Hey gang!  I have recently been in conversation over the question of how it is possible to have any true or definitive knowledge about God.  Are we all merely telling stories about who we think God is?  Here are a few of my thoughts on the issue.  Of course these posts are meant as a way of creating dialogue, whether here, or with other people you know, and giving a fresh perspective and angle on things that you may not have thought about before. 

In order for there to be any intelligent conversation about God, He must first communicate, in some intelligible way, whatever that might be, knowledge of Himself to us.   This God is a relational, revelatory God.  God has taken the free initiative to make himself known to us through his self-disclosure.    Without God doing this, any conversation about Him would be a complete and absolute shot in the dark.  The revelation of God from his side toward us, is completely unlooked for.  No amount of creativity, imagination, or philosophical speculation could have anticipated knowledge of this God.  Outside of His self-disclosure, nothing could have been known, either about God himself or his deeds.  God has revealed himself, beyond all hope or expectation.   We find ourselves in a story where the opening act is a move of God toward us.  As theologians, that is as Christians, we can now speak intelligently about God, though not exhaustively, because God has said intelligent and communicable things about himself.  God has done this both through the use of general revelation and unique or special revelation.  God has created us as intelligent and reasonable beings for which communication is both possible and essential.   In the comprehensiveness of His design we are able to receive true knowledge of God through his self-communication.  Now meaningful communication and reflection is possible both between ourselves and back towards God.

Hey gang, I'm up here in Alaska fishing for the summer.  That's why things have been so quite lately.  Posts will be a little spotty throughout the rest of the summer, but I'll try to get some up.  Once fall rolls around again I'll be settling back into more of a regular pace.

Alaska is gorgeous and reminds me of how beautiful and fierce God's creation can be.  It is a wild place and seeing so much untouched territory is staggering.  Once upon a time I felt like creation was most beautiful when left entirely untouched.  I thought that the best thing for creation was for humans to just leave it alone.  So much of what is touched by humanity withers and becomes ugly.  The landscape is trashed and the environment destroyed.  I thought the best thing for creation was for humans to leave it alone.  But as time has gone on, and through the challenge of an old friend (Danny Burbeck), I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong on this.  Certainly it is possible for humanity to malign and misuse the creation in which we live, but this is possible with everything that we encounter in God's creation.   Humans were called to cultivate and protect the creation.  God placed Adam and Eve in a garden to care for it.  Their God-given mandate continues beyond the garden to the creation itself.  As a result of the fall mankind toils with this task, but the mandate to care for the earth, to protect it, to cultivate it and to develop it still remains.  Humanity is to have dominion over the earth, that is, to be its rulers.  This is completely different than having domination over the earth, something that has been consistently misunderstood and abused for years.  This misunderstanding has been amplified with the onset of the industrial revolution in which the impulse to selfishly use creation was given the technological power to destroy it.  The earth is not for humanity to do with whatever it pleases.  The creation does not belong to us, but rather to God.  As humans, we are to be guardians and our charge is to care for the earth in which God has placed us.  The earth is to be cultivated and cared for as a garden is cultivated and cared for.  It is meant for sustainable use and beautiful development.  This requires ingenuity and creativity as well.  We are meant to progressively cultivate through means, both technological and aesthetic, the earth so that it becomes a place of continuing beauty and productivity.  This is central to the original and continuing vocation of humanity. 

Part of the mandate for Christians is to redeem the brokenness that has come upon the world as part of the curse. Everywhere Christians are to be partaking of the healing of the world.  We are most familiar with the healing of the spiritual brokenness within people that has come as a result of the curse and this is of central importance when it comes to the work of Christ.  This is at the center of Christ’s redemptive work because it is the heart of people being turned inward that causes the brokenness and abuse in this world.  But the work of the Messiah not only is concerned to change the hearts of people, but to also heal the creation which itself has been broken as a result of broken people living in it.  A significant part of the work of the redeemed community is to be about the task of cultivating and protecting the earth once again.  Romans 8:20-21 talk of how the creation itself has been subjected to frustration as a result of the fall and now through the work of Christ it is being “liberated from its bondage to decay”.  Now that the fall is being overturned, decisively through the death and resurrection of Christ, the covenant people are called alongside to be co-workers with Christ; that is to be about his work in this world towards all of creation.  At the end of the Bible a picture is painted with words to describe the full redemption of humanity and the creation.  There, a city is described in which the redeemed live and where God dwells with his people.  This city is richly cultivated with rivers and trees, but also streets and gates.  The final and ideal picture of creation is not creation left “better off alone”, but it is creation cultivated, protected and nurtured.  It is a place where creativity, productivity, ingenuity and beauty come together in meaningful work that serves the community.   It is here at the end of the book of revelation that the city meets the garden and in which the vocation of humanity and the use of creation finds its full realization. 

