Books

Lunde, Jonathan. Following Jesus, the Servant King: A Biblical Theology of Covenantal Discipleship. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.

Jonathan Lunde expounds the biblical covenants, the Christian’s relation to the law, the Kingdom of God, and Christology in the service of laying the foundations for faithful Christian living. The themes that Lunde has selected to form the theological basis of this work are ones that theologians and biblical scholars have long recognized as among the most important in Scripture. Sadly very few lay-level books have approached these themes. Lunde’s work nicely fills this gap. What is more, despite the complexity and disagreements that surround these issues, Lunde, for the most part, arrives at what I believe to be the best interpretation. For instance, though he believes all of the biblical covenants are grounded in grace, he also recognizes that the Mosaic covenant differs from the others by providing stipulations with blessings and curses. The others are gift covenants. Lunde also does a good job handling the issue of the law’s relation to the believer and noting both the continuities and the discontinuities involved.

Throughout the whole, Lunde makes applications to the Christian life. He structures the book around three questions: (1) "Why should I be concerned to obey all of Jesus’ commands if I have been saved by grace?" (2) "What is it that Jesus demands of his disciples?" (3) How can the disciple obey Jesus’ high demand while experiencing his ‘yoke’ as ‘light’ and ‘easy’?"

In answer to his first question Lunde expounds the biblical covenants. He notes that they are all grounded in grace, that certain of the covenants are unconditional in nature, and yet that all the covenants maintain expectations for both parties. Thus even though Jesus has fulfilled the new covenant’s requirements, this does not relieve the Christian of his duties toward God. In answer to the second question Lunde primarily expounds the law as it had been transformed by the arrival of Jesus. He notes that while Jesus has fulfilled the law, the expectations on believers are now higher, not lower. In answer to the third question, Lunde focuses on the enabling grace given to believers in the new covenant.

Overall, Lunde does an excellent job of maintaining a grace focus and recognizing the responsibilities that are vital to Christian discipleship. As with any book, a few weaknesses do emerge. I’m not convinced of the idea that Genesis presents two Abrahamic covenants, one conditional and one unconditional. Nor was I convinced by his argument that the servant in Isaiah 53 is first Israel and then ultimately Christ; furthermore, this lengthy digression didn’t advance the point he was making in that section of the book. Finally, some of his mission talk, though brief, seemed loose.

The strengths of this work far outweigh its weaknesses. It deserves a wide reading since it will both inform lay readers of important but neglected aspects of biblical teaching while at the same time relating practically to their daily Christian walk.

Tripp, Paul David. What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

The strength of this book is that it offers no secrets to a happy marriage. Tripp instead presents basic biblical teaching about sanctification and applies it to marriage. Tripp is correct to present sanctification as something at which Christians must work, but he also rightly highlights the grace of God as that which enables Christians to progress in sanctification. If there is a weakness it is Tripp’s tendency to repeat himself. Sometimes this reinforces points; other times it does not seem as effective.

Forsythe, Clarke D. Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009.

The first chapter bears the weight of the subtitle. It is there that a case is argued philosophically/theologically for the role of prudence in politics. This is followed by three chapters of example: American founders, Wilberforce, and Lincoln. Chapter 5 responds to Colin Harte’s Changing Unjust Laws Justly, a book that stands in direct opposition to Forsythe’s proposal. The final two chapters apply his insights to abortion and related issues. I found the first chapter the most interesting (and convincing) and wish he had taken more space to make the argument he made there.

Aniol, Scott. Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World. Religious Affections Ministries, 2010.

Though he is swimming against the flow in many areas, I believe Scott is absolutely correct on his main points. His treatment of the sufficiency of Scripture is especially well done. He corrects some common misapprehensions about the doctrine that have become popular despite lacking biblical support, let alone a informed understanding of the doctrine’s history. His chapter on evaluating musical communication also provides an excellent paradigm that works not only for making music choices but also for guiding choices in every area of the Christian life. I also find myself inclined toward his view that beauty is not simply subjective, but that was one part of the book where I desired more argumentation. I look forward to reading Scott’s larger book as well as Roger Scruton’s book on beauty. In all, this is an edifying book on a controversial topic because it generates more light than heat. Even if there were no controversy (and may that be so in the future), Scott’s book would remain a useful guide for applying the Scripture to music, worship, and life.

