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vol.22 | no.6 | November-December 2013 | $6.50

how to read the bible Reading with the lights on

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Do we all worship the same God? Equipping you to defend the bold claims of Christ in a world of religious pluralism. v i s i t W h i t e H o r s e I n n.o r g / w e e k e n d f o r m o r e i n f o r m at i o n. S pa c e i s l i m i t e d.

J u ly 24-26 2014

features vol.22 | no.6 | November-december 2013

How to Read The Book

by M i cha e l S. Ho rto n

The Art of Synecdoche Exodus & Conquest in Scripture

by Bryan D. Estel l e

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Faith in the Real Jesus

Jesus: The Second and Greater Adam

Understanding Him as Prophet, Priest, and King

by G r ae me G o ldswo rt hy

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by Thomas J. Egger

40 ModernReformation.org

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New from Kim Riddlebarger.

New and Expanded A Case for Amillennialism .

Regardless of their stance, readers will find helpful insight as Riddlebarger evaluates the main problems facing each of the major millennial positions and cautions readers to be aware of the spiraling consequences of each view.

visit wh iteh o r se i nn.org/store .

departments 04 05

Letter from the editor

By Rya n glo msrud

Blows that Break Rock: Teaching the Gospel to Young Children

Theology ››

by Sta rr Me a de

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THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD ››

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Roundtable ››

47 54 56

Part VI: Waiting on the Lord

By Z ach K e e le

When the Lights Came On

Michael Horton, Ken Jones, Kim Riddlebarger, and Rod Rosenbladt

Book Reviews ››

Sto rms, Ebe rsta dt, a nd DeYoung

Geek Squad ›› Typology

by Mi cha e l s. Ho rto n

BACK PAGE ››

Prophet, Priest, and King Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Horton Executive Editor Ryan Glomsrud Managing Editor Patricia Anders Assistant Editor Brooke Ventura Marketing Director Michele Tedrick Design Director José Reyes for Metaleap Creative, metaleapcreative.com Department Editors Ryan Glomsrud (Letter from the Editor & Reviews), Michael S. Horton Designer Tiffany Forrester Copy Editor Elizabeth Isaac Proofreader Ann Smith Modern Reformation © 2013 All rights reserved. ISSN-1076-7169 Modern Reformation (Subscription Department) P.O. Box 460565 Escondido, CA 92046 (855) 492-1674 info@modernreformation.org www.modernreformation.org Subscription Information US 1 YR $32. 2 YR $58. US 3 YR $78. Digital Only 1 YR $25. US Student 1 YR $26. Canada add $8 per year for postage. Foreign add $9 per year for postage.

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letter from the editor

Ryan Glomsrud executive editor

The angel’s declaration “For unto you a child is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” did not take the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night completely unaware (Luke 2:11). We do know they were scared stiff, on one level. But if the shepherds were good Sabbath-school students, then the glorious announcement was not without context and may have struck a chord on a much deeper level. In fact, the angel that night made explicit reference to that most remarkable prophecy from the Old Testament; it was in essence a paraphrase of Isaiah 9:6. In this Christmas story we see just one example of the many, many ways in which the Bible is one incredibly intricate, interconnected, coherent, and surprising story.

In this issue of Modern Reformation, we introduce three important biblical strategies on how to read the Bible for a new and better understanding. Editor-in-Chief Michael Horton introduces the way in which these reading strategies are based on Scripture’s own interpretation of itself; and Anglican theologian and author Graeme Goldsworthy explores how Jesus is the “self-declared fulfillment of the Old Testament promises,” culminating specifically in the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King,

which Jesus embraces in “the totality of his being and doing.” Tom Egger, a Lutheran theologian who teaches at Concordia Seminary, helps us connect Jesus all the way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden. “In restoring us to the image of God” lost by Adam, Egger reminds us that as the Second Adam Jesus “regained not only humanity’s original goodness, but also humanity’s original greatness and dominion.”

Also, Old Testament scholar and Westminster Seminary California professor Bryan Estelle employs a very helpful literary category or figure of speech, “synecdoche,” to discuss the meaning and significance of the Exodus for relating both Testaments of Scripture. Something greater than Israel’s escape from Egypt and deliverance into the land of Canaan was foreshadowed in the Old Testament—namely, escape from sin and entrance into the Promised Land of heaven itself.

This theme of “a greater fulfillment” is also taken up in our last installment of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” by Presbyterian pastor Zach Keele in his essay on Nehemiah and Ezra.

These are themes of thundering importance, crucial as they are for our understanding of the person and work of Christ. But they are not just for adults or mature Christians—they are for us and our children. In this vein, author and teacher Starr Meade offers practical advice on how to teach the gospel to young kids. Whether in our preaching, Sunday school classes, or personal Bible study, we should strive to make the apostle Paul’s determination our own: to know “nothing but Christ and him crucified.” We need a Messiah who is bigger than a few favorite texts, as Goldsworthy reminds us, one who is revealed in all of Scripture as a Savior who saves us to the uttermost. May we also, like the shepherds, glorify and praise God for all we have seen and heard as we approach this Christmas season.

For unto you.. is born.. a Savior.

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theology

Blows that Break Rock Teaching the Gospel to Young Children

by Starr Meade

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theology

hen you look at a young child—and especially your children or grandchildren—don’t you just ache with the longing for them to have what’s best and to be protected from all that might harm them? So, of course, you long for your children to understand the gospel and to respond to it in faith. While your children’s response to the gospel is completely in the Lord’s hands, he has chosen to use your teaching as faithful parents (as well as the teaching of others) to bring to them the knowledge of the gospel.

So waste no time. You have eighteen years—but you have only eighteen years, and they go by much more quickly than young parents can begin to imagine. Start young! There’s a lot to teach, and we need all the time we can get. Spiritual conversations are intimate conversations and therefore can feel awkward. If we’ve established a habit of talking about these things together when our children are young, it will feel much more natural—to them and to us—as they grow. But how?

How do you explain the gospel, with all its complex, interwoven doctrines, to young children?

Here are a few “do’s” and “don’ts” to keep in mind.

2 . D on ’t be simpl istic.

The D o n ’ ts

While avoiding oversimplification, we can’t just charge ahead with our teaching as though children were adults. There are big words and bigger concepts in the gospel, and we need to find ways to explain it that make it comprehensible to children. As a teacher of children 10 and older, I find that children often use the Christian jargon they’ve heard all their lives, but when you ask them “What does that word mean?” they aren’t able to explain the term they’ve just used.

1 . D o n ’ t a im fo r si mple a nd en d with d isto rt e d.

“God loves you so much that Jesus died on the cross for you. He wants you to love him too and to ask Jesus into your heart.” The child should wonder: What does someone dying on a cross have to do with God loving him? Is the appropriate response to the gospel the prayer that Jesus would come into one’s heart? What does that even mean? Such a “gospel presentation” only muddles things. In your attempt to help children understand it, don’t explain the gospel in such a way that it is no longer the gospel the New Testament teaches.

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“Simplistic” is not the same as “simple.” “Simple” is easy to understand; that is what we aim for when we talk to young children. “Simplistic,” however, concentrates on one aspect of the gospel to the exclusion of others. For instance, “Jesus died on the cross for us. We need to believe in him so we can go to heaven and be with God forever when we die.” What about sin and God’s wrath?

Who is Jesus? What did he accomplish and how?

Our gospel presentations must be faithful to the truth of the whole gospel.

3. D on ’t ignore a chil d’s l imitation s.

4. D on ’t coun t on shortcuts.

Both the gospel and children are important enough to merit our best efforts at bringing them together, which will necessitate large blocks of time. Christians often think of a gospel explanation as one quick, possibly dramatic presentation

that produces a conversion on the spot (á la Charles Finney). A clear understanding of the gospel requires knowledge of who God is, which means being acquainted with many of his attributes. It requires a grasp of our need, our sin, and the reason we cannot resolve these things on our own. It requires a familiarity with God’s plan for saving people for himself, an awareness of Jesus as perfect God and perfect man in one person, a knowledge of what Jesus did in his living and dying that accomplishes salvation. It requires a comprehension of how the redemption Jesus purchased is appropriated by an individual. The best manner of presenting the gospel, therefore, comes by steady, faithful, well-planned teaching over a series of days, weeks, and years. (After all, God did give us an entire book. Nowhere does he tell us that we’re responsible to pass on only a page or two of it.) Be content to be used of God to teach and explain as faithfully as you can, little by little, over time.

Your child may have a dramatic moment of conversion sometime, or he may grow steadily and invisibly into a grasp of his need for a Savior and into solid confidence in Christ’s perfect adequacy as that Savior. If he does, it will be because Christ drew him, not because his parents followed every step of a formula for producing perfect disciples. This is one of those places where we do what God calls us to do, and we leave the results of our doing to God. As Samuel Rutherford wrote often, “Duties are ours; events are the Lord’s.”

The D o ’s 1 . D o r e c o g n iz e th at yo ur chi ldre n wi ll not u n d e r sta n d ev e ryt hi ng pe rfe ct ly.

Sometimes we hold off on explaining important doctrinal truths to children because we assume they’re too young and won’t understand. But think about it: this is God we’re talking about. Compare who God is, in all his fullness, with what you understand about him; isn’t what you understand just the tiniest fraction of who he is? God has chosen to reveal himself to human beings by Word and Spirit.

He has called us to share his self-revelation in his Word with others, without putting a minimum age limit on our audience. In his wonderful grace, God sends his Holy Spirit to give enough understanding to draw his people to repentance and faith in him.

We acknowledge that our explanations and our children’s understanding will not be perfect; but we explain anyway, trusting our gracious God to give understanding as he sees fit.

2 . D o bel ieve that al l doctrinal t ru th can an d shoul d be shared wi th chil dren.

The tendency is to wait too long. We share a few, oft-repeated Bible stories and simple prayers now, thinking we’ll get to the “hard stuff” when the children are older. But then we don’t, because we’re not in the habit and because we haven’t trained little minds to think in terms of theological truth. Yes, we have to take the time to think through what important theological words mean and how they could be explained in terms a child would understand. While that’s not always easy, it can be done.

3. do Take time to refl ect.

Take time to reflect on the gospel and each of the important truths it comprises and on how the child ModernReformation.org

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theology

“Use the years your children are in your home to ground them in a solid, chronological understanding of the Bible narrative.”

long and hard and having thought through what believers must know, distilled the essential truths of Scripture into the questions and answers of catechisms. Build family devotions around the memorization and discussion of these questions and answers.1 After a year or two of memorizing, when you finish one catechism begin it again to review what was memorized and to see how much more clearly the concepts are understood now than when you went through it before, or go on to a different catechism.2 7. D o recogn ize the patience of G od an d be wil l ing to teach, teach, t each (as wel l as al low others to

thinks. What does she already know in her usual, everyday world that could serve as a bridge to explain each concept?

4. d o D ev e lo p a pla n.

In what order will you present to the child the truth of God’s Word? When will you teach and how often?

5. d o Use B ib l e sto ri e s.

Those of us who work with children, knowing how they love stories, rejoice that God has developed an entire history of his dealings with his people that we call “redemptive history.” This history is full of stories that educate us on who God is, how he relates to people, what he requires, what he provides, and how desperately we need him. So use the stories! Just be sure to use them as God intended them to be used: as stepping stones leading to a clear understanding of the salvation provided in Christ, not as isolated, stand-alone lessons in good character or morals. Keep God the central character in each story.

What is God doing in this story and how does that advance his purpose of redeeming a people who would be his people? Use the years your children are in your home to ground them in a solid, chronological understanding of the Bible narrative.

6. d o Use cate c hi sms.

Godly men, having studied Christian theology

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t each) your chil d, perhaps for years, before there is a cl ear resp on se to t he gospel .

My favorite illustration of God’s work over time comes from Elisabeth Elliot’s biography of Amy Carmichael. Out for a carriage ride one day, Amy and her spiritual mentor stopped to watch a man breaking up stones by the side of the road. The man swung his heavy hammer time after time until finally a stone would crack, then break into pieces. “Which blow is it that breaks the stone?”

Amy’s mentor asked her. “It’s the first blow, and it’s the last blow, and it’s every blow in between.”3 So cumulative teaching of the Word of God breaks a sin-hardened heart, and every blow— not just the final one—matters.

Starr Meade ministered for ten years as a director of children’s ministry in her church and taught eight years in a Christian school. She currently teaches classes for home school students. She is the author of Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Heidelberg Catechism (Philipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2013) and Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism (Philipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2000).

1 I wrote my two books for this express purpose.

2 An excellent catechism for young children is Catechism for Young Chil­ dren. Other excellent choices are The Westminster Shorter Catechism, The Heidelberg Catechism, and The Baptist Catechism.

