Midwestern Magazine - Issue 38

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ISSUE 38

THE CENTER FOR BIBLICAL STUDIES

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C O N T EN T S

Midwestern Magazine Issue 38

AT A G L A N C E

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STUDENT HIGHLIGHT Jimmy Roh

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ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT Glen Higgins

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IN FOCUS City Center Baptist Church

(Seattle, Washington)

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT Dr. Jason DeRouchie

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AROUND CAMPUS A review of news and events

at Midwestern Seminary

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BOOKS IN BRIEF Recently published books by

Midwestern faculty and staff

Jason K. Allen

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BOOK REVIEW Who Is an Evangelical?

by Thomas S. Kidd (Mike Brooks)

FROM THE PRESIDENT

4 Preaching the Whole Counsel

56

RESOURCES FOR THE CHURCH A selection

of articles from the For The Church resources site at ftc.co

WHAT IS BIBLICAL THEOLOGY? Jason DeRouchie

Andreas Kรถstenberger

ARTICLE

INTERVIEW

ARTICLE

8 What Is Biblical

12 Introducing the

16 Proclaiming

An interview with Dr. Andreas Kรถstenberger

Five ways to proclaim Christ from the Old Testament

Theology?

Reflections on the discipline of biblical theology

20 Discipleship in the First Gospel

Patrick Schreiner

Center for Biblical Studies

24 Ten Truths About a Liar: A Biblical Theology of Satan

Christ From His Bible

28 The Bible Is One Book

Matthew Y. Emerson

Samuel Bierig View past issues of MIDWESTERN MAGAZINE at mbts.edu/magazine.

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OFFICE of the PRESIDENT Jason K. Allen, Ph.D.

Dear Friends,

In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul penned the well-known command “Preach the Word.” This phrase has undoubtedly influenced countless men to pursue a life of ministry in which they seek to obey these noble words. But to rightly preach the Word involves more than just standing up on Sunday morning and uttering words that are vaguely in line with the Word of God. Rather, to preach the Word is to preach the text itself. It is to rightly expound and rightly apply the Holy and inspired Scriptures to the life of the church.

Further, as one preaches the Word, one must be concerned with faithfully preaching the whole counsel of God. Paul did not give Timothy the option to pick and choose which portions of Scripture to emphasize and which portions of Scripture to leave out, or which doctrines to emphasize and which doctrines to leave out. Rather, he uses the summarizing pronouncement of “Preach the Word,” which entails every aspect of it. In other words, it is an all-encompassing command. Indeed, the foundation of this command in chapter four is the previous declaration of chapter three that “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” (2 Tim. 3:16). That means that every word of Scripture and every doctrine described therein, is worthy of our consideration, illumination, and adoration as we seek to faithfully preach the Word.

Therefore, friend, as you seek to preach the Word, remember that this entails preaching the whole counsel of God. At Midwestern Seminary, we aspire to do many things well, but our highest priority is to train a generation of preachers who will rightly preach the Word, and by implication, preach the whole counsel of God. My prayer is that the following pages will aid you in doing just that.

Sincerely,

Jason K. Allen, Ph.D. President Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Readers can visit DR. JASON K. ALLEN’S BLOG at jasonkallen.com.

ED I T O R’S N O T E ISSUE 38

ADMINISTRATION Jason K. Allen PRESIDENT

James J. Kragenbring VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATION

Jason G. Duesing PROVOST

Charles W. Smith, Jr.

VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS

Samuel Bierig

DEAN OF SPURGEON COLLEGE

Thor Madsen

DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Rodney A. Harrison

DEAN OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

John Mark Yeats

DEAN OF STUDENTS

Tyler Sykora

CHIEF OF STAFF

EDITORIAL Ronni Kurtz CHIEF EDITOR

Mike Brooks

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ART Jason Muir

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Daniel Day Kristen Lanier Ronni Kurtz

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Special thanks to: PAT HUDSON

JON WOODS

“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”- Acts 20:27 These are the instructive words of an aging apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders.

Pointing to the evidence of a ministry well-spent, Paul did not showcase swelling crowds, his platform, or a personal brand. Rather, when Paul desired to demonstrate the success of his ministry in Ephesus, he pointed to this—that he gave the people nothing other than the word of God, and he gave all of it.

This must be our aim as people of the Book. For we know that fickleness and frailty reign in our words, but in the Word of the Lord, there is life. The magazine you hold is built on this conviction. We write as those convinced that the whole counsel of God is to be treasured and adored by the church.

To that end, we present the following articles: Dr. Jason K. Allen begins the issue with an informative essay on bringing the whole counsel to bear in the preaching ministry of the local church. Readers then move to an exciting announcement from Midwestern Seminary—the inauguration of the Center for Biblical Studies, directed by world-renown scholar, Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger. The issue also contains biblical-theological essays from Dr. Jason DeRouchie, Dr. Patrick Schreiner, Samuel Bierig (Dean of Spurgeon College), and concludes with an article from Dr. Matthew Emerson. I’m thankful to each contributor for giving our readers a rich and biblical feast.

Additional feature articles, interviews, and resources aim to showcase the wonderful happenings of Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. The Lord is up to something in Kansas City and beyond; we are elated by the joyful work taking place on our campus.

We hope this Fall 2019 edition of the Midwestern Magazine stirs your affection for all of God’s word. May the pages ahead invite us all to drink deeply from the well of God’s life-giving counsel, and drink often.

For the glory of God and the good of his people,

© 2019 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.

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Preaching Whole the

by J A S O N K . A L L E N

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

INTERPRET THE TEXT

Sound preaching depends on sound interpretation.

If one desires to preach the whole counsel of God, proper interpretation is of paramount importance.

To unpack the story of Scripture and share God’s full revelation, one must be properly equipped to faithfully carry out this duty. We preach the whole gospel, the whole truth, God’s whole plan of redemption. If you get the meaning of the text wrong, you will build your sermon with a foundation of sand. Interpretation is the most important aspect of sermon preparation, and it is the preacher’s main work in preaching the whole counsel of God. If the sermon is going to have scriptural power, it must first have scriptural truth.

The preacher must live with Paul’s challenge to Timothy at the forefront of his mind, “Be diligent to present yourself . . . as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tm 2:15).

Interpretation requires great self-discipline. Any attempt to shortcut the exegetical process may yield conclusions that miss the point of the text.

As you interpret the text, your goal is to ascertain the author’s intended meaning of the passage—all the while understanding that there is both a divine Author and a human author. To accomplish this, you begin by studying the text’s literal, historical, and grammatical components. The literal aspect

focuses on the meaning of the words of the Scripture. The historical aspect focuses on the author’s intended meaning to his original audience, and the grammatical aspect refers to the grammar and syntax of the text. Remember, a text cannot mean something now that it never meant. That’s why every step of interpretation is essential. To rightly interpret the passage you’re considering, follow these steps, generally in the following order:

ANALYZE THE TEXT First, you must analyze the text. With notepad on the table and pen in hand, I intuitively bombard the text with questions, such as: • Who is writing, and to whom is he writing?

• When was this book written, and what is going on in the larger context of God’s dealings with His people?

• What are the key words of the text?

• What do the surrounding passages communicate?

When I do this, I will typically have a photocopied page of the sermon passage so I can write on the text before me. This makes it easy to underline key words, draw arrows of connection, and scratch out questions in the margin.

Usually my initial engagement with the English text leads me to dig deeper into the original languages. Linguistic tools can be of inestimable value at this stage of your work. The right tool will give you quick clarity into a word or phrase that at first glance is puzzling.

Next, you must zoom out from your text. A central aspect of expository preaching is that it takes every passage’s context into consideration. Therefore, you must consider the passage’s immediate and broader contexts. Like a microscope that zooms in and out, think of contextual analysis as a series of concentric circles that starts with the innermost realm, works outward, and then works its way

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back in toward the text. In other words, first look at the passage under consideration. Notice the connection words that link it to the surrounding verses, and then evaluate the broader section.

Ask yourself, “What themes are carried forward?

What words are reoccurring?” Next, move to the larger scheme of the book itself. Ask, “What are the themes of the book? What are the concerns the author is addressing? What is the cultural setting in which this book was penned?” Finally, always be careful to place the passage you’re considering in the larger light of redemptive history. Ask yourself questions like, “What does this passage communicate explicitly or implicitly about Christ?

How does this passage fit into the overall narrative of God’s dealings with His people?”

if asked?” Furthermore, you will know that you are through the analytical phase if no relevant textual question remains unanswered in your mind. The sooner you realize you’ll never be able to exhaust every resource available on every given passage, the better. The number of times a week you preach, coupled with your various life responsibilities, reminds you that you have limited hours to work on a sermon. So don’t try to know everything you could ever know about your text. Rather, try to arrive at a point where you know everything you can know, given your time and space limitations, and are confident you’ve arrived at accurate and clear exegetical conclusions. If these issues are settled, then you’re ready to tackle your sermon outline.

After finishing your initial mining of the text, broaden your study to include cross-referencing and the tracking of tangential issues. Other study helps that come into play at this stage of the process include biblical background tools, lexicons, and commentaries. You’ll find commentaries essential at this stage of your sermon preparation. On average, you should consult between five and 12 commentaries on any particular passage for any particular sermon.

You will find immense value in interacting with the great minds of the faith. Commentaries help you avoid aberrant interpretations. They can also kick-start your study if you are having difficulty unlocking the meaning of the text.

DEVELOP YOUR OUTLINE(S)

Normally you will know that you’re ready to transition from this step when you can succinctly state the meaning and the significance of the passage. Ask yourself, “Can I explain the passage in a couple sentences, if only in unpolished form,

“Always be careful to place the passage you’re considering in the larger light of redemptive history.”

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Another critical aspect of your sermon preparation is your outline. Think of your outline as stepping-stones through a garden. It supplies direction through a passage, and it can also point the audience in the right direction of application and action. Bryan Chappell rightly describes the significance of a sermon outline, writing, “A well-planned sermon begins with a good outline—a logical path for the mind. If you had to instruct someone on how to go from New York to Los Angeles, you would not advise them to ‘head that away.’ You would provide a map identifying landmarks to keep them on course in each stage of their journey. The features of a preacher’s outline serve a similar purpose, keeping listeners and speaker oriented throughout a message. The outline of a sermon is thus the mental map that all follow.” Chappell goes on to argue, “The advantages of clear outlines for listeners are obvious: Good outlines clarify the parts and progress of a sermon in listeners’ minds. Preachers may forget, however, that outlines are also important for the speaker.”

The process begins by creating an exegetical outline. That is, in structural form, you are seeking to understand what the text says.

The outline will help you grasp not only the meaning of the text, but also its contours and

“Remember, powerful preaching is derived from correct interpretation.

Powerful preaching values the whole of Scripture. See to it that before you preach any passage, you first know exactly what it means.”

its movement. The exegetical outline is not for public presentation and is certainly not intended for public consumption. The quicker you are confident in your exegetical outline, the better.

Drafting an exegetical outline that rightly unlocks the meaning and the structure of the text is like a turnstile in an airport. You cannot proceed further in preparation until you have it nailed. At times it will be elusive for you but keep looking, thinking, and praying, and before long, an outline will clarify itself. After the exegetical outline is completed, you can develop your homiletical outline. There are several goals for this outline.

First, your homiletical outline should be clearly drawn from the text. This is nonnegotiable. In fact, it is perhaps the sine qua non of expository preaching. The outline’s points must clearly and unquestionably be derived from the text under consideration. Second, and more specifically, you want it to communicate the meaning of the text. In other words, if a church member wrote down your sermon outline in the margin of his or her Bible, and then flipped to that passage years later, your goal is that it would lead the reader logically through the text in a way that enables him or her to grasp its main idea, as well as its flow and pertinent application. Third, the outline should be memorable. Though polished sermon outlines can be overkill, try to create a sermon outline that will have staying power, even to a passive listener. Don’t be cute or schmaltzy and, when in doubt, err on the less flashy side. As it relates to alliteration, this method seems to me to be generally tired and overused. Perhaps I feel this way because so much alliteration is simply not well done. What is worse, too many preachers bend the meaning of the text in an attempt to

DR. JASON K. ALLEN | President, MBTS

gain rhyme and rhythm in their outline. Don’t make too much of alliteration. If it fits and easily comes to mind, great. If not, don’t force it.

Lastly, if possible, your outline should contain words of instruction and application. All great preaching calls for a verdict; and while this does not have to happen in the outline, the outline can definitely be a strategic place to add punch to the sermon. But again, don’t force it. Your homiletical outline will likely remain a work in progress, perhaps even until the time of sermon delivery. This is different from your exegetical outline, which you really need to have hammered out before you move on to the next step. Feel free to continually tweak your homiletical outline along the way.

CONCLUSION Interpretation is perhaps the hardest, yet most rewarding aspect of sermon preparation. To do it properly often requires immense time and clear thinking. When done properly, it leaves the preacher excited for Sunday to come.

Remember, powerful preaching is derived from correct interpretation. Powerful preaching values the whole of Scripture. See to it that before you preach any passage, you first know exactly what it means. Be excited to preach the whole counsel of God on Sunday. Be faithful in your interpretation and be faithful to preach all of inspired Scripture.

This article is an excerpt from Dr. Allen’s book, Letters to My Students, Volume 1: On Preaching, available from B&H Publishing online or wherever Christian books are sold.

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WHAT IS BIBLICAL THEOLOGY?

by A N D R E A S J . K Ö S T E N B E R G E R

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NO, BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IS NOT JUST THEOLOGY THAT IS BIBLICAL. A

LL THEOLOGY SHOULD BE BIBLICAL,

but that’s not what “biblical theology” typically refers to.

Rather, biblical theology, simply put, is the theology of the Bible. That is, it is not our own theology but that of the biblical writers themselves. It is their convictions about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit and God’s work in human history as revealed in the writings of Scripture.

topically, such as: “What does the Bible teach about giving?” Rather, we understand each pertinent biblical passage in its original historical setting. For example, we consider Malachi’s exhortation, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse” (3:10) in its proper context in the history of Israel, rather than taking it out of context as a mere timeless, abstract principle.

Our method is also INDUCTIVE: as much as possible, we make every effort to approach Scripture with an open mind, employing an “authorial-intent” hermeneutic: “What did the biblical author intend to convey in a given

Understanding biblical theology as the theology of Scripture itself, in turn, requires a certain method, a particular way of reading Scripture (a hermeneutic). Think of it as a three-legged stool: we best use a method that Biblical theology is the theology of the Bible. It is historical, inductive, and descriptive.

is the convictions of the biblical writers about

Our approach is HISTORICAL: we don’t merely arrange the biblical teachings

God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit and God’s work in human history as revealed in the writings of Scripture.