Carson, D. A. Christ and Culture Revisited. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.

Niebuhr’s typology is reductionistic: this is Carson’s primary point in Christ and Culture Revisited. Since most of Niebuhr’s types are grounded in some part of revelation, Carson argues that it is wrong to force people to choose between them. Rather, insofar as they are biblical, each type contributes to an overall biblical view. Carson also critiques several other approaches to the Christianity and culture debate and addresses related issues like democracy or church and state relations at greater depth. Again in these discussions Carson’s goal seems to be to combat reductionisms.

Two critiques: In his final chapter Carson lists "fundamentalism" as one response to culture. However, the fundamentalism he described sounded to my ears more like a certain strand of evangelicalism. Some fundamentalists may have fit in that category, but many others would better fit in some of the other options listed in that chapter. Since both fundamentalism and evangelicalism are "big tent" movements, neither is monolithic on these issues.

More significantly, as much as I benefited from Carson’s incisive critiques, I think the book would have benefited from a positive vision. This appeared at places, but it was never brought together. As a result Carson’s careful critiques could lead merely to the conclusion that this situation is complex and multifaceted.

Neither of these critiques vitiate the real value of the book. The reductionisms that Carson combats need combatting. His careful discussions of the biblical storyline, democracy, church and state, postmodernism, etc. are tremendously helpful.

Hiebert, Paul G. The Gospel in Human Contexts: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009.

This book provides an introductory-level view to contextualization and anthropology. It is helpful when read discerningly. Negatively, it seemed to be a collection of articles without a unifying argument.

Wickham, Chris. The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000. New York: Viking, 2009.

Wickham’s work on the early middle ages does an excellent job of presenting the reader with the political, cultural, and religious history of the period. He covers a wide geographical range that includes the Middle East and North Africa. At the beginning of the book he does an excellent job of showing the continuities and discontinuities that existed after the Roman Empire. In many ways culture did not drastically change since the barbarians were Romanized, but politically the state fragmented and the tax and trade structure fell apart, which did affect aspects of culture such as architecture. Wickham’s coverage of religion, especially the iconoclastic controversy, was also well done. His weakness, as others have pointed out, is a large amount of detail with little summarization that attempts to bring things together. Though this is, in his view, a strength that maintains the purity of the history, it does make it difficult to retain all the information provided.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

According to the cover the Washington Post Book World declared The Battle Cry of Freedom, "The finest single volume on the [Civil] war and its background." This strikes me as an accurate assessment. McPherson covered equally well the political, cultural, and military aspects of this decisive period in American history.

Saucy, Robert L. The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.

The title of this work may obscure the extent of what Saucy covers in this book. The first chapter does deal with the differences between dispensational theologies and between dispensational and non-dispensational theologies. But the rest of the book is not so much a cumulative case as studies of key biblical issues from Saucy’s dispensational perspective. One part of the book looks at several of the biblical covenants as well as the theme of the kingdom in Scripture. Another part of the book examines aspects of ecclesiology. The final section of the book looks at the purpose of Israel in God’s plan, prophecies about Israel in the OT and NT, and the fulfillment of those prophecies. A book that covers this range is difficult to summarize. Suffice it to say that I found the book full of exegetical and theological insights and that I took more notes from this book than any other that I’ve recently read.

Budziszewski, J. Evangelicals in the Public Square: Four Formative Voices on Political Thought and Action. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006.

Budziszewski here provides a review of four evangelical thinkers (Henry, Kuyper, Schaeffer, and Yoder) with the conclusion that natural law theory is the missing element of Evangelical political interaction. I’m not convinced of the thesis, but Budziszewski is always enjoyable to read, and I found myself gleaning a good amount of helpful information along the way.

Chapell, Bryan. Why Do We Baptize Infants? Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006.

Foundational to Chapell’s argument for infant baptism is an equation between the Abrahamic covenant and the Covenant of Grace (interestingly, Chapell did not use the Covenant of Grace language, but his argument ran along the same lines in that he concluded that believers are under the Abrahamic covenant). While Christians today participate in many aspects of the Abrahamic covenant, and while we can truly be called sons of Abraham, it does not follow that the Abrahamic covenant in its entirety is our covenant or is equated to a Covenant of Grace. The Abrahamic covenant includes national aspects that relate to the nation of Israel and not to the church. It seems patent, then, that the Abrahamic covenant in its entirety is not applicable to the church.