3 Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die (Old Tappan, NJ: H. Fleming Revell, 1987), 358.

Feed Your Inner Theology Geek.

VISIT THE STORE. Be sure to check out White Horse Inn’s online store.

In addition to books, you’ll find mp3s, study kits, and videos for sale—everything you need to keep the conversation going offline.

Visit W h iteHo r se In n.org/store .

THE

G REATE S T S TORY EVER TOL D

part vi

Wa i t i n g on the Lord

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by Zach Keele

re you good at waiting? Is sitting in traffic or standing in line like a hammer to your thumb, making you want to scream? Historically, humans haven’t been known for their ability to wait patiently, but our society treats this virtue as an infectious virus— something to be vaccinated against and eradicated.

If you have to wait three seconds for a webpage to load, do you file a complaint with your service provider? A buffering YouTube video has become an arch-villain deserving the Arkham Asylum. This problem of lack of patience—this obsession with immediacy—is not only a modern issue. It was also a struggle for those Judean exiles fresh home from Babylon.

Before the exile, one of the weeds growing in Israel’s field of sins was their refusal to accept the prophets’ warnings of the coming judgment. They reasoned, “Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah have been preaching fire and brimstone for centuries. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to happen.” The delay in the judgment seemed to stimulate their disbelief. After the fall of Jerusalem, however, the exiles could not so easily dismiss the preaching of the prophets. What God’s Word announced hundreds

of years previously had come to pass in their judgment and exile. This reality invigorated the people’s trust in the words of the prophets, especially since judgment was not the only sermon they preached.

The prophets declared the certainty of desolation and exile, but they also painted with grandiose colors the coming restoration after the exile. Jeremiah said the exile would last seventy years, but then the Lord would gather his lost sheep back to the Promised Land. And what a gathering this would be! Isaiah sings that the rough places shall become a plain, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and he will lead his people on level paths. The Lord’s servant Cyrus will free the exiles and rebuild the city and house of God. Jeremiah foretold the new and everlasting covenant of forgiveness and peace. The Lord would make all of Jerusalem holy to the Lord, and it would never be uprooted or overthrown again (Jer. 31:40).

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T H E G R E AT E S T S T O R Y E V E R T O L D

Ezekiel sculpted King David as the one shepherd over God’s people forever—and God’s sanctuary would be in the presence of his people forevermore (Ezek. 37:24–28).

Could you imagine living in Babylon with these promises? It would be like a gift set on the mantle in July that you have to wait until Christmas to open. Children would be asking their dads, “Are we there yet?” Parents would dutifully mark off the calendar the days of those seventy years. The excited expectation would fill their dreams with images of a new and greater exodus. This hope would keep them hydrated in the dry years of exile.

And then the day came! A king named Cyrus came to power, Babylon fell, and Cyrus issued the proclamation for the Judean exiles to go home. He filled their pockets with temple treasures and gave them a permit to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1–4). The day of the Lord’s promises had arrived.

The Judean exiles got to go home, to live in their own land again. Stone upon stone, the temple was rebuilt. The altar was consecrated.

The people could again worship the Lord in his house. Swelling with joy, the people celebrated Passover. Ezra returned with treasures to beautify the temple. Nehemiah rebuilt the wall and with a priestly parade consecrated it as holy. The verse they memorized in exile proved true: “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

And yet, as we read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, something seems askew. The prophetic promises have lost all their glitter. The color of Isaiah is drawn out in shades of gray.

Under Cyrus, the exiles do return, but there are no glorious manifestations of the Lord, no springs welling up in the desert. At the dedication of the temple’s foundations, weeping at its smallness interrupts the joyful songs. Intermarriage with the pagan neighbors spoils the optimism of Ezra.

Nehemiah’s wall stands consecrated, but the people still cannot keep the Sabbath, nor can they keep their hands off of the foreign beauties.

And to top it off, this was all painfully slow.

The first exiles who laid the temple foundation

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returned in 538 BC; the temple was finished in 516 BC; Ezra came in 458 BC, and Nehemiah in 445 BC. Nearly a hundred years were expended to accomplish what appeared momentary in the prophets. Then the ultimate fly in the ointment— there was no king! Where was the Davidic king?

The exiles had the land, Jerusalem, the priesthood, and the temple, but no king. In fact, the Levitical prayer in Nehemiah 9 closes on this bitter note by saying, “We are still slaves.” They were still paying taxes to Persia. What kind of fulfillment was this?

The Judeans could not deny the Lord was watching over them; after all, they were back in the land with the temple. Yet the experienced fulfillment was glaringly lacking in glory, which pointed the Judeans’ faith and hope further into the future. They were back to the waiting game.

In fact, Nehemiah showed himself to be a good steward in this regard. With the wall built, a new covenant made, the priesthood put in order, and the wall consecrated as holy, Nehemiah had the city of David all ready for the King to come.

Nehemiah knew he was not the King, but he was preparing Jerusalem for the King. Like a teenager who has the house spick and span before his parents return, so Nehemiah had Jerusalem polished in expectation. He reminded the people that it is good to wait upon the Lord and his salvation.

Well, Nehemiah did not see the King in his day, but his faith was not in vain. Centuries later, a few days before Passover, the true King rode into Jerusalem on that donkey spoken of by Zechariah and was welcomed by the crowds: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The King, Jesus Christ, in whom all God’s promises are yes and amen came to accomplish our salvation. Therefore, being heirs to such a great salvation in Christ, we are reminded that it is good to wait upon the Lord as we look forward to our blessed hope—the resurrection of the body and life everlasting in the light of the Lamb’s face.

Zach Keele is pastor of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Escondido, California.

R o u n dta b l e

When the Lights Came On A Roundtable Dis cussion

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R o u n dta b l e

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n a recent White Horse Inn roundtable discussion, hosts Michael Horton (MSH), Ken Jones (KJ), Kim Riddlebarger (KR), and Rod Rosenbladt (RR) discussed the “Big Picture” of the Bible. How do we invite new Christians into the strange world of the Bible and encourage them to see it, first of all, as one story from Genesis to Revelation, instead of as a hopeless collection of texts that don’t seem to coalesce, that don’t seem to hold together?

Michael Horton (MSH)

Ken Jones (KJ)

MSH: First, let’s address the expectations that a lot of people have when they read the Bible. Time magazine once published a series of nuggets to summarize the Bible called, “The Bible: 50 Ways It Can Change Your Life.” Here are a few examples: 1.

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“The gift of patience.”

“Leave no room for despair.”

“Maintain an outward focus.”

“Be awed every day.”

“Treat money as a tool, not a treasure.”

“Enjoy God’s presence.”

“Choose hope.”

“Keep your books balanced.”

“Keep your nostalgia in check.”

“Know when to let others help.”

“Let peace start with you.”

“Spend some time with nature.”

“Choose your associates carefully.”

Kim Riddlebarger (KR)

Rod Rosenbladt (RR)

14. “Be unstoppable.”

15. “Show kindness.”

If these are the things most of us are looking for when we come to the Bible, how will we ever see it as a historical drama unfolding from Genesis to Revelation with Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15?

KR: If that’s your expectation when you pick the Bible up, it’s going to remain a closed book to you.

P u t t i ng t he Pi e ce s Toget he r MSH: When did each of you begin to read the Bible differently, especially in terms of seeing Christ through all the Scriptures? How did the lights come on?

KR: I became a five-point Calvinist in my early years of running a Christian bookstore, when one of the people delivering my books challenged me on why I was selling so many Hal Lindsey books. I began working through the whole question of predestination and election and all those issues. I ended up studying under Rod—which was the first time I’d met anyone with historic Protestant roots— and he kept talking about law and gospel. I didn’t embrace his beloved Lutheranism—I’m still a Calvinist—and then I went to Westminster Seminary California and read Geerhardus Vos, Dennis Johnson, and Meredith Kline.

I remember being depressed while I was in seminary, and it was because everything I had believed about the way the Bible should be read on how the Old Testament related to the New was coming unraveled and by godly men who were wiping out my best arguments. I stayed after class and asked questions, and professors patiently answered those same questions over and over. I gave my best arguments and got clobbered by the Scriptures. Finally I said uncle.

“A bad curriculum can really mess things up, but a good curriculum won’t always do the trick either. You need to eat, smell, and breathe the air of Bible around you in the home.”

RR: I had an advantage growing up being catechized. It was awful Norwegian Pietism, but they didn’t fool with the text of Scripture or catechism. I didn‘t listen because I was angry the whole time. All my friends were up on Mt. Rainier on Saturday mornings learning to ski, and I was in catechism class, so my attitude was pretty bad. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had mentally bowed out of the faith and went to the University of Washington, pre-med, joined Animal House, didn’t darken the door of a church and was glad not to.

Then my father died in open heart surgery and a couple of guys from Young Life picked me up. There was a pastor who loved C. S. Lewis and therefore knew what it was to have somebody say, “I don’t believe this stuff.” The same thing was true of the Young Life leaders behind the guys I was talking to. They were trained at Young Life Institute in the summer by Bernard Graham, a Baptist. Graham’s writings were lucid, biblical to the core, organized better than almost any other author I’ve read, and those guys had trained under him. I began to read and found out that the story was a different story than I had heard.

RR: That’s right. I would sit as a child watching my dad argue with his Baptist friend the issue of baptism, with all these English translations laid out on the dining room table. This was serious stuff to argue. My mother was in the background, brewing coffee, because they were going to be talking late into the evening. Here was a surgeon saying in many ways to his son, this is really important.

MSH: Rod, you said once that while growing up

you remember your dad in the dining room with his Bible spread open.

MSH: This is some­thing you can’t necessarily get out of a curriculum. A bad curriculum can really mess things up, but a good curriculum won’t always do the trick either. You need to eat, smell, and breathe the air of Bible around you in the home.

KJ: Discovering the single message of the Scriptures or reading the Scriptures in a new way was part of my journey into Reformational thinking over all; but once I embraced the basic tenets of Reformed theology, it probably took a little longer. I wasn’t thinking consciously about how I was reading the Bible; I was just reading it. I was like any other Baptist who discovers the sovereignty of God and election, which I think is probably one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. It was ModernReformation.org

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R o u n dta b l e

really through two things. One was reading sixteenth-century writers, like Stephen Charnock, seeing how he made a point about the person and work of Christ for the church but fleshed it out with Old Testament Scriptures. The same thing happened to me with Herman Witsius in The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man. It reshaped how I looked at certain portions of Scripture. But it didn’t really hit until I started talking to you—Mike, Kim, and Rod—to be perfectly honest. That was the biggest shift in terms of putting it together. Before I just had a bag of parts; but when we started working together, I could see how the pieces fit. I remember in college that I had to write a paper on the one story of the Bible. I shudder to think what I probably wrote, but it’s probably similar to the list you just read from Time. I later came to understand that all of the Scriptures were about Christ, and I often revisit that question: What is the one story of the Bible? The one story of the Bible is God’s promise of salvation through the person and work of his Son, and the Bible is God’s revelation of that salvation and of that Savior. I got all of that really through reading dead guys and hanging out with you three.

MSH: In my case, it’s a very similar story.

There were a lot of wonderful living people in the community and the church I was raised in and in my family. I’m really grateful that they gave me a love for the Scriptures, so that I could go to the Scriptures believing I could find something valuable there. They talked about the “scarlet thread” and the Romans Road and so forth, but I didn’t hear much about the Old Testament unless it was a character study. I’m afraid we didn’t quite know what to do with the Old Testament; nor did we grasp the significance of the fact that Jesus opened up the Scriptures and, starting with Moses, explained the story, ending not with the book of Revelation but with the book of Malachi.

We’re talking about the importance of reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in the way that Jesus and the apostles themselves told us to read it: With Christ at the center. There are so many

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movements, trends, directions, and trajectories out there that use the Bible—a biblical view of this, a biblical view of that. But we’re talking about a biblical view of the Bible: not taking anything for granted and going back over those wonderful sacred pages maybe with different questions this time.

Sta ndi ng be fore God MSH: With such a big topic like this, you could spend days and weeks just plotting the Old Testament references in the New Testament. Let’s look at some of the motifs running from Genesis to Revelation. First of all, the trial and temptation in the Garden: How do the Old and New Testaments converge in the theme of humanity being on trial in the test before the Lord?

KR: The obvious one is the use of the two Adams by Paul in Romans 5. The first Adam fails the test, but the second Adam passes through his obedience. A reference back to an intermediary text would be Matthew 4 where Jesus in his temptation in the wilderness is recapitulating Israel’s temptation in the wilderness. We can go from front to back with that one, and it makes whole blocks of the Bible come alive.

MSH: When Satan offered the first Adam the food he craved, and Eve saw that the food was pleasing to the eyes and desirable to make one wise, this was basically autonomy. Forget what God has said—you decide what is good and evil; you decide what is true, good, and beautiful.

