Miscellaneous Missionary

After God rested, we find a new event in history. We already saw the aspect of time, in that it consists of both relationships between objects in space and progression through history. Furthermore, the history of the Bible is not just there to provide illustrations and stories. Nearly all if not all written material exists to teach the reader ideas, facts, opinions, and understanding of the world. Biblical history has this purpose with a central focus. In other words, God is revealing His plan as it was being unfolded through history.

The next series of events in biblical history are every bit as important to Christian theology as creation. They introduce the fundamental problems of the world we see every day. In Genesis three we see the introduction of a person whose plan is to counteract God's work, we see the beginning of sin, we see the consequences of that sin, and we see the promise of God for the future.

Over the next few weeks, I want to examine these things.

I heard a joke once that went something like this. One can always see a preacher's convention a long way off because of the horrendous mess made by all of the hobby horses on which they rode to the convention. This passage of Scripture is one of those passages, which we like to carry with us when we ride our hobby horses. That is because one of the most important problems in all of the world and in all systems of thought is the relationship between good and evil, or the relationship between a righteous God (who created a pure world) and a sinful creature (and how something created pure can become impure).

My views on this subject will become more evident as we go, but I want to point out something else from the saddlebags on my hobby horse. Here we are studying theology through history. I have looked at some sources outside the predominant text, but the main thrust has been from the text. People tend to study the Bible by jumping from topic to topic and passage to passage. They try to understand a concept by dropping a dump truck full of verses or verse fragments on the table for discussion. What I want to demonstrate is that while using Scripture to interpret Scripture is important, we need to value the structure of Scripture by letting the first things come first, followed by seconds and thirds. In other words, I do not need to preach Genesis to maps every time I open my Bible. By stopping and understanding the arguments or points in Moses' account, we found plenty of theology, cosmology, anthropology, and more. As we get into Genesis three, we find loads of hamartiology, soteriology, and eschatology, among others. I am saying that I believe in teaching through the Scriptures as much as I believe in teaching the Scriptures. Christian theology was first revealed through history, and we do best to study it that way.

# posted by Arnie Johnson @ 9:52 AM