This being so, Chappell cannot assume, as he does, that baptism replaces circumcision as the covenant sign of a Covenant of Grace. This misunderstands the movement from a national covenant that included a mixture of regenerate and unregenerate people within the same covenant to the new covenant which is not a national covenant but is a covenant for the regenerate alone. Thus the NT brings about the end of circumcision while not ever equating it with baptism.

The best treatment of these issues that I’ve read is Stephen J. Wellum, "Relationship between the Covenants,” in Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ , ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn Wright (Nashville: B&H, 2007), 154-55. [This chapter is available for free here.]

Owen, John. The Works of John Owen: Volume VI [Temptation and Sin]. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1967.

The first book bound in this volume, "The Mortification of Sin in Believers," is probably the best book written on how to war war against sin. It is worthy of being read often. The other books bound with it, "Of Temptation," "The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers," and "A Practical Exposition upon Psalm CXXX," do not rise to the same level, but they too are worth reading. The latter, on one of my favorite Psalms, is a classic Puritan exposition, moving form detailed work on the words of the passage in Hebrew through to doctrine and practical application given at length under multiple subheadings.

Articles

Grudem, Wayne. "Pleasing God by Our Obedience: A Neglected New Testament Teaching." In For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper. Edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

Grudem says, "This topic seems important to me because I think that evangelicals today are generally afraid of teaching about ‘pleasing God by obedience,’ for fear of sounding as if they disagree with justification by faith alone. But when the need to please God by obedience is neglected, we have millions of Christians in our churches who fail to see the importance of obedience in their daily lives" (273). Grudem surveys the NT to show that pleasing God by obedience is a significant theme in the NT and that it is not contradictory to justification by faith alone. He rightly argues that sanctification, unlike justification, involves not only God’s enabling grace but also our working. Grudem demonstrates from the NT that our obedience pleases God and our disobedience displeases him (though displeasure and discipline do not remove God’s love for his children). Grudem faithfully captures the full balance of the NT’s teaching by noting that obedience to God brings great blessing but also may lead us down paths of suffering.

Kuyper, Abraham. "Calvinism and Politics." In Lectures on Calvinism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931.

In this lecture Kuyper expounds his view of sphere sovereignty. The government, social institutions, and the church each gain their authority directly from God and therefore government should not seek to usurp the rights of society or church. It does police the boundaries between the various spheres. Kuyper’s view of sphere sovereignty commits him to the ideal of a free church. He also condemns earlier Calvinists for advocating state-enforced adherence to their confession. Kuyper’s theorizing is interesting, but he does not seem to have firm exegetical support for his major concepts.

Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott, "Public Theology, Society, and America." In The Theology of Jonathan Edwards. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Helpfully outlines Edwards view of the roles of government (1. "secure property," 2. "protect citizens’ rights," 3. "maintain order," 4. "ensure justice," 5. "national defense," 6. "make good laws against immorality," 7. "help the poor," 8. give "support to true religion."), his views of good and bad patriotism, and his views on slavery, the slave trade, and race

Books

Gordon, T. David. Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010.

In this slim book Gordon challenges the idea that worship music styles are merely a matter of preference or taste. It astounds him that an aspect of the worship of God can be dismissed as insignificant or unimportant—something not likely to be said about the way the Lord’s Supper is observed. Gordon is as much concerned about the lack of thoughtful, theological discussion about the wide-ranging changes in Christian worship as he is about the changes themselves.

At the core of Gordon’s argument is the contention that aesthetics are not relative, that form shapes content, and that non-verbal messages often accompany our words. Given these contentions, Gordon argues that Christians must ask what popular musical aesthetics, forms, and meta-messages communicate. Is their communication consistent with or at odds with the Christian message.

