sleeves. Please join me in this.

* FAITH – Jon was 3 and didn’t even really know what happened. He knew he needed “good blood to make him strong again.” But he was shielded from the myriad of discussions, decisions and processes behind his recovery. All he knows is that he went to the hospital for several days, he didn’t like pokes, he did like candy canes, and now he’s better. I wonder what God shields us from? Jon could not understand why he had to experience some pain there; we the caregivers knew, and put him through it for the greater good. I wondered what God cannot explain to me since I am not able to comprehend it. At times Jon trusted me; at times I had to pin him down. It made me sad to think that sometimes people reject God because they cannot understand everything about God or life or pain. Realizing that God’s love for us is infinitely greater than mine for Jon’s, I’m more willing to believe – even when I don’t understand.

* PEACE – I believe in a sovereign God. I don’t know whether that means He “caused” or “allowed” this to happen – I won’t die on that mountain because it doesn’t matter. What I do know is this – that the valley does not surprise or alarm God. In fact, it’s a part of His plan. And not for us to go there alone – God was with us there. When I got that call and was agonizing over potential long-term scenarios, God was with us. He knew what was happening, was not surprised, and knew the path for us to take would be to trust Him, wherever that path led. His complete sovereignty gives me peace, not because I expect life to turn out well, but because I know He’s got the whole world, with all its joys and sorrows, in His hands.

As for Jon, as we were leaving the hospital, he wasn’t walking, he was hopping. Days later he went sledding and didn’t complain once of his “tummy hurting.” He has fully recovered. Thanks be to God, who is with us, has provided for us through blood donors, medical professionals, and the family of faith. And one day, when Jon is down about something, I’ll tell him this story. He’ll be blown away.

New Post at Christianity.com: Do You Love Controversy or People?

Some people think it’s either/or. Here’s a bit from (near) the beginning:

A few years ago I would have been suspicious of anyone who mentioned the need to engage in theological controversy in a loving way. I would have done one of those mental clucks of the tongue and inched the person toward the “needs-to-firm-up-conviction” column.

As time has passed, though, I’ve participated in a few controversies (many connected to the sovereignty of God in salvation or the roles of men and women) and I’ve watched some controversialists take issue with views that I hold. Obviously I haven’t been in all these battles, only a skirmish or two, and sometimes I found myself wondering if those involved loved God, people, and truth, or just loved controversy.

You can read the whole thing here.

The Other 2013 Book I’m Most Excited to See

Tom Schreiner’s New Testament Theology was hailed by Simon Gathercole as “a magnificent acheivement.” What shall we say, then, about his new whole Bible theology, bearing the matchless title, The King in His Beauty?

I can say that there’s not a saner, clearer, shrewder, godlier scholar I know. No one humbler or happier, no one whose life better matches what he preaches and teaches. No one whose writings I find more helpful, more convincing, more instructive. As I’ve read Schreiner over the years, I’ve been so often edified. So many times I’ve been impressed by his ability to summarize so much scholarship so succinctly, and so often I’ve seen him solve what seemed to be intractable difficulties with straightforward common sense that accounts for everything in the text. I don’t know anyone who has read more, anyone more charitable in dispute, anyone more willing to learn from those of different perspectives, and I can’t think of anyone that I’ve learned more from than Tom Schreiner.

In fact, I’m having a hard time thinking of a point where he has failed to convince me. And I can be pretty disagreeable!

So in addition to Brian Vickers’ Justification by Grace through Faith, the other book I’m most looking forward to in 2013 is Tom Schreiner’s The King in His Beauty. These two books will make it a banner year in publishing for SBTS faculty, and then there’s the other other book I’m most looking forward to in 2012 from Denny Burk–what can I say!? All three are superlative. Stay tuned.

The 2013 Book I’m Most Excited to See

Warning, hyperbolic statement ahead:

More than any other book that will be published in 2013, I’m excited to see this new one from Brian Vickers. Having already published on imputation (which if you haven’t read it already, you should click right here and get yourself a copy of Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness), and having spent years doing exegesis, reading widely and deeply, and faithfully teaching students, to say nothing of living well through joy and sorrow, there’s nobody I’d rather read on the article on which the church stands or falls than Brian Vickers.