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passage?” Think of it as a conversation. We’re trying to be good listeners to Scripture rather than imposing our own preconceived notions or preferred meanings onto the text.

moving on to systematic theology. It may even be that in the hands of some the line between biblical and systematic theology is almost imperceptible.

Finally, the biblical theologian aims initially to be primarily DESCRIPTIVE. This means he or she will attempt to restate the biblical teaching on a given subject, such as sanctification, by respecting the terminology used by the writers of Scripture themselves. If so, he or she will discover that in Scripture, sanctification refers both to God’s initial act of setting believers apart for his holy use and to the process of the Spirit’s work in helping us grow in Christ.

Nevertheless, I would argue that we do best if we respect the boundaries between the two disciplines and distinguish between their respective tasks.

Biblical theology, therefore, flows naturally from careful biblical interpretation as it tries to explore the teachings and major themes of Scripture within the orbit of the overall biblical storyline.

Above all, we should remember that biblical theology is not a modern invention.

If by “biblical theology” we mean later biblical writers building on earlier writings in Scripture, we can see how the psalmist reflects on Israel’s experience as narrated in the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy—the use of the Old Testament in later Old Testament writings. We also see how New Testament writers regularly cite or allude to various Old Testament passages. That’s biblical theology!

At the same time, biblical theology is inexorably complemented and completed by biblically “In Scripture, sanctification refers both to God’s initial grounded systematic reflection. Rightly act of setting believers apart for his holy use and to the understood, biblical process of the Spirit’s work in helping us grow in Christ.” and systematic theology are equal partners who work together to instruct and guide us in By engaging in biblical theology—connecting the understanding and applying the Bible’s teaching dots between various biblical passages in keeping to our lives both individually and corporately. with the original authors’ intention—we thus enter into the illustrious and noble tradition of And yet, there is a natural sequence in the way a previous “cloud of witnesses” who sought to in which biblical and systematic theology work understand God’s gracious self-disclosure and together. First, the biblical theologian gets redemptive work. to work and engages in historical, inductive, and descriptive biblical theology. Second, the As biblical interpreters and theologians, we will systematic theologian gratefully takes what the therefore be faithful servants and witnesses biblical theologian gives him and frames the of the great God who has revealed himself biblical teaching using categories and concepts throughout Scripture and who has provided that will be helpful in guiding the church’s redemption in Jesus Christ for all who believe. apprehension and application of biblical truth.

To be sure, there are a few exceptionally gifted individuals who try to combine both tasks into one, engaging in biblical theology first and then

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DR. ANDREAS J. KÖSTENBERGER | Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology, MBTS; Director of The Center for Biblical Studies

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An Interview with DR. ANDREAS J. KÖSTENBERGER

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Midwestern Seminary has become a powerplant of original content.

There is an avalanche of material coming from For the Church, Credo Magazine, Preaching and Preachers, The Spurgeon Library, and The Center for Public Theology. This wave of theological output is all aimed in one direction: the good of the local church.

We are excited to announce that this fall, Midwestern is introducing the Center for Biblical Studies (CBS) to this burgeoning arsenal. The Center, led by director Andreas J. Köstenberger, exists to engage in biblical scholarship for the church—for pastors and serious students of Scripture committed to the authority of God’s Word. To that end, the CBS will aim to exhibit scholarly excellence and biblical fidelity in ways that are hermeneutically sound and in keeping with historic Christianity and Baptist confessions of faith. The CBS will also seek to serve the Midwestern Seminary community and beyond by facilitating academic discussions, producing quality resources, and sponsoring biblically-focused events. We were glad to interview Dr. Köstenberger about this exciting new endeavor.

Dr. Köstenberger, first of all, thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview. The news regarding the launch of the Center for Biblical Studies is exciting.

Could you tell us a little about the purpose of the Center and your aspirations for it?

Nowadays, Centers proliferate, as do blogs, podcasts, and websites. The last thing we want to do is crowd people’s plates with yet another resource! In many ways, the Center aims to continue the mission of my ministry, Biblical Foundations: putting faithful biblical resources at the disposal of committed Christians who are serious about learning what the Bible teaches on any given subject. While other websites and ministries are more broad in orientation, or in some cases focus on a narrow area other than the teaching of Scripture, the CBS at MBTS will focus primarily on biblical studies and biblical theology.

Because we believe the Bible is profoundly relevant for believers facing various issues in the culture today, there will be a strong relevance angle pervading our site, but for the most part, we’ll leave applied theology, whether in preaching, missions, or ethics, to others.

What types of resources can readers expect from the Center?

Well, that’s still a work in progress.

My team and I are not doing this for ourselves, to enhance our own reputation or increase our workload, but hopefully to meet the genuine need for faithful Bible-centered material, especially for those in Christian ministry. So, we want to be responsive to any gaps in available resources and felt needs among those whom we hope to serve.

That said, we will feature conversations on

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“I’d love for this Center to be genuinely helpful for the church and for those who preach the gospel to their local congregations and take it to the nations.”

biblical topics in the form of monthly podcasts as well as articles that in many ways flow from my own scholarly work on various subjects: John’s Gospel, Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, mission, marriage and family, biblical interpretation, biblical theology, and so forth.

I think what sets the CBS at MBTS apart from other sites is that it is grounded in a robust community and a constituency in the surrounding area here in the Midwest. We have a strong local and regional interest and, at the same, remain committed to the church’s mission globally. On a local level, we’ll sponsor an annual biblical studies lecture series with a noted Old or New Testament scholar—the Sizemore Lectures. We’ll also co-sponsor a For the Church workshop on biblical topics. As I said, the Center is still evolving, and we want to be modest in our expectations, but we are looking to the Lord to work in and through us as he sees fit.

The vision of being For the Church undergirds everything that Midwestern does, and I know the Center for Biblical Studies will be no exception. How do you anticipate the Center serving pastors and local churches?

Pastors and those in Christian ministry are busy people and face many demands on their time and energy. It’s hard to be fully conversant with all 66 books of the Bible in both Testaments. Along with others, we hope to equip them to preach and teach God’s word more knowledgeably and competently.

We hope to strengthen their grasp of hermeneutics and biblical theology so they can preach God’s word contextually and theologically. Whether through short pieces on relevant biblical topics posted on

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our website, occasional podcast conversations, or in-person events on the MBTS campus, we hope to serve the church and God’s people by disseminating faithful material that is grounded in a high view of Scripture and accessible to the non-scholar.

I should add that we don’t see ourselves at all in competition with other similar efforts. To the contrary, one of the things I’m most excited about is that we take our place among a number of already existing Centers and efforts at MBTS, such as the Center for Public Theology, Credo Magazine, Dr. Allen’s blog on Preaching and Preachers, and the For the Church website. In this regard, I believe we’ll fill an important niche that will make the ministry of MBTS even more effective and hopefully will even attract some to consider pursuing studies at MBTS as a result of perusing our materials.

Thanks again for participating in this interview, I’ll leave the final word to you—anything else you’d like our readers to know about the Center for Biblical Studies?

Anyone with an interest in the work of the Center or with suggestions for content is welcome to contact Jimmy Roh, my research assistant, at jroh@mbts.edu. I’d love for this Center to be genuinely helpful for the church and for those who preach the gospel to their local congregations and take it to the nations. That said, please be patient with us, as we’re just getting started, and it may be a while until we hit our stride. Know that we genuinely want to serve you and partner with you in ministry, especially in the area of faithful biblical study and exposition.

Learn more about THE CENTER FOR BIBLICAL STUDIES at cbs.mbts.edu.

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P R O C L A I M I N G

CHRIST BIBLE from H I S

by J A S O N S . D e R O U C H I E

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THE ONLY BIBLE JESUS HAD WAS WHAT WE CALL THE OLD TESTAMENT, AND HE SAID THAT IT WAS ABOUT HIM. Not only did he highlight that the Scriptures bore witness about him (Jn 5:39), that Abraham saw his day and was glad (8:56), that Moses wrote of him (5:46), that prophets, righteous people, and kings longed for his coming (Mt 13:17; Lk 10:24), and that everything the Old Testament said concerning him would be fulfilled (Lk 24:27, 44), he also stressed that to “understand the Scriptures” is to arrive at a message related to the Messiah and the global mission he would generate (Lk 24:45–47; cf. Acts 1:3, 8).

Paul, too, saw in his Bible a message of kingdom hope that focused on Christ and the church he would create made up of Jews and Gentiles as one people of God (Acts 26:22–23; cf. Gal 3:28–29; Eph 2:13–16). Paul was an Old Testament preacher, yet to the Corinthian church he proclaimed, “I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). How many Old Testament preachers preach like that? May God raise up more in this day!

Peter tells us that those Old Testament saints who prophesied about the gracious salvation we enjoy were searching and inquiring to know who the Christ would be and when he would come (1 Pt 1:10–11). Where were they searching and inquiring?

At the very least, it was their Scriptures!

I briefly offer here five ways that we can faithfully proclaim Christ from his Bible. Seeing

and savoring Jesus in the Old Testament is not a uniform task. Because Jesus fulfills the Old Testament in various ways (Mt 5:17; Lk 24:44), the interpreter must take care in following the signals God supplies us in his inerrant and unified Word so as to properly magnify the Messiah. But if we are willing to dig for gold and not just rake leaves, we will find treasures!

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PROCLAIM CHRIST THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT’S DIRECT MESSIANIC PREDICTIONS.

Peter stressed “what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). Every one of the prophets from Moses onward anticipated the Messiah’s work and mission (3:22–24; 10:43).

The Old Testament is loaded with explicit and implicit predictions. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). These words portray a servant of God who would suffer as a substitute for many, and Peter, writing about the Christ, saw this text fulfilled in the person of Jesus: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24). At times, the element of prediction-fulfillment is even more pronounced, as when Micah 5:2 foretells that the royal deliverer would be born in Bethlehem, and then Matthew 2:6 explicitly asserts that it happened just as the prophet wrote. Christ fulfills the Old Testament as the specific focus or goal of direct Old Testament Messianic predictions and redemptive-historical hopes.

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PROCLAIM CHRIST THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT’S SALVATION-HISTORICAL STORY AND TRAJECTORIES. The Old Testament does a great job creating problems for which Jesus is the solution. Both the Old and New Testaments are framed by the narrative of redemption — a historical plot designed to magnify that God reigns, saves, and satisfies through covenant for his glory in Christ.

The entire storyline progresses from creation to the fall to redemption to consummation and highlights the work of Jesus as the decisive turning point in salvation-history. “The Law and the Prophets were until John [the Baptist]; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached” (Lk 16:16). “The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Gal 3:24–26).

The plotline of the Bible is guided by five major salvation-historical covenants, each of which finds its terminus in Christ, and the first four of which are named after the covenant head or mediator (Adamic-Noahic → Abrahamic → Mosaic → Davidic → new). We also see that various themes develop or progress as God gradually reveals more of himself and his ways through biblical revelation. Some of the main ones would include covenant, God’s kingdom, law, the temple and God’s presence, atonement, and mission, all of which find focus in Jesus. Christ fulfills all of the Old Testament’s salvationhistorical trajectories.

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PROCLAIM CHRIST BY HIGHLIGHTING HOW THE OLD AND NEW AGES, CREATIONS, AND COVENANTS ARE SIMILAR YET DISTINCT. The progress of the biblical covenants and the history of redemption display numerous points of similarity and contrast, many of which are centered on the person of the divine Son. For example, whereas Adam disobeyed and brought death to all, Christ obeys and brings life to many (Rom 5:18–19). Whereas God used the blood of

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bulls and goats to picture atonement in the old covenant, Christ’s own substitutionary sacrifice provides the ground for eternal redemption (Heb 9:11–14). Whereas access to YHWH’s presence in the temple was restricted to the high priest on the Day of Atonement, Christ’s priestly work opens the way for all in him to enjoy God’s presence (Heb 9:24–26; 10:19–22). Whereas the nations needed to come to the tabernacle/temple to encounter the Lord’s presence in the old covenant, the Spirit of Christ now empowers the church in its witness to the nations from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Mt 28:18–20; Acts 1:8).

The work of Jesus creates both continuities and discontinuities.

We can celebrate his work more “CHRIST FULFILLS ALL OF by identifying the patterns and THE OLD TESTAMENT’S transformations.

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SALVATION-HISTORICAL TRAJECTORIES.”

PROCLAIM CHRIST BY NOTING HOW OLD TESTAMENT CHARACTERS, EVENTS, AND INSTITUTIONS CLARIFY AND ANTICIPATE HIS PERSON AND WORK.

The author of Hebrews said the Old Testament law was “a shadow of good things to come” (Heb 10:1). Similarly, Paul asserted that clean and unclean food laws, the various Jewish festivals and monthly sacrificial calendar, and even the Sabbath were each “a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:16–17).

In the New Testament, these anticipations and pointers are called “types” or “examples” that in turn find their counter or fulfillment in Jesus as their ultimate realization. God structured the progressive development of salvation-history in such a way that certain Old Testament characters (e.g., Adam, Melchizedek, Moses, David), events (e.g., the flood, the exodus, the return to the land), and institutions (e.g., the Passover lamb, the temple, the priesthood) bear meanings that color and predictively anticipate the life and work of Jesus Messiah.

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PROCLAIM CHRIST WHEN YOU REVEL IN YAHWEH’S IDENTITY AND ACTIVITY.

You will recall Jesus said that “no one has ever seen God” the Father except the Son (Jn 1:18; 6:46), but that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). What this means is that when YHWH becomes embodied in a human form in the Old Testament, we are most likely meeting the pre-incarnate Son. We see him in the stories of Abraham’s third guest (Gn 18), Jacob’s wrestling opponent (Gn 32:24–30), Joshua’s “commander of the army of YHWH” (Joshua 5:13–15), Ezekiel’s exalted king (Ez 1:26), Daniel’s “son of man” (Dn 7:13–14), and the numerous manifestations of the “angel/ messenger of YHWH” (e.g., Gn 16:7–13; 22:11–18; Ex 3:2; Nm 20:16; 22:22–35). With this, when we hear Yahweh speaking or acting as the object of people’s faith in the Old Testament, we are seeing the very one who would embody himself in the person of Jesus. The Word who was “in the beginning with God” “was God” (Jn 1:1–2). The very Son who would be named Jesus “was in the form of God” (Phil 2:6), was the very “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:16), and was “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3). Thus, the author of Hebrews could attribute Moses’s reproach for God’s sake as a reproach endured for Christ (Heb 11:26). This is also why Jude could identify Israel’s deliverer at the exodus as Jesus (Jude 5). When we meet Yahweh in the Old Testament, we are catching glimpses of the divine Son.