Gordon finds pop music culture to be focused on contemporaneity. He finds it commercialized, sentimental, casual, and youth focused. These values are at odds with Christianity. Christianity ought to value tradition and history (which is different from moribund traditionalism). It places a higher value on the wisdom of elders than on youth. It fosters deep sentiments, but it is not sentimental. Christians ought to be reverent, not casual, in their approach to God. He finds pop music too trivial a medium for the worship of the true God.

Gordon does not argue that such music is sinful or unlawful for the church to use (though with certain styles of music, I think such a case could be made). He simply argues that lawful is not enough.

Gordon advocates a recovery of traditional hymn-singing. This does not mean that he wants to sing only old songs. Traditional or sacred music is still being composed in the present. But he does wish the church to make full use of the heritage bequeathed to it. Gordon recognizes that such a recovery cannot happen in a day. It will take time. But for the richness of the church’s hymn tradition to be recovered, at the very least the conversation that Gordon has started must continue. The style of worship music cannot be dismissed as unworthy of discussion, as being merely a matter of taste.

Morgan, Jill. A Man of the Word: The Life of G. Campbell Morgan. 1951. Reprinted, Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 2003.

This book did not have the same mind-shaping influence on me that I know it has had on others before me. I wonder if this is because those people have taken their insights and worked them into our church life so that what were insights to them is simply my normal experience of church life and pastoral ministry. The book did give me a greater appreciation for ministry and the religious situation at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.

Jones, Paul S. What is Worship Music? Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010.

In this brief book Paul Jones answers his title question in three parts: worship music is praise, worship music is prayer, and worship music is proclamation. In each of these parts Jones grounds his discussion in Scripture, amply illustrates it from church history, and provides practical applications.

A few examples will exhibit Jones’s careful, biblical approach. In his section on worship music as praise, he notes that churches don’t have the option of neglecting the Psalms in their worship since the New Testament commands the singing of Psalms (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). Jones rejects exclusive psalmody, however, on the grounds that such an approach "would be missing our acknowledgement of and gratitude for Christ’s redemption and his fulfillment of Old Testament promises" (11-12).

In the section on worship music as prayer, Jones contrasts this approach to worship music with the common contemporary tendency to treat worship music as performance. Worshippers do not respond to prayer with applause, yet this is a common response in contemporary worship services to musical performances. These churches often look at their music ministry as a way to attract the lost so that the sermon will have a chance to gain a hearing or as necessary to retain the young people of the church. Jones argues that all these approaches to music stand at variance with treating worship music as prayer.

In the section on music as proclamation Jones presents several passages that teach that music should teach (Col. 3:16; Ps. 60; 119:171-72, 174-75), several examples from church history, and the practical conclusion that "many of the same criteria used to define great preaching and teaching can be employed to define great church music" (36).

Jones has managed, with lucid brevity, to write a Scripture-infused, historically aware, practically wise book that will benefit churches and Christians who take it up and read.

Williamson, Paul R. Sealed with an Oath: Covenant in God’s Unfolding Purpose. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2007.

Williamson wrote an excellent work on the covenants in Scripture. He begins with a discussion of the concept of covenant in biblical and theological scholarship. He (rightly in my view) discounts the concept of an overarching covenant of grace. This approach flattens out the diverse covenants of Scripture. It is therefore better to speak of one "unfolding purpose" of God worked out through the various covenants. Williamson also argues against a covenant with creation or Adam. The biblical covenants begin with Noah. Williamson’s treatment of the Noahic covenant, an often neglected covenant, is excellent. He also provides a helpful treatment of the New covenant, which he sees as replacing the Mosaic covenant. To this point I have remained unconvinced by his thesis that Genesis 15 and 17 represent two Abrahamic covenants, one conditional and one unconditional. I also am unconvinced by his mild supercessionism. Disagreements aside, this is a major contribution to the discussion of the biblical covenants and one to which I’ll turn often in the future.

Niane, D. T. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Translated by G. D. Pickett. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman, 1965.

Forster, Greg. The Contested Public Square: The Crisis of Christianity and Politics. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2008.

Greg Forster’s The Contested Public Square is a readable, informative, and engaging history of Christian political thought. Far from an academic treatise, Forster recognizes that the moral consensus which Western nations have shared for fifteen hundred years has come apart, leading to a political crisis. He believes that "the first step to finding an answer [to this crisis] is understanding the question. We are going to have to do a better job of understanding the real nature of the crisis. If we do achieve that insight, we still might not succeed; but if we do not even try to achieve it, we will have lost before we even begin. That is what has driven me to write this book" (249).

