Exegesis and Theology

The Blog of Brian Collins

William D. Barrick, “Biblical Covenants and Their Fulfillment,” in Dispensationalism Revisited

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William Barrick contributed a chapter on the biblical covenants in Dispensationalism Revisited: A Twenty-First Century Restatement, a book is a Festschrift for Charles Hauser, Jr. published by Central Baptist Theological Seminary.

Barrick focuses on the six covenants that he identifies as having been made between God and Israel: “the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic (or Sinaitic) Covenant, the Priestly (or Zadokite) Covenant, the Deuteronomic (or Palestinian) Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant” (103). Barrick mentions the Noahic covenant in passing, but he claims that the blessing, seed, land, nation, and kingdom themes found in the Israelite covenants are not found in the Noahic covenant.

Barrick also identifies eight dispensations to which he will relate the covenants. He understands dispensations as periods in which there are varied rules for God’s people. For instance, the dietary requirements for God’s people changed in different dispensations. Barrick is clear that man’s soteriological need, the instrument and object of faith, the work of Christ, and other elements of salvation remained constant across dispensations. His eight dispensations are as follows:

“1. The Dispensation of Innocence (Gen 1:1-3:21)

2. The Dispensation of Conscience (Gen 3:22-8:12)

3. The Dispensation of Human Government (Gen 8:13–11:32)

4. The Dispensation of Promise (Gen 12:1-Exod 18:27)

5. The Dispensation of Law (Exod 19:1-Acts 1:26)

6. The Dispensation of Grace/the Church (Acts 2:1-Rev 19:21)

7. The Dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom (Rev 20:1-15)

8. The Dispensation of the Eternal Kingdom (Rev 21:1-27; 22:1-5)” (112)

Because he is focused on the Israelite covenants, Barrick does not correlate the first three dispensations with a covenant or covenants. He correlates the Abrahamic covenant with the dispensation of promise. He correlates the Mosaic, priestly, Deuteronomic, Davidic, and new covenants with the dispensation of law. He further correlates the new covenant with the dispensations of grace/church, of the mediatorial kingdom, and of the eternal kingdom.

Complicating these correlations, he also holds that the Mosaic covenant had an initial fulfillment in the past and that it will have a future fulfillment int he millennial period during which Israel will faithfully keep the Mosaic law. In addition, though he correlates the new covenant with the dispensation of the church, he distinguishes between Israel as the nation with which the new covenant is made and Gentile Christians who receive the benefits of the new covenant through their relationship with Christ.

Barrick’s treatment reveals some standard weaknesses in dispensational treatments of the biblical covenants, which I do not think are endemic to dispensationalism. Dispensational treatments of the covenants usually focus on the covenants with Israel. For instance, both Pentecost’s Things to Come and Robert Saucy’s The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism begin with the Abrahamic covenant. Darrell Bock mentions the Noahic covenant in both Progressive Dispensationalism and in his contribution to Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies: Four Views on the Continuity of Scripture. But in his coverage in the former book is brief, and in the structure of the latter the Noahic covenant is marginalized. Further, the creation covenant is either ignored or, as in the case of Bock, denied.

However, it is important to recognize that the themes of blessing, seed, and land/kingdom all emerge from the creation covenant outlined in Genesis 1 and 2. Further, these elements which, Barrick fails to see in the Noahic covenant, are indeed there. Once the creation and Noahic covenants are given their place, the covenantal progress of Scripture becomes plain. Furthermore, there is less of a need for a complex relationship between the covenants and the dispensations. The dispensations are largely determined by the covenants. Barrick’s dispensation of innocence is the era of the unbroken creation covenant. His dispensation of conscience is the era of the broken creation covenant, an era in which the protoevangelium had been given but no new covenant yet cut. His dispensation of human government (an unfortunate label given that human government likely existed before the Flood) has its commencement at the cutting of the Noahic covenant. His correlation of the dispensation of promise with the Abrahamic covenant is an affirmation that that covenant created a dispensation, for the promise is that of the Abrahamic covenant. Likewise, with the dispensation of law, for the law in view is the Mosaic law. Finally, the cutting of the new covenant at the cross marks the beginning of the dispensation of grace. Because the new covenant is inaugurated now but only consummated later, a distinction can be made between the present era and the era of the new creation (of which I would understand the millennium to be the first stage). By relating dispensations to covenants, a rationale is provided for variation of some of God’s requirements for his people from age to age. Different covenants can have differing requirements.