RR: The serpent had a simple response: “Did God really say…?” The answer was yes!

MSH: With Israel, we see the same thing.

Because they demanded the food they craved, they rejected the promise of God in the wilderness and wandered for forty years.

KR: That generation died in the wilderness.

“All the Old Testament prophets used the formula, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ But Jesus made the bold first-person statement, ‘You’ve heard it said…but I tell you…’”

KJ: They, like Eve, were not satisfied with the sufficiency of what had been given; they craved something else. In fact, in Numbers 11, when God gives quail to them until it comes out of the nostrils, the literal name of the place where it happens is the “Graves of Craving.”

MSH: They’re consumers. It’s the same thing we find in the temptation of Jesus when Satan thinks that what he did with the first Adam will work again with the second Adam. Instead Jesus replies, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” Then in John 6, he says to the people, “You’re just following me because you ate the loaves and had your fill. You don’t really believe I am who I said I am.” Jesus preached himself as the bread that came down from heaven. So we see these echoes back and forth in the Old Testament.

P rop het, Pri e st, a nd Ki ng MSH: Another way to connect the dots biblically is the motif of Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus is the ultimate prophet, like Moses. What’s the background there? Already in Exodus a prophet is coming, like Moses, but different from Moses and all the other prophets.

RR: All the Old Testament prophets used the formula, “Thus saith the Lord.” But Jesus made the bold first-person statement, “You’ve heard it said… but I tell you…”

KR: That’s what Israel in the Old Testament couldn’t see. Because they had a human fallible prophet like Moses, they were expecting God to put the words in a human prophet’s mouth in such a way ModernReformation.org

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R o u n dta b l e

that he would be just a better Moses—as opposed to God incarnate speaking the words the Father gave him, but speaking them as God clothed in human flesh. They couldn’t have conceived of that category until it happened. Until Jesus was the Word made flesh, this just wasn’t on their radar.

KJ: That’s what makes that introduction to John’s Gospel so powerful: “In the beginning was

“when we read the pages of the Bible—the Old Testament and the New Testament—we see that the death and resurrection of Christ is the central event of the entire story.”

the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and there was nothing made that was not made by him.” If we go back to Genesis, we see how God creates the world: by speaking.

Then we are told that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. If the Word is divine, and the Word is speaking, this is not just the word of God—God is the Word.

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MSH: How about the role of priest? How is Jesus the greater priest?

KR: The book of Hebrews is dedicated to arguing how Jesus fulfills everything the Old Testament priests pointed forward to: offering a sacrifice that did what the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t do—that is, make men perfect.

KR: Hebrews basically shows us the priesthood of Christ, his once– for–all sacrifice that finishes the work of redemption.

MSH: With the priesthood of Christ, too, we really want to see what the difference is between the priests of the old covenant and Jesus as the high priest. What stands out for me is that Jesus is described in Hebrews as the “one who sits down.”

The high priests never sat down when they were officiating.

KJ: And the Hebrews writer says that these priests ministered daily, while standing; but this priest, once he had made his offering, entered in and sat down.

MSH: Not only because the priests were working, but also because they never sat in the presence of the king. They stood or bowed but they never sat; the king sat.

What’s amazing is that Jesus sits down on the throne and folds his arms because he is finished. He has accomplished everything. So how does he fulfill the role of King?

KR: There are a couple of ways: there’s Melchizedek, that mysterious figure to whom Abraham pays tithe, who shows up apparently outside the covenant. We don’t really know much about him, the “king of Salem.”

MSH: What’s significant about Abraham paying the tithe to the king of Salem?

KR: Abraham acknowl­edged that he is the king of Salem.

KJ: To pay tithes—the lesser pay tithes to the greater.

KR: His rank is such that he’s pointing ahead to a king far greater, and then there’s the whole Davidic Kingship; so we see those two things running throughout the Old Testament.

MSH: Aside from the reference in Genesis, where does Melchizedek pop up?

KR: Besides Hebrews, in Psalm 110:4, which I believe is the most widely quoted verse in the New Testament: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’”

KJ: Hebrews quotes from this Psalm 110 mention of Melchizedek; but specifically in the Hebrews passage, it says that he is without beginning and without end, which is not a way of saying that Melchizedek is eternal, but that Christ is eternal.

Now the reason Melchizedek is described as being without beginning and without ending of days is because there is no genealogy, and also both his priesthood and his role as king is prior to the establishment of the nation of Israel. So in one sense, Melchizedek is like Christ because his authority is not derived from the Mosaic Law, which would have really shocked the Jews of his day or in the New Testament. His authority is greater than that, because he’s called the priest of the Most High God, which is even before the law was or before Israel was established.

RR: With newcomers to the Bible, it’s important to walk through these themes and explain that they come from the text itself, that we’re merely recognizing these motifs.

KR: A building is the perfect analogy. From the outside, you don’t see the arches and the posts. The architect has hidden them so that when you walk in

the room, you’re not staring at the beams and the posts. And yet, those are the things that are holding up the building. The same is true with these motifs in the Old Testament. They’re not necessarily the first things you notice, but those are the things that hold up the whole.

T he La mb of God MSH: In another echo from the Old Testament, Jesus is not only the priest offering the sacrifice; he is the sacrifice, the Passover lamb. What is the significance of that motif ? How do we draw that throughout the Scriptures?

RR: The most direct, of course, is the Exodus and the lamb without blemish. The Jews were told that if they put the blood of that lamb over the lintel of their doors that the angel of death would pass over their houses when he came through Egypt.

MSH: That lamb was to be male, the firstborn, and unblemished.

KR: This works with Genesis 22, where Abraham is told to sacrifice Isaac but God intervenes and provides a lamb.

KJ: We can even go back to Genesis 3:21, where God took the skins of an animal and covered Adam and Eve—an animal that is sacrificed so that they might live. That’s what sets the pace for the animal sacrifice we see in Genesis 4, and then with Abraham, and then also later with the Passover lamb.

MSH: So God is basically saying: How many times must I preach the atonement to you? I’ve given you from Genesis 3 all the way to the enormously elaborate laws of the sacrificial system in Israel—everything you need to point you to Christ.

KR: It’s so clear that when we read the pages of the Bible—the Old Testament and the New Testament—we see that the death and resurrection of Christ is the central event of the entire story. The “Big Picture” is so clear. Look at the box top to the puzzle—there’s a cross on it.

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Theology On Tap.

Did you know that White Horse Inn radio archives are available online?

Join the conversation with the White Horse Inn hosts on our recent series “Ordinary.” Our prayer is that this 4-part series will help you understand the beauty of “ordinary discipleship” in a culture that prizes “extreme” and “revolutionary” methods of church growth and discipleship.

visit wh iteh o r seinn.org/ord i nary.

features 40

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How to read the book

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Jesus: The Second and Greater Adam

The Art of synecdoche

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Faith in the real jesus

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by Michael S. Horton

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ne of the difficulties of reading the Bible is the Bible itself. Not only new believers, but old ones as well, often find it tough slogging to pick up the book at Genesis and wind up at Revelation without giving up somewhere in between. The Protestant Reformers never said that the Bible is an easy book.

What they said, and the confessions confirm this, is that its basic message is essentially clear, even if not everything in Scripture is equally clear. The Westminster Confession reminds us in a wisely constructed sentence: ModernReformation.org

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All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (1.7) What God requires and what he has done to save us in Christ is evident from Genesis to Revelation.

The Bible can be understood by anyone with energy, patience, and wise instruction. As Mark Twain quipped, “It ain’t the parts of the Bible I don’t understand, but the parts that I do, that trouble me.”

Yet the more we read it, the more we appreciate its depth and complexity. Like the Ethiopian treasury secretary who asked Philip how he could possibly understand the passage from Isaiah he was reading without a teacher, all of us need to be helped along by people who are even just one step ahead of us.

All the more, it is important for us to read with the wider church. Pastor-teachers and elders are given

by Christ to guide us in this privilege of hearing and reading God’s Word. The creeds and catechisms are great places to start. After all, they emerged from periods of confusion and controversy. Instead of representing the idiosyncratic emphases of a single leader or school, they are consensus documents forged within actual churches as they sought to clarify the most central teachings of Scripture. It is especially significant that in spite of so many disagreements and divisions, orthodox Christians have for so many centuries affirmed the ecumenical creeds as faithful summaries of Scripture.

The B i b l e Is a B o o k …

It seems rather obvious that the Bible is a book.

Sometimes, however, we forget this in actual practice. Scripture comes from God, not from human beings (2 Pet. 1:20); it is inspired by the Holy Spirit—“God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). In that sense, it is unlike any other book. However, Scripture itself teaches that God works through ordinary means. So it’s never a choice between God’s Word and human words; rather, it is God’s Word through human ambassadors. Unlike Islam’s view of its Qur’an,

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Christians do not believe that the Bible fell from heaven, dictated by an earthly messenger. Coming from God, the words of the prophets and apostles nevertheless bear the evidence on every hand of their human ministry.

We should not be surprised at this, since God became flesh in our history and through the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, assumed our humanity. He inherited a specific genetic code, including features and characteristics of his family tree; he spoke a particular language that had evolved centuries before he spoke it; and he behaved in ways that reflected the norms of his unique time and place in the world.

We can so emphasize the deity of Christ that we forget his humanity or see it somehow like an oldfashioned pair of scales: the more we affirm one, the less we affirm the other. No, Christ is fully God and fully human. He was like us in every way. In fact, he was “tempted like us in every way, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

Analogously, Scripture can be entirely human and yet without error in all that it affirms. When we see evidence of Scripture’s humanity, we should not imagine that it is not from God. The Triune God works mysteriously above, within, and through history in a way that connects with us. Given this fact, we should not read the Bible like any other book when it comes to authority. God has the first, middle, and last word. We should meditate on Scripture as God’s speech, not only in terms of its authority, but also its comfort and assurance. It would be inappropriate for us to treat any other book in this manner. Yet we should read it like any other book when it comes to interpreting its meaning. The same grammatical and stylistic rules that went into composing these books must be understood in order to interpret them. … But More Li ke a L ibra ry t ha n a B ook It has often been said that the Bible is more like a library than a book. This is an important point. It was written over twelve centuries with many writers, under many kings of Israel, as well as during exile under three pagan empires. Differences in style and even in the evolution of different languages can be detected by scholars as one moves from book to book. There are also different

“The Triune God works mysteriously above, within, and through history in a way that connects with us.”

O ne Me ssage , Ma ny Ge nre s

emphases in each book. There are many reasons for this.

First, each was written from a different perspective. Even the historical books of the Old Testament or the Gospels of the New Testament reveal different standpoints and interests. At first, that might startle us. If there is one message—one gospel— how can there be different versions? It may help to use a courtroom analogy. While serving on a jury, you may hear discrepancies between various testimonies.

Yet, as the judge will tell you, discrepancies do not mean contradictions. Each witness saw the event described from a particular angle and at a particular time in the unfolding of the scene.

Second, the diversity of standpoints is compounded by the diversity of emphases. Even the Gospels—as eyewitness reports—are evangelistic tracts. All witnesses bring their own biases and interests with them to the stand. However, the apostles make no effort to conceal their bias. They were convinced by what they saw and heard that God had acted in history for the redemption of the world. The Gospels are therefore not simply chronologies or records. Each writer wove the details of what they and others saw and heard into a pattern that proclaimed Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation. Each writer emphasized particular facets of Christ’s multifaceted person and work, reflecting their own backgrounds, interests, and styles as authors. Yet it was the Spirit who prepared each writer’s ordinary life for this extraordinary calling.

C ove na nt Ca non

One of the ways we can downplay the humanity of Scripture is by thinking that it transcends normal rules of interpreting different genres. Because we understandably privilege the historical narratives and Gospel reports, we can easily assume that everything in the Bible is a straightforward assertion or proposition, a true statement.

The danger is apparent when poetry is read as prose, apocalyptic is read as historical narrative, and figures of speech are treated as literal descriptions—or when the relation is reversed, as when a historical report is interpreted as allegory or poetry.

People used to reading different genres in secular literature are in a good position to read the Bible.

The different genres are bound together not simply by a unified plot, but by a unified canon. Scripture is rightly divided between Old and New Testaments, because each has its own constitution around which all of the various writings fit.

Other nations had the gods as witnesses. Only in Israel, however, was the deity also the head of state—the emperor or “Great King.” Many ancient Near Eastern treaties display common features: (1) a preamble, identifying the great king who is imposing the treaty on the lesser nation; (2) the historical prologue justifying his right as sovereign maker and enforcer of the treaty; (3) the stipulations governing the servant nation; and (4) sanctions—the specific benefits for loyalty and judgments for disloyalty. Finally, a copy of the treaty would be deposited in the shrine or archive of the suzerain and the vassal. The Old Testament displays these characteristics.