What is the view of the afterlife in the Old Testament?  It seems there is little to no talk about the afterlife at all!  And what about resurrection, a topic on which the New Testament has so much to say and around which the New Testament pivots?

The Old Testament when it talks about life after death primarily talks about a place called Sheol in Hebrew and is often translated the “grave” or the “pit”.  Reading through the Old Testament it seems rather straightforward that for the Israelites death was the end of all that was good - it is the end of the line.  People did not look forward to being freed from their bodies and going to paradise, but rather saw that to die was to enter the darkness from which no one returned.   If there could be said to be any activity it was not pleasant and at best could be compared to a fitful sleep.  This was the position of the righteous and the unrighteous after passing into death.  People often mistakenly interpret passages that deal with God saving people from going down to Sheol in the Old Testament to mean that God is saving their immortal souls from ever touching this darkness.  Instead These passages deal with God temporarily saving them from death until a later time, down the road, when they would still enter Sheol.  The effects of the curse on mankind given in Genesis 3:19 continue to hold sway.  Death remains the ultimate statistic – 1 out of 1 dies - and the Israelites were as well aware of this as we are today.  All across the pages of the Old Testament this view of death is held (cf Genesis 3:19, 88:3-7, 2 Samuel 14:14, and much of Isaiah 38).

This does not mean that the OT is in contradiction with the view of the N.T. with its heavy emphasis on resurrection however.  The N.T. doesn’t talk much about Sheol or a dark after life, but it definitely deals a lot with death.  Though the terminology is in part different, both Testaments comment on the afterlife.  In the OT we begin to see glimpses that death will not be the final end after all.  We begin to hear whispers that God will not abandon his people to the final exile of death, but will lead them even out of the bondage of death itself.  Death is not a gateway to paradise, but God himself will overturn death and lead his people out of death into paradise.  This is not life after death, as if when we die we go to a disembodied and otherworldly heaven, but life AFTER life after death if you will.  It is what happens when we are released from death.  We are looking forward to the resurrection after death – death being overturned!  The Old Testament doesn’t talk about this much, but there are places where this is clearly and succinctly being said.  Isaiah is perhaps the most bold in its talk of resurrection (Isa. 24-27), as well as the end of the book of Daniel.  Isaiah 26:19 says:

 But your dead will live;
       their bodies will rise.
       You who dwell in the dust,
       wake up and shout for joy.
       Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
       the earth will give birth to her dead.
In the Old Testament we begin to see dawn a hope in a new reality, one in which God in his faithfulness will save his people even from the clutches of death. 


I believe there is continuity between the two Testaments views on the afterlife, but the second part of the story, that of resurrection, comes as a surprising continuation to what was already known in early Israelite thought. 

 

There is a lot of talk about the Spirit in the New Testament, but where is the Spirit at in the Old Testament?  What kind of work did the Spirit do?  I think we often miss the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament and regulate its work only to the time of the New Testament. The Spirit is not mentioned in the Old Testament nearly as much as it is in the New Testament, but the Spirit and his work is by no means absent from the Old Testament.  In fact we see the Spirit in the very beginning part of the Bible.  In Genesis 1:2 we see that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.  I thought it would be helpful in this blog entry to take a look at what the Spirit was up to in the Old Testament and how this work correlates to the New Testament.

