Preaching

I'm in between the testaments now, so I will resume the normal programming shortly when I get into Matthew. I hope that will be tomorrow.

In the meantime, I want to share how things are going with school. Hebrew is winding up and I think that will be fine. It's really just a matter of keeping up. I do need to do a vocab review before today's quiz though.

I have now preached two sermons. The first was on Psalm 51:10-17. That was pretty easy because the structure of the passage lent itself well to a sermon. On Tuesday night I preached on Luke 18:9-14, which is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. That didn't go as well. I had a hard time fitting the parable into the structure we used for our other sermons. It turns out that I should have gone with my gut and done what I thought I should do. After I finished my professor said that he "fixed my outline" for me. Now I know more about how to preach parables.

The good news is that I am told that my delivery is very good. My professor was shocked that I had never preached before. In fact, he said that our class is one of the best he's seen in year's of teaching preaching. He didn't expect it to be so good with such a small class, but it has been. That's quite an encouragement.

I have one week with a solid push to go and then I'm done for a month. I'm looking forward to that.

Sensus Plenior

I finished my paper on Sensus Plenior. Basically, I found that we need to avoid making speculation and allegorizing the Old Testament, but it is clear that there are often two levels of meaning in the text. Check out my paper and see what you think.

Parable Analysis

I published my analysis of the Parable of the Unjust (dishonest) Steward (manager) here. I haven't got a grade on it yet, so you can determine the quality for yourself.

2 More Credits

I just got back from my final exam in my parables class. I guess it's a little premature to give myself 2 more credits since I still have a fair amount of work to do for the class. However, it is nice to have the classwork behind me.

A Weight off the Shoulders

I just emailed my paper to my professor. It always feels so good to finish a paper. I was living under the constant feeling of the need to get it done and turned in. Now I can concentrate on just keeping up in my classes. It's quite a liberating feeling.

In case you're wondering, it's on the text-critical issues surrounding John 7:53-8:11. You may have noticed that your bible has it set off in square brackets. My paper explains why and what you should do with it. In short, I don't think it belongs as John 7:53-8:11, but it should be put somewhere and it should still be taught.

I thought that it would share happily with Google Docs, but it looks like I have to add people individually to see it. Let me know if you'd like to read it.

Feeling the Crunch

I'm at one of those crunch times in the semester. I have a Hebrew exam on Monday and a New Testament exam on Tuesday. I'm also trying to get a draft of my paper done by Tuesday so that my professor has time to review it and give me feedback. The paper might not happen.

I woke up with kind of a stiff neck. I think I was clenching my jaw all night. Plus, I had a dream that I was in a class with my Hebrew professor (though it may not have been Hebrew) and he was talking about the paper we had to do in that class. Talk about a nightmare!

The good news is that things will get significantly easier in 3 weeks. I turn in my paper on election day, so all I'll have to do then is keep up with my classes. That isn't too difficult.

Fortunately I have started writing my paper. I'm on page 4 (out of 15-20 pages) and I have most of the Bibliography written. Now I just need to do some organizing of my material so I can write. I actually find writing to be the easiest part of the process. If the material is organized the paper pretty much writes itself.

Being Mentored

I met with the new director of mentoring at my seminary this evening. I told him my story of how I came to know Jesus, about finding freedom from sexual sin, and about how I came to Shepherds. He is an older man who clearly has a lot of wisdom. He also has a very gracious manner and was a pleasure to talk to.

He said that he got a call for someone to preach at a small Baptist church around the corner this Sunday and asked if I wanted to do it. I was thrilled at the offer, but mom is coming in this weekend so I had a legitimate excuse. It was very encouraging to hear him say that he thinks I should be doing some pulpit supply preaching.

It's also terrifying to me. However, this is what I'm being trained for. I just have to "bring it" and let the Holy Spirit work in people's hearts. Of course, I will certainly blog about any preaching opportunity I might get. Please pray for me.

Back in the Race

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I'm back in the groove with school. I've got Hebrew on Mondays and New Testament on Tuesdays. I think I'm looking forward to Hebrew more than NT, but I do think I have a good paper topic in mind for NT. I plan on writing on text-critical criteria.

Ever notice how your Bible sometimes has passages in brackets with a footnote like "the oldest manuscripts do not contain..." the passage name? You will find this particularly in John 8 and the woman caught in adultery as well as in the end of Mark. There are thousands of other small ones throughout the New Testament too. Our English Bible translators have already dealt with these issues. I want to know how they did it so I can come up with my own opinion. Otherwise I'm just trusting the opinions of my translators.