First, there is the covenant with Adam in the Garden with the preamble (“In the beginning God…”); the historical prologue, justifying God’s sovereignty over creation, including humanity; and the command, along with the warning for disobedience. Then there is the promise to Adam and Eve of a Savior.

Second, there is the historical narrative that justifies Yahweh’s sovereignty over Israel, specifically.

It leads from Abraham to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, ModernReformation.org

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with the promise of a new exodus. God will bring his people back to this land that God swore to Abraham and establish them as his holy nation.

Third, jumping to Deuteronomy, we have the constitution that forms the core of “the law.” It spreads back into Exodus and forward into Leviticus. The wisdom literature displays the universality of God’s moral law. Although Israel has been given a specific constitution, with laws that mark it off from every other nation, the core of that law reflects the moral fabric of the world that God has made, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments.

Fourth, the Psalms are the hymnal in which we have the songs that emerged from this story of Israel. The worship commanded in Leviticus is assumed in these songs. So too are the promises that transcend the era of the Sinai law, looking forward to the greater Son of David.

Fifth, the prophets are God’s covenant lawyers bringing his suit against Israel. They invoke the sanctions: curses for transgression and exile from God’s holy land.

Nevertheless, the Abrahamic covenant of grace has not been set aside by Israel’s failure, because it is not based on the people’s oath that they swore at Sinai. Rather, it is an everlasting covenant that depends exclusively on God’s faithfulness in sending his appointed Messiah. Prophecy and apocalyptic swirl together in the prophetic books, because “eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

Only these genres will do, because they give us intimations, sudden insights, snapshots, and the strange strains of songs from a faraway place.

The same pattern is discerned in the New Testament. In broad terms, the Gospels give us the preamble and historical prologue, the Epistles give us the doctrines and commands that arise from this drama, and the book of Revelation is God’s prosecution of his lawsuit against the oppressors of his people and the promise of the new creation. The sanctions unfold: it is the Last Judgment.

So we not only have to see the one plot unfolding from Genesis to Revelation, as if it were one historical narrative, but we have to see how Israel’s story—the old covenant rooted in Sinai—is, like Hamlet’s play-within-a-play, distinct from the Abrahamic promise that also unfurls its banner throughout the otherwise depressing episodes of Israel’s defiance. We have to see how Proverbs

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“There is a wealth of key teachings in Scripture, which itself impels us to seek the Trinity, the kingdom of God, and wisdom for daily living.” serves as a testimony to the universality of the moral code at the heart of Israel’s covenant, how the Psalms form the hymnal of covenant worship. We have to recognize the distinct lines of the Sinai covenant, so that we see the gospel in the Old Testament and do not confuse the unique stipulations and sanctions of the Sinai treaty with those of the Abrahamic promise. So now we read the commands even in the Epistles from Zion, not Sinai. They are not conditions for “long life in the land,” but what Paul calls “the reasonable service” that we are to offer “in view of the mercies of God” (Rom. 12:1).

H e rme ne u t i ca l Ru le s Two more aids to interpreting Scripture are worth mentioning. First, it is crucial to distinguish covenants. We have to distinguish the law from the gospel. This does not mean Old Testament versus New Testament. Nor does it mean that law is bad and gospel is good. Both come from the mouth of God. So it is a matter of distinguishing between what God is doing and not doing when he is speaking. Is he judging or delivering, convicting or comforting, revealing his moral will for our lives or revealing his saving purposes? The principle of inheriting everlasting life by law is totally opposed to the principle of inheriting everlasting life by promise. This is clearly stated in many places, but especially in Galatians 3 and 4. Second, it is important to interpret all of Scripture in the light of Christ. Jesus Christ is the central character in this

unfolding drama. This is how Jesus and his apostles themselves interpreted the Old Testament (see, for example, John 5:39–40; Luke 24:25–27; and the sermons in Acts).

I have heard sermons that make me ask at the end, “Did they even need this particular text to preach that sermon?” It may even have been theologically sound and evangelically motivated. But they thought that preaching the law and the gospel and preaching Christ from all the Scriptures meant simply repeating the same formula every week. That is easy, but it is unfaithful to the text. Some lose the forest for the trees; others lose the trees for the forest.

To put it concretely, the command not to have any other gods but Yahweh can be heard (by someone trusting in Christ) as the promise that God has made us his own and will never forsake us. You cannot just come up with an omnibus list of “law” passages and “gospel” passages.

We do not see Christ in every passage explicitly any more than the central character of a novel or play appears in every scene. Part of the charm of a good story is that central characters impose themselves in the process of a thousand scenes that seem to be about something or someone else. Jesus also

reveals the Father. He even reveals what it means to be human. There is a wealth of key teachings in Scripture, which itself impels us to seek the Trinity, the kingdom of God, and wisdom for daily living.

None of them can be abstracted from the drama of redemption in Christ, but we do not get to Christ by leaping over the text. There is a passage in front of us, either as preachers or as hearers and readers. Each piece fits into a puzzle that reveals Christ as the center, but each piece must actually fit. You can’t just force it into place in order to “reveal Christ.” Christ is the Rock in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:4), but that doesn’t give us license to find Christ under every rock, as it were. There is a hasty—and lazy—kind of typology that ignores the immediate context and meaning of a passage in order to make it a “code” for deciphering Christ.

The meaning of a passage is not found above, behind, or beneath the text. You don’t preach the categories but use the categories to preach Christ as the central character of the whole story, from every particular text.

Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

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the

art

of

synecdoche Exodus & Conquest in Scripture by Bryan D. Estelle

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synecdoche \s -ˇnek-də-(ˇ)kē\ noun A figure of speech by which a more inclusive term or the material of a thing is used for a less inclusive term or vice versa.

E xa m p l e s :

“Rudder” or “helm” refers to an entire boat “Wheels” refers to a complete automobile “Pigskin” refers to an American football “Glasses” refer to “spectacles”

T h e o lo g i ca l A p p l i cat i o n :

The Exodus theme is a synecdoche for the story of Christian salvation.

( F rom the A merican H eritage D ictionary and M erriam -Webster online)

W

hat The Iliad and The Odyssey were to the Greeks and what The Aeneid was to the Romans, the book of Exodus was to the Hebrews. It was the story within which they defined their own lives as a story. Let the reader understand: the Exodus event was paradigmatic or world defining for the ancient Hebrew. It is a lens through which the Israelites understood their relationship with God. It became a grammar for how they understood and explained the connections and disconnections in their lives.

My purpose in this brief article is to introduce the reader to this major biblical theme that permeates the Bible, and I want to instruct the reader about how individual books within the Bible use, adapt, and develop this theme throughout the Scriptures.

As there is diversity within a unified plan, my goal will be to do justice to the particularities while not losing sight of the overall integrity and unity communicated through this theme.

W h at D o e s th e E xo d us Me a n?

One of the key issues to be addressed before we earnestly begin tracing the Exodus theme is the following: When we are alluding to the Exodus event, what exactly does that event include and encompass? Does it include only the deliverance of the Israelites from the blasting iron furnace of Egyptian oppression? Or does it also include the wilderness wanderings through the desert, the provision of manna during such pilgrimage, and the arrival at

the sacred mountain of Sinai? However, it is not even merely to Sinai that God—the divine warrior— guided the people whom he was crafting as his own.

By tracing the Exodus theme in its ongoing repetitions and disclosures in Scripture, we see it had another goal—namely, the goal to bring the people of God to Sinai and then deliver them up to the Promised Land. This goal was the land of Canaan first; however, the final goal was not merely the geopolitical land of Israel—it was far greater. God had his goal for the royal priesthood that he was crafting as his own (Exod. 19:6). He wanted them to ascend to a much greater height: entitlement to heaven itself. Peter says, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13 NIV). This was the ultimate bliss envisioned by the story: union with God as a “turfed” people who would no longer be able to sin. “Enlandment” was the ultimate goal. And remarkably, according to New Testament writers, nothing less than heaven was meant by that land promise.

CONNECTING THE DOTS THROUGH S CRIPTURE There is a continuing thread of the Exodus theme that shows not only the inner connectedness of the Scriptures, but also how these connections are brought about through subsequent allusions to this ModernReformation.org

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foundational theme in such a manner that the fabric of both the Old Testament and the New Testament is maintained in a coherent fabric. Therefore, the Exodus motif is a cornerstone upon which the structure of the story of Scripture is developed.

One of the best ways to see this theme and better appreciate the story of the Bible is to follow a “diacanonical approach.” Simply stated, we need to read through the Scriptures.

Ps alm s

In the Psalms, we begin to see the function of the Exodus theme: Israel is called to a new level of understanding in light of God’s faithfulness in the past (e.g., Ps. 77–78, 105–106, 114, 118). Many other psalms were influenced by the Exodus as well (e.g., Ps. 74, 81, 135, 136, etc.). God as the divine warrior will now conquer the enemies of his people just as he subdued the ancient tumultuous waters of chaos.

Another purpose is served in this section as well.

The Psalms teach us things that will be further explained by the prophets.

P r op h ets M a j o r a n d Mi no r

The prophets use the Exodus theme as well, especially Isaiah. The main point they drive home is that something “new” is going to take place. From different vantage points and in various ways, they teach us that the foundational salvific event of the Exodus now becomes a paradigm to announce a new salvation event altogether. Biblical scholars call this the Isaianic New Exodus (INE). What was merely shadowlike in the past is going to break on the horizon of the future with new brilliance.

Something much greater than ever imagined is going to take place at a future time. In Isaiah 40–55, there is a fusion of creation and Exodus redemptive themes in over thirteen passages (40:3–11; 41:17–20; 42:14–17; 43:16–21; 44:1–5; 44:27; 48:20–21; 49:8– 12; 50:2; 51:9–10; 52:11–12; 55:12–13). I do not have the space to touch upon Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea, and many of the other prophets, but the Exodus theme is prominent there as well. In short, by tracing this theme through the prophets, we see that God was faithful in the past when he demonstrated his care and protection of his people by delivering them from Pharaoh and his minions. He is the selfsame God; but he will now do something different in a new Exodus, somewhat like the old Exodus, but newer and greater in magnitude.

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The Fulfillment of the Exodus

T

he scope of the Exodus theme extends to the Promised Land, and the goal of the Exodus culminated in the conquest

of Canaan by the establishment of God: 1.

When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange speech,

2. Judah became His holy one, Israel, His dominion.

3. The sea saw them and fled, Jordan ran backward, 4. mountains skipped like rams, hills like sheep.

5. What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled, Jordan, that you ran backward, 6. mountains, that you skipped like rams, hills, like sheep?

7. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8. who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flinty rock into a fountain.

(Ps. 114 JPS) In this psalm, the poet invokes the powerful literary device of personification. The sea and the Jordan are both portrayed not only as piling up but personified as fleeing, like enemy forces in battle. The divine warrior levels the obstacles before his people and establishes his own sanctuary in Canaan, a place where his people may dwell safely. Consequently, mountains and hills dance, but why? Because God establishes his sanctuary in Judah and Israel. According to biblical typology [for more on “typology,” see the Geek Squad on page 54—Ed. Note], this land ultimately signifies heaven. This psalm is the first in a series of psalms known as the Hallel, which was used regularly in the celebration of the Passover and was almost certainly sung by Jesus himself at the Last Supper. “When Israel went out forth from Egypt” is what Jesus heard as a child at the beginning of his life—but he fulfilled this exodus in the most profound sense at the end (Luke 9:31).

“the people of God are caught up and participate in the new Exodus so that they might serve God and one another while the promised royal priesthood of God is congealed in a new and dramatic manner; they are to live holy lives in the world.”

motif \mō-tēf\ noun A usually recurring salient thematic element…; a dominant idea of central theme.

(From Merriam -Webster online)

During the biblical post-exilic period (after the Israelites returned from captivity in Babylon), the Exodus theme continues to influence the manner in which the authors (e.g., Ezra and Nehemiah) describe salvation history. Ezra’s march from Babylon, for example, is considered a second Exodus and, in part, the fulfillment of the expectations of the prophets. Indeed, the references to the Exodus theme during this period of redemptive history serve as the antechamber to the New Testament realities. The “new thing” the prophets anticipated will become realized in the coming of the new King David, who will inaugurate his kingdom. Scholarship has recognized this especially in the use of particular Hebrew phrases and formulas having to do with the Exodus and also an analysis of the prayers of Nehemiah. Reading Nehemiah 9, a theological high point of Ezra and Nehemiah, shows many references to the Exodus theme. This leaves the door ajar to show how the Exodus pattern will become the very structuring paradigm of the Gospels to describe this new and profound realization of the biblical story.

least two of the Gospels. Here, the INE paradigm is evoked to demonstrate that the Exodus theme has become “eschatologized.” That is to say, the Exodus has become a future event promised on the basis of God’s past action in delivering his people.