CONCLUSION There are still more ways I believe we can faithfully proclaim Christ from the Old Testament (see the link below). But I offer these five for the church to better engage the initial three-fourths of our Christian Bible for the glory of Jesus. I urge you to “preach the Word” (2 Tm 4:2) and to do so like Paul, who, as an Old Testament expositor, could say, “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23).

V O L U M E

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DR. JASON DEROUCHIE | Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology, MBTS

For further reflections on this topic from DR. DEROUCHIE, see mbts.edu/DeRouchieArticle.

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DISCIPLESHIP FIRST GOSPEL in the

by P A T R I C K S C H R E I N E R

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A V ISION OF DISCIPLESHIP Part of the purpose of Matthew’s Gospel is to communicate a vision of discipleship. Disciples are ultimately to be like their teacher and become teachers themselves who transmit the message of Jesus to future generations.

But what does it look like to be a disciple in Matthew? One can see what it means by looking both at the negative and positive portrayals throughout his Gospel. To be a disciple of Jesus is to recognize and follow Jesus as the Messiah and teacher of wisdom (theological), interpret the law rightly (practical), and practice the law (ethical).

Disciple-making has theological, practical, and ethical implications.

RE COGNIZING JESUS A S MES S I A H AN D TEA CHER To be a disciple means that one has recognized Jesus as his or her Messiah and teacher of wisdom (theological). Jesus is God’s final Word of Wisdom to which all the law and the prophets point (Isa 11:1–4). Matthew himself was a tax collector who gathered money from his own people for the Roman government, and Jesus called him out in repentance. When Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax booth, he said, “Follow me.” Matthew rose and followed him acknowledging his deprivation (9:9). This Greek word for “follow” means to go in the same direction, to obey, or comply with.

Matthew became a pupil of Jesus.

Negatively, those who reject Jesus are contrasted to disciples because they don’t follow Jesus as their Messiah and teacher of wisdom. The scribes of the day become jealous of the people’s response to this new teacher so they claim he is blaspheming (9:3), ask for a sign from him to prove his

“ T O B E A D IS C IP L E O F J E S U S IS T O RE C O G N IZ E A N D FO L L O W J E S U S A S T HE ME S S IA H A ND T E A C HE R O F W IS D O M ( T HE O L O G IC A L ) , IN T E RP RE T T HE L A W RIG HT L Y ( P RA C T IC A L ) , A N D P RA C T IC E T HE L A W ( E T HIC A L ) . ”

authority (12:38), and assert Jesus’s disciples are breaking the tradition of the elders (15:1–2). Jesus himself claims this school has rejected him and now he must “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (16:21; 20:18).

I N T E R PR E T T H E L A W R I GH T L Y Second, a disciple is a true interpreter of the law who understands the relationship between the new and the old (practical). They realize Jesus completes the Torah and that they cannot understand the

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old without the new. They therefore understand the Scriptures because they understand the one to whom they pointed all along.

Alternatively, those who reject Jesus are “searching the Scriptures” (Jn. 5:36), but they cannot find life in them for they are impoverished interpreters. They do not recognize that all of the Scriptures point to Jesus. If the new is not accepted, then the old will be left in obscurity. We see this illustrated in Matthew 2. Herod (the king) assembles all the chief priests and scribes of the people and inquired where the Christ was to be born (Matt.

2:4). The chief priests and the scribes pass a Jewish text onto Herod, and it is the correct text (Mic. 5:2), but they do not understand the words because the words are not meant only for their historical context but their redemptive historical context. Though it seems they understand the meaning of the words historically and fail to understand through the new lens, Matthew indicates that, because they have missed the new, they understand neither. The old only makes sense in light of the new. They have not interpreted the law rightly because they do not know to whom it points.

P R A C TI C E THE L A W Third, a disciple is someone who practices justice and mercy, not hypocrisy (ethical). Not only do they rightly interpret the law, they live rightly by it. They follow Jesus’s teaching not only in word but in deed. Disciples perform their righteousness not to receive praise from others, but to receive a reward from their Father in heaven. They do not neglect the weightier matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness (23:23). To understand is not merely an intellectual effort. Understanding involves the heart. “The heart has grown dull when the people do not understand” (13:15a), and it is with the heart that people understand (13:15b).

Those who do not follow Jesus are characterized as hypocrites and lack righteousness. Though

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“ D IS C IP L E S P E RFORM T HE IR RIG HT E O U S NE S S NO T T O RE C E IV E P RA IS E FRO M O T HE RS B U T T O RE C E IV E A RE W A RD FRO M T HE IR FAT HE R IN HE AV E N . ” Jesus says the scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat (Matt. 23:2), the disciples should observe what they say but not the works they do. They do the opposite of what Jesus said in the Sermon: they tie up heavy burdens, do their deeds in order to be seen, enjoy being called rabbi, and boast in their accomplishments. Therefore, Jesus pronounces woes instead of blessings to the scribes and Pharisees because they are hypocrites (23:13–39).

FOLL O W I N G JE S U S Jesus came to form a new community. According to Matthew, to be a part of that community means rising from one’s tax booth and learning how to both live and interpret the Torah correctly in light of Jesus. He is the teacher of wisdom. Then, disciples are to go out and form new disciples, as they embody and repeat the practices of Jesus for the world to see.

DR. PATRICK SCHREINER | Assistant Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Western Seminary

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S AMUEL BI ER I G

Is Satan capable of inception? Does he whisper temptations in our ear? Is Satan’s authority, power, and relationship to unbelievers the same or different from Christians?

These are all valid and, frankly, somewhat haunting questions. I am not left emotionally unmoved by the many destroyed marriages and ministries around me that Satan has devoured. I trust your experience is comparable. It is vital that you and I rightly discern and evaluate Satan. He is not to be trifled with nor buffooned, but in Christ, his back was utterly broken on Calvary’s hill.

Our entry point for discerning the person and activity of Satan will be Colossians 2:15. We will discover much there, but upon developing three guiding exegetical questions, we will unearth as many unanswered questions as we answer.

Grasping a wholistic picture of Satan requires a

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full canonical scope. These questions force an excursion into the terrain of biblical theology.

After building out a stable biblical-theological framework, we will be in position to establish a few conclusive truths—also known as dogmatics.

MOTION 1: EXEGETE THE TEXT COLOSSIANS 2:14-15 (CSB)

He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.

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Due to space limitations, our exegetical motion does not attempt exhaustion. Rather, it is controlled by a mere three questions, which I believe naturally arise from the text: First, what does it mean that, at the cross, Jesus “disarmed” Satan and his rebel angels? The answer is found in verse 14: Satan had no record of debt with which to accuse. Jesus snatched Satan’s means of accusation right off his forked tongue. This is the primary way he was disarmed. The repentant sinner’s record, then, is erased. It seems Satan’s strategy was to accuse and damn by means of a guilty record, but through the substitutionary and atoning blood sacrifice of Jesus, there is now no record with which to charge. That much we can discern from Colossians.

Second, how did Jesus put Satan and his rebels “to open shame” (ESV)? The language used describes a parade. Jesus ‘made a spectacle’ of Satan by defeating him on the cross and at the tomb. Satan was rendered powerless, and then becomes something of a cosmic joke. He was showcased in the theater of God before his own rebel entourage and before the angels of heaven.

Third, how does God “triumph over them in [Jesus]”? Notice the “them” implies plurality.

Satan is not acting in isolation but seems to have an organized, mobilized, rebel army, perhaps even a hierarchy. But more centrally, the thrust of Colossians 2:14-15 is that when Jesus looked to be at His weakest, He was actually putting on invincibility. Three days after his death, Jesus kicked the hinges off the door of the enclosed tomb outside Jerusalem. On Friday, Satan surely heckled, hissed, and laughed while hovering over the blood-bespattered carcass of our Lord.

He never saw it coming. On Sunday, Jesus arose with an indestructible life. In that moment, Jesus evidenced His Father’s verdict of satisfaction.

He procured a deliverance for His people so rich, so stunning that even the angels could not heretofore comprehend its immensity. It was a plot twist so beautiful that it satisfied millennia worth of anticipation (1 Pt 1:12).

So, where did Satan come from? When did he rebel? When did his entourage rebel? Why did he rebel? Our brief interrogatory analysis into Colossians 2:14-15 unearths nearly as many questions as it yields answers. We now turn to the realm of biblical theology to resolve leftover questions from our exegesis.

MOTION 2: PROVIDE A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK At Calvary, Jesus died and Satan received an imagined victory. But that was neither the beginning nor the end of the story as we saw in Colossians 2:14-15. Satan thought he had bested the Son of God and was, thus, at the pinnacle of his pride. Satan’s pride seems to be his most notable attribute and is the common theme held throughout Scripture. At Golgotha, it seemed the curtains were closing on our humble little story from Bethlehem. In actuality, as rendered in Colossians, it is Satan who was at his weakest point. While Jesus’s broken body hung lifeless, surely all of Satan’s army were jubilant, uproarious, and inebriated on their imagined power, but they could not have been more defeated in that moment.

When we read Scripture in narrative fashion, a puzzle piece picture of the chief figure (Mt 12:24) of these “rulers and authorities” in Col 2:15 begins to take shape (Rv 20:2). Satan is a contingent, sentient, and derivative being just as any other created animate creature (Gn 1-2, Col 1:16-17). What distinguishes Satan is that he is the most intelligent and calculating creature in all creation and, at some point in time, he took on an oppositional status against the LORD and His people (Gn 3:1; 1 Jn 3:11-12, “evil one”). It is discernible that his opposition took place prior to the fall of man in Genesis 3. However, neither a precise description of that event nor the precise point in time of his personal rebellion (and motivation) is ever made explicit. Rather, we are, as it were, dropped into an already mature and maturing plotline.

An honor-bound and conscientious narrative

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reading of Scripture must take the New Testament seriously. Revelation 20:2 explicates that indeed the serpent of Eden (Gn 3) is the same being referred to in many New Testament texts. Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 shed light on the origin of the rebellion of Satan’s messengers (Gn 6:1-4), but do not reveal a motive or point in time for Satan’s personal rebellion. In Matthew 4:1-11, Satan seems to believe he is powerful enough to bring down the Son of God from the altitude of divinity by temptation. Herein lies Satan’s Achilles’s heel: hubris. Satan contends with the Son of God, is overpowered, and is ultimately defeated at the cross (Col 2:15). It’s a classic baitand-switch. Because of his pride, Satan never sees it coming. He lacks omniscience. Pride is his most highlighted characteristic. Satan is so smart, he’s stupid. While the storyline of Scripture is silent on the precise time of Satan’s personal rebellion and from where his motivation stems, it is quite clear on his nature— he was blinded by pride.

MOTION 3: ESTABLISH CONCLUSIONS –TEN TRUTHS ABOUT A LIAR After working through the proper exegetical and biblical-theological motions, we now have a sturdier foundation upon which to establish a few implications that help us to discern the person and activity of Satan:

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Satan is not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, nor eternal.

There was a time when Satan was not. In contrast, there was never a ‘time’ when the Son of God was not, i.e. the Son is eternal. Satan is created and contingent just as humans are (Col 1:16-17). In Job 1:6, the Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” to which he responded, “From roaming through the earth.” He is physically positioned in the universe. He is not omnipresent and, thus, is unlikely to be personally tempting individual Christians.

In Matthew 4 and Job 1-2, he fails to know the future and his potency is shown to be limited by God.

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2

Satan exercises his otherworldly dominion by way of a hierarchical, geographical, and militaristic strategy.

In Matthew 4, Satan legitimately offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world. These kingdoms seem to have a geographical and governmental nature.

This offer is textually grounded in Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82. But through the cross, Jesus took back the authority forfeited in Adam (Col 2:14-15).

Therefore, in Matthew 28:18, Jesus states that all authority has been given to Him. In John 12:31 we’re told Satan is the “ruler of this world,” which rings of realm and region. Then, there is that peculiar reference to the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” in Daniel 10:13, 20. This dark prince opposes the angel Gabriel and the angelic prince Michael. It’s hierarchical. Experientially, this rings true. The nature of spiritual warfare varies depending on the continent and culture (North America, Asia, Africa, etc.). Satan leads a hierarchy of demons (Mt 12:24), a divergent and highly capable army, which implies he is leading an otherworldly ‘outfit’ that personally tempts persons (Col 2:15, 1 Pt 5:8-9) depending on the sinful sensibilities of a given culture.

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Satan can manipulate matter, weather systems, and bacterial life.

We see in Job 1 that Satan is able to manipulate matter and weather patterns and, in Job 2:8, he infects Job with a skin disease. His purpose is to afflict Job, and for our machinations, we note he is capable of feats not afforded to humans.

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Satan can influence and sway legal proceedings and governmental structures.

In Revelation 2:10, Jesus states that Satan is in the process of influencing Smyrna’s legal proceedings by throwing a collection of Christians into prison.

“There was a time when Satan was not. In contrast, there was never a ‘time’ when the Son of God was not, i.e. the Son is eternal.”

Likewise, in Job 1:17, he manipulates the Chaldeans, encouraging them to steal Job’s livestock. Though we are not told how he exerts his influence, we surmise he is the agent of these activities.

5

Satan aggressively seeks to trap individual Christians.

1 Timothy 3:7 says he seeks to trap elders. He is spoken of as a federal head type of figure. His minions study individuals and then seek to tempt and twist them in accordance with particularized patterns of sin. They cater and concoct a seemingly irresistible elixir of poison just for you. Television, social media, fast food, biology, age, and gender are all thrown into the recipe.

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Satan is more skilled at deception than any other created being.

John 8:44 says his nature is to lie. If his mouth is moving, he is lying. He is the original liar and, therefore, the father of lies. Every lie was and is birthed in him. However, deception is all he has in his arsenal against Christians. As Colossians 2:15 teaches, this side of Calvary, Satan can accuse, but he knows—and his rebel realm know—that he has been reduced to utter fragility at the cross.

7

Satan is able to kill Christians.

He is able to kill you physically (Job 1-2), but not eternally (Rom 8). In Job 2, when Satan goes a second time to the LORD in the divine courtroom, he asks permission to kill Job, but God denies his request.

I take that to mean Satan could have killed him, but God would not allow it. Everything Satan does comes crashing down on his own head, eventually crushing his skull (Gn 3:15) unto the glory of the Son of God and for the Christian’s good.

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Satan is the Lord’s lackey for the Christian’s holiness.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says his thorn is “a messenger of Satan,” and yet the Lord kindly uses the thorn (against Paul’s will!) to produce

SAMUEL BIERIG | Dean, Spurgeon College

sanctification and spiritual power in Paul’s ministry.

