Genesis 3:15- Jesus?!

Read this blog article today, on Genesis 3:15, and it just so happened to be the day of my first Genesis lecture. I went through chapter 3 in class today, but i did not feel like bringing up the discussion of is this verse messianic prophecy or not. However this is my personal conclusion that I came to as studying:

" Though this has traditionally and often been looked at as Messianic prophecy. The language is describing to a "plural" seed and not a singular seed- in it’s initial context it describes a constant battle or opposition between the offspring of Eve and the offspring of the Serpent. This is played out in the contrast between cain and able, cain and seth, noah and wicked generation. The theme of offspring and chosen and promised offspring is constant throughout the whole book. It is very clear that Jesus does come and offer relief to this long spread tension of the two offsprings, however to say that this is what Moses was predicting is a stretch "

In conclusion, I think it would be better to refer to Gen.3:15 not as prophecy but as the beginning of an Old Testament theme that is resolved and fulfilled in Christ. 

7 Things We Know About Jesus from 'non-biblical' sources

Saw this blog article referenced on Scot mcknight's blog today and liked it. It is is a nice and too the point recording of what "non-christian" sources around the time of Jesus are recorded to have said about Jesus:

These 7 points are nicely summarized by Paul Barnett in his volume Is the New Testament Reliable?(IVP Academic, 2003 [second ed.], p. 34).  Notably, each fact corroborates the record of the New Testament.

1. Jesus Christ was executed (by crucifixion?) in Judea during the period when Tiberius was emperor (A.D. 14-37) and Pontius Pilate was governor (A.D. 26-36).  Tacitus [Annals 15.44.2-5]

2. The movement spread from Judea to Rome. Tacitus [Ibid.]

3. His followers worshipped him as (a) god. Pliny [Letters from Bithynia, c. A.D. 110]

4. He was called “the Christ.” Josephus [Antiquities 20.197-203—an undisputed passage]

5. His followers were called “Christians.” Tacitus, Pliny [see above]

6. They were numerous in Bithynia and Rome. Tacitus, Pliny [see above]

7. His brother was James. Josephus [see above]

An Evening of Eschatology

We have been going through revelation this week in our bible school, and I have enjoyed refreshing myself in this extremely confusing as well as encouraging book! As we went through the final chapters of the book today and talked about the millennium and the major views on the millennium I was reminded of a clip I watched a while back on John Piper's website entitled "An Evening of Eschatalogy". John Piper acts as the moderator and talks with prominent pastors who all hold differing views of the end times. It is a great example of respectful dialogue among different opinions, and it is a great resource to help one think through this whole topic. (warning: it is two hours long, but even Piper's writeup on the different views is worth the read)

J.K Smith on "Naturalizing Shalom"

Read this article by J.K smith, recommended by my friend Jay Werner and written by a scholar I have appreciated for a long time. I like this so much, because i feel like his theological story and background parallels my own that I am going through right now. And a story shared by many others of this generation. He warns of how growing up in a "dualistic" fundamentalist conservative church background that is heavy on "getting saved and going to heaven" and light on "praying for the kingdom to come now" can lead people to go to the other extreme of working for heaven on earth so much that they forget about heaven and the spiritual. I really appreciate his wisdom and thoughts in this area as well as this final quote:

"The holistic affirmation of the goodness of creation and the importance of "this worldly" justice is not a substitute for heaven, as if the holistic gospel was a sanctified way to learn to be a naturalist. To the contrary, it is the very transcendence of God—in the ascension of the Son who now reigns from heaven, and in the futurity of the coming kingdom for which we pray—that disciplines and disrupts and haunts our tendency to settle for "this world." It is the call of the Son from heaven, and the vision of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven, that pushes back on our illusions that we could figure this all out, that we could bring this about. Shalom is not biblical language for progressivist social amelioration. Shalom is a Christ-haunted call to long for kingdom come."

J.K Smith

Jesus through the Lens of Revelation

Jesus through the Lens of Revelation:

The very first sentence of revelation is "The revelation of Jesus Christ". I don't know exactly if this is referring to the revelation of Christ himself...or the revelation Christ gives John...but either way it is a great way to open a book which really has the boldest and most dramatic "revelations or unveiling" of what our resurrected LORD looks like. I was comforted reading through some of these and hope you will be too...they are not all extensive...just the ones from the first 5 chapters (so you could keep going on and looking for yourself). It reminded me of Rom. 15:21: "Those who have been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand". I pray that me, my friends and all the nations will come to see and understand Jesus more and more as he is pictured in the revelation given to John! 

“Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth...him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to God and Father” (1:5-7)

“One like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. HIs eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (1:13-16)

“I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (1:17-18)

“him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands” (2:1)

“the first and the last, who died and came to life” (2:8)

“him who has the sharp two-edged sword” (2:12)

“the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze” (2:18)

“him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars” (3:1)

“the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens” (3:7)

“the Amen, the faithful and true witness the beginning of God’s creation” (3:14)

“the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” (5:5)

“the lamb who was slain” (5:12)

Thoughts on 1 John 1:1-4 and a lengthy quote from T.F. Torrance on the Incarnation

Grounded in Christ

In lecture today we were reading 1 John and I read the intro (1:1-4) in a way I never had before. I realized that it is one continual long flowing sentence that carries on four different declarations of “who or what” Christ is. The grammatical things that point out the continual and “declaratory” nature of this intro are: the continues use of “which”-it’s used 6 times and in the gk. it is the very first word that shows up on the text of 1 John; the verb of “proclaim” in vs.3 and 4 and the fact that a period does not show up until the end of verse 3! What these boring grammatical details show us is that John begins his epistle with a long continuos proclamation of “who or what Jesus is”. These points are underlined or highlighted in the verses below:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 

In summary, John Begins his epistle with proclaiming that Jesus is:

1. From the beginning
2. What John Heard
3. What John Saw
4. What John looked upon and touched, the word of life; 
5. The manifest life which was made manifest to us
6. What John has seen and heard.

This is what John was proclaiming-that the eternal word of life existing from the beginning was manifested in a way people could see, touch and hear. The eternal infinite entered time and space, the metaphysical entered the physical, God came to man. This whole topic has been summed up in the important theological term: INCARNATION. And all study of incarnational theology should find 1 John 1:1-4 an extremely relevant text. 

An important theologian of the 19th century who is known for his “incarnational” thinking is T.F. Torrance he expounds in a beautiful way about this teaching of incarnation in his book "Space Time and Incarnation", a lengthy and thought-provoking passage of that book is quoted in full below:

“If God is merely impassible He has not made room for Himself in our agonied existence, and if He is merely immutable He has neither place nor time for frail evanescent creatures in His unchanging existence.  But the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as sharing our lot is the God who is really free to make Himself poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich, the God invariant in love but not impassible, constant in faithfulness but not immutable. 

This relation established between God and man in Jesus Christ constitutes Him as the place in all space and time where God meets with man in the actualities of his human existence, and man meets with God and knows Him in His own divine Being. That is the place where the vertical and horizontal dimensionalities intersect, the place where human being is opened out to a transcendent ground in God and where the infinite Being of God penetrates into our existence and creates room for Himself within the horizontal dimensions of finite being in space and time. It is penetration of the horizontal [creation] by the vertical [Incarnation] that gives man his true place, for it relates his place in space and time to its ultimate ontological ground so that it is not submerged in the endless relativities of what is merely horizontal.

Without this vertical relation to God man has no authentic place on earth, no meaning and no purpose, but with this vertical relation to God his place is given meaning and purpose. For that reason it is defined and established as place on earth without being shut in on itself solely within its horizontal dimensionality.  Unless the eternal breaks into the temporal and the boundless being of God breaks into the spatial existence of man and takes up dwelling within it, the vertical dimension vanishes out of man's life and becomes quite strange to him -- and man loses his place under the sun.”

T.F. Torrance

Space, Time, and Incarnation, p. 75-6

Alleluia the song of the desert; Merton on the dread and awe of the christian life

"The climate in which monastic prayer flowers is that of the desert, where the comfort of man is absent, where the secure routines of man's city offer no support, and where prayer must be sustained by God in the purity of faith. Even though he may live in a community, the monk is bound to explore the inner waste of his own being as a solitary. The word of God which is his comfort is also his distress. The liturgy, which is his joy and which reveals to him the glory of God, cannot fill a heart that has not previously been humbled and emptied by dread. Alleluia is the song of the desert

The christian is never merely an isolated individual. He is a member of the praising community, the people of God. Alleluia is the vicotrious acclamation of the Risen Saviour. Yet the people of God itself, while celebrating the praise of the Lord in a tabernale of beuty overshadowed by the Bright Cloud of his presence, is still on a pilgramage. We acclaim God as members of a community that has been blessed and saved and is traveling to meet him as he comes in his promised Advent. Yet as individuals we know ourselves to be sinners. The prayer of the monk is dictated by this twofold consciousness of sin and redemption, wrath and mercy- as is the prayer of every christian."

-Thomas Merton
from "Contemplative Prayer"