Now there is a reformulation of the Exodus event along earthshaking lines: the new Exodus is a creative event answering who the true Israel is. Not all who are of Israel (descendants) are true Israelites.

Moreover, why would Jesus, at his transfiguration, discourse with Elijah and Moses about his own Exodus (exodon)? The narrator could have chosen other ways to express himself if he had merely meant to talk about his departure. This was a deliberate allusion, at least recalling theophanies on Mount Sinai. It is a confluence of many other Old Testament passages demonstrating that Christ is about to bring the Exodus to a new level of fulfillment at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). Although other interpretations have been offered, it may be said at the very least that Luke deliberately connected the work of Jesus with God’s earlier deeds in the Exodus rescue from Egypt.

THE OL D TESTAMENT IN THE NEW

The Ap ostl e Paul

T h e Go s p e l s

When we come to the Gospels, we observe the mediatory role that the paradigm of the Exodus plays in formulating the message of the arrival of king and kingdom (see Mark 1:1–11). Biblical scholars have written whole dissertations showing how the Exodus theme is the template for organizing at

As one would expect, all this evocation of the Exodus event could not possibly leave the apostle Paul untouched. Indeed, the influence of the Exodus theme upon the apostle is evident especially for two of Paul’s most important and doctrinal books: Galatians and Romans.

What we see specifically in the book of Galatians is a reworking of the Exodus event for both ethical and salvific reasons. Recently, biblical scholars have ModernReformation.org

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also shown how Psalm 143 has directed the aposthe Exodus theme, especially in 1 Peter 1–2. Peter tle’s thinking to understand the ethically oriented focuses on the Exodus from a churchly perspecguidance of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament tive. In other words, in 1 Peter 1 and 2, Christians age vis-à-vis the age of theocratic Israel, which was are now redeemed by the spotless blood of the Lamb “under the law.” This use of the Exodus theme has and become the new people of God, the fulfillment profound and far-reaching ramifications; there is of the promise of that royal priesthood (Exod. 19:6). the restatement of the first Exodus in new Exodus Moreover, we begin to see the special function terms with Christian application. Additionally, of the Exodus unfolded with new clarity in the the Exodus theme may actually influence the very apostle Peter: the people of God are caught up narrative substructure for and participate in the new Romans 3–8, obviously some Exodus so that they might of the most important passerve God and one another “Come ye faithful, sages in the New Testament while the promised royal corpus. Numerous other paspriesthood of God is conraise the strain of sages in 1 and 2 Corinthians, gealed in a new and dramatic triumphant gladness; Romans, Colossians, and manner; they are to live holy God hath brought his 1 Thessalonians may also lives in the world.

Israel into joy from c o n t a i n E xo d u s t h e m e s At the end of the biblical sadness; loosed from and allusions. This is only corpus, we note the Exodus Pharaoh’s bitter yoke scratching the surface of how theme in the Apocalypse Jacob’s sons and important the Exodus theme of John. The book of daughters; led them was for the apostle Paul.

Revelation shows similarwith unmoistened ities to Peter’s Epistle, but T h e W r ite r to th e foot through the Red there are advances upon H eb r ews Sea waters. ‘Tis the Peter’s contributions as The book of Hebrews is well. Indeed, Christians are spring of souls today; unique among the writings seen as the new kingdom of Christ hath burst his of the New Testament in its priests in reality. prison, and from use of the Exodus theme. The Here, all the strands three days’ sleep in author of Hebrews interacts come together in the condeath as a sun hath with the Exodus theme in a summation of the ages. risen; all the winter of new and significant manner.

John’s prophetic vision is our sins, long and Although some of the major based upon themes found in dark is flying from his personages of the Exodus Israel’s Exodus experience. light, to whom we events are not explicitly menJesus is repeatedly referred give laud and praise tioned, Moses does play a to as the Lamb of God (with undying.” major role in the author’s obvious references to the writing, and a variety of lamb of Passover), and he J ohn of Damascus ( c. 675/676–74 9; tr. J ohn M ason N eale , 1 853) Exodus events showcased in brings about the consumthe book of Hebrews reveals a mation of the new Exodus. widespread concern with the Furthermore, many have Exodus themes. Many of the noted the correspondences themes of the Exodus tradibetween the plagues of the tion—such as priesthood, sacrifice, and others—are first Exodus and the punishments poured out in derived out of the Exodus background and therefore Revelation. Now the divine warrior themes resurthe Exodus plays a crucial role in the mind of the face: Christians’ victory is seen as complete, the writer of the book of Hebrews.

Scriptures are now fulfilled, and the consummation of the ages is come. Themes derived from P et er a n d Jo h n the Exodus—such as redemption, judgment and The apostle Peter also makes prominent use of inheritance—are incorporated to demonstrate

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The Passover Lamb

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ince you call on a Father who judges each

that they are the focal point of John’s interest. Key passages (e.g., 1:5–6, 5:9–10, 7:1–17; 14:1–5; 15:1–5; 21:1–22:5) all demonstrate Exodus typology in the book of Revelation.

C o nclu si on

man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you

know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:17–19 NIV).

In this Scripture passage, the apostle Peter communicates a fundamental truth: Christians are redeemed by the blood of the spotless Lamb.

The background here is a reference to the Exodus event and the Passover lamb whose blood is applied by Peter through an extended and figural use to the redeeming blood of Christ Jesus.

As living stones (1 Pet. 2:5) now built up to be a royal priesthood, the blood of Christ provides the ransom through which God’s elect are now rescued to live holy lives and proclaim the excellencies of him who called them to do so (1 Pet. 2: 9). Consequently, Christians should not look back to their former way of life (as did the Israelites before them), but should set their eyes on their imperishable inheritance “that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven” (1 Pet. 1:4). These Christians, having been catechized in the Hebrew Bible and its strong Exodus traditions, are encouraged with the strongest ethical injunctions to live in a manner congruent with the hope they have received in Christ.

Tracing the theme of the Exodus through the Scriptures demonstrates that it includes the plan of salvation in microsopic form, a synecdoche painted on the canvas of history. In other words, the Exodus includes God’s plan to accomplish salvation by means of deliverance from Egypt (i.e., the tyranny of sin and the devil), guiding the Israelites to the mountain of God and into God’s presence (first Sinai, but then later applied to other centers of worship). Since the mountain of God is associated with his presence, this was definitely one of the goals of the Exodus. But is not the only goal: the anticipated legal outcome of the Exodus includes “enlandment” after a period of wilderness wandering. For the Hebrews this story is told in the Pentateuch. For New Testament Christians, our entire Christian life is one of pilgrimage toward the heavenly city. Nevertheless, God’s people must eventually be “turfed” in a land where God can rule. Everything must be holy—holy people in a holy space.

Conquered Canaan pictures for us a shadow of heaven on earth, in what biblical scholars call “typology.” That is the ultimate goal of the Exodus because that is the shadowy picture set forth in the Old Testament for us to see: God accomplishes his original goals in the Garden through another means. God has given us a grand picture through the Exodus—a picture that includes liberation from tyrannizing forces, ushering us into his presence, and finally into a land; but this will not be fully realized until the final consummation of the ages. Individual salvation is indeed important, but we are saved as a people—a royal priesthood worshiping together in the heavenly Zion is what God has ultimately in mind. The upshot of all this is that the Exodus story line is the salvation story line in miniature.

Bryan D. Estelle is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido, California.

Wenceslaus Hollar, Adoration of the lamb, Circa 1640 (Engraving).

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Faith in the

Real Jesus Understanding Him as Prophet, Priest, and King

by Graeme Goldsworthy

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very Christian needs to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18). The knowledge of Christ includes understanding his person and work in all their multifaceted characteristics. From earliest times the church has characterized the work of Jesus as involving the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. The Protestant Reformers, especially Calvin, used this Old Testament-based schema to spell out the parameters of Jesus’ work for us as the mediator of salvation. At the pastoral level, the Reformed doctrines of the perseverance of the saints and assurance of salvation are closely linked with this kind of analysis of what it is a believer trusts in, what constitutes mature Christian faith. Crises in faith often stem from a failure to comprehend the perfection of Christ’s person and work and his power to save to the uttermost.

Jesus is the self-declared fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, a statement that is amply corroborated by the apostles and other New Testament authors. While “Jesus died for my sins” is one expression of saving faith, no Christian can grow toward maturity on such a basic diet. The meat or solid food that the writer to the Hebrews speaks of (Heb. 5:11–12) is expressed in the full-orbed approach of this Epistle to the comprehensive nature of the person and work of Jesus.

Thus we constantly need to study the Old and New Testaments, their witness to who Jesus is, and what he has actually achieved for us. In Reformed theology, the three offices of Christ are seen to embrace

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the totality of his being and doing. The offices intersect at many points and embrace other roles, such as “the wise man” (Matt. 7:24–29; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30). I want to briefly examine these from the perspective of biblical theology.

J e su s a s Prop het: The M edi ator of God’s Word That Jesus is the prophet is attested to in the New Testament in a number of ways. First, there are the situations in which Jesus himself owned the title directly or by implication (e.g., Luke 4:24; Matt. 5:17;

“Jesus is the selfdeclared fulfilment of the Old Testament promises…. In Reformed theology, the three offices of Christ are seen to embrace the totality of his being and doing.”

Mark 6:4). Second, there are the occasions when others, including the Gospel writers, asserted that he was a prophet or opined that he must be. Third, there are those places in the text that demonstrate that the apostles and other New Testament authors were convinced that Jesus fulfilled the prophetic promises of the Old Testament and thus expounded their ultimate meaning.

Given these testimonies, we must ask about the Old Testament antecedents within redemptive history that give us a deeper understanding of the prophetic role of Jesus. Although Abraham is the earliest biblical character to be designated a prophet (Gen. 20:7), we really learn the function of a prophet from the definitive role of Moses. But even with Moses we already see some indications of the prophet engaging in both priestly and ruling ministries. This anticipates the drawing together of the three roles in the one person, Jesus. It is important to note that distinction does not mean separation.

Moses not only mediated God’s revealed words, but he also mediated the redemptive grace of God in the Passover. The nation was “baptized” into him in the Exodus (1 Cor. 10:1–4), a phrase that Paul uses to indicate the union the people of Israel had with Moses in their flight to freedom. Moses mediated the rule of God in a way that foreshadowed the kingship to come.

Moses is seen as the definitive prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15–18, and he foreshadows a

prophet like himself who is yet to come. The epilogue to Deuteronomy that tells of the events surrounding Moses’ death indicates that this promise, at the time of writing, has not yet been fulfilled.

Yet there were prophets from Moses’ time onwards: we find prophetic ministry in Judges 6:7–10 with the characteristic indictment of Israel’s faithlessness (v. 1), and there were false prophets who proclaimed their own word and often clashed with God’s true prophets. Jeremiah condemned false prophecy and referred to the true mediator of God’s word as one who “had stood in the council of the Lord” (Jer. 23:18–22). When we look at the overall message of the canonical prophets of Israel, we see three major aspects to their message. First, in speaking the word of God they pronounced the indictment that Israel and Judah had broken God’s covenant. Second, they brought the threat of judgment or declared that past and present misfortunes were God’s judgment. Third, they gave some message of hope based on the faithfulness of God to the covenant. To sum up: The true prophet was sent by God to mediate his word concerning the covenant of grace and the implications of this covenant for the life of his people.

The failures of the prophets of Israel are rectified by the coming of Jesus as the true prophet of God. He not only mediated God’s word and gave the definitive interpretation of that word; he was the Word of God (John 1:1–6, 14–18). Thus he fulfilled the prediction of Moses of the prophet who was to come and who knew God face to face. As the Word of God come in the flesh, he provides in his being and doing the definitive interpretation of every true prophetic word from God. He also brings to light every lying word of false prophets. He is the demonstration of judgment and its substitutionary bearer, and the word of grace for salvation.

J e su s a s Pri e st: The Me di ator o f God’s Re de mp t i ve Act i on Priests are to be found in most religions. The term designates one who stands between the deity (be it true or false) and the people. We usually think of priests as special people who perform sacrifices to appease their god or gods. The people of God in the Old Testament performed sacrifices from earliest ModernReformation.org

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times (Gen. 4:3–4; 8:20–21; 13:2–4), and the word “priest” is first applied to Melchizedek as priest of God Most High (Gen. 14:18). It is to be noted that the first reference to priesthood in Israel is God designating the whole nation as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6). This role is a consequence of Israel’s election and redemption from Egyptian slavery, and it is conditional upon her obedience to God’s word (vv. 4–5).