How kind of the Lord to give Paul his thorn! Satan plays the pawn in God’s economy, and the thorn stays against Paul’s will. Thus, Satan is ever-regulated

by Romans 8 and, therefore, is providentially powerless to wound Christians in any resurrected or eternal sense. Neither Satan nor death, neither “angels nor rulers … nor powers … will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rm 8:38).

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Satan will be thrown into hell in the end.

Satan can and surely has read Matthew 25:41, which states he will ultimately be thrown into hell. That is what I mean by “Satan is so smart, he’s stupid.” This is his end, yet he rages against all “born of God” (1 Jn 3:9). He lies. He accuses the brethren (Rv 12:10). But he cannot succeed in bringing a guilty sentence upon the Christian anymore (Col 2:14).

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Satan is resistible.

James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” He will flee from you, Christian. Resist him. If Christians resist temptation, hold firm the promise of resurrection, and do not give in, do not accept the enemy’s lies, and do not give into his accusations—Satan will eventually depart. He is limited. He is finite. He will eventually move on to easier prey.

CONCLUSION My aim in this essay was to use the person of Satan as a test case. Rarely do scholars pull down the walls of their respective domains to set exegesis, biblical theology, and dogmatics in motion in a singular treatment. In the final analysis, we are not told precisely how or why Satan does certain things, but when we analyze the pertinent texts and take into account all of the data, we see what he does and what he is capable of. The Christian, then, is broken over the plight of the unregenerate, properly sobered, and bolstered that Jesus so decisively routed Satan at Calvary.

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Christians believe that all 66 books of the Bible, written by at least 40 different human authors over the course of millennia, are ultimately just one book inspired by one Author—God the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16)—about one person, God the Son Incarnate, Jesus Christ (Luke 16:31; 24:27, 44; John 5:46).

We confess this together, for instance, in Article I of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and we teach it in our classrooms and from our pulpits.

But when individual believers sit down to read and study the Bible, it often feels difficult to see exactly how a particular verse or passage fits this description of the unity of Scripture. It is especially difficult to see how the verse or passage might point to Jesus.

So, how do we read the Bible as one book about one person, Jesus, inspired by one Author, the Holy Spirit?

This isn’t a new question. The earliest Christians, both in the New Testament and in

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the post-apostolic age, wrestled with how to understand Jesus and his Church in relation to Israel and their Messianic hope. Unlike many modern biblical scholars, though, they wrestled with this question assuming the unity of the Bible for the same reasons listed above. The earliest Christians also believed the Bible is one book about one Person with one divine Author, and they wrote to each other and to their congregations about how to read Scripture in a unified way.

One of those who wrote about the unity of the Bible was Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–202).1 In his intellectual battle against the Valentinian Gnostics, he had to emphasize that Scripture is one book and that the God of the Old Testament is the same God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, since that is exactly what the Valentinians denied. He also wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, in which he walks through the entire Bible and shows how each major story and figure points to Jesus. (In other words, Irenaeus was preaching Tim Keller sermons before Tim Keller was cool.) Although Irenaeus did not write a hermeneutics textbook, his writing as a whole can be characterized by three hermeneutical tools—hypothesis, economy, and recapitulation.2 These are three of what preachers call “$10 words,” but they are each incredibly helpful in understanding how the Bible is one book.

This material, and especially the summary of Irenaeus, is an adaptation of the introduction to my The Story of Scripture: An

Introduction to Biblical Theology (Hobbs College Library; Nashville: B&H Academic, 2017), 6–9.

2

I am indebted to John O’Keefe and R. R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Balti-

more: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 33–44, for the identification and description of these three tools.

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“This—recapitulation—is what he is after in The Apostolic Preaching, to show that each Bible story

First, Irenaeus says that finds its culmination in the person and work of Jesus.”

Scripture has a hypothesis, an overarching main point. He compares Scripture to a mosaic, a picture made up of many tiles, and the only do the puzzle pieces have a particular order hypothesis tells us what the tiles are supposed or shape to them, but also each individual piece to look like once they’re all put together in the portrays Jesus in one way or another. This— right order and shape—the handsome king, recapitulation—is what he is after in The Apostolic i.e. Jesus Christ. For us, the more immediate Preaching, to show that each Bible story finds analogy might be to a puzzle box top. Individual its culmination in the person and work of Jesus.

Bible verses and passages and books are like An easy example that we might find familiar puzzle pieces, and we would have a much harder is Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1. In this story, time putting them together correctly without Hannah is a barren woman who prays for a son the puzzle box top telling us what the finished in the tabernacle. God miraculously opens her product is supposed to look like. For Irenaeus, womb, and Hannah gives birth to Samuel, takes Jesus has already told us what the Bible looks like a Nazarite vow for him, and dedicates him to the when we put the pieces together correctly. It’s a service of the LORD. Samuel eventually goes on to portrait of the crucified and risen Messiah (Luke be the prophet who anoints and announces David 16:31; 24:27, 44; John 5:46). as King of Israel. Like Hannah, Elizabeth is barren (Luke 1:7). Her husband Zechariah, while he is Second, Irenaeus says that Scripture has a serving in the Temple, is told by an angel that particular economy, or order, to it. The puzzle God has opened Elizabeth’s womb and that they pieces fit together in a certain way because they will have a son. Elizabeth gives birth to John the are ordered in a certain way. In other words, most Baptist, who also takes a Nazarite vow and who puzzles have edges (any good puzzle solver knows is the prophet who baptizes and announces Jesus to start with the edges!) and prominent features as King and Lord of Israel. In this way, we see that guide the person working on the puzzle. If that the story of Hannah recapitulates, or finds its they follow those patterns and the general order repetitive climax, in the story of Elizabeth. of the puzzle, they will have an easier time finding where the more obscure pieces fit. Scripture also In these three ways, Irenaeus helps us understand has an order, a shape, to it. It follows what some how the Bible is one book about one Person call the “Grand Narrative of Scripture,” from written by one Author. When we come to a creation to fall to redemption to new creation, all difficult passage or verse, we can remember the centered on the person and work, and particularly tools of hypothesis, economy, and recapitulation the death and resurrection, of God incarnate, Jesus and, with the Spirit’s illuminating help, read them Christ. If we follow the main trail of the biblical with Jesus in mind. story, we can see more easily how other stories are connected to that one main story.

Finally, Irenaeus says that not only do all the puzzle pieces of Scripture form a coherent picture of Jesus when put together correctly, and not

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DR. MATTHEW EMERSON | Associate Professor of Religion, Oklahoma Baptist University; Executive Director of the Center for Baptist Renewal

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STUDENT HIGHLIGHT

MEET JIMMY ROH M I DW E S T E R N M A G A Z I N E

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Each year, Midwestern is blessed to receive a number of bright and gifted students. From the undergraduate to doctoral levels, Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College are home to high-quality students spanning multiple theological and vocational disciplines. This particular year, one such student was Ph.D. student, Jimmy Roh, who has recently moved to Kansas City to pursue his doctoral studies with Andreas Köstenberger as well as work with the newly announced Center for Biblical Studies. Jimmy also co-hosts the new podcast for the Center for Biblical Studies and is currently part of the Residency Ph.D. cohort at Midwestern. Ronni Kurtz caught up with him about the important work he is doing on campus, both vocationally and in his studies.

RONNI KURTZ Jimmy, tell us a little about yourself and what program you are currently in at MBTS. JIMMY ROH I’m married to Grace; we have two children—Bethany (7) and Paul (6). During my childhood, I grew up in the New England area (Connecticut) and then moved to the D.C. area in high school. I met my wife during college at the University of Michigan. I received my M.Div. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and my Th.M. in New Testament at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was a pastor for many years in Michigan, Chicago, and North Carolina. I’m currently a Ph.D. student in biblical theology.

RK You are working closely with Dr. Köstenberger on the newly announced Center for Biblical Studies. What does that entail?

JR

My role entails managing content for the Center for Biblical Studies, which currently includes blog posts and articles. We will also launch a podcast called “Biblical Foundations”, which I will be

co-hosting with Dr. Köstenberger.

All of our content will be oriented around a core set of topics related to the field of biblical studies (e.g., Greek and Hebrew, hermeneutics, biblical theology, etc.).

Through our content, we hope to not only engage our readers and listeners on crucial matters in biblical studies, but to also shed light on the vital connection between biblical studies and other disciplines such as preaching.

RK Why biblical theology? How did you first come to have a passion for that particular field of study?

JR My first course in seminary was titled “An Introduction to Biblical Theology” taught by D. A. Carson at Trinity. In the first class, I can vividly remember Dr. Carson opening his Bible to Genesis 1 to discuss the theme of creation. In the next hour, he proceeded to trace the theme through the rest of the entire canon of Scripture—without any notes by the way. Though I had grown up in the church and listened to many

Learn more about THE CENTER FOR BIBLICAL STUDIES at cbs.mbts.edu.

sermons, I had never heard the Bible taught in such a way. Later on, I realized that biblical theology filled a massive gulf in my own study of Scripture—the gulf between exegesis and systematic theology. Through the influence of Dr. Carson, and others such as Dr. Köstenberger, I wanted to commit myself to the study of biblical theology in service of the church.

RK So far, what has been your favorite thing about studying at Midwestern Seminary?

JR As a part of my doctoral studies, I am also a member of The Residency Ph.D. program led by Dr. Strachan. The Residency has been a great avenue to receive further mentoring from seasoned Christian scholars and to find fellowship with other doctoral students.

RK In what ways do you hope to serve the church after graduating with your Ph.D.?

JR I hope to continue to serve the church through teaching, writing, and local church ministry.

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ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT

MEET GLEN HIGGINS M.DIV. | 2017

You’ve likely heard that Midwestern Seminary exists For The Church. More than a mere slogan, this is the heartbeat of our institution. One can see this ideology best through the efforts of our alumni. Each year, Midwestern deploys an army of gospel-centered graduates to take the gospel around the globe. One such graduate is Glen Higgins, who graduated with a M.Div. in 2017. After receiving his degree, Glen moved to downtown Seattle where he now pastors at a newly formed church plant, City Center Baptist Church. We talked with Glen about his current ministry context, and how his training at Midwestern prepared him for this endeavor.

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MBTS Glen, you recently moved to downtown Seattle with the ambition of planting and pastoring a church. Tell us a bit about that endeavor.

GLEN HIGGINS While at MBTS, I read two missionary biographies that caused me to rethink how I would spend my ministry. One was a biography of Adoniram Judson and the other was of David Brainerd. Reading missionary biographies is dangerous because they force you to switch a vital question. At first, the question was: “Why would I go?” But after reading these biographies, the question became: “Why wouldn’t I go?” When I considered how much God’s people gave to take the gospel to hard places, it gave me new eyes to see the glory of a life poured out so that many more might hear the gospel. In February 2018, my wife and I, along with our three-month-old son, moved to downtown Seattle to join others in helping plant a church.

On December 2nd, 2018, City Center Baptist Church was born, with 14 members.

MBTS You graduated with a M.Div. from Midwestern Seminary in May of 2017, in what ways did your degree prepare you for where you are now?

GH Planting a church requires a good dose of ecclesiology, missiology, and pastoral love. I don’t think I realized until I became a pastor just how valuable the exposure to theological ideas and questions is. In writing my papers, I was forced to articulate essential doctrines that I use in ministry almost daily. I’ve found that seminary was much like digging a well.

It was difficult work, but it is something you draw from for the rest of your ministry. Without seminary, I would have read some books and honestly formulated thoughts on the fly. But seminary was like having an expert construction crew that helped me, and at times forced me,

to dig deeper. The deeper the well, the more the minister has to draw from in his ministry.

Not only did I have a deeper well at the end, but I also received the tools to know how to keep digging once I left.

MBTS This issue of the Midwestern Magazine is on how and why Christians should love the whole counsel of God. We know that you’re passionate about evangelism, and I know that you’ve personally used Scripture reading in reaching new and non-believers. Why is this a strategy you enjoy and employ?

GH Inspiration is the fountainhead for all other doctrines of Scripture. If God really did write the Bible, then we should expect that it reflects him. The words of life are found in the Bible.

For us, this has very practical implications: if we want dead people to come to life, we should give them the words of life. Nothing short of the gospel, the good news of Christ’s sacrifice, will awaken dead men from the grave. When we meet new friends in Seattle, it is one of our goals for them to read the Bible with us. Typically, we begin with the gospel of Mark. Who better to explain the gospel than God himself?

MBTS This fall, Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College had another record-breaking enrollment. Having completed your graduate degree, what advice would you give to incoming students?

GH The advice has been given by many others, but it is worth repeating: join a local church and love the people in it. For those hoping to serve in ministry, the joyful work for the rest of your life is to love God’s people. Second, a somewhat underrated aspect of seminary is the friendships you form. Invest in the friendships you make in seminary; often these are the friends you call for years to come in ministry highs and lows.

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IN FOCUS: CITY CENTER BAPTIST CHURCH

CITY CENTER BAPTIST CHURCH LOCATION: Seattle, Washington

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n every edition of the Midwestern Magazine, we seek to highlight faithful churches.

We have historically highlighted a church in our region. For this issue, we are glad to highlight a new church—City Center Baptist Church—pastored by a Midwestern alumnus.

Located in the heart of downtown Seattle, this NAMB church plant officially covenanted together in December 2018. CCBC aims to be a church rooted in the Word and filled with people whose lives are being transformed by the gospel. We talked with one of the pastors, Glen Higgins, about the church and what they are seeing in Seattle.

MBTS City Center Baptist Church is a young church. Tell us the story of how it came into existence and where you’re at today.

GLEN HIGGINS Stuart Bell is the lead pastor of City Center Baptist Church. In the fall of 2017, he and his wife moved to downtown Seattle under the North American Mission Board and began prayer walking the streets. It wasn’t long until other Christians began to join them in their work to see a new church planted in the heart of the city. In December 2018, fourteen members covenanted together as a church. We are still in our first year, and we meet each Sunday to read the word, sing the word, preach the word, and pray the word. We are constantly in conversation with new friends in the city who don’t know Jesus.

It is our prayer that God would save those who don’t know him and strengthen those who do.

MBTS When talking about church planting in the Pacific Northwest, the conversation is often pessimistic regarding the spiritual landscape. On the contrary, has anything been a pleasant surprise during your time there?

GH Doing ministry in the PNW comes with its own set of challenges, but one of the advantages is how honest people are about their beliefs.

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Ken Blackwell, pastor at Northland Baptist Church and alumnus of Midwestern Seminary.