I'm excited to work on my Hebrew homework. It's pretty easy so far, which is nice. I think I'm already prepared for my first quiz because I tried to get ahead. Hopefully I can stay ahead so the tests will be a breeze. We're having 4 tests this semester. I think this is a good thing, but it will require much diligence.

Almost There...

I just need to stay on target. I'm taking my last Old Testament test tomorrow afternoon. I did the last quiz tonight. I hope to watch the last lecture tomorrow and do the last paper on Thursday.

It would be really great to have over a week off before classes begin again. I just have some reading to do to get ready for the next semester, but I can do that at lunch.

The Next Fun Thing

My Hebrew textbook arrived on Saturday. Unfortunately, I've been busy with some other things and haven't had much time to dive into it. Once I finish this post I plan to read more about the alphabet and the vowel markings. Frankly, the alphabet has me a tad intimidated. Greek was relatively easy as I knew most of the letters. These all look more or less like squiggles to me right now. The vowel markings should make things interesting as well.

It's amazing how excited I can be about something new and lose interest in the current class that previously interested me. Check back in two months and see if I am still so interested in Hebrew...

Almost There...

It's been a busy weekend. I have my project for hermeneutics due on Friday. The bad news is that I really need to have it done by Wednesday evening since we are driving to Cleveland on Thursday. The good news is that I think I have gathered enough source material. It's just a matter of synthesizing it.

I remember a former coworker who was taking a Perl programming class. He felt like he had all the work done except for "the syntax and stuff." Well, that's what programming is. In the same way, this little detail of synthesizing data is what this class is all about.

I do think I am more or less equipped to handle various texts. There is just a certain amount of sweat equity required to do this.

Song of Songs

What do you make of this book? I have heard a variety of interpretations for it and just had to write a short paper on it. I think that this book can be read at three levels, in progressing levels of obscurity:

1. A love poem
2. An allegory for Christ's love for the church
3. A metaphor for how much we should pursue wisdom

The love poem is pretty obvious. I think that it clearly speaks to the passion that a husband and wife should have for each other. In Christian circles it is sometimes mentioned that wives should take care of themselves for their husbands. I agree with this and I winced at all the flak Mark Driscoll once took for making this point. However, I think we also need to remember that husbands should take care of themselves too. Men, we need to bathe and shower. We also need to do the little things that make our wives happy. We're so easy to stimulate as it usually just takes a suggestive look or a glimpse of flesh. Women are more relational. Work on it. Talk to your wife about it.

The allegorical interpretation is the historic one of the church. The problem is that the book lacks any clear references to Christ and the church. Sos 1:4 is perhaps a reference to Joh 6:44, but that's kind of subtle. I think that Epheisans 5:25-33 makes it more clear. That passage shows that the marriage relationship is a metaphor for Christ's love for the church. Therefore, as this book shows the passionate pursuit of a married couple for each other it would seem to make it clear that Christ pursues us passionately and we should pursue Him with vigor as well.

The wisdom metaphor is a bit strained, but I can see it. Proverbs 1-9 makes it clear that there are two women -- folly and wisdom. The whole passage is an apologetic for pursuing woman wisdom. Perhaps Song of Songs is telling us how we should pursue woman wisdom.

Either way, it's a fun book if you're not too prudish about winds in gardens and hands on bolts.

Testing

For those who are interested, I'm pretty sure I did well on my first Old Testament II test. Fortunately I memorized all the lists in the notes and those came into play as I responded to the questions on the test.

I am really enjoying this class. I need to get more gumption going for the hermeneutics project I need to get done.

Ecclesiastes

I finished watching the lectures on this somewhat enigmatic book. What do we as Christians do with it? There are a variety of views, but the historically Reformed one is that this book is an apologetic. It shows us how the preacher (seemingly Solomon) tried out all kinds of worldliness and found it wanting. The last two verses sum up what we are to learn. Everything but the fear of the Lord is vanity.

However, there is still a question on this term in the book. Is this the same kind of "fear of the Lord" referred to in Prov 1:7 and Job 28:28? I think that a typical Reformed view would be yes.

Proverbs

I finished the lecture on Proverbs yesterday. Here is something to think about. Proverbs 1:1-7 is kind of a prologue to the whole book, with verse 7 explaining the beginning of wisdom. Everything through Proverbs 9 is a part of father-son and mother-son chats explaining about woman wisdom and woman folly. Then you have a lot of chapters of general proverbs.