In the Old Testament we see the Spirit mainly doing three things.  First we see that wherever the Spirit goes, he brings life (Genesis 2:7, Psalms 104:30, Ezekiel 37:1-14).  The Spirit is the very breath of God that brings life to that which was previously dead.   Second the Spirit guides and directs the people of God.  During the Exodus we see the Spirit guiding the Israelites through the wilderness by means of a pillar of fire and a cloud, both manifestations of the Spirit.  The OT talks about the Spirit guiding a person internally and externally in the way to go.  Thirdly, he communicates the truth of God and the love of God to us.  The Spirit is in this sense the divine messenger.  The Spirit reveals all sorts of things to people: judgment, love, God’s laws, what God is like, and even reveals special abilities and skills to people. 

The nature of the Spirit’s ministry is fundamentally the same with a radical shift of location and duration in the New Testament.  More often than not in the Old Testament, the Spirit is described as “coming upon” or resting upon someone.  Occasionally however, the Spirit is said to enter people or to fill people, something that many people believe only begins to happen in the NT.  It seems obvious to me however that the Spirit truly did indwell people in the Old Testament, this however was the exception and not the rule.  Despite the fact that we see this language used occasionally in the Old Testament this is not the usual way the work of the Spirit is described.  Occasions of the Spirit working in this way also seem to be rare.   To have God bring life, lead, or speak through the Spirit were not common events that the people of God regularly experienced.  It seems rather than these were special and often spectacular situations.  However the Old Testament does contain several prophecies that some day in the future, the Spirit dwelling within would be the standard and distinguishing mark of the covenant people.  In the “day of the Lord” all of the people of God would be filled with the Spirit and would be people of the Spirit.  With the coming of Pentecost we see these prophecies being fulfilled.  In the New Testament the pouring out of the Spirit on a person becomes the seal of that person’s inheritance.  The indwelling and work of the Spirit becomes the normal way of life for the people of God in the New Covenant.  Now instead of being a temporary “resting upon”, the Spirit permanently takes up residence within our hearts.  The apostle Paul said that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Spirit (Romans 5:5). 

People in Old Testament times are saved in the same way that people in the New Testament times are: through faith in Christ.  We just happen to be standing on the other side of the death and resurrection of Christ and living in the age of the outpouring of the Spirit on all of God's people, all the time. 

What is it that makes the ‘new covenant’ in the Bible ‘new’?  In order to understand the distinction in the new covenant, it is crucial that the old covenant is first grasped.  The old covenant is found all throughout the Old Testament.  In this covenant God initiates a relationship with people so that He will be their God and they will be His people.  The relationship exists for the mutual delight in each other in loving faithfulness.  Marriage is the key to understanding the nature of the covenant relationship between God and His people.  Isaiah 54:5 says that God is a husband to his people.  God invites human beings into the trinitarian relationship that He has within Himself.  In this relationship there is the delight and love that is shared between the Father toward the Son and the Son toward the Father, all through the Holy Spirit.  This covenant that God made with His people was one that called for a response of loving faithfulness towards God as a result of God’s initiation.  The ‘law’ in the Old Testament is a covenant description of what this relationship looks like.  It’s a description of a people responding in love towards God within a relationship already established and not a description of people earning a relationship with God.  In this covenant, obedience is a natural and desired response towards God as a result of our affections (our deepest motivations) being captivated by the love of God.  This is the covenant of the Old Testament.  

The rest of the story in the Old Testament is the history of a people that reject this relationship that God has made with His people.    It is a history of unfaithfulness and of His people’s hearts being captivated by many loves other than God.  God’s people are often referred to as an adulterous people who have deserted the companion of their youth.  Nearly the entire Old Testament is marked by this kind of hard hearted unfaithfulness towards God.  After the infidelity in the Garden of Eden mankind has been marked with this attitude towards God.  Despite all of this however, God says that he will still pursue His bride.  In Jeremiah 31:31-33 God says:

"The time is coming," declares the LORD,
       "when I will make a new covenant
       with the house of Israel
       and with the house of Judah.

 32 It will not be like the covenant
       I made with their forefathers
       when I took them by the hand
       to lead them out of Egypt,
       because they broke my covenant,
       though I was a husband to them, "
       declares the LORD.

 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
       after that time," declares the LORD.
       "I will put my law in their minds
       and write it on their hearts.
       I will be their God,
       and they will be my people.

Here we begin to see the distinction between the New Covenant and that of the Old.  In the New Covenant God writes the description of the covenant relationship not merely on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of His people.  It is not that the nature of His covenant has changed, but he changes the hearts of the people in it.  In Ezekiel 36:24-29 God says:

‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.  I will save you from all your uncleanness.’