There are not many people calling themselves Christians out of some cultural obligation. They know they are not Christians and typically have some reason why. But, these same agnostic or atheist friends are often very open to talking about God. This makes our job twofold. On the one hand, we are ready to give loving, thoughtful answers to difficult questions, but on the other hand, we are ready to ask hard questions to our friends about where their beliefs lead them.

MBTS What is your vision and aspiration for City Center Baptist Church?

GH I hope that CCBC would come to relish two truths. One, God can save anyone. I pray the sheer potential of this truth would give them courage to share the gospel with everyone in their lives. Two, God has saved them. Despite their sin, the God of love rescued them from their rebellion. This brings great hope to each day. By God’s grace as we embrace these two truths, we are hopeful that God will establish us as a beacon in the city for many years to come.

Learn more about CITY CENTER BAPTIST CHURCH at citycenterbaptist.wordpress.com.

MBTS If others are considering ministry in Seattle, what should they consider before they come?

GH Read some Tim Keller books and start evangelizing before you come. These are oddly specific, but each has its purpose. Keller, and others like him, are doing a great job at lovingly engaging with the ideas of postmodernism.

His ministry in NYC is an example of how to genuinely and gracefully evangelize our secular generation. Evangelism can be done in a hundred different ways, but if you are not sharing the gospel at all, it will be hard to jump-start this habit in the midst of all the other responsibilities of your ministry. It is both a privilege and a responsibility to engage the lost.

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT

Jason DeRouchie Dr. DeRouchie is a relatively new face around the Midwestern community, yet his impact is already evident. He comes to Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College from Bethlehem College and Seminary and now serves as Research Professor of Old Testament and biblical theology. You can often find Dr. DeRouchie spending time with students in the Mathena Student Center and Midwestern Café, as he cares well for his students and gives much personal time to mentorship. Given the topic of the Fall 2019 edition of the Midwestern Magazine, we were glad to interview Dr. DeRouchie about his life and work.

MBTS Dr. DeRouchie, I am one among many in the Midwestern community who are thankful to the Lord for your arrival at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. You’re coming as the Research Professor of Old Testament and biblical theology; how did you first get into Old Testament studies?

JASON DEROUCHIE I recall three main influences: (1) My wife Teresa had a pastor whose faithful teaching from the Old Testament moved her to cherish the greatness of God, and this was inspiring to me. (2) I noted early in my studies that my Old Testament professors seemed to know the New Testament better than my New Testament professors knew their Old Testament, and I wanted to be a whole-Bible guy as much as possible. (3) During my first semester at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I took a Theology of the Pentateuch course from Dr. Gordon Hugenberger, who had a grasp of the

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whole counsel of God more than I had ever witnessed, and who loved Jesus and his church with a whole heart. Through him God awakened me to the Bible’s grand plot-line through the various covenants, to God’s glory, mercy, and purposefulness in creation, providence, and promise, and to the foreshadows of Christ in the earliest parts of Scripture. These realities all excited me and pushed me into studying the Old Testament as Christian Scripture.

MBTS Beyond Old Testament and biblical theology, you’re also passionate about missions.

How do your loves of biblical theology and missions intersect?

JD Biblical theology unpacks how the whole Bible progresses, integrates, and climaxes in Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). In Jesus’s words, to “understand the Scriptures” means one must see in the Old

Testament a message of the Messiah and the mission he would generate (Luke 24:45–47). “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:19–20). Faithful biblical theology generates missions, for “the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son” pushes us “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans 1:1–3, 5). Faithful biblical theology culminates in glorifying Christ, and we will glorify Christ most when we are satisfied in him and when we are helping others find this joy as well. “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name” (Psalm 86:9). If glorifying God in Christ is both the chief end of man and the ultimate end of biblical theology, then missions for the sake of worship must be central to who we are as Christians. My family and I are progressively learning what this means, and we are praying that God will increasingly shape us into vessels that care most about him and his purposes in this world.

MBTS You have referred to the task of a professor as that of being a “lead worshipper” in the classroom. I love this phrase and would love to hear what you mean by it.

JD To worship is to glorify God by reflecting, resembling, and representing him, by seeking and treasuring all he is for us in Christ, and by depending on and hoping in him always, including in seasons of suffering. By being a lead worshipper in the classroom, I mean that my responsibility as a biblical studies professor is not simply to teach the Word but to do so in a way that draws my students to see and savor the beauties of God and to act appropriately with his help and for the sake of his name. We worship God not only when we adore and stand in awe of him but also when we depend and rely on him in challenging times. This means that worship can and should happen both when new truths that

Learn more about DR. JASON DEROUCHIE at jasonderouchie.com.

we discover move us to praise and when Hebrew vocabulary or parsing seems tedious or frustrating. With the Lord’s help, I seek to be a professor who, through my preparation and presentation, brings my own worship and encounter of God into the classroom so that I model and lead my students to similar praise and presence.

MBTS Midwestern Seminary exists For the Church, and this is a vision you’ve embodied throughout your career, serving both the academy and local churches. In what ways do you hope your work will continue to aid local churches moving forward?

JD With God’s help, my family and I come to Midwestern committed to mentor and mobilize present and future ministers who will depend on God, love Christ, serve others, and remain exegetically, theologically, and ethically faithful as they seek the obedience that flows from faith for the sake of Christ’s name among the neighborhoods and the nations. Through my writing, mentoring, and teaching, I seek to model rigorous biblical interpretation that is submitted to God’s inerrant Word and that faithfully proclaims Christ’s excellencies and nurtures hope in the gospel from the whole of Scripture, including the Old Testament. Midwestern is supplying me a platform to let my writing, mentoring, and teaching empower gospel ministers near and far, and I pray that God’s Spirit will manifest himself in power through my endeavors. I am glad that I will continue to instruct master’s-level students, and I celebrate that I will also equip local ministers in conferences and train future doctors, all for the church. My wife and I intend to remain active members of a local congregation, but we also believe that we are to give greater attention to serving the broader church of Christ through my speaking and writing, the latter of which I hope will be increasingly translated into other languages. I am only a jar of clay; Jesus doesn’t need me to fulfill his mission. Nevertheless, my wife and I rejoice that in this new season at Midwestern he is letting us be poured out at his bidding and for the sake of his name.

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AROUND CAMPUS

Spurgeon College introduces intercollegiate sports with basketball program

By T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

Beginning in fall of 2019, Spurgeon College will participate in intercollegiate sports for the first time in school history.

With collegiate facilities now in place on campus and with the hiring of a head coach, the process of forming a men’s basketball team is fully underway.

In April, Midwestern Seminary’s trustees received plans to field sports teams at Spurgeon College, and the school hired Philip Parker as the basketball team’s head coach. Additionally, on May 13, the National Christian College Athletics Association officially accepted Spurgeon College as a member.

“We can’t be more thrilled to announce the launching of a men’s basketball program at Spurgeon College,” said President Jason Allen.

“Many factors have come together to make college sports a possibility, including the completion of the Mathena Student Center, and we count it as another reminder of God’s kind providence and blessing upon our institution.

“We are deeply grateful to the NCCAA for their partnership in bringing intercollegiate athletics to Spurgeon College. We appreciate the focus of their mission, which is the promotion and enhancement of intercollegiate athletic competition with a Christian perspective.

This falls fully in line with what we hope to accomplish through sports programs at Spurgeon College – to be

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highly competitive and win championships but to do so in a manner that glorifies God and develops young people for a future of Christian ministry and toward expanding and strengthening Christ’s Kingdom.”

According to the organization’s website, the NCCAA is an association of Christ-centered collegiate institutions whose mission is to use athletic competition as an integral component of education, evangelism, and encouragement. The organization serves its members by setting association standards, developing communication resources, providing regional/ national competition, and partnering in outreach to our communities and

Coach Philip Parker

the world. They also are committed to equipping student-athletes and coaches to make a positive impact for Christ.

Parker comes to Midwestern

Seminary after a five-year stint on staff at Calvary University in Kansas City, Mo. At Calvary, he started as a student assistant and worked his way into the head assistant coach role.

During his time there, Parker helped lead the rebuilding squad from a 1-20 record to a near-.500 record – including a second-place finish in the Midwest Christian College Conference regular season during the 2018-19 season.

“It’s an incredible honor to be chosen as the first men’s head basketball coach here at Spurgeon College,” Parker said. “Even before being considered for this position, I was well-aware of the growth and progression of the school and to now be a part of it is genuinely a dream come true.

“My goal for the Knights is to be the premier Christian college basketball program in the country, not only because we win, but because we train student-athletes for life and godliness in ways no one else is doing.”

Parker added that he’s encouraged by the excitement and energy about the program that’s building around campus and said he senses that the program will provide the campus community an enhanced experience for students, faculty, and staff alike.

Allen noted that Parker truly embodies all that Spurgeon College was looking for in hiring a head coach.

“After conducting a thorough search for the right man for this position, it was clear that Coach Parker pos-

sessed all the attributes we desired in leading the team. He is a young man with great energy, knowledge of the game, and leadership abilities, but, more importantly, he desires to lead a group of young men to become passionate and effective followers of Christ. He sees basketball as an environment that’s truly conducive for discipleship.”

During its initial campaign, the team, which will be known as the Knights, will play what amounts to a junior varsity schedule. Even though there will be a varsity roster, a majority of the team’s competition will be local NAIA JV squads. This formula will enable the Knights to gain experience, to work on improving logistics on-and-off the court, and to prepare for the second year when they will join the NCCAA in Division II. Parker noted that he’s currently keeping extremely busy by purchasing equipment, preparing the gym to be game-ready, and working on obtaining an apparel contract. He has also been spending time formulating the values and framework for the team, so that the players and assistants will know why they do what

“My goal for the Knights is to be the premier Christian college basketball program in the country, not only because we win, but because we train student-athletes for life and godliness in ways no one else is doing.”

- Philip Parker they do, and exactly how they are going to do it. This includes developing his coaching philosophy, the vision, the team’s mission, as well as the offensive and defensive schemes.

From a recruiting perspective, Parker said he’s in the process of researching Christian high schools and calling coaches. In June, he will be traveling extensively conducting home visits and meeting with coaches. He feels things are progressing well with recruiting.

“We will be announcing soon the signing of two student athletes who

Learn more about THE SPURGEON COLLEGE KNIGHTS at spurgeoncollege.com/athletics.

have committed to the program,” Parker said. “There are also several recruits visiting campus in the coming weeks and months. Through talking with high school coaches, we also have several sophomores and juniors that we will be keeping our eyes on.”

The Knights will begin play this coming fall with their home court being in the school’s newly completed Mathena Student Center. At present, 11 games have been scheduled with the first one taking place in mid-November. Parker hopes to have 15-20 games for the inaugural first season.

In addition to men’s basketball at Spurgeon College, there is the potential to add teams in other sports.

“Our hope and intention for the future is to add a ladies’ team next,” said Sam Bierig, dean of Spurgeon College. “The direction this could go would potentially be toward volleyball, basketball, or even cross-country. Additionally, as we add sports teams, we would like to explore the potential for men’s soccer.

Regardless of which direction these decisions take us into the future, the start-up of men’s basketball portends exciting things to come for our campus community.” •

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AROUND CAMPUS

Midwestern Seminary graduates challenged to lead a “ministry marked by sacrifice”

By T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

that is far more consequential.

“This season is marked by a sense of militancy that we intend to continue to wage war with the Word and the Spirit against the forces of darkness,” he said. “It is a sense of celebration because we know that the battle has been won by Christ, and we are departing to serve his cause triumphantly. There is a sense of urgency because we know it is our task to go with the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Allen explained that the actions believers take on behalf of the gospel are not merely symbolic. Rather, they are a calling by Jesus to give our best and our all for his gospel, his Scriptures, and his church.

“We are called to a ministry of sacrifice,” Allen said. “This is an attitude we all must possess because the road before us all, who take the seriously the call of Christ, may well be one marked by ongoing sacrifice.”

Mark 10:32-43 depicts how Jesus has shared with the disciples for a third time that the cross is an imminent destination for him, and yet, James and John seek a position of status and importance in the Kingdom. Jesus, then, as the

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s academic year concluded with much celebration and a sober charge on May 3 as graduates, families, and friends gathered together in the Daniel Lee Chapel to observe the school’s 65th commencement exercises–launching theologically-trained gospel ministers into service.

Arts in Ministry Service degree.

Key moments in the ceremony included President Jason Allen’s challenge to students in his commencement address to “have a ministry marked by sacrifice,” as well as a presentation of the institution’s Professor of the Year award.

Introducing his expository mes-

In comprising the school’s largest graduating class, 218 degrees were conferred, including 33 undergraduate, 153 graduate, 31 doctoral degrees, and 1 post-graduate certificate.

Additionally, two students were among the first to complete Midwestern Seminary’s Korean-language Ph.D. degree, and one student received the seminary’s first Master of

sage from Mark 10:32-43, Allen noted that ceremonies such as the one at Midwestern Seminary are currently taking place “This season is marked by a sense of around the country at this militancy that we intend to continue time of year. A significant difference between many to wage war with the Word and the of those and the one at Spirit against the forces of darkness.”

Midwestern, Allen said, is that this ceremony is one - Jason Allen

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passage progresses, describes to them what it means to have a ministry of sacrifice.

Allen portrayed this in three points: be prepared to suffer for the kingdom; be submitted to the plan of the kingdom; and be focused on the way of the kingdom.

To the second point, Allen noted that part of a minister’s responsibility is to have a keen sense of what God has called him or her to, and then work to make himself or herself available for that ministry.

Additionally, he warned that if graduates view their degrees from this special day in the way the world does – as merely a resume-builder and credential to obtain better employment, then “Lord help you.”

He added, “But if you view your diploma as a reminder of God’s grace – that you had the privilege to study, learn, and grow and become more familiar and equipped with the Scriptures – then we have done well, and you have done well.”

Allen concluded the message saying, “To all of you, from those I know the greatest to those I know the least, this is a day to propel you forward into great things for the Kingdom. Just do not be confused about what those great things are to be.”

Following his address, Allen announced Midwestern Seminary’s Professor of the Year. This year’s recipient was Jason Duesing, who is the institution’s Provost and associate professor of historical theology.

Duesing will celebrate his fifth anniversary at Midwestern Seminary on Aug. 1.

He came to MBTS after serving for more than a decade on the administrative leadership team and faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Duesing earned his Ph.D. in Historical Theology and Baptist Studies from Southwestern Seminary in 2008. He also holds a M.Div. from Southeastern Seminary and a B.A. in Speech Communications from Texas A&M University in College Station.