My recommendation is that you pre-order your copy today. Seriously, can you think of a topic more central to the gospel than justification by faith? Don’t think you’ve got this one in your back pocket. I’ve had the pleasure of many a conversation with Prof. Vickers, and I’m excited about the insights waiting to burst in the minds of the readers of this book. After you pre-order your copy, I recommend you write P&R to thank them for publishing this important book, and ask the Lord to do more than can be asked or imagined with this important new title.

Just in case you’re wondering why I would give the warning with which this post began, the problem is that my enthusiasm over this new one from Brian Vickers is approximated by my anticipation of forthcoming volumes by Denny Burk and Tom Schreiner.

J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy

What’s with Rowling’s new book? Is it an “adult” novel? I saw one report where, rejecting some connotations of the word “adult,” Rowling said she preferred to say the novel is for grown-ups.

That’s right.

This is not a book that titillates. This is not a book that seduces people, luring them to fantasize about illicit sexual activity.

Nor is this a book for impatient people unwilling to reflect, people who want artists to preach rather than produce works of art, people who don’t want their own rebellion exposed in all its darkness, more by the absence of light than its presence.

What is this book?

Holding the Mirror up to Nature

This is a book that does what Hamlet told the players they should do: hold the mirror up to nature. And nature isn’t pretty. Actually that needs to be qualified. Nature, as in the world in which we live, is beautiful. Stunning, really, and Rowling sings the beauty of the cool morning, the night sky, the hilltop view of the quaint township.

But if by “nature” we mean what Hamlet wanted the players to depict, the things that people do in the world, Rowling reveals the only-evil-all-the-time-ness of human impulses and actions. Often these two aspects of nature are juxtaposed in The Casual Vacancy: Rowling describes the heavens declaring the glory of God, then shows the image of God defiling the cosmic temple God made for his glory. There is many a jarring movement from the beauty of the world to the ugliness of what humans do in it.

Moral Fiction

In all their selfish pursuit of vanity, Rowling’s characters are oblivious to the stupendous glory of the world they inhabit. Just like us, most of the time. The Casual Vacancy is laced with profanity and sex, so what I’m about to say may seem incongruous: this is a piece of moral fiction. This book is moral the way that Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is moral. That book is about adultery, and it shows the sin in all its ugliness. The Casual Vacancy depicts lots of sins in all their ugliness.

One of the things I appreciate about the Harry Potter stories is the way that Rowling depicts her characters such that we really understand their motivations and predicaments. She’s a master of characterization. That’s true of The Casual Vacancy as well. Do you want to understand human motivations and difficult predicaments? This book could help your powers of imagination and sympathy.

Restless Wandering

What might this book help you understand? Depending on your background and the level of authenticity you’ve experienced with people who are really suffering, you might encounter a lot of new things in this book:

A dyslexic girl who is overshadowed by older siblings finds refuge in cutting herself. A goofy teacher mocked by the whole school shows enormous courage in the face of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A woman enslaved to heroin prostitutes herself and neglects her children to the point of one of them drowning and the other committing suicide. A liberal social worker has her own substance abuse issues, and her personal life is little better than the prostitute’s, as she is treated by the man in her life “like a hooker he doesn’t have to pay.” Conservative political types do not concern themselves with how their limitation of government programs will alter the lives of real people, particularly children.

My Brother’s Keeper?

This book will prompt reflection on the responsibility-depravity axis. It shows the unsatisfying lies of lust, the devastation of rape, the ruination of sex when used outside its appointed boundaries (a loving, one flesh, man-wife union in marriage), the wreckage of uncultivated marriage, the continual meanness to which all are prone, the lost-ness of unanchored souls unable to distinguish right from wrong and rumor from reality, the vanity of selfish and mistaken perceptions, the Stockholm Syndrome of a beaten wife and the rage of her abused children, the folly of youthful rebellion against “conventional morality,” and . . . and I’ve saved the biggest problem for last: the lack of a man who loves by living for others.