The shape of Israel’s priesthood emerges in the context of the tabernacle, which was commanded as the place where God would dwell among his people (Exod. 25:8–9). The paraphernalia that belongs to the tent includes the altar of sacrifice (Exod. 27:1–8) and the vestments for the priests, of whom Aaron is the chief (Exod. 28:1–43). The ritual of sacrifice described in Exodus 29 provides us with the rationale of atonement that gives significance to sacrifice; the highpoint of the atonement theology is described in the ritual of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). In a real sense, this annual rite summed up and comprehended all the sacrifices for sin that God required of Israel.

The priest is always the go-between who mediates salvation and fellowship with God. The New Testament takes up the rituals of the Old Testament and sees their fulfilment and ultimate meaning in Jesus becoming our great high priest who makes perfect atonement for our sins. As such, he declares that the new covenant is sealed with his blood in the way Moses sealed the Sinai covenant with the blood of sacrifice (Exod. 24:1–8; Matt.

26:26–28; Luke 22:20). The veil of the tabernacle and the temple separated Israel from the presence of God as represented in the holy of holies; only the priest could go through the veil once a year and then only with the blood of sacrifice (Lev. 16). The Gospels tell us of the rending of the temple veil when Jesus died, thereby opening the holy of holies (Matt.

27:51; Mark 15:37). The Epistle to the Hebrews articulates the theological significance of this event

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by discussing the priestly ministry of Jesus (Heb. 4:14–5:10; 6:19–9:28). It builds on the theology of the Israelite priesthood to show the continuity between it and Jesus’ priestly ministry. But in so doing, it shows how the weaknesses of the former, the sinfulness of the priest and his mortality, give way to the superior priesthood of Jesus. Because he enters the heavenly temple through the veil bearing his own blood, we now have confidence that we have unconditional access to the Father (Heb. 9:11–14).

J e su s a s Ki ng: T h e Me di ator of God’s Ru le The heavenly host proclaims, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15). Jesus owned the title of “king of the Jews” (John 18:33–38) and was acknowledged to be the true descendant of David who fulfills the promise of God to David in 2 Samuel 7:12–14 (Matt. 1:1; Acts 2:29–36; 13:22–35). But true kingship did not start with David but with Adam. This rule of Adam was derivative of the rule of God who assigned this role to humankind (Gen. 1:26–28). Though his dominion over creation was corrupted, confused, and challenged through the Fall (Gen. 3:17–19), the kingly role of God’s people was always a part of the covenantal grace. This role of mediating God’s rule is expressed in his word to Moses that Israel is unique among the nations and a “kingdom of priests” (Exod. 19:5–6). This covenantal election is summarized in many places as “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (e.g., Lev. 26:12). Later, this promise is personalized and focuses on the king’s son (2 Sam. 7:14). Despite the misadventure in Israel’s initial desire for a king (1 Sam. 8:1–9), kingship was always God’s plan for humanity, and it would be imperfectly executed through Israel until perfected in Christ. The ruling purpose of God for

“The shape of Israel’s priesthood emerges in the context of the tabernacle, which was commanded as the place where God would dwell among his people.” his people is never fulfilled until Jesus comes as the true Adam and the true Israel.

It was revealed to the magi that the ruler of the Jews was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1–6), and Mary heard it from the angel (Luke 1:30–33). It should not be overlooked that the designation of Jesus as the Son of God carried the overtones of both the true Israel (Exod. 4:21–23; Hos. 11:1) and the fulfillment of God’s promise to David concerning his royal son, “I will be to him a father, he shall be to me a son” (2 Sam. 7:14). It also indicates that Jesus’ true human sonship recapitulates and perfects the kingly role of the original son of God, Adam (Luke 3:21–38).

The Si g n i f i ca nc e o f t h e Of f ic e s o f C hr i st fo r O u r Fait h The unity of our one God is revealed together with the distinction of his three persons. This unity and distinction are reflected in the unity of Jesus as one person who embraces the distinction of two natures. By becoming the God-Man (both fully divine and fully human) Jesus is the perfect mediator between God and humankind. Thus in Christ we have the perfect relationship of God and man restored and then imputed to all who believe. The prophetic role of Christ is embraced in the fact that Jesus is the God who speaks; he is the very word

spoken; he is the faithful Son of God who hears and is obedient; and he is the true responder to the word on our behalf. This latter property makes our prayers both feasible and acceptable. The whole doctrine of Scripture, prayer, proclamation, and biblical interpretation stem from Christ’s prophetic ministry.

The primary role of the priest is to mediate our restoration and our ongoing fellowship with the Father. Again, the doctrine of the incarnation points us to the synthesis. In the priestly ministry of Jesus, he himself is the God who is offended by our sin; he is the propitiatory sacrifice necessary for righteousness to be fulfilled; he is the justified person who is raised from the dead and exalted to the presence of the Father. Our access to the Father as his dear children, our justification, and our worship all stem from the priestly role of Jesus.

The role of the king is to exercise the universal rule that maintains the created order and harmony of creation. Jesus is the God who rules; he is the faithful people of God, the representative and true Israelite, submitting to the rule of God; he is the true and faithful Adam having dominion over creation as God’s vicegerent; he is the God who reigns over creation and brings all things to their intended consummation. Our union with Christ by faith means that we rule, are ruled, and return true worship to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Mature faith is faith that continually grows in understanding and in conformity to the Christ who is revealed in the whole Bible. This faith transcends belief in the Christ of a few favorite texts and rejects any sentimental adherence to the pale shadow of the one whose prophetic, priestly, and kingly roles are revealed in all of Scripture. Faith in Christ is far more than simple trust that “my sins are forgiven.”

It signifies our union with Christ in these roles that he mediates and radically redefines what it means to be redeemed from sin and death—one day to be fully conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Graeme Goldsworthy, a retired lecturer in Old Testament, biblical theology, and hermeneutics at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, is the author of many books, including GospelCentered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation (IVP Academic, 2010).

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Jesus:

The Second and Greater Adam

by Thomas J. Egger

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n countless ways, our lives are interwoven with the lives of others. Other people have shaped my personal history, impacted my daily work and well-being, and held sway over my future prospects. The ingenuity of Thomas Edison or Steve Jobs, the poet or musician who summons sublime stirrings in the heart, the broken car window and emptied glove box left by a faceless thief, the patient reminders of a mother teaching her child etiquette—every human life is profoundly affected by hundreds and even thousands of others.

In Holy Scripture, however, we encounter two individuals who have a direct and defining impact upon every person in the world, every member of the human family throughout history. The first is Adam, the father of us all. The second is Jesus Christ.

In Adam we glimpse the goodness and the greatness that God intended for human creatures. Yet we only glimpse these, because Adam spoils them for all humankind, forfeiting them in the first moments of the world. In Christ, we behold a second and greater Adam, the restorer of human goodness and greatness. What Adam squandered in a moment, the second Adam regains for all and bestows forever. As Paul writes in Romans 5:18: “As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”

Death to A l l , L if e to A l l Adam is the first human. He stands in a unique relation to all other humans. Even Eve, the mother of

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us all, was taken from him. Like her, every man and woman who has come after is “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone.” Adam’s very name suggests this: the Hebrew word adam is both his proper name as well as the generic noun meaning “human, humanity.” And the Genesis narrative makes clear that Adam is the father of every nation of the world.

For this reason, when Adam disobeyed the single command of God, the devastating consequences extended not only to himself but also, through him, to the entire human lineage. When Adam defied God, he brought corruption, death, and divine judgment to all. He whom God blessed and intended to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with human goodness and life instead will now be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with human wickedness and death.

Adam, however, is not the only man who stands in a direct and defining relationship to all humanity.

When the Son of God came down from heaven and, incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, was made man, he shared in the same human nature as

all of us. God sent him out of love for all humanity (John 3:16). But Jesus’ direct relationship with mankind consists especially in this: that the Lord laid on him the iniquity “of us all” (Isa. 53:6). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Like Adam, Jesus Christ thus stands in direct relation to every human. Adam sinned and bequeathed sin and death to all. In turn, Jesus takes upon himself the sin and death of man, and he bestows instead the gift of eternal life.

Good n e ss Lo st, Good n e ss R e store d After his sin, Adam’s true identity and nature become horribly disfigured. His sin has been wildly transformative. He is exposed in nakedness and covered in shame. He dreads the presence of God. Though Adam and Eve were created in the image of God himself, in his likeness, corrupt Adam now fathers sons “in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen. 5:3). Adam’s offspring starkly display this transformation. His firstborn son, Cain, envies and slays his own brother, and Cain’s descendent Lamech waxes poetic about his own exponential brutality. By Genesis 6, God sees that “all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” and that “the earth is filled with violence through them.”

Of all the theological implications of the biblical Adam, this is the dimension most highlighted by the Lutheran Reformers. Luther describes the impact of Adam’s sin upon our nature as the “Old Adam” in us. In his Large Catechism, Luther writes: “It is what is born in us from Adam, irascible, spiteful, envious, unchaste, greedy, lazy, proud—yes—and unbelieving; it is beset with all vices and by nature has nothing good in it.”1 Enter the second Adam, who is himself “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). Christ bears God’s image both as the eternal divine Son sent by the Father and also as a true man, who in his humanity incarnates the original “image of God” in man and who restores this image in all who believe. The nineteenth-century theologian C. F. W. Walther once preached: Christ not only wants to forgive all men their

sins, but also to free them from their sins. He not only wants to declare them righteous by grace, but he also wants to make them truly righteous. He not only came to comfort and soothe their hearts, but also to cleanse and sanctify them. He came not only to reconcile them with God, but also to reunite them with God, not only to make them acceptable to God, but to make them like God. In short, he came to restore the entire lost image of God in them. He came to lead them back into the state of innocence, to make them perfectly healthy in body and soul, and thus finally to bring them to the blessed goal for which God destined them from eternity and called them into existence.2 Already now, through his Word and sacraments, Christ is restoring the image of God—Christ’s own image—in those who believe. Just as Adam’s trespass engendered an Adam-like train of violence, strife, and suffering, so Christ’s obedient death for sinners is followed by a train of Christ-like fruit in the world: compassion, reconciliation, generosity, hospitality, justice, and above all, trust in God. Still, in this life, Christ’s restoration of the image of God in us is a mere beginning. Again, Walther: Here Christians have only the first-fruits of Christ’s harvest….The time of full maturity comes only with eternal life. But blessed are all Christians! The time will surely come. As Christ…restored the deaf-mute not only in part but completely, so he will also restore in the world to come the image of God in which they were originally created in all who truly believe in him. Yes, there by his grace the redeemed will shine more gloriously than they would have had they not fallen.3 A Forme r Domi ni on and Gre at ne ss —Lost How different things once were. In the day that God created all things and declared them good, the first Adam stood as unique among God’s creatures, the pinnacle and lord of all the rest. Luther writes that, before sin, ModernReformation.org

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[Adam’s] intellect was the clearest, his memory was the best, and his will was the most straightforward—all in the most beautiful tranquility of mind, without any fear of death and without any anxiety. To these inner qualities came also those most…superb qualities of body and of all the limbs, qualities in which he surpassed all the remaining living creatures. I am fully convinced that before Adam’s sin his eyes were so sharp and clear that they surpassed those of the lynx and eagle. He was stronger than the lions and the bears, whose strength is very great; and he handled them the way we handle puppies.4 In our fallen state and disordered world, it is difficult to comprehend or imagine the glorious, exalted creatures we were created to be. God gave Adam and Eve “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). But since the Fall, everything is different. Pestered by mosquitoes and gnats, cringing before barking dogs, stalked by lions and wolves, oppressed by heat and cold, starved by drought and locust, devastated by storms and floods, drowned by raging seas, humankind restlessly scratches out our daily bread by the sweat of our brow amid thorns and thistles.

In our modern health-obsessed culture, we imagine that we at least have dominion over our own bodies; but in truth, even this little domain escapes our will and rule, invaded by pathogens, taunted by obesity, debilitated by injury, and, finally, destroyed and disintegrated by death. Ever since the day when Adam colluded with the serpent to invert the dominion of humanity over other living things, man has groaned—and all creation with him. The whole creation longs for the restoration of humanity’s dominion, the greatness that Adam lost.

Dom i n i o n a n d Greatn e ss R e g a ine d In restoring us to the image of God, Jesus has regained not only humanity’s original goodness, but also humanity’s original greatness and dominion. Conservative Protestants have not always accented this dimension of the gospel and, at first, it may seem to run against the grain of Scripture’s

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“This new Adam exercises true dominion over the seas, over the fish, over the fig tree, over disease, over the angels and the demons. ‘Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?’