Duesing serves as a research fellow for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, on the board of directors for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, academic editor of the Midwestern Journal of Theology, and general editor for For the Church resources. He is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and regular contributor to Baptist Press.

View the 2019 commencement service in its entirety at mbts.edu/sp19graduation. •

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AROUND CAMPUS

Thankfulness Always: Reflections on Five Years as Provost

by J A S O N G . D U E S I N G

To begin my time of reflection on five years as Provost at Midwestern Seminary, I’d like to start with a brief meditation on thankfulness as I think, as one old liturgy states, “It is right to give him thanks and praise.”

I’ve organized my thoughts on thankfulness around three simple headings.

FIRST, IT IS GOD’S WILL TO BE THANKFUL, ALWAYS.

As the Apostle Paul instructs, believers are to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16–18).

Today you may find yourself wrestling with contentedness, discerning God’s will, or your present circumstances. You may be limping into the

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start of the semester. Or, you may be overjoyed with the blessings of God and so enthused that you cannot wait until Monday.

Regardless of where you find yourself today, it is God’s will to be thankful always.

SECOND, THERE IS A REASON TO BE THANKFUL, ALWAYS.

Listen to the 17th century Puritan Thomas Watson from his extended work on Romans 8:28: “See what cause the saints have to be frequent in the work of thanksgiving.

In this Christians are defective; though they are much in supplication, yet little in gratulation. The apostle says, ‘In everything give thanks’ (1 Thess. 5:18).

Why so? Because God makes everything work for our good.

“We thank the physician, though he gives us bitter medicine which makes us sick, because it is to make us well; we thank any man that does us a good turn; and shall we not be thankful to God, who makes everything work for good to us? God loves a thankful Christian.

“Job thanked God when He took all away: ‘The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord’ (Job 1:21). Many will thank God when He gives; Job thanks Him when He takes away, because he knew God would work good out of it.

“We read of saints with harps in their

hands (Rev. 14:2), an emblem of praise.

We meet many Christians who have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths; but there are few with their harps in their hands, who praise God in affliction. To be thankful in affliction is a work peculiar to a saint.

“Every bird can sing in spring, but some birds will sing in the dead of winter.

Everyone, almost, can be thankful in prosperity, but a true saint can be thankful in adversity. A good Christian will bless God, not only at sun-rise, but at sun-set.”1 Because God is good and he does not change, there is a reason to be thankful, to God, for God, always.

THIRD, THANKFULNESS IS KEY TO WALKING IN THE SPIRIT AND DEFEATING THE EVIL ONE, ALWAYS.

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Tolkien shares how the names of weapons the heroes used were so named because they described how they defeated evil.2 Bilbo Baggins names his sword “Sting” after defeating the spiders in Mirkwood. Thorin Oakenshield’s sword is named Orchrist, meaning Goblin-cleaver, and Gandalf’s sword is named Glamdring, meaning Foe-Hammer.

God has given us a similar weapon named Thankfulness that functions with the armor of God to extinguish the flames of the evil one and aids us in putting sin to death.

For example, Paul ends his beautiful teaching of what the believer should “put off” and “put on” in Colossians 3, with the phrase “and be thankful.” He then concludes in verse 17 with the summary admonition, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of

the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Therefore, when facing temptation, the believer should go on the offensive and “Set your minds on things that are above” and be thankful.

When blessings come, the believer should “give thanks to God” rather than think highly of himself. Or, as is my task today, when thinking back on 5 years, we should start with thankfulness.

MY REFLECTIONS OF THANKFULNESS

Therefore, it is good and right to give thanks, always. And when thinking about serving five years as Provost, I have a few reflections. But this is more than mere nostalgia. It is a time of intentional thanksgiving and “setting our minds on things above” for offensive warfare against the one that would steal our joy or cloud our minds or distract our hearts. Giving thanks today is a way of taking captive thoughts at the start of the school year for good and God’s glory.

Thus, for five years, I have five general categories for which I am thankful. And as I work through these categories, I invite you to think through the last year or five years or 20 years and think of things for which you are thankful as well. For, in one major sense, I am merely a representative of all of us who have the privilege of serving here at this great school.

1. People – I am thankful for the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the people who make up those churches. I am thankful for our President, Jason K. Allen, from whom I have learned much in five years. I am thankful for our facul-

ty, colleagues, students, and staff. On the horizontal plane of service here on earth, people are more important than anything. I like systems, I like improvements, I like winning, but none of those are made in the image of God. None of those are eternal beings. None of those can love and be loved. I am thankful most for the people I have encountered over the last five years.

2. Progress – I am thankful for the revitalization, growth, advancement, and goal achievement we have seen here. Those who care to read of the history of institutions will enjoy reading about God’s work at this school in recent years. But more important than that is what the progress represents in terms of Kingdom advancement. I am thankful for the progress and enjoy celebrating wins with the people.

3. Provision / Providence – I am thankful that through the challenges that have come, God has been faithful to work all things for good. God gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

4. Protection – I am thankful that God has protected us from catastrophic errors, from foolishness, from sin, from conflict, from the unseen and unknown. Midwestern Seminary is a happy place. It is a human place, to be sure, but I am thankful for how God has protected us.

5. Pointing – C. S. Lewis said, “The poet is not a man who asks me to look at him; he is a man who says ‘look at that’ and points; the more I follow the pointing of his finger the less I can possibly see of him.”3 I am

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thankful that Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College are places that point for the church and for the kingdom. How refreshing and joyful it is to serve at a place that does not ask the world to “look at us” but rather is consistently saying, “look at that” and the more people follow our pointing the more they love the gospel, love the church, love the kingdom, love the nations and most of all, love God. Thankfulness always is the way out.

In one of my favorite television shows, an older character tells a younger character, who has been struggling and stumbling, this story to encourage him and remind him he is not alone. He says: “This guy’s walking down the street

when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.

“A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

“Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

“Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole.

Our guy says, ‘Are you crazy? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.'”4

Notes Thomas Watson, “All Things for Good” [1653] (Banner of Truth, 2013), 62-63.

J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit, Chapter VIII,” “Flies and Spiders.”

C. S. Lewis, “The Personal Heresy in Literary Criticism” (1939).

The West Wing, “Noel.”

Or to summarize in another way from 1 Corinthians: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

When in doubt or whatever your circumstances, pursue thankfulness, for thankfulness is always God’s will, there is always a reason to be thankful, and it is an effective weapon against the schemes of the evil one. Whether you’ve served here for 5 years, 1 year, 20 years, or one day, remember this: You can always trust Him and give thanks to Him, for he’s been down here before and He knows the way out. •

Author's Note August 1, 2019 marked my anniversary of service at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College. At our annual faculty workshop, President Jason K. Allen asked me to take a few minutes to offer reflections on my time of service, which I've reproduced here as a brief essay.

Midwestern Journal of Theology’s spring edition released

By T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

Midwestern Seminary released its Spring 2019 issue of the Midwestern Journal of Theology on May 1, featuring works by several of the school’s faculty and doctoral students as well as academics from across the Southern Baptist Convention.

The spring edition addresses

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topics such as the gospel of John, the #MeToo Movement, a commonality between C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot, and two articles on the role of the Holy Spirit.

President Jason Allen said of the Journal’s recently-released edition, “Our editor, Dr. Michael McMullen has knitted to-

gether a fine edition of the MJT. It is encouraging and edifying to the body of Christ to have academic works like the ones represented in this MJT edition.

These essays speak to a wide range of topics affecting our society today – providing truthful insight and thoughtful guidance

amidst a world that bends at the whims of the culture.”

McMullen, who also serves as professor of Church History, noted that this issue of the MJT seeks to highlight the work of both Midwestern Seminary faculty and voices from around the greater SBC. He said, “We are grateful to have contributions from not only Midwestern Seminary’s fine faculty and adjunct faculty but to have friends from around the SBC contributing thought-provoking articles for the edification of our readership.”

The MJT’s selections begin with a piece deriving from Midwestern Seminary’s 2019 ‘For the Church’ Workshop lectures given by Andreas J. Köstenberger on Feb. 6. According to McMullen, the lectures, which were both scholarly as well as extremely helpful in learning about John’s Gospel, examined significant aspects of the early chapters of the book, including authorship, the prologue and the Cana Cycle. Köstenberger is Midwestern Seminary’s research professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology.

This essay is followed by Katie McCoy’s biblical reflection on the #MeToo Movement entitled, “What’s Missing from #MeToo: How the Christian Worldview Defends a Woman’s Worth.” In her timely piece, McCoy argues that what is missing from this present-day movement is the influence of the redeemed, those who hold to a worldview that really does value a woman’s worth. McCoy is assistant professor of theology in women's studies at Scarborough College of Southwestern Seminary.

The journal’s next article, “C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot: Unlikely Partners in Mythopoeic Pilgrimage” is published by Jared Wilson, who

is director of content strategy and managing editor of “For the Church” at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The essay explains that despite Lewis’s disdain for Eliot, the two poets’ works share many commonalities, more than perhaps either would admit and more than they are typically given credit for.

The next article features an important contribution from James Hamilton, who serves as professor of biblical theology at Southern Seminary. In the piece entitled, “The Holy Spirit and Christian Worship: The Life-Giving Legacy of the Apostolic Band,” Hamilton carefully analyzes the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Christian worship, in which he argues that Baptist ecclesiology and worship is most attuned to the Holy Spirit in Christian worship.

In what McMullen noted as the MJT’s penultimate piece, Midwestern Seminary adjunct faculty member Lance Higginbotham provides a further study on the Holy Spirit in “The Holy Spirit as the Giver of Wisdom in Biblical Theology,” wherein he very helpfully examines the Spirit’s role as the giver of wisdom in biblical theology.

The final essay in the spring edition of the MJT is written by

three of Midwestern Seminary’s Spurgeon scholars including the director of the Spurgeon Library, Phillip Ort, together with research assistants and Residency Ph.D. students Ed Romine and Timothy Gatewood. According to McMullen, the combined scholarship of these three has resulted in this challenging and encouraging reassessment of Charles Spurgeon as the quintessential evangelical.

In addition to the scholarly articles, readers will find several relevant and thought-provoking book reviews, many of which were written

by Midwestern Seminary doctoral students as well.

Midwestern Seminary’s Provost, Jason Duesing, commented that, “I remain grateful for another quality installment of the Midwestern Journal of Theology under the care and leadership of Michael McMullen.

These essays do indeed contribute much to evangelical scholarship.”

Midwestern Seminary’s Journal of Theology is available in print version for subscribers. To subscribe, contact Academic Office at (816) 414-3745 or kfreeman@mbts.edu.

Additionally, guests may view the issue in its entirety for free on the seminary’s website, mbts.edu/journal. •

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MBTS inaugural journal, Permanent Things, released – focuses on Christian cultural engagement

By T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

A new journal entitled Permanent Things, which predominantly focuses on Christian cultural engagement, was released June 5 by the Center for Public Theology at Midwestern Seminary.

The purpose of the journal, which will be published annually and can be accessed mainly online, is to stimulate thought about the meaning of Christianity in a fallen age that rejects divine order, and to show the beauty of the Christian worldview against every alternative.

Jason Allen, president of Mid-

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western Baptist Theological Seminary, said the new journal will be particularly helpful in assisting its readers in “equipping the church of Jesus Christ for theological engagement in a fallen order and a secularizing public square.”

He added, “For the past three years, Dr. Owen Strachan—through the Center for Public Theology—has been setting the standard in providing the evangelical community with insight and resources for ministry and Christian interaction in the public arena. Permanent Things takes

this work to another level, as it will offer readers timely, much-needed articles on a host of issues people will be confronted with on a daily basis in our lost and morally-confused culture.”

Strachan, the editor of Permanent Things and who also serves as associate professor of Christian Theology and director of the CPT at Midwestern Seminary, said the journal is “a venture into the theological discipline of Christ and culture. It is a work, therefore, of cultural engagement. From an evangelical stand-

point, we may explicitly include a biblical conception of the family, church, and public square.

“Permanent Things is a Baptist equivalent of the long-appreciated Books & Culture, First Things, and The City, each a journal of thought and letters from a distinctly religious standpoint. Our charge is to assist the church in thinking in a distinctly Christian way in a climate in which such assistance is in short supply.”

Strachan said that the first issue of Permanent Things, which received its name from the writings of T.S. Eliot, features reflection on matters modern and ancient, including posthumanism, the films of Christopher Nolan, the meaning of conservatism, the “intellectual dark web,” Christian statesmanship, manhood and womanhood, and much more.

The Center for Public Theology was launched in June 2016 at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis. Since, Strachan has leveraged blog posts, podcasts, lectureships, and social media to promote the center’s work and ideas.

In the journal’s inaugural edition: Michael Plato, assistant professor of intellectual history and Christian thought at Colorado Christian University, gives a thorough but concise summary of two major challenges to Christian anthropology in our time: transhumanism and posthumanism.

Of the essay Strachan said “Many of us are hearing these terms, but few pastors know how to engage these challenges, new as they are.

Plato's article will help prepare the church on this front.”

Brett McCracken, an editor for The Gospel Coalition, writes an original piece on the films of Christopher Nolan. He shows that Nolan addresses timeless questions with subtlety, finesse, and depth, but resolutely avoids Christian answers. Strachan noted that the medium of our age is increasingly movies, and so McCracken's piece is a great introduction to perhaps the leading director of our time. He added, “McCracken is the best young film critic of our time.”

Midwestern Seminary Provost Jason Duesing offers a reflection on evangelical statesmanship that is Inklings-like. In fractious times, Duesing produces an essay that rightly calls for both conviction and graciousness. This is a crucial element of leadership in 2019.

Freelance writer and Ph.D. student, Esther O'Reilly, contributes a sharp-eyed overview of the Intellectual Dark Web. This strange and amorphous movement has received surprisingly little attention in the evangelical community, and O'Reilly’s analysis offers much food for thought on this subject. Christians do well to think through the IDW, such as it is, with clarity and perception.

Other contributors to Permanent Things include Strachan, Andreas J. Kostenberger, Bruce Ashford, H.B. Charles, Jr., Andrew Walker, Jonathan Leeman, David Talcott, Costi Hinn, Abigail Dodds, Don Sweeting, and Thomas Kidd.

Permanent Things will have limited printed editions but can be found on Midwestern Seminary’s website at mbts.edu/ permanentthings. •

Learn more about THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC THEOLOGY at cpt.mbts.edu.

God Calls.

We Train.

You Go. Spend your first year of college training for and going to the mission field with the Fusion program at Spurgeon College.

