Archive for the ‘Inerrancy’ Category
Nietzsche vs. Christianity: Part 2
This lecture is an explanation of the Protestant Christian worldview from Genesis to Revelation. Audio is available here.
I. Creation
A. Ex Nihilo
B. Out of God’s pleasure
C. Creation was good
D. Man made in image of God: male and female
E. Cultural Mandate
F. The task given Adam was to make the whole Earth like Eden by:
“numerically and geographically expand God’s image over the face of the
entire Earth”
- Covenant of Works (Hosea 6:7)
- Adam is Federal Head (Rom. 5:12-21)
- Blessings for obedience; curses for disobedience
a. Blessing – Life
b. Curse – Death
c. Divine benevolence, Human loyalty
II. Fall
- Serpent tempts Eve, questions God’s goodness
- Adam was there and doesn’t say anything
- Curse:
- All humanity fell in the Fall because of Adam’s representative nature
- All creation fell and feels the frustrating affects of the fall
- Proto-Euangelion – Gen. 3:15-20
- Seed of the woman vs. Seed of the Serpent
Abel Cain
Seth
Enoch Enoch
Lamech Lamech
Noah
Shem/Japheth Ham
Abraham
Isaac Ishmael
Jacob Esau
III. Redemption
A. Covenant of Grace
1. Noah – establishes stability on the Earth (Gen. 6, 9)
-Baptism: deliverance from waters of judgment
2. Abraham – establishes promised offspring who will bless all nations (Gen. 12:1-3; 15; 17), (Gal. 3:16)
3. Moses – establishes law and order above natural law (Ex. 19-24)
-“I will be your God and you will be my people”
4. David – establishes eternal king/throne (Psalm 89)
5. Christ – fulfillment of the covenant of grace (Jer. 31; Ezek. 36/37)
B. Historical Summary
Creation, Fall, Expulsion, Cain/Able, Flood, Babel, Shem
Abraham moves, Abraham/Lot, Abraham/Melchizedek, Abraham Covenant, Abraham buys land in Canaan/Eden
Isaac, Jacob/Esau, Jacob/Israel, 12 Sons, Joseph into Captivity, Famine
400 Year Enslavement/Exile, Moses/Pharaoh, Passover, Egypt to Sinai
Sinai, Law at Sinai – Tabernacle, Priesthood, Purification, Yom Kippur, Feasts: (Sabbath, Passover, Sabbatical year/Jubilee, Weeks, Tabernacles)
Wilderness Wanderings, Encampment at Canaan, Canaan Conquest/Joshua, Jericho vs. Ai, Land Divided
Judges-Ruth – ‘Everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ (Judges 17:6)
Eli, Samuel, Rejection of YHWH as king, Saul
David – covenant – line/throne, unification, conquest (iron), Bathsheba
Solomon – Temple, wealth/wisdom, Phoenicians, foreign wives/gods
Divided Kingdom – Rehoboam (S – Judah), Jeroboam (N – Israel/Ephraim)
North – Babsha, Omri, Jehu, Ahab/Jez/Baal vs. Elijah, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, 3 kings – Menaham, Pekahiah, Pehah, Hoshea… Assyria/exile
South – Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Manassah, Josiah – Amon/Jeremiah, Jerusalem Sacked – 586
Cyrus’ Decree, Return from Exile, 2nd Temple/Wall (Ezra-Nehemiah),
Late Pre-exilic
-Nahum – God’s wrath on Nineveh
-Zephaniah – The Day of the Lord
-Habakkuk – Resolving questions about God’s justice
-Joel – Day of the Lord is both near AND future
-Lamentations – God as source of both good and hard providence
-Obadiah – pride goes before a fall
Exilic
-Ezekiel – Judgment and restoration of Judah
-Daniel – God’s rule and care for his people
Post-Exilic
-Haggai – setting priorities
-Zechariah – God’s restoration of zion
-Malachi – Honoring God
400 years of silence
C. Prefigurations
1. Melchizedek
2. Angel
3. Manna
4. Rock
5. Tabernacle
6. 3 fold office: Prophet/Priest/King
D. Jesus
1. Virgin birth
2. Hypostatic Union – God/man
3. Prophet/Priest/King
4. Law – civil/ceremonial/civil
5. Penal Substitution – great exchange – my sin for his righteousness
-New Record
-New Heart
-New World
6. Death/Resurrection
7. Ascension
8. Enthronement – Intercession
IV. Consummation
1. Redemption of all of creation
2. Redemption of the church
3. Inauguration/Continuation/Consummation
3 Month Introspective
Introspective
So, I’ve been blogging consistently for three months. This is the week of Christmas and I’ll be all over the place. I thought I would briefly summarize the 3 months of blog series on here:
Blaise Pascal: We took a look at Blaise Pascal’s thinking, its use of aphorism and its relationship to both tri-perspectivalism and presuppositionalism. We also looked at his use of aphorism and his warnings against deism and atheism.