This here is the chief difference between the new and old covenants: in the new covenant God redeems His wayward people and removes our idolatrous heart and gives us a new heart by putting His Spirit within us.  The Holy Spirit is the significant difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant.  This is not plan B, but God’s plan all along.  Through the redeeming work of His Son He would send His Spirit to pour out His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5) thereby transforming us into a people who are united to Christ through the Spirit, responders to God’s loving kindness, and a people marked by loving-faithfulness.    

The entire Bible is one large narrative that contains four major themes: 1) Creation 2) Fall 3) Redemption 4) The Eschaton (or the fulfillment of all things.  It is within this larger story that the Old Testament with its hefty piece of narrative fits.  Given the way that I've laid out the story (the four points above) the Old Testament does not come to a clean finish.  Instead the Old Testament ends in the middle of the story of redemption and looks towards the completion of this redemption.  What follows is a quick sketch of the central story of the Old Testament and God's set up for the New Testament and the fulfillment of the larger story. 

1) Creation.  The Old Testament begins with the story of creation and God's purposes for the world and mankind.  I this world that God has created, he has also created man to be in relationship with him, which is to share in the love relationship of his trinitarian being.  Mankind was created for the mutual delight of relationship with God.  Human beings were also given tasks: to populate the earth as a race and to be architectural, caretaker kings over it. 

2) Fall.  Right away though, things run sour.  Mankind as a vassal (lower) king to the Great (suzerain) Servant King decides to revolt and to be a king on his own terms, to be his own king.  Deciding not to trust in God's words to him and to depend on his own wisdom, man takes the one thing that was commanded of him not to be partaken - the fruit form the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As a result of this decision towards disobedience, self-sufficiency and autonomy, cursing and alienation occur.  Adam and Eve and all their posterity now posses the knowledge of good and evil, but they have learned it through disobedience rather that learning it through obedience as God desired.  From this point onwards, the fall has an ongoing effect on the hearts of people towards God and towards other people.  Mankind follows its own desires, creates its own history and attempts to be its own race of kings apart from God. 

3) Redemption.  Beginning in the curse account in Genesis, there is a glimpse of hope.  God promises that he will crush the head of the serpent, the one who has led his people astray.  The rest of the Old Testament from that event onwards is concerned with the work of God calling a people into existence to be his people.  In this story we see ththough his people have not been faithful to him, he himself, despite this, will be faithful to them and work the redemption of an unfaithful people.  As the story progresses we see that it is God himself who will accomplish this.  He will be the one to redeem them, forgive their sins, defeat their enemies, free the captives, dwell amongst them, return them to the land of promise, put his spirit in them, write his law on their hearts and cause their hearts to return to him.  With the close of the Old Testament we see that the people of God, still dwelling under the curse, have continued to be unfaithful to him and as a result are sent into exile, still waiting the promised redemption.  In the New Testament we see the long awaited redemption come. 

  Literally, Surprised by Hope. I was sitting around a campfire with some friends tonight, many who are currently pastoring in local churches. We were laughing, joking and telling some stories. Hands down, the best story of the night came from my friend Jeff. A few years ago a guy who had no previous church background or bible knowledge came to know Christ and became a part of their church called "Sinners and Saints". During a particular service in which they were teaching on Matthew 24, they came to verse 30, which says, "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." The guy quickly interjected, interrupting the sermon with great joy and surprise, "You mean to tell me that Jesus is actually coming back!?.... ARE YOU FU@#ING KIDDING ME?!!!" he exclaimed.

It's kind of funny when your world gets rocked like that. I mean literally, in that one verse, God changed the guy's entire theological paradigm (and probably his entire outlook on Christianity and life) and brought him into the hope that most of us as Christians take for granted. Something as powerful as the parousia (coming Kingdom), is the very thing we look forward to and place our hope in as Christians.

This dude was literally "Surprised by Hope" (sorry NT Wright, but this guy sums it up in one sentence what you try to do with a few hundred pages). You think God was mad at his response? Not in the least. I'm sure that at that moment, the heavens resounded with an "AMEN!"

Visit Jesse's blog at A Narrative Called Life for more reflections