Jesus’ disciples ask.” warnings regarding human pride: “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:11). “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish” (Ps. 146:3–4). All such passages, however, reference humanity after the Fall—a corrupt, dying, impotent, and groundlessly boastful race. As such, the law of God reveals to us our true present standing: we are low, weak, shameful, damnable.

But from the womb of Mary has come a second Adam. This new Adam exercises true dominion over the seas, over the fish, over the fig tree, over disease, over the angels and the demons. “Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

Jesus’ disciples ask. And the answer is not merely, “This is God, in human flesh,” but also, “This is God, in human flesh!” A second Adam has come to restore the human dominion and greatness that Adam lost in Eden.

Jesus has promised that when he comes again at the end of this age, the present disordered creation will be rolled up like a garment, refined, purified, renewed and reconstituted—and humankind will reign. It is true that the Lord alone will be exalted on that day and that the eternal kingship will belong to God and to the Lamb forever and ever. To his

Hearing Voices

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he Genesis narrative presents a fundamental connection between Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s obedience:

the theme of trusting the Word of God. In Genesis 3, the serpent speaks: “Did God really say?” and “You will not surely die.” Eve listens to the serpent’s voice, and she trusts the testimony of her own eyes. She eats, and so does Adam.

They hide and God comes seeking. He calls to Adam, “Where are you?” Then he asks, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

God climactically addresses Adam: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you.” Adam abandons the clear word of God and prefers instead the voice of his wife, which, in this case, channels the voice of the ancient serpent himself.

Not so the second Adam. Jesus entrusts himself wholly to the Father’s will and word. When the “old snake” (as Luther calls him) tempts Jesus in the wilderness—to live by bread rather than by God’s word, to avoid the cross and to seek rule and renown in another way—Jesus recites the written, prophetic word of God. Three times, he entrusts himself to the voice of God in Holy Scripture. “Be gone, Satan!” he says. “For it is written…” (Matt. 4:10).

As his Passion drew nearer, Jesus knew that he must “go as it is written of him…that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matt. 26:24, 56). He “must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” With vigor and faithful-sounding

anointed Son, God declares, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall rule them with an iron scepter” (Ps. 2:9). Yet the one given this dominion is the man Jesus Christ, the second Adam. God will “judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed,” Paul announces (Acts 17:31).

In Christ, God has appointed a man as the judge, heir, and Lord over his creation, and he will restore humankind to its former greatness and dominion as co-judges, co-heirs, and co-regents with Christ.

Paul writes, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world….Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:2–3). “They shall inherit the earth,” Jesus says about the blessed people of his kingdom. “If we endure we shall also reign with him,” Paul writes (1 Tim. 2:12), and John hears Jesus himself declaring, “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne” (Rev. 3:21).

With joy we will superintend the new earth and all its creatures. “No longer will there be any curse” (Rev. 22:3), and the soil will joyfully and obediently grant us our daily bread. God’s trees will yield us their healing and life-giving fruit. The living creatures will live together with us and in subjection to Christ’s wise and loving rule—and ours. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6). The sun will never again beat down on us for our harm; the raging seas will not threaten us. The glory and dominion of God and his Christ will endure forever, and the glory and dominion of those re-created in the image of God to rule, serve, and guard the creation in righteousness will be secured forever. Humankind will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Adam will shine again, and Eve. We, too, will shine, reflecting the glory of the Son of Man, the second Adam, who is Lord and lamp of that eternal country.

rhetoric, Peter rebukes Jesus, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” And Jesus replies to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You do

Thomas J. Egger is assistant professor of exegetical theology

not have in mind the things of God but the things

at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.

of men” (Matt. 16:21–23). Precisely where Adam failed, Jesus prevails.

1 Luther’s Large Catechism 4:65–66.

2 Select Sermons of Walther, trans. E. Myers (St. Louis: Hope Press, 1966), 23ff.

3 Walther, 23ff.

4 Luther’s Works, American Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1962), 1:62.

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book reviews 48

“Storms accumulates an impressive amount of evidence as to why amillennialism provides a better way to make sense of the eschatology of the Bible.�

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book reviews

Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative

By Sam Storms Mentor, 2013 592 pages (hardback), $29.95

T

here are a number of books currently in print that make the case for an amillennial understanding of biblical eschatology. Sam Storms’s Kingdom Come is an important addition to a list that includes O. T. Allis’s Prophecy & the Church (P&R, 1945); Anthony Hoekema’s The Bible & the Future (Eerdmans, 1979); Cornel Venema’s The Promise of the Future (Banner, 2000); as well as my own, A Case for Amillennialism (Baker, 2013). But Sam Storms’s Kingdom Come does not merely replicate the arguments of those writing before him. As he recounts in his introduction, Storms was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS)—the bastion of dispensationalism—and studied under dispensationalism’s most capable advocates: John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, and J. Dwight Pentecost (10). By 1985, Storms had given up dispensationalism, and subsequently premillennialism, which he recounted in a manuscript that he developed—after much honing and reflection—some twenty-eight years later into this current volume (12).

As a DTS insider, Sam Storms knows well the problems with dispensationalism and premillennialism. His unique perspective on the topic, I submit, explains why Kingdom Come is more of a refutation of dispensationalism and premillennialism, than it is a statement and defense of amillennialism (characteristic of the previously mentioned books on the subject).

This is precisely why Storms’s book is such a welcome addition to the field. Although dispensationalism has serious flaws, it stills survives as a system of interpretation largely because the previous volumes are not comprehensive in terms of fleshing out and exposing the particular exegetical details and problems underlying the dispensational premillennial system. As long as dispensationalists can argue that the details

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“As long as dispensationalists can argue that the details of the system remain intact, they are not likely to give it up—despite the ‘big picture’ criticisms raised against the entire system.” of the system remain intact, they are not likely to give it up—despite the “big picture” criticisms raised against the entire system. Storms’s invaluable contribution does precisely this as he painstakingly fleshes out those details, explaining why both dispensationalism and premillennialism fail to properly explain the meaning of a number of biblical passages. In the process, Storms accumulates an impressive amount of evidence as to why amillennialism provides a better way to make sense of the eschatology of the Bible.

Given the biblical and exegetical nature of Kingdom Come (which requires an equally biblical and exegetical review), I can give but a brief summation of the book’s contents here before offering a few observations. Storms begins by laying out the ground rules of hermeneutics (chapter 1), and while doing so makes a compelling case that Israel’s prophetic hope is fulfilled by the person and work of Jesus Christ (16, 42).

In chapter 2, Storms accurately and fairly defines dispensationalism—of special importance is his discussion of dispensational chronology (62–67).

Next, Storms pulls the thread of Daniel 9:24–27,

which unravels the entire dispensationalism system (chapter 3), before discussing the significance of the four great empires that appear in Daniel’s prophecy—the fourth of which, he contends, is Greece, not Rome (chapter 4). If true, this severely undercuts the dispensationalist belief that Daniel is predicting a revived Roman empire at the time of the end (132).

In chapter 5, as Storms recounts his own departure from premillennialism, he lists several standard objections to premillennialism address(136–37), before address ing the problem of whether the amillennial interpretation of Revelation 20 is consistent with the rest of the New Testament teaching—a challenge raised by recent defenders of both dispensationalism and premillennialism.

Storms concludes, “I must not force the whole of Scripture to dance to the tune of Revelation 20” (143); rather, he contends, Revelation 20 must be seen in light of the New Testament’s overall teaching about regeneration, death, and the intermediate state. Doing so vindicates the amillennial interpretation of the first resurrection as spiritual, the basis for concluding that the scene in view in Revelation 20 is of the present, not a future and earthly millennial kingdom.

At t h e h e a r t o f t h e . ongoing debate between dispensational premillennarians and amillennarians is the role of Israel in redemptive history. It is in this context that we hear the accusation often made by dispensationalists

that amillennarians hold to a “replacement” theology (i.e., the church “replaces” Israel in the new covenant, the supposed basis for much of modern anti-Semitism). Storms’s discussion of this matter in chapters 6 through 10 is especially helpful in addressing the role of Israel vis-à-vis recent premillennial responses to the amillennial literature mentioned above. Storms does an excellent job of marshaling the overwhelming New Testament data, concluding that “there is only one people of God, the Church, comprised of Jews and believing Gentiles” (226).

In chapter 11, Storms addresses the nature of New Testament eschatology, focusing upon the tension between “the already” and the “not yet.” He describes inauguhow the kingdom inaugu rated by Jesus Christ will be consummated at the end of the age in the resurrection and final judgment. When postmillenniaddressing postmillenni alism (chapter 12) Storms admits to some sympathy with the view, but concludes that postmillennialism’s inability to sufficiently explain the reality of suffering during this age ultimately renders the position untenable (380).

In the balance of the volume (chapters 13 through 16), the author addresses relevant themes in the book of Revelation—specifically the chronology of the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments (chapter 13), the binding of Satan (chapter 14), the nature of the first resurrection—in which Storms responds quite capably to the arguments raised by premillennarians that the first resurrection refers

“A““AT AATT THE HEART OF THE ONGOING DEBATE BETWEEN DISPENSATIONAL PREMILLENNARIANS AND AMILLENNARIANS IS THE ROLE OF ISRAEL IN REDEMPTIVE HISTORY ”

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BOOK REVIEWS

to the bodily resurrection at the end of the age, not entrance into eternal life (chapter 15)—and the antichrist (chapter 16). In chapter 17, Storms continues his discussion of the antichrist, taking up Paul’s treatment of the “Man of Sin” in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. Those familiar with the work of G. K. Beale will find themselves at home with this section of Kingdom Come.

In the conclusion of Kingdom Come, Storms summarizes the case he has made, laying out thirty reasons why amillennialism is “the most cogent biblical account of the purpose of God in redemptive history” (549). The cumulative case is indeed impressive, though the sheer number of reasons why amillennialism is compelling (the “shotgun” approach) may not be as effective as making fewer points more precisely aimed (the “sniper-rifle” approach).

Kingdom Come is thorough in its scope and the exegetical arguments are cogent, well argued, and compelling. The author makes his case charitably but firmly. One strength of the volume is Storms’s interaction with those dispensationalists and premillennarians who in recent years have challenged the rising tide of amillennialism (i.e., Craig Blaising and Michael Vlach). The author is to be commended for acknowledging that he does not fully understand particular biblical texts (547); but after making such admissions, let us hope that dispensationists do not continue to argue that such honest admissions actually reveal the weaknesses inherent in amillennialism.

Readers of Modern Reformation may notice an important omission in Storms’s line of argumentation. Storms identifies himself as “amillennial, Calvinistic, charismatic, credo-baptistic.” Important omissions are the terms covenantal and confessional.

The historical connection between confessional

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Reformed covenant theology and amillennialism is an important one, yet it plays no factor in either Storms’s exegetical or cumulative case (certainly due to his credo-baptistic position). This omission, in this reviewer’s opinion, weakens his overall argument in favor of amillennialism— strong as it is.

Storms’s Kingdom Come is highly recommended and is an important addition to the field.

This should be the first book given to a dispensational premillennarian who is open to consider the arguments against both views.

Kim Riddlebarger is pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Anaheim, California, and cohost of the White Horse Inn radio broadcast. He is author of A Case for Amillennialism (Baker, 2013) and Man of Sin (Baker, 2006).

How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization

BY MARY EBERSTADT Templeton Press, 2013 272 pages (hardback), $ 19.96

T

he conventional narra t i ve o f h ow t h e West lost God goes something like this: As people became more educated, as science became more revered, and as people became more materi materially prosperous, the need for a transcendent being began to wane. Nietzsche was able to declare, “God is dead,” because he thought the human race was finally growing up. After all these millennia we were start starting to get over “it” (that is, God).

Not so fast, says Mary Eber Eberstadt, senior fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center and author of How the West Really Lost God (with “really” emphasized).

The received story of secularization fails to take into account what she calls “The Family Factor.”

While there is plenty of merit in secularization theories that explain the decline of Christianity in Europe and America as a consequence of the Enlightenment, Darwin, and Freud, little attention is afforded to the connection between faith and family.

Most of us who think on these matters, Modern Reformation readers included, assume family decline naturally follows religious decline.

However, Eberstadt argues that we have put the cart before the horse, or more precisely, what we are looking at are two horses permanently attached to each other.

Eberstadt offers no hard correlation studies to prove her thesis—difficult to do when your subject is more historical in nature and covers a thousand years of human activity. Rather, she holds up the “double helix of family and faith” and tells us the evidence is compelling, even if it must labeled (as any good social scientist would label it) as circumstantial. Her research relies on other works of secularization theory, demographic records, inductive reasoning, and her own spirited postulating.

Her spunky style makes for an enjoyable read.