Forster begins his work with the first centuries of the church, detours to take into account the influence of Greek philosophies, and then moves through Western history to the present. In the patristic era Christian apologists argued against state persecution of Christianity, but Christians had not real theology or philosophy of political involvement. Christian thinkers tended to argue against government and military participation because of the religious compromise it involved. But with the Christianization of the Roman Empire, Christians needed to develop a political theology. As in so many areas of theology, Augustine proved most influential (Forster points especially to book 19 of the City of God). Augustine first made use of the idea of natural law that developed into a political theory in the middle ages and persisted on to the time of Locke where it became a foundational element in his case for religious toleration and liberal democracy. Even in medieval Europe the seeds for Locke’s approach existed in the belief that natural law, with its concern for temporal goods, provided the foundation for civil law whereas the Bible and the Church concerned itself with spiritual goods. Yet because a shared morality, based on a shared religion, is necessary for the temporal good of society, the state enforced religious uniformity in the middle ages. The Reformation shattered this uniformity. Because of the continued belief in the necessity of a shared religion, the Reformation set off a series of religious persecutions and wars. One attempt to settle the problem was to permit the prince to choose the religion of his nation. But in nations, such as England, where the religious positions of the monarchs shifted between Catholicism and Protestantism, religious conflict was only exacerbated. Enter John Locke. In his early years Locke favored strictly enforced religious conformity to ensure public tranquility. But on a diplomatic mission to Cleves, a city in Germany which, due to some strange political circumstances, allowed religious toleration, Locke’s views were radically transformed. He saw that toleration had removed religion from the political equation and led to public tranquility among adherents to different religion. Public virtue was not threatened because natural law undergirded a shared morality despite religious differences. Locke’s views led to the advent of religious toleration, even religious freedom, and liberal democracy. But in the twentieth century liberal democracy entered a crisis as political theorists denied the natural law foundations Locke’s position and sought to replace them with something else: tradition (Edmund Burke and conservatism) and the maximization of human happiness (John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism) being the chief alternatives discussed by Forster. As philosophical and religious diversity increases, shared morality is fragmenting. Without a shared religion, a shared morality has shattered. And yet it is impossible at this juncture to return to a shared religion for each political community. Forster concludes, "All paths now lead to danger. If we wish to preserve religious freedom, we must somehow find a way to build social consensus around moral laws that politics requires without going back to dependence upon a shared religion." How is this to be done; is it even possible? Forster concludes, "I do not know the answer to this crisis" (249).

The lack of an answer to this intractable problem does not eviscerate that value of Forster’s work. He set about not to answer the question but to providing the necessary background to understand it. In this he succeeded admirably. My one complaint with the book is that there were various points where I desired greater documentation. That aside, I found this one of the most illuminating books that I have read.

Articles

Johnson, Jr., S. Lewis. “Paul and ‘The Israel of God’: An Exegetical and Eschatological Case-Study.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

This is the best treatment of Galatians 6:16 that I’ve read. Johnson surveys the various proposals regarding this verse from the grammatical, syntactical, contextual, and theological perspectives. He concludes (along with the consensus of recent scholarship) that the Israel of God refers to Christian Jews. He also demonstrates the possibility of an eschatological aspect to Paul’s discourse at this point.

Johnson, Elliott E. “Apocalyptic Genre in Literal Interpretation.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody, 1986.

A helpful essay on how to interpret the portions of Scripture assigned to the apocalyptic genre. In addition to positive suggestions, Johnson cautions against divorcing the genre from application to real people and events and against the over-use of appeals to mythological comparisons.

Walvoord, John F. “The Theological Significance of Revelation 20:1-6.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody, 1986.

Includes a helpful discussion of the "first resurrection."

Merrill, Eugene H. “Daniel as a Contribution to Kingdom Theology.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody, 1986.