Jesus told his disciples how people would hear when he authoritatively commissioned a small group of his followers to make disciples who make disciples of all nations. The challenge is no smaller today than it has been for centuries. Billions of people around the globe live in places of utter darkness where they will be born, live, and die without ever hearing an authentic witness to the Gospel message.

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BRINGING THE WHOLE COUNSEL TO BEAR IN BIBLICAL COUNSELING Midwestern Seminary’s biblical counseling program offers undergraduate (B.A.), graduate (M.A.), and post-graduate (Ph.D. and D.Min.) biblical counseling degrees. These degrees are designed for significant training in the principles and methods of biblical counseling, preparing you for service in a local church, biblical counseling center, or wider ministry setting. Our goal is to equip ministers and laypersons to minister biblically within their local churches and communities, making the church the first place people go for help, rather than a last resort.

Take the next step.

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS IN BRIEF

New and Upcoming Releases from the Midwestern Seminary Community

CANON, COVENANT AND CHRISTOLOGY: RETHINKING JESUS AND THE SCRIPTURES OF ISRAEL

DIVINE IMPASSIBILITY: FOUR VIEWS OF GOD'S EMOTIONS AND SUFFERING

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN: EIGHT LIES ABOUT GOD THAT SOUND LIKE THE TRUTH

by Matthew Barrett (IVP)

Edited by Robert Matz (IVP)

by Jared C. Wilson (Thomas Nelson)

February 2020

August 2019

January 2020

In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Matthew Barrett argues that Jesus and the apostles have just as convictional a doctrine of Scripture as Paul or Peter, but it will only be discovered if the Gospels are read within their own canonical horizon and covenantal context.

Does God suffer? Does God experience emotions? How should we interpret passages of Scripture that seem to support one view or the other? And where do the incarnation and Christ's suffering on the cross fit into this? This volume brings together four theologians with decidedly different answers to these questions.

Not every lie sounds untrue. Some just sound right, and some are repeated so often that they virtually become "common knowledge." This is what makes lies about God so dangerous.

So we have to ask, "What might God's enemy want us to believe to lead us astray?"

WHO IS AN EVANGELICAL?: THE HISTORY OF A MOVEMENT IN CRISIS

BETTER TOGETHER: YOU, YOUR CHURCH, AND THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM

by Thomas S. Kidd (Yale University Press)

by Robert Matz & John Mark Yeats (Rainer)

Available Now

Available Now

Evangelicalism is arguably America’s most controversial religious movement.

Nonevangelical people who follow the news may have a variety of impressions about what “evangelical” means...In this illuminating book, Thomas Kidd draws on his expertise in American religious history to retrace the arc of this spiritual movement.

Better Together: You, Your Church, and the Cooperative Program is a compelling introduction to the cooperative work of Southern Baptists.

Designed as a resource for group or individual study, you can discover why Southern Baptists are passionate about working together to change the world!

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BOOK REVIEW

THOMAS S. KIDD'S

Who Is an Evangelical?

A Book Review by M I K E B R O O K S

Recently, Yale University Press released Thomas S. Kidd’s new book, Who Is an Evangelical? The History of a Movement in Crisis. I am among those who have been looking forward to the book for quite some time as I became more aware of the types of questions Kidd was asking via blog posts and social media in light of the fallout from the 2016 presidential election. His posts frequently made mention of the need for accuracy in reporting, for integrity in journalism, for a bit of nuance in hot takes, and for definitions of terms. As believers, we deal fundamentally with truth. When it is not present—that is, when falsity or the possibility of it abounds—we engage in the pursuit of truth for the glory of God and the good of others. Placed along the way, in this pursuit, is a mile-marker in the form of Who Is An Evangelical?—an expert-level, historically-thorough, convicting, and motivating volume that arrives at just the right time.

Here are three reasons you should read Who Is an Evangelical? sooner, rather than later.

1

Read the book to remember from whence we came.

Evangelical history is, at times, painful to recount, but glimmers of hope are revealed in the process.

To the great benefit of readers, Kidd does not skim over evangelicals’ collective and individual blights.

They are there, in print and with a name on them – racism, pride, grasping for power via political and cultural influence, etc. The past and present sin within and outside the evangelical camp has shaped a public identity of evangelicals at present that is

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wholly different from the movement’s foundational features. The movement, per its current reputation within our culture, is largely unidentifiable alongside its traditional counterpart, primarily due to the seemingly inseparable relationship between the religious movement and partisan politics.

What was an increasingly multiethnic group committed to the theological tenets of conversion, the presence of the Holy Spirit, missions, and revival has been effectively reduced in commentary and poll-results to the voting habits and opinions of “white Republicans.” The disparity between who was and now is considered an “evangelical” is cavernous. Kidd stands in the gap, writing to “show how historically peculiar a partisan and ethnic definition of evangelicals is," and he examines the contributor factors that led us to the politicized version of evangelicalism that is prevalent today. Kidd reminds us of what initially earned us the "evangelical" label, beckoning us to remember where we came from and offering a proposition to return.

2

Read the book to come to grips (and terms) with where we are.

Kidd’s work is demanding of its readers in the sense that it is impossible to ignore the “crisis” at hand.

Public perception of evangelicals is not all that matters, but it is far from inconsequential. Public witness is frequently a concern biblically speaking, though it is helpful to reflect at times on the grounds and warrant of certain criticisms and accusations. To sift through every tweet and article, consider every ounce of nuance, and entertain every possible angle and solution to perceived problems within evangelicalism is likely as exhausting as it sounds. At base, the critique levied against evangelicals is centered on the 81% figure touted as the percentage of white evangelicals who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The urgency with which many rallied behind the statistic and the subsequent outpouring of criticism—some level-headed, most of it laden with vitriol—prompted the title question of Kidd’s work. Who exactly is among the 81%? Who considers themselves to be an evangelical when asked by a pollster? Answer: A variety of people and many among them who shouldn’t. Kidd makes this case convincingly in the latter half of the volume.

3

Read the book to be hopeful about where we are headed.​

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, media reports swirled and proclamations were made online of the intentions of many to jettison the evangelical movement or, at the very least, to abandon the moniker.

In a recent interview with Thomas Kidd, I asked what he thought was at stake if the evangelical movement was lost by name or conceptually. His answer: In a sense, it doesn’t matter much if we lose the name. The Greek word euangelion, of course, simply means “good news,” and whatever people call “evangelicals,” I hope we will still be known as bearers of the good news about salvation through Jesus Christ. Some have even suggested other names we could call ourselves, such as “gospel Christians” or “Jesus followers.” But there is no practical way that we can get away from the term evangelical, which journalists and scholars will keep using, even if we don’t.

However, I do think there is a great deal to be lost in a historical sense if we simply accept

the notion that “evangelicals” are, and have been, an interest group within the Republican Party, which is what a lot of the coverage of evangelicals seems to imply today. That impression misses the spiritual and theological core of what it has historically meant to be an evangelical, but it also makes evangelicals seem far more politicized, ethnically homogenous, and America-centered than they have been in the past, or than they remain on the global stage today.

In the book, he writes: “Perhaps I am naïve to hope that there remains a core of practicing, orthodox evangelicals who really do care more about salvation and spiritual matters than access to Republican power.” In many ways, Kidd’s concern about wishful thinking diminishes as more come forward who share the same hope. Our culture is quick to judge by association, and we should be mindful of our associations, but the critiques and conclusions drawn are not so formulaic. Who appears to be an evangelical isn't always an evangelical.

In moments of optimism shared with the author, I’d like to think there are many among us, perhaps without Twitter accounts and more in tune with reality, that air on the side of confessing things are broken while keeping an eye toward the possibility they can be mended. We have in mind and heart the theological moorings that earned us the evangelical label in the first place, though we aren’t tight-fisted with the name we go by. Many of us remain, as Kidd deems it, “politically homeless,” and yet are reasonably and needfully hopeful about what's ahead. We'll take all the help we can get to make sure we get there. •

MIKE BROOKS serves as social media and content manager at Midwestern Seminary and as associate editor at For The Church. He is currently a Ph.D. student in historical theology at MBTS and a member at Emmaus Church. Mike and his wife, Paige, reside in Kansas City. You can follow him on Twitter @mikebrooks.

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CAMPUS LIFE

MEET ON THE LAWN

SPRING PICNIC | 2019

FTC WORKSHOP | DR. JASON K. ALLEN M I DW E S T E R N M A G A Z I N E

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DINNER WITH THE DEAN

MWI GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY For MORE CAMPUS EVENTS AND PHOTOS visit our events page at mbts.edu/events.

ALUMNI LUNCHEON

INTRAMURAL BASKETBALL

NEW ENGLAND STUDY TOUR

FOR THE CHURCH NATIONAL CONFERENCE KANSAS CITY | SEPTEMBER 23–24

SPRING CONCERT

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FOR THE CHURCH Re c e nt art icle s

MORE RE S OURCE S AVAIL A BLE AT F T C.CO

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Philosophy and the Christian Life

by T H O R M A D S E N

Philosophy is the effort to think critically about life’s ultimate questions and the basic concepts of reason. Philosophers investigate what exists, what we can know, and what is of value—not in particular, of course, but in a general or theoretical sense. They also examine ideas like time, existence, evidence, cause, effect, truth, and rationality. Everyone’s thoughts and behavior depend on answers to these philosophical questions. In that sense, everyone is an accidental philosopher, at least, if not an intentional one. To live at all is to live by a philosophical belief system.

For this reason, G. K. Chesterton (18741936) defended a revival of philosophy in his own day as doubly urgent, even for regular folks who work in ordinary jobs—people who would never think of themselves as distant colleagues of Socrates or Plato. The problem, as Chesterton sees it, is this: if we do not think for ourselves, someone else will, often in ways that we would never accept, especially if we understood the power of ideas and, in that case, other people’s ideas.

So then, Chesterton writes, “The best reason for a revival of philosophy is that unless a man has a philosophy certain horrible things will happen to him. He will be practical; he will be progressive; he will cultivate efficiency; he will trust in evolution; he will do the work that lies nearest; he will devote himself to deeds, not words. Thus struck down by blow after blow of blind stupidity and random fate, he will stagger on to a miserable death with no comfort but a series of catchwords.” Chesterton means to exaggerate these risks for rhetorical effect, we know, but his warning

is well taken. Ideas have consequences, whether we like it or not, and those consequences can be bad.

one guesses, he stopped caring about ideas—especially about their quality, as opposed to their convenience.

In our own day, as in his, catchwords still do the thinking for too many people. Celebrities and Twitterverse Titans define acceptable thought and behavior, and others thoughtlessly follow. Therefore, we need good intellectual defenses, ones that keep us from eating intellectual junk food. To a similar end, Chesterton writes, “Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out,” and he allows: “It is often a great bore.” But then again, “Man has no alternative, except between being influenced by thought that has been thought out and being influenced by thought that has not been thought out. The latter is what we commonly call culture and enlightenment today.”

Imagine what Chesterton might have said about modern debates involving popular media figures.

Not everyone can be Chesterton or C. S. Lewis, of course. We cannot all become dragon slayers of conventional wisdom. But any of us can make a start by learning to ask the right questions at the right time and to observe the standards that validate popular ideas. How do the actions of people around us reveal what they presuppose about what exists, what we can know, and what is of value? Based on what they do, can we determine how they would define concepts like "truth," "evidence," and "rationality"?

As soon as we start to ask and answer these diagnostic questions, we have entered the world of philosophy.

As I write this essay, an older man has entered the coffee shop where I am sitting, and he is wearing a hoodie that says, "People are more important than beliefs." Under that line are symbols of religions and political parties, as if to commend less thinking, rather than better thinking, as a solution to our world’s anger and violence. And I think to myself, “By this time, he should know better.” He should know that men over 60 may not wear hoodies, just as they may not wear cycling shorts, tank tops, and brightly colored track shoes. He should also recognize that, "People are more important than beliefs", is a belief. How could he have missed the inconsistency? At some point,

Philosophy can certainly do harm in the wrong hands, just as preaching, evangelism, and church music can do great harm; but it can also reveal the power of the Christian worldview to account for the full range of human experience. Philosophy can show us the extent to which Scripture answers life’s ultimate questions, whether directly or by remote implication. In other words, it can give us even more reason to praise the God who created us, who saves us, and who sustains us every day.

At the very least, philosophy can help us to eat right intellectually and avoid destructive fashions. •

THOR MADSEN has been at Midwestern Seminary since 1999 and is currently dean of Graduate Studies, Ph.D. Program Director and professor of New Testament, Ethics and Philosophy.

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RESOURCES | FTC.CO

You Need to be Inconvenienced for Your Church

by T Y L E R G R E E N E

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 Jn 3:16) I once read about a revival which took place among some of Scotland’s rural churches in the 1800s. Many of the believers who belonged to these churches lived in the middle of nowhere and would travel long distances for gathered worship. Bear in mind, this was before the emergence of automotive technology! What’s more, the revival came during winter months, which made the commute treacherous due to weather conditions—especially since the mountainous terrain was not ideal for travel.

Needless to say, meaningful participation in the life of the local church wasn’t easy for these believers. Nevertheless, they were faithful and God visited them in a powerful way as one minister from that time noted: “It was often a stirring sight to witness the multitudes assembling during the dark winter evenings—to trace their progress as they came in all directions across moors and mountains by the blazing torches which they carried to light their way to the places of meeting. The Word of the Lord was precious in those days; and personal inconvenience was little thought of when the hungering soul sought to be satisfied.”

As we look to the example of these believers, let’s make one crucial observation: those who are hungry for Christ consider it their joy to be inconve-

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nienced for the sake of His church.

Unfortunately, this is in stark contrast to the way many people treat the church today. Countless multitudes attend church regularly, but view it as a commodity—a conveniently located provider of spiritual goods and services for which they make no real sacrifice.

Of course, such a perspective can be manifested in different forms. In some cases, it assumes the form of total avoidance of any sort of participation beyond semi-regular attendance on Sundays.

However, in many other cases, it is far less obvious than that.

Most of us don’t mind some level of participation. We have no qualms about signing up to serve for an hour on Sundays or joining a small group. In such cases, the problem isn’t one of whether we’re participating in the mission of the church; it is one of how we’re participating. As advantageous, over-scheduled Americans, our participation is often subject to our convenience. Far too seldom is it something for which we readily adjust our schedules or re-envision how we live.

Instead, we settle for being involved enough to feel like we’ve done our due diligence before God but without any disruption of our everyday lives.

Or, to put it more plainly, we’ve resorted to negotiating our participation in the church’s mission when we should be completely surrendering it. God isn’t after the win-win; He’s after our full devotion.