Thoughts on Evangelicalism Past, Present, and Future, Parts 1-7: We defined the term evangelical. We looked at its historical roots in the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and its ties to celebrity culture, democritization of knowledge, and modernism. Then we looked at the roots of liberalism, the Protestant split and suburbanization, and defined and outlined evangelical populism and their game plan for reaching America. Finally we assessed the current status of American evangelicalism and then made some predictions of future trends.
Introduction to Apologetics, Parts 1-7: We looked in broad strokes at the various schools of apologetics. We then took a more in-depth look at: Classical Apologetics, Evidentialist Apologetics, Presuppositional Apologetics, and the specific apologetics of Blaise Pascal and Alvin Plantinga. Finally, we employed the three phases football as an analogy for the different apologetic schools and I likened Tim Tebow to the presuppositionalists.
Thoughts on Evangelicalism Moving Forward, Parts 1-10: We looked at some analysis of some shifts evangelicalism will need to make moving forward: Doctrine, Worldview, Urbanization, Globality/Mobility, “Post-Modernism,” American Culture(s), Contextualization, Balance, and Final Analysis.
Top ~10 Books by Topic:
Top 10 Systematic Theology Texts
Top 10 Books on Science and Christianity
Top 10 Books on Christian Biography
Top 15 Books on Status of American Evangelicalism
Top 10 Books on Church History
Top 40 Books to Read While in College
Top 10 Books on Missions, Discipleship, and Evangelism
The 25 Most Destructive Books Ever Written…
Top 10 Books on Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
Best Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms of the Christian Church
A Comprehensive List of Top 10 Book Lists of 2009
Up Next: We will be looking at some thoughts on the economy and investment and then delve into the mind of Friedrich Nietzsche…
Thoughts on Evangelicalism Past, Present, and Future… Part 4a
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Essentially the ideas of two German men split American Protestants in two: Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ferdinand Baur. Schleiermacher started exploring something called Higher Criticism*. Higher criticism is a kind of literary analysis that seeks to figure out the origins of a text. Specifically, higher criticism looks at who wrote a text, to audience whom the text was written for, and the time the text was composed. Higher criticism as applied to the Bible has its roots in rationalism. In rationalism, reason alone is the source of knowledge… hence, the rationalists ultimately reject Scripture. They reject Scripture because they see things in the Scripture that do not seem to fit their rational framework. Baur comes on the scene after Schleiermacher, influenced by both Schleiermacher and Hegel. Baur was the leader of the Tübingen school of theology at the University of Tübingen. Baur and the Tübingen school of theology were highly influential in the 19th century. These ideas eventually crossed the Atlantic and Protestants were divided on how to handle the criticism of the Bible.
One cannot underestimate the impact of the thoughts of these isolated German nerds. American Protestants split in two over higher criticism. At issue was whether the Scriptures were without error or inerrant. Half of Protestants followed the critics denying the inerrancy of Scripture and formed the liberal half of Protestantism called Mainline Protestantism (United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, American Baptist Church, United Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ… and a number of smaller denominations). In reaction against the liberal Protestants, the other half of Protestants formed the conservative branch, at that time called, Fundamentalists. The fundamentalists were influenced by the writings of the conservative Old Princeton theologians reacted stating five fundamental positions: 1. Inerrancy of Scripture 2. Virgin birth of Christ 3. Christ’s death as atonement for sin 4. Bodily resurrection of Jesus 5. Historical reality of Christ’s miracles. One can see how reading the Bible rationally, like a science textbook, would lead one to doubt miracles like virgin birth, penal substitution, and resurrection of the dead, leading one to conclude that the Bible had error.
Next we will continue to look at the split of Protestantism and its monumental impact on evangelicalism today…
*Eichhorn and Spinoza are also critical in the establishment of Higher Criticism. But if we mention them, then we have to mention the influence of Kant on Schleiermacher and Hegel on Baur. We can go on ad infinitum talking about the influence of Hume on Kant. I am obviously being selective here.
