Author Archives: Hank

Looking Towards Easter

Within recent weeks, when the world of Christendom has turned its attention to Christmas and the birth of the Messiah, my mind has turned towards Easter and the great event that is celebrated on that day, namely the resurrection. It began in looking into the New Perspective(s) on Paul over the summer and has culminated …

December 25, 2009 – 10:43 pm | By Hank | Posted in Resurrection | Comments (4)

Rachel is Weeping

One of the things about the Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke that has always baffled me has been the fulfillment passages where Matthew will say that event X fulfills prophecy A. But when I read prophecy A in its OT context it doesn’t make any sense. What Matthew records as the fulfillment isn’t what …

December 19, 2009 – 2:03 pm | By Hank | Posted in Christology, Eschatology, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Of God | Comments (0)

The Gospel: Defined

Having surveyed the story of God in the Bible, I began to work towards a definition of the gospel. Starting in the Old Testament and moving into the New Testament, I looked at how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. Then we moved into Paul and how he looked at the gospel. Having …

December 10, 2009 – 1:11 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Evangelism, God, Gospel, Jesus, Justification, Kingdom Of God, Pneumatology, Theology | Comments (0)

The Gospel: Incorporating Paul

In my previous post I defined the gospel in terms of how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. That is to say, they viewed the gospel as God fulfilling his promises made to Israel to establish a new creation by his Spirit, ruled by his Servant-King from the house of David, ending Israel’s …

December 9, 2009 – 2:43 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, God, Gospel, Jesus, Justification, Kingdom Of God, Paul, Theology | Comments (0)

The Gospel: Towards a Definition

Having examined both the Old Testament story, that serves as the background, and the story of Jesus of Nazareth, I feel it is time to begin to define the gospel, the εὐαγγέλιον. Within this framework that I established, I observed everywhere in the New Testament where εὐαγγέλιον or εὐαγγελίζω (“I bring good news”) appears. In …

December 9, 2009 – 10:59 am | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Of God | Comments (6)

The Gospel: The Story

Four hundred years of history transpires between the last promises made by Yahweh to his people and Yahweh’s next move. Yahweh has promised to completely reverse the current world order that his people, Israel, are living in. No longer will they live on a planet that his hostile against them. No longer will the nations …

December 8, 2009 – 12:53 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, God, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Of God, Theology | Comments (0)

The Gospel: The Background Story

With the newly released Manhattan Declaration, from November 2009, comes a bit of controversy. The document in and of itself is controversial in what it asserts, namely the encouragement and engagement of civil disobedience to uphold certain principles. It is controversial because leaders in Protestant-Evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy have signed this document and …

December 7, 2009 – 3:27 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Gospel, Theology | Comments (2)

The Son of the Most High God

Lord willing I might be teaching my old youth group back in KC over Thanksgiving. As such I figured I would teach on Mark 5:1-20. I am wondering if anyone has the time if they could provide some constructive feedback to the sermon/message. I’ll warn you that the sermon is in manuscript form–it’s what helps …

November 12, 2009 – 1:26 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Jesus, Kingdom Of God, preaching | Comments (2)

Compactness-ism-tion

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, …

September 18, 2009 – 11:05 am | By Hank | Posted in Ethics, Faith, Practices | Comments (0)

Justification and Psalm 82

In my quest to gain a whole-Bible understanding of justification I want to look at another psalm that utilizes righteousness/justification language, Psalm 82. I say whole-Bible because the Old Testament forms the background to and informs the New Testament’s understanding of justification. The theme of justification runs through the whole Bible and so I don’t …

August 13, 2009 – 6:41 am | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Gospel, Jesus, Justification, Theology | Comments (0)

Revelation and Psalm 98

The other psalm that I want to look at in regards to the background to justification in the NT, specifically Paul who articulated the doctrine more clearly than any other writer, is Psalm 98. This passage’s understanding of sdq is very influential upon Paul, particularly in Romans as we shall see momentarily. I have to …

August 11, 2009 – 8:14 pm | By Hank | Posted in Faith, Gospel, Justification, Paul | Comments (0)

Justice and Psalm 72

To continue in a theme that has become very important to me, I want to look at a couple of psalms and how they understand righteousness and justice. The first text is Psalm 72, specifically Psalm 72:1-7, and I want to understand how this psalmist understands righteousness, the sdq word group. If one is to …

August 11, 2009 – 3:29 pm | By Hank | Posted in God, Gospel, Justification | Comments (0)

Isaiah 53:11 and 2 Corinthians 5:21

In this post I want to move to a text that many contemporary exegetes and theologians have really disappointed me when they interpret Paul here, namely 2 Corinthians 5:21. In this post We’ll look at this text and how Isaiah 53:11 impacts the text and how we should understand Paul here in light of it. …

July 23, 2009 – 8:29 pm | By Hank | Posted in Christology, Jesus, Justification, Paul, The Reformation | Comments (0)

Romans 5 and Isaiah 53 and Justification

In this post I wish to look at the impact of Isaiah 53:11 and Romans 5:18-19 and how they influence justification. Romans 4:25 has been shown that Paul (or someone from whom Paul adapts a traditional Christological formula) does in fact read Isaiah 53:11 into his doctrine of justification in that the resurrection of the …

July 4, 2009 – 1:53 pm | By Hank | Posted in Eschatology, Gospel, Grace, Justification, Paul, Theology | Comments (0)

Romans 4:25 and Isaiah 53:11

Sometimes a person can read the Scripture and completely pass over a particular text that can have massive import on shaping one’s theology and understanding of a particular doctrine. I can remember my time as an Arminian (though not a full five-pointer as I was and am Southern Baptist) skipping over John 6 and Romans …

June 21, 2009 – 1:31 pm | By Hank | Posted in Christology, Eschatology, Justification | Comments (0)