One thing to note is that proverbs as a genre are not meant to be taken as absolute truths. By that I mean that if it says that something will happen to the sluggard and something else to the industrious it is possible for that to be backwards in how it plays out. In other words, don't read it the same as you would read Paul's commands in Ephesians, for example.

Most of us know Proverbs 31:10-31. What is interesting is to note Proverbs 31:23. This verse does two things. One is that it links everything back to the opening. This passage describes the virtuous wife, but it is not written to women. It is still written to the son who is receiving instruction. It also links to Ruth as Ruth immediately followed Proverbs in the Tanakh. Ruth was this virtuous woman.

Psalms

I finished watching the lecture on Psalms last night. It was amazing to consider God's handiwork in composing this book. He took 150 discrete poems and knit them into a unified whole. The biggest thing I got from it was to note how Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm and Psalm 2 is messianic. Ever notice how the book of Psalms is split into five books? Take note of how each book ends with a doxology. Then note the theme of the psalms that begin and end each book. The only exception is the bridge between psalms 41 and 42, which is a bit different.

The point is that there are themes of wisdom and messiah throughout the psalter. The next time you read through the psalms try reading them with that "lens" and see what you can find.

Colossians 1:13-20

I finished this part of my Hermeneutics project. Check it out.

Epistle and Type

We finished our discussion of genres last night. It was interesting to talk about epistle, though I didn't feel like it answered any of my questions satisfactorily. How do we know when the writer was writing a timeless truth? As with everything, context is key. Take this passage for example:

Titus 3:12-15 ESV
(12) When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.
(13) Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.
(14) And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.
(15) All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

So does this mean that, like Paul, we should winter at Nicopolis? Probably not. The typical example of this idea is:

2 Timothy 4:13 ESV
(13) When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Clearly Paul is writing personally to Timothy. I don't think that is a timeless truth for us today.

However, that does make us wonder about that Titus passage. When do we take it for ourselves and when can we ignore it? Verses 14 and 15 seem to have the potential to be timeless truths. Verses 12 and 13 seem to be very much just for the current situation he was in.

How do we separate those? I think that if we go from the assumption that everything is a timeless truth unless it is unreasonable then we will be OK. This saves us from doing things like "contextualizing" 1Tim 2:8-15 when we don't like what it teaches. This is the same rule of thumb we use for figurative language as well. We should take the plain meaning of a passage unless there is a good reason to think otherwise.

"Type" isn't really a genre per se, but it was important to discuss. Basically, our professor believes that we should be careful in how we see Jesus all over the OT. There really are not that many types of Christ as some would say. That includes the leadership of my ministry. Personally, I'm not sure which way to lean.

In the end, the course has been very beneficial. It has given me a good framework to wrestle with as well as a consistent way to look at the text. I think that is what it is all about.

Apocalyptic and Parables

We are almost done with our hermeneutics class. In fact, we won't have to meet on Friday night, which is a huge blessing. Last night we discussed what to do with apocalyptic and parables. We also finished up our general principles discussion.

The general principles discussion fascinated me. Apparently there are a variety of hermeneutical systems out there. Many are easily dismissed like redaction criticism and liberalism. However, the allegorical one is tough to dismiss outright. There are many church fathers who looked for the meaning behind the meaning in the text. That doesn't necessarily make it right, but it is compelling. It seems clear that Jesus had some allegory in mind when He mentioned the "sign of Jonah" in Matthew 12:39, Matthew 16:4, and Luke 11:29-30. Paul also does this in Galatians 4:24.

One of the main arguments against the allegorical hermeneutic is the same as against charismaticism. Namely, there is a fear of the subjective. I think this is one of the places where the rubber really meets the road. It is wise to fear the unverifiable. However, does this create too narrow a view of God's Word?

I haven't really come to any conclusions on that. I'd appreciate any feedback that anyone can give.

Wisdom and Prophecy

We talked about these genres last night. My professor couldn't believe he was saying it, but he made the point that we need to do some personal interpretations of Proverbs. It is OK to ask, "what does this mean for me?" when looking at the pithy sayings of Proverbs from chapter 10 on. There is very little context for them and they really do stand alone. This is one of the personal problems I've had with reading through this book. There is so much to chew on that I tend not to absorb much.

We also talked about prophecy, which is a very difficult interpretive subject. The main thing I got from that discussion is that we don't necessarily need to worry about every detail. For example, we don't have to identify every eye and horn in the book of Daniel.

Again, God gave us a text to reveal Himself to us. Let's not read it through the lens of the newspaper or through the Left Behind books.