The essay opens with a convincing argument that kingdom serves as a center of the Bible’s theology, and that its seedbed is Genesis 1:26-28. Merrill then focuses in on this theme in Daniel. The latter part of the essay does a good job of providing a historical survey and an interpretational survey of Daniel and his times. But the theological synthesis was thin.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. "Law and Grace: Two Dangers to Avoid," The Banner of Truth (Oct. 2011).

The two dangers that Lloyd-Jones warns are antinomianism, that the Law has no abiding value in the present age, and a vacillation between law and grace, that is, a mentality that seeks to regain God’s grace after disobedience. Both of these are deadly to the Christian. Attempts to work oneself back into the favor of God are disastrous for Christian living, but the law nonetheless retains its role of convicting the lost and providing a guide for believers.

Awabdy, Mark A. "Green Eggs and Shawarma: Reinterpreting the Bible, Reforming Mission, with Leviticus’ גר as a Test Case," Asbury Journal 66, no. 1 (2011): 31-45.

The test case takes up most of the article with very brief (and rather unhelpful) thoughts about mission and interpretation at the beginning and end. The overall thrust of the test case was that the גר in Leviticus were foreigners who had moved to Israel and become Yahweh-worshippers. They were therefore bound by much of the law, but they also received exceptions to certain laws due to their ancestry (e.g., not required to observe the feast of booths) or poorer status (e.g., having to do with the slaughter and eating of certain animals).

Steinmann, Andrew E. “Night and Day, Evening and Morning.” Bible Translator 62, no. 3 (2011): 145-150.

Steinmann reasserts against C. John Collins that "evening and morning" in Genesis 1 forms a merism for "a day." Collins argues that evening and morning highlight the time of rest between each day. This is part of his argument for an ongoing seventh day and a non-literal view of the days. In this article Steinmann demonstrates that complex merisms, like "And there was evening and there was morning" do exist. He also answers some quibbles, such as the claim that translating "and there was evening and there was morning, one day" removes the idea of sequence by inserting a cardinal number in a series marked off with ordinals. In Steinman’s approach the day is defined as being a solar day in Genesis 1:5. Evening precedes morning because the Hebrew day began in the evening.

Beale, G. K. "The Old Testament Background of the ‘Last Hour’ in 1 John 2, 18," Biblica, 92.2 (2011): 231-254

Argues that John is alluding to the Old Greek translation of Daniel 8:17,19;10:14;11:35,40;12:1. In Beale’s interpretation this involves an already-not-yet interpretation in which the church is eschatological Israel.

Noel K. Weeks, "Cosmology in Historical Context," Westminster Theological Journal 68.2 (2006): 283-93.

Weeks provides convincing arguments against attempts to say that the Israelites believed that the earth was a disk of land built over waters and topped with a solid dome. He shows problems in the basic assumptions, problems in relation to the available data from Palestine about what people believed, problems with appealing to sources like Enuma Elish if one holds an early date for Genesis, problems of using poetic descriptions of creation to construct the physical model of the universe which the Israelites allegedly held. In terms of assumptions, Weeks makes the insightful comment that it is often thought that interpreting Genesis in light of ANE cosmology is more historical that interpreting the text without reference to it; but, Weeks notes, the same interpreters wish to divide the cosmology (which they discard in favor of modern cosmology) from the theology (which the wish to hold as valid)—a very unhistorical position to take in regards to a world that held cosmological and theological together. Weeks article exposes the flimsy basis on which recent the recent claims of what Israelite cosmology must be like stand.

Steinmann, Andrew E. אחד As and Ordinal Number and the Meaning of Genesis 1:5, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 45.4 (Dec 2006): 577-84.

Steinman argues for the translation: "God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was an evening and there was a morning: one day." Grammatical arguments for translating אחד as an ordinal have not investigated the particular situations in which this is acceptable. He sees this translation as indicating solar days in the creation week.

Kamell, M. J. "The Implications of Grace for the Ethics of James," Biblica 94.2 (2011): 274-87.

She argues that James is not an ethical book cut off from theology but that his ethics are instead grounded in theology, which is especially apparent in chapter 1. The difference between Paul and James is not that the former is theological and the later ethical but that James writes in a wisdom style that presents theology differently from Paul.

McLean, John A. "The Chronology of the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11," Bibliotheca Sacra 168 (Oct-Dec 2011): 460-71.