As for the double helix, imagine a DNA ladder whose twin rails of family and faith are connected by the rungs of church participation and doctrinal assent. This, she says, is how we should picture the importance of the natural family in its association with belief. Family and faith are congruent markers: when one is present, so is the other; when one is absent, so is the other.

To put it bluntly, the Christian church cannot exist without strong families. Now here is a subject Reformed-minded folk sometimes dodge, either because we do not want to upstage the primacy of the gospel by overemphasizing virtuous living or maybe because we think there is absolutely nothing we can do about the pathetic state of modern matrimony.

Eberstadt claims the Christian story itself is one communicated through the prism of the family.

She asks, “How does Mary’s profound obedience to God (‘let it be done to me as you will’) make sense to generations taught to regard birth itself as an act of ‘choice’?” Pressing the point, she suggests broken homes pose a problem to the receptivity of the Christian message. “In an age when many people live lives that contradict the traditional Christian moral code, the mere existence of that code becomes a

“While there is plenty of merit in secularization theories that explain the decline of Christianity in Europe and America as a consequence of the Enlightenment, Darwin, and Freud, little attention is afforded to the connection between faith and family.” lightning rod for criticism and vituperation—which further drives some people from the church.”

As a devout Catholic she does not hesitate to scold Protestants for letting go in 1930 of the church’s allegedly longstanding teaching on birth control, a watershed event given fuller treatment in her previous book, Adam and Eve after the Pill, where she links the Pill to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and its cultural consequences. Biblebelieving Protestants would do well to think about her provocative scholarship.

How the West Really Lost God is not without its shortcomings. At times Eberstadt’s tone is overly moralistic, as when she refers to the local church as a “like-minded moral community.” Apparently, her thesis would hold true for all communities of faith, whether Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist. One could easily substitute “religiosity” for “Christian faith,” and if this is the case, we need look no further than to the changing face of Europe to say that she is correct.

Also, it is a bit unfair for her to trace the loosening ModernReformation.org

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book reviews

of divorce laws back to the Reformation. The historical facts are well established that the “family” was on the skids in Europe prior to the Reformation. While the new order did place divorce in the hands of civil authorities, Luther and Calvin helped save the institution from a contemptuous mess (see, for example, Steven Ozment’s When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe).

The author ends on both a pessimistic and optimistic note. On the downside, the United States is statistically only a decade or two behind Europe with regard to the family. It does not take a math degree to figure out what will happen to churches if we stop having babies. On the upside, crisis situations often precipitate renewal. If our welfare state runs out of money, we are going to have to take care of each other, and historically there is no institution that does a better job in tending to children and the elderly than the family.

Arthur W. Hunt III is associate professor of communication at the University of Tennessee at Martin and is a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Jackson, Tennessee.

Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem

By Kevin DeYoung Crossway, 2013 128 pages (paperback), $9.48

L

ike the author Kevin DeYoung, I find that I take a sort of perverse pride in being “crazy busy,” so I suppose a book like this is especially appropriate for people like me who need to be shaken out of such an unhealthy way of thinking. As I read through the book, however, two friends were brought to my mind over and over. One is a friend who left the Southern California lifestyle behind and moved to a rural part of the country where he could live with his family without succumbing to the crazy busy culture DeYoung warns us of. The other is still right in the middle of it, recently lamenting to me that

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“I wonder, though, if our real problem is that too few of us realize that we’re busy, that the choices we are making are robbing us of health and spiritual vitality, that there is a better way.” his son is desperate for his attention. I tried to put myself in their shoes as I read Crazy Busy. How would they benefit from it?

DeYoung begins by summarizing a number of helpful books and studies to give us a “state of the union” (we’re all crazy busy!). The bulk of the book is structured around a series of diagnostic statements to help us see our busyness. I wonder, though, if our real problem is that too few of us realize that we’re busy, that the choices we are making are robbing us of health and spiritual vitality, that there is a better way. Again, I go back to my two friends: both of them have seen the light. For the first friend, the light was the dawn of a new day and a new way to live, a series of choices (radical though they seemed at the time to his short-sighted friends) that he and his wife made to live less busy lives. For the other friend, the light is an oncoming train. He knows he is in a world of hurt, but can’t seem to make the changes necessary to save his own health and to live in a way that is a true benefit to his family.

That’s not to say that the diagnostic chapters aren’t helpful. There are some real gems of insight in them, especially chapters 4 (“Stop

Freaking Out about Your Kids”) and 5 (“You Are Letting the Screen Strangle Your Soul”). These two chapters should be shared far and wide. Maybe just following DeYoung’s helpful advice on those two points would reduce enough stress to get most of my congregants off their meds.

DeYoung recognizes that a book, even as small as this one, can quickly become overwhelming to people who are already busy: just one more book to read, one more task to mark off, one more thing to do. He concludes his book by identifying the one thing we must do. DeYoung admits that it won’t necessarily solve the problem of busyness, but it will bring us closer to Jesus, he promises. (I agree with DeYoung that the real problem is our tendency to hide from Jesus in our busyness or substitute our busyness for Jesus.) So what’s the one thing DeYoung says we must do? Personal daily devotions.

DeYoung anticipates a negative reaction to his advice. He admits that it is “a dangerous and potentially debilitating move” to suggest a quiet time as the one thing we must do to fight against crazy busy lives. The problem, however, isn’t the legalism that DeYoung fears. It is instead the easy retreat to individualism, which is at the heart of our crazy busy problem and also shows up in a surprising way in Crazy Busy. For instance, in chapter 8, DeYoung explains the benefit of a Sabbath rest without once talking about the means of grace. His primary emphasis is personal relaxation, sleep, and a day off from the grind. So it isn’t surprising that the same individualistic viewpoint shows up in the one thing we must do.

I don’t think DeYoung is right. As wonderful and important as daily reading and prayer are, his advice sounds too close to a stereotypical “take two verses and call me in the morning” pietism. In the end, this

pietistic method can produce the kind of hyperindividualism that leads to the very real problems with which Crazy Busy is concerned.

Our church culture’s emphasis on the private over the corporate is a reflection of the broader cultural sickness that has made us all crazy busy.

We have forgotten that the biblical priorities are communal, not individual; personal, not private.

When we cease to think in communal terms, we become trapped by private ambition and guilt. Is it any wonder that the writers who have done the most to help celebrate a balanced life have also done the most to call to mind our responsibilities to broader community structures? I’m thinking here of writers like Wendell Berry and Eugene Peterson, who write often of our participation in both the land we live on as well as the communities that identify and guide us. helpDeYoung’s book is help ful in many ways, but his prescription falls short.

He returns to old tropes that I fear are part and parcel of the mess we’re in. Watching my own life get crazier and busier and watching the lives of confamily, friends, and con gregants follow the same trajectory, I am afraid that what is needed is a much crazier book than DeYoung has given us—a book that calls on God’s people to make countercultural distincdecisions to live their lives in ways that are distinc tively different from their neighbors. If our children see us bow in personal prayer each morning but otherwise ascribe to the world’s standards of what life should look like, we will never stop being crazy busy. We will only sanctify it in our children’s eyes, and they will follow our steps into their own crazy busy future.

Eric Landry is pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Murrieta, California.

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geek s quad

T y p o l o gy

A

by Michael S. Horton

Sunday school teacher once asked the class, “What has a bushy tail, scurries around for nuts, and lives in trees?” Puzzled, one of the boys replied with hesitation, “Well, it sounds like a squirrel, but I’m going to say ‘Jesus.’” Typology is a treasure trove, but only if we keep our imagination in check. We have it on apostolic authority that Jesus Christ is the Rock from which water flowed in the wilderness (Exod. 17:6 with John 4:14 and 1 Cor. 10:4). But we should beware of trying to find Jesus under every rock.

Scripture itself is not only full of types; its whole structure is a single drama divided into Old Testament promise and New Testament fulfillment. In normal usage, a “type” (tupos) was an original pattern that was pressed into wax or metal to make an official seal. In Scripture, types are historical events, people, places, and institutions that are intended by God to direct faith to something greater—namely, the reality to which the type pointed. Synonyms are skia (shadow), hupodeigma (copy), and parabole (parable). The

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reality to which a type refers is called the antitype (antitupon).

The type is not a fable but an actual person, place, or thing in history. Creation is the type for the new creation (for example, in 2 Cor. 4:6).

Adam “is a type [tupos] of him that was to come” (Rom. 5:14). The flood in Noah’s day is a type of the judgment coming upon the world (Matt.

24:37–38) as well as salvation through water in baptism (1 Pet. 3:20–21). Jesus invoked the historical event of God’s providing manna in the

wilderness (Exod. 16:14–16) as the type pointing to himself (John 6:32). Melchizedek, the mysterious priest-king (Gen. 14:18–20; Ps. 110:4; Zech. 6:12–13) is the type of Christ, who holds both offices (Heb. 5:5–10; 6:29; 7:1–17).

The “sacrifice” of Isaac (Gen. 22) is a type of the offering up of God’s only Son and the ram caught in the thicket (sparing Isaac) is also a type of Christ.

Joseph’s being thrown into a pit by wicked brothers but raised up by God’s power is a type of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Jesus is the true Israel, the only begotten son whom God called out of Egypt (Matt. 2:15), the one “lifted up” like the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21:8 with John 3:14). Moses himself is a type of the greater prophet (Acts 3:22; 1 Cor. 10:2; Gal. 3:19, 27; 1 Tim. 2:5). In fact, the entire sacrificial system—encompassing the sacrificial animals, the high priest, and the temple—is typology on a grand scale. Right down to the accessories worn by the priests and the furniture in the sanctuary, it was all an earthly copy of the heavenly reality. The old covenant is therefore called a “shadow” of the “reality,” which is Christ (Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1), a “copy” of the heavenly reality (Heb. 8:4; 9:23), a “parable” (Heb. 9:9; 11:19), and an antitype or pattern (Heb. 9:24; 1 Pet. 3:21). Consequently, we are

not to return to the “shadows” of the law now that the reality has arrived (Col. 2:16–17). Indeed, that point is the principal burden of the letter to the Hebrews. Jesus referred to “the sign of Jonah” as a type of his own death and resurrection after three days (Matt. 12:38–42; 16:1–4; Luke 11:29–32).

Egypt and Babylon are types of the demonic world system that will be judged on the last day, according to the book of Revelation. Sinai and Hagar serve as a type of bondage, while Zion and Sarah are a type of the heavenly rest (Gal. 4:23–25).

In identifying types, we have to be careful. We should stay close to Scripture, allowing it to identify genuine types. They all point to Christ. In medieval typology, imaginations ran riot. Even Protestants displayed a penchant for correlating biblical types with contemporary events. The English defeat of the Spanish Armada was interpreted as the defeat of the dragon in the book of Revelation. New England was the “new Zion,” and so forth. The best way to stay on track with both of these warnings is simply to read the New Testament’s quotations of the Old Testament and make the connections they did.

Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

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b a c k PA G E

Examples

Definition

P r o p h e t, P r i e s t, a n d K i n g

Prophet

Priest

King

The prophets were divine her-

The priest acted as the media-

The king was God’s vice-

alds chosen by God himself

tor between God and Israel.

regent over Israel. He was

to proclaim his judgment and

On the Day of Atonement,

responsible for seeing to it

his blessing to Israel. They

it was the priest who was

that the Deuteronomic law

acted as “covenant lawyers,”

responsible for slaughtering

was upheld. The peace and

bringing God’s suit against

the ox and sprinkling the

security of Israel was tied to

Israel, reminding her of her

blood on the people, thereby

the king. If he obeyed, then

guilt, condemning her in

temporarily appeasing God’s

Israel prospered. If he dis-

God’s name, and encouraging

wrath and cleansing Israel of

obeyed, then Israel suffered.

her to repent.

her sin.

Abraham

Melchizedek, the “Priest of

Adam

(Genesis 20:7)

the Most High God” (Genesis

(Genesis 1:20-28)

14:18).

Moses

Israel, designated a “king-

David

(Deuteronomy 18:15 & 18)

dom of priests and a holy

(2 Samuel 7:14)

fulfillment in Christ

nation” (Exodus 19:6).

The Old Testament prophets

Whereas the priests were

Jesus is the promised seed

spoke God’s word, whereas

fallible men who often broke

of the woman (Genesis

Jesus not only brings God’s

the very law they were meant

3:15) and the son of David

word to us, but is the Word

to uphold and teach, Christ

(2 Samuel 7:12-14) whose

incarnate (John 1:1-6, 14-18).

not only upheld and taught

throne is forever.

the law, but was himself the once-for-all sacrifice that completely appeased God’s wrath and secured salvation for Israel forever.

From “Faith in the Real Jesus: Understanding Him as Prophet, Priest, and King”

by Graeme Goldsworthy (see p. 34 for article).

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