The catalyst of the story is the death of a good man. He leaves a vacancy. His death is the casual vacancy, which is a phrase used to describe the opening created by the death of a local councilor. The book is about the void left by the death of a man who was his brother’s keeper, and the story shows that the main reason others can’t fill the void he leaves is because they don’t love like he did.

Better to Give

Perhaps the sharpest contrast is drawn between the good man who has gone to his reward and the loser who is using the social worker for sex, a loser who could be a good man but he won’t commit, won’t invest his life in the woman he is exploiting, won’t lay his life down for the benefit of others. So he takes and does not give, and he knows no blessing. His selfishness does not make him happy, and it does not benefit those who need him.

Shame. Dirt. Filth. Sadness. Misery. That’s what people reject goodness to have. And when a good man dies, wicked people say “just goes to show,” as though the death of “Fairbrother” proves them right, as though they won’t die themselves, as though his death shows that loving others lands you dead. As though they are justified in their selfishness since “Fairbrother” died.

Rowling shows—in a way that never relativizes good and evil—that what you achieve or even what your agenda is matters a good deal less than how you live and whether you love people. She demonstrates that life outside “conventional morality” is miserable, and she tells it like it is. In The Casual Vacancy we see the unhappiness of sinners in all its fullness. We see that it’s not a program that makes a difference, it’s the man who loves others.

How to Respond?

This book is a powerful appeal for people to intervene in the lives of at-risk kids, for people to care about those unlike themselves, for people to be kind to one another, and Rowling is showing not telling. She makes her case not as a preacher but as an artist. The Casual Vacancy shows the “walking shadow” life becomes through disobedience, it shows the misery of the strutting and fretting on the stage when idiots reject God and his ways and become nothing more than sound and fury. When men will not love, when men will not be good, when men will not be Christ-like, the women and children suffer most, for they are weakest and easiest to exploit. Rowling makes this point, and makes it with power, by putting us in the wake of the death of a good man. No one steps into The Casual Vacancy able to love as Barry Fairbrother did.

If you ask me how I think J. K. Rowling wants people to respond to The Casual Vacancy, I think the answer is the one word formula of Dumbledore’s most powerful magic: love.

Will you love?

On the Eve of the Release of Rowling’s Next Book

I’ve been thinking for a while about what J. K. Rowling teaches us in the Harry Potter stories through her depiction of Remus Lupin, the werewolf who is a good guy. I finally got around to writing up my reflections, and they’re now posted over at Christianity.com. Here’s the opening:

I love the Harry Potter stories. My first trip through them was an audio excursion guided by the talented Jim Dale. Enthusiasm for the books swept me right into reading them aloud to my children, and we’re almost finished with the series. I am thrilled that J. K. Rowling’s next book, The Casual Vacancy, is appearing any moment now. I can’t wait to read it. Sorry for my effusive delight over these books—what I’m trying to do is tell you about one of the characters in the Harry Potter stories, Remus Lupin.

There’s a play on his name, as lupus is the Latin word for “wolf,” and Lupin is a werewolf. Werewolves are not exactly pleasant, and the surprising thing is that Lupin is one of the good guys. This is one of the ways that Rowling has given us stories that are true to life.

In the Potter stories, if you get bitten by a werewolf, the bite infects you and can make you a werewolf. Remus Lupin’s father had offended an awful villain of a werewolf, and that werewolf sought revenge by biting Remus when he was a child.

Remus did not want to be a werewolf. Abused by an adult, he became a danger to himself and others. He was cut off from society. He suffered terribly, and he had no control over his affliction. At the full moon, whether he wanted to be transformed into a werewolf or not, he lost control of himself and became something dangerous.

Have you ever met anyone who has experienced something like this? Or has this been your own experience? Something tragic, awful, happened during childhood, and its painful repercussions seem all but inescapable?

Read the whole thing here.

Get the Potter books here.

Get The Casual Vacancy, which releases Thursday, September 27, 2012, here.