He argues that the two witnesses are chronologically located in the latter half of the tribulation. He believes that arguments that place them in the first half are based on assumptions that are not stated in the text or on misplaced concerns about perceived conflicts with the events described in chapter 11 and the events in the latter half of the tribulation. He argues that Revelation 11 is an interlude that provides a preview of the latter part of the tribulation from an alternate perspective.

Malone, Andrew S. “Distinguishing the Angel of the Lord.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 21, no. 3 (2011): 297-314.

Malone critiques and earlier BBR article in which the author argued for that the Angel of the Lord is the representative of Yahweh rather than identified with Yahweh. Malone says that this article failed to prove its point. It sought to prove, (1) that the Angel of the Lord speaks as Yahweh and (2) that the Angel of the Lord is distinct from Yahweh. Malone said that the earlier article proved the former point but its arguments for the latter were weak. Thus the article tended to support the identity view.

Hess, Richard S. “The Seventy-Sevens of Daniel 9: A Timetable for the Future?” Bulletin for Biblical Research 21, no. 3 (2011): 315-330.

Hess begins by surveying historical, dispensational, and other modern interpretations. He agrees with the early church and the dispensationalists that the sixty-nine weeks end in the time of Christ and with the dispensationalists that the final week is in the future. But he disagrees with dispensationalists that these years can be calculated precisely. He notes that the Bible tends to divide human history into segments of 400 to 500 years. It places 427 years between Noah and Abram, 400 years between Abram and the Exodus, 480 years from the exodus to Solomon’s temple, and (though not explicitly this time), around 480 years between the construction of the first temple and events of the exile. Hess says of 1 Kings 6:1 and the dating of Solomon’s temple, "The number, no more intended as a precise number of years than the 400 of Gen 15:13, implicitly represents 12 generations of 40 years each. It describes an ideal and complete number of years that suggests that the construction of the temple began at precisely the correct time in Israel’s history." With Daniel, therefore, there is an epoch of 483 to 490 years (depending on whether the 70th week is placed in the future or not). He says, here "historic premillennialism finds its natural interpretation of Daniel and his future: a time connected with Jesus’ return but not tied to one precise scheme of years." But this seems to come at a high cost. At stake is not merely the debated 70 sevens of Daniel but a whole host of chronological indicators in Scripture. On what basis are they swept away as non-historical? This seems to move toward an approach to Scripture in which its theological truths are valued but its historicity is relativized.

Keener, Craig S. “Otho: A Targeted Comparison of Suetonius’ Biography and Tacitus’ History, with implications for the Gospels’ Historical Reliability,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 21 (3, 2011): 331ff.

Some scholars claim that in the ancient world the line between fiction and history was thin in biographies (thus casting doubt on the historical reliability of the gospels). Keener argues that this is not so, especially in biographies written shortly after the death of the subject. He compares Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus on Otho as a test case and is able to show a great deal of agreement, which reflects reliance on historical sources in composition rather than the free play of imagination to be expected if biographies were more novelistic in nature.

Kaiser, Walter C. "Israel as the People of God." The People of God: Essays on the Beleivers’ Church. Edited by Paul Badsen and David S. Dockery. Nashville: Broadman, 1991.

Kaiser argues that the church and Israel are distinct entities but that both together form the united people of God. He discusses Galatians 6, Romans 9, 11, and Acts 15 in making his case that the church is not Israel, that ethnic Israel still has a future, and that the two are nonetheless still the unified people of God.

Toussaint, Stanley D. “The Kingdom in Matthew’s Gospel.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody, 1986.

Toussaint’s essay has some helpful material about the importance of Gen. 1:26-28 to the kingdom idea in biblical theology, and he has a good defense of the earthly nature of the kingdom (I would add, in its consummation). I found his defense of the idea every occurrence of kingdom in Matthew refers to the future Millennial kingdom lacking. He asserts this possibility more than he argues for its probability.

Martin, John A. “Dispensational Approaches to the Sermon on the Mount.” In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody, 1986.

Martin’s goal is to demonstrate that dispensationalists are not locked into one single approach to understanding the Sermon on the Mount (namely, the view that it provides a future kingdom ethic). He believes, with most evangelicals, that the sermon provides an ethic for believers in the present day.