Let’s boil this down so we can see what’s really at stake. Our aversion to being inconvenienced for the local church reveals our lack of hunger for Jesus. For those who hunger for Him above all else will joyfully love what He loves and value what He values no matter the cost. Or as the apostle John put it, those whose hearts have been apprehended by the love of Jesus lay down their lives for the brethren (see 1 John 3:16, quoted above).

Therefore, when it comes to life in the local church, we have two choices before us—we can have convenience or we can have more of Jesus. We must decide. We can’t have both. So for you, which will it be?

As you consider that question, read this insight from Ray Ortlund: “If your relationship with your church is ambiguous and sporadic and subject to convenience, the problem is not your relationship with your church. The problem is your relationship with Christ.

He has made his loyalty clear. He even delights in his church. He is committed to the revival of the world through the revival of the church. To God, the most important thing in all of created reality is his church, a crown of beauty in his hand. Your own greatest happiness is the revival of your church.”

Want to experience true happiness in Christ? If so, your local church must feel like an inconvenience; its mission must cost you something. God is calling us to make adjustments in the areas of our

lives that are hindering us from costly participation in the mission of the church—not because He wants to take anything away from us but because He wants to give us more joy in Christ.

For the sake of greater satisfaction in Jesus, let’s stop orienting His church to our lives and begin orienting our lives to His church. When that happens, we’ll no longer be treating the church like a commodity that is subject to our convenience. Instead we’ll be delighting in it as the precious bride for which Christ laid down his life. •

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The Bible in Miniature

by S A M PA R K I S O N

This may come as news to you, and if so, I am sorry that it has taken this long for someone to tell you, but you are not the center of the universe. You aren’t the point of it all. I do not mean to insult the intelligence of any reader; I know you know you are not the literal center of the universe. But in function, our uptightness, impatience, and indignation in response to personal offenses often contradicts our literal knowledge. I’ll take this a step further, though. Not only is the universe not about you, but neither is the Bible.

People are not the point of the Bible, God is.

The Bible tells the story of a glorious Triune God who shows himself to be glorious chiefly by dumping his grace on ill-deserving creatures. This is a far cry from the typical evangelical take, which is more like a rom-com story of a heart-smitten God who had stars in his eyes for us and just couldn’t be happy until heaven was inhabited by us. Nope.

That’s not where you and I fit in here: we are not the much-needed company to solve the problem of celestial loneliness.

Rather, we are the needy, ill-deserving recipients of God’s grace, whose persistent wickedness creates the backdrop for God’s mercy to shine with more brilliance. We are not the heroes of our stories. We are the complete idiots, and God is the hero who keeps saving us.

God is not an instrument for our happiness; we are instruments for his glory.

That’s the story of the Bible, and it’s

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told in miniature in the prayer of Nehemiah 9:6-37. We would all do well to shape our prayers after the Levites in Nehemiah chapter nine in the following ways:

A Sober Understanding of a Massive God “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you” (Nehemiah 9:6).

This is the God to whom we pray. He is God “from everlasting to everlasting.”

He is not merely a tribal deity, temperamental and wishy-washy. He does not have a jurisdiction that comes only so far. He is not constrained by anyone or anything. Nor does he depend on anyone or anything.

The biblical worldview places all reality in two distinct categories: God and everything else. The Creator and his creation. The Creator is intrinsically, eternally happy in himself, contingent upon nothing, and everything else derives its existence from God. Creation’s trademark is absolute neediness and dependence on God. Nothing in this universe exists independent of God’s active, sustaining will. God didn’t create us and then step back to leave us to do our own thing; he keeps the universe together moment by moment.

Nothing—and I mean nothing—has existential autonomy.

Think about it. We came into existence

by God’s providence as a fertilized egg due to the combined efforts of a father and mother we did not choose, under the parental judgments we did not make, in a home we did not build, in a country we did not decide on, on a planet we do not keep spinning around a sun we do not keep burning in a universe we could never dream up.

This means that all the arrogance of our age about “self-actualization” and “choosing our destiny” is utter foolishness. It’s all a delusion. We are not gods.

We are part of a fabric of reality that is all spoken into existence by God—he is the speaker, we are his words.

And praise God for that! Because his absolute self-existence means that his love for us is absolutely free. We could never twist his arm into being “ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love” (Nehemiah 9:17). We could never convince him to become the kind of God who is righteous and “keeps covenant and steadfast love” (Nehemiah 9:32). He simply is that God. Our confession of sin and need doesn’t make him into that kind of God—we don’t give him the idea to act a little more gracious—he is maximally gracious in his very nature, and it is only because he is that kind of God that we have any reason to confess and seek after him in the first place.

Biblical Literacy We would never know God to be this way if he had not told us about himself

in his word. This prayer is the product of a 24–day intensive Bible study (cf., Nehemiah 7:73, 9:1), and the whole thing oozes biblical language. These Levites are praying the very words of God back to God, and they could do so seamlessly because of how deeply his word had taken root in their hearts. Their thinking about themselves and about God was conditioned by Scripture.

This is important for us to remember, since all culture is in the business of disciple-making, and secular culture disciples us to think about ourselves, our feelings, and God in all sorts of ways that are not biblical. I have the right to have this opinion about myself by virtue of it being my opinion. You may think that God is one way, but in my opinion, he is this way.

But what makes us think we are entitled to wrong conceptions of ourselves?

Did we create ourselves? Do we own ourselves? Are we our own lords? Even more importantly, we are not entitled to wrong conceptions of God. He is who he is, and he has told us who he is; we’re left simply to submit our opinions and ways of thinking to his authoritative word. And, if you’re looking for help with this outside of the Bible, good luck.

The word of God cuts in the opposite direction of the world’s conditioning, and it reorients us back to reality: where the world tells us evil is good and good is evil, Scripture sets the record straight.

Where the world tells us the ceiling is the floor and the floor is the ceiling, God’s word reminds us of gravity.

The Levites who constructed the prayer of Nehemiah 9:6-37 had such a reverence for God’s word that their conception of reality was totally conditioned by what they read there. Glad-hearted submission to God’s judgments is the

flavor of this prayer. In this confession, they are trusting God’s assessment of them. We are what your word tells us we are, and we make no objections to your discipline. You have acted righteously, we have acted wickedly.

A Suspicion of Self Perhaps the best thing this prayer has going for it, though, is its deep and resounding suspicion of self. As these Levites look backward at human history up to that point, they saw the very best human effort had to offer, and it looked pretty bleak. This prayer, swinging like a saloon door on conjunctions like hinges, places God only and always on the side of faithfulness, and Israel only and ever on the side of faithlessness. “You gave them bread…”

(9:15), “but they and our fathers acted presumptuously…” (9:16), “but you are a God ready to forgive…” (9:17), “nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled…” (9:26). Swing, swing, swing. Because of this, the Levites knew that any hope they had for the future depended not on themselves (they had pretty well proven themselves incapable by then), but on God’s gracious mercy. The story of the Bible.

For us, there ought not be the slightest uncertainty in our minds that God will receive our confession from a kind disposition. We are in Christ!

The Father could no sooner turn a cold shoulder to us than he could the resurrected and ascended Son. Christ already experienced all the rejection you deserve when he hung on the cross and cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” All that’s left for you, Christian, is kindness. So with a sober understanding of this massive God, and with biblically informed prayers that still drip with the cleansing and atoning blood of Jesus, may we pray with confidence. •

SAMUEL G. PARKISON is the author of Revelation and Response: The Why and How of Leading Corporate Worship through Song. He is also a regular contributor to For The Church and is a Ph.D. student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Samuel lives in Kansas City with his wife, Shannon, and their two sons, Jonah and Henry, where Samuel serves as a pastor of teaching and liturgy at Emmaus Church.

But, I ask you, is the highpoint of his merciful and gracious nature simply found in his forbearance of Israel’s sin? Of course not! The display of his gracious nature ratchets up a thousand notches when he condescends in the person of Jesus to not only forbear the sins of his people, but to atone for them.

This means Christians have every reason to pray with the kind of humility and boldness these Levites showcase.

We who cling to Jesus by faith confess our sins in prayer like these Levites, but we do so altogether differently.

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The One Life Dream That Makes a Girl Blush

by A N D R E A B U R K E

Because of my work, I sit down regularly with single, young women.

Single, young women who want nothing more than a wedding ring, the kids, the house, the whole lot.

And mind you, their wishes are never wicked or wrong. What they desire is not evil. What they hope for isn’t silly. They are not glassy-eyed about their future. They are not sitting across from me wondering where Prince Charming is. They are faithful young women. Hard-working. Funny.

Beautiful. Smart. And they have done well to steward what they have up to this point.

feminism that we’ve forgotten how to proudly be feminine. You want to carry a child in your bones and lay down your life for them for more than 18 years? You want to lay down your life and learn to die to self for the rest of your life? You want to serve someone with all your heart, body, and soul? You want to master the art of cooking for a crowd and have clean clothes and end each day knowing that there’s a group of people who look to you as one of their anchors and rocks? You want to work your tired body from dawn to dusk for love?

And yet, I see it. When the water is poured again, and they lean back after a dish is served to their friends. When they take a breath and their shoulders slump a little. After they’ve told me all they’ve said of their current life, their work, their time, their goals. They don’t want to say it, for fear that admitting it will make them look weak.

How silly it is not. How trivial is no way to describe it.

“I know it’s silly,” one girl said. “I know.

But…” she hesitated, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I really just want to be married. To raise some kids.

To take care of a home.” She’s almost embarrassed by the time she’s finished saying the sentiment. As if admitting it has made any impressive strength and wit she had faded away into a pile of proverbial laundry and dishes. As if she’s ashamed for wanting something so “trivial” and simple. “Is that silly? I mean, it’s really all I really want to do.”

We’ve gone so far down the road of

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I wish we loved the strength it takes for a woman to become a wife and a mother. We marvel at her physical strength when she births a child, but we forget what invisible strength she shows when she lays down her life for her home every day after that. Social media spends all of its energy telling women to remember who they are, to fight for their sacred spaces, to become the woman they want to be. All things that feel confusing when you’re holding a newborn baby and learning to forget your self-centeredness allow others into your personal space and become the woman that you are becoming and not who you thought you’d be.

I wish as a culture we understood what happens in those four walls when two adults decide to sacrifice for one another, be good stewards of their

money, welcome in guests, and raise a generation to know the heritage of the Lord. I wish we called it more than a contract, an agreement, or even a commitment to vows. I wish we called it holy, beautiful, other-worldly.

We’ve tried to make it easy. We’ve updated our lives with gadgets and gizmos aplenty. We’ve made our machines smarter. We’ve made our cleaning supplies more time efficient.

We’ve scrubbed the hard work right out the door. We don’t even need to meal plan or grocery shop anymore. Fresh groceries can show up at our door, pre-measured, pre-planned, ready to go to the table within 30 minutes.

We’ve turned our properties into museums. Instead of well-loved they are well-liked on social media, and we’ve forgotten how to create a home and, instead, curate a scene for those who will never step foot through our door. We’ve replaced hard conversations with texts.

We’ve told husbands and wives that the primary goal of their marriage is their own happiness. We’ve sold them the lie that once it gets hard, tired, menial, once it gets weary, someone raises their voice, or someone says something they regret, that we can get out with a white flag that says, “This just isn’t for me anymore.”

We’ve made love about sex, and sex about self.

When a woman says she wants to make dinner for her family, we crack a

joke about June Cleaver, and we laugh because who wants to waste their time with that? When a woman says she wants to stay home and raise children, we give a curt smile and say, “But what do you really want to do with your life?”

And should she decide to pursue that, other women will be the first to look down their noses at her, tell her she’s not adding anything, that she’s slowing down progress.

As if giving up your life for others isn’t an incredible thing. We applaud heroes on the battlefield, social justice workers on the borderlines, desperate souls who risk everything for the ones they love.

But marriage? Motherhood? Small living? Psh. *eye roll* It’s 2019, right?

As if the woman who chooses such things has given up. As if her internal engine doesn’t weary. As if she’s not feeling incredibly alone because all of her 9-5 friends have opted for happy hours and bursting bank accounts while she empties herself for souls who need every ounce of her life.

Children have become the last resort.

The final hurrah for a marriage that spends years “finding itself.” Career trumps caretaker. Independence is king.

Personal happiness above that insane idea of laying it all down.

This is not to say that those who can’t have children, don’t have children or who aren’t married are inherently wrong. I’m just wondering if we have to speak so condescendingly about those who have said the hard “Yes” to the humbling and long-term work of marriage and family. Can we stop acting like she’s chosen a simple and silly life?

Can we stop talking about children like they’re soul-sucking, dream-killing,

money-grabbing leeches on society?

Can we stop treating wives and moms with the eye-rolling disdain that says, “Only the simple-minded woman would choose such an outdated path?”

We all buy into this narrative so much that when a 21-year-old girl sits across the table from me and tells me that she wants to be a mother, she blushes and gives a thousand caveats as to why she knows it’s not the optimal choice.

And yet—here’s what I know to be true.

I’m nearly 36. I’ve carried two children in these bones, and I’ve nursed them, held them, wept over them and because of them I’ve planned meals for more than 10 years now for hungry bellies and bottomless pits. I’ve had seasons of scratching the bottom of empty bank accounts and seasons where I’ve forgotten to worry about money at all. I’ve forgotten myself entirely and sometimes thought of myself only and always too much.

Everyone in their 30s is talking about a rebirth, and I’m still learning how to die.

But the souls that move in bodies in and around my home? They are a legacy and an investment that I do not ever regret giving it all for. When I’m weary and feeling empty, when my life goals feel lifetimes away, and my body isn’t the one I hoped I’d have, I can promise you that I wouldn’t give them up for a thousand trips around the world, a perfect waistline, or a name linked to fame.

edge of the summer sky, my friend turned to me and said: “Do you ever feel like you found the secret to happiness?” Her long legs crossed, a toddler tucked on her lap, and she smiled. “You know—you see all these people out there chasing happiness?

Adventure? Purpose? And do you think we’ve found it? Right here in our simple homes, good husbands, these kids…” she trailed off.

“I do think we’ve found it. It’s all right here,” I nodded back.

So my dear friends, as the poet Wendell Berry said: “...every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.”

And don’t blush for saying that’s all you really wanted anyway. •

ANDREA BURKE is the director of Women's Ministry at her home church of Grace Road Church in Rochester, N.Y. She writes and teaches regularly for women. She's married to the quintessential Vermont man, Jedediah, and they are raising two kids in an old farmhouse on a couple of acres outside of Rochester. You can also find more about her at andreagburke.com or on Twitter @theandreaburke.

The world can forget me, but they will not.

Last summer, while the kids chased fireflies and the men smoked pipes, while the bonfire’s flames licked the

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