If the reasoning of the previous paragraph holds, a further question is raised by the fact that the Mosaic covenant, priestly covenant, Deuteronomic covenant, and Davidic covenant are all correlated to the dispensation of law. I would argue that Barrick’s priestly covenant is subservient to the Mosaic covenant. Likewise, I would see the Deuteronomic covenant as a renewal of the Mosaic covenant.

The Davidic covenant is interesting in that I do not think it marks a distinct dispensation or age. Instead, it initially functioned under the Mosaic covenant and now continues in the age of the new covenant. Similarly, the Noahic covenant remains in force until the final judgment. Thus, while covenants mark off various eras in redemptive history, there is some complexity to how they do so.

I would also understand the new covenant’s relationship to the dispensations differently than Barrick. Barrick locates the new covenant in the dispensations of law, grace/church, mediatorial kingdom, and eternal kingdom. However, while the new covenant was announced in the Old Testament, it did not exist under the dispensation of law. The cutting of the new covenant at the cross marked the end of the Mosaic covenant with its law and the beginning of the new covenant era. For this reason, I do not see how the Mosaic law can be brought back into force during the millennial period. The new covenant, as Hebrews eloquently argues, is definitively displaced the Mosaic covenant.

Kevin T. Bauder, “Israel and the Church: Is There Really a Difference,” in Dispensationalism Revisted

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Central Baptist Theological Seminary just published Dispensationalism Revisited: A Twenty-First Century Restatement. This book is a Festschrift for Charles Hauser, Jr. that is comprised of chapters by his former colleagues and students. The first three chapters focus on the classic sine qua nons of dispensationalism. This chapter by Kevin Bauder defends the distinction between Israel and the church as a sine qua non of dispensationalism. Bauder observes that the distinction between Israel and the church is “the most basic” of the sine qua non.

Bauder adapts a typology from Markus Barth to map the options of the relation of Israel and the church:

Some suppose that the church either replaces or continues Israel as the people of God. Others see a faithful remnant of believing Israel continuing within the church, which has now become the people of God. Still others draw a contrast between Israel and the church, resulting in distinct peoples of God. Some see an analogous relationship between Israel and the church within the one people of God (71).

Bauder begins to adjudicate between these views by probing what is meant by the phrase “people of God.” He notes that people can be “plural for person” with “people of God” meaning “the sum total of all saved individuals.” However, it is another usage of people that is in play in the discussion of the church and Israel: “people groups” (72).

A brief survey of biblical data reveals these people groups to be nations, in the sense of ethnic groups. A further survey of biblical data leads Bauder to conclude, “God’s plan did not focus exclusively upon calling and saving individual believers. It also included a role for nations” (75). Thus, “A people of God is a nation that worships Jehovah, the true and living God. They are a people of God because he is their God and they are his people” (78).

Israel was a people of God that God created to be his own. According to Bauder presence in the land was essential to being a people exiled Israel was “not my people” (Hos 1:9-11). Bauder also notes the significance of the marriage metaphor for indicating that Israel was the people of God, and he posits Israel’s entrance into the Sinai covenant as the time of their entering this marriage relationship. Though God’s judgment on Israel is depicted as a divorce, that is not the last word. Israel’s purpose as people of God is to mediate the knowledge of God to the nations. The goal is for there to be many peoples of God. This goal will be realized, but “there will always be something special about Israel” (83).

The church is also called the people of God. In addition, Bauder notes that “the church is often described by referencing Old Testament descriptions of Israel as a people of God (Rom 9:22-26; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet 2:9; cf. Exod 19:5-6; Hos 2:23)” (83). Bauder then observes that these facts surface two questions: “First, how can the church be called a people if a people is fundamentally an ethnic unit? Second, how is the church related to Israel, such that descriptions of the one can be applied to the other?

Bauder answers the first question by appealing to the union with Christ passages, concluding, “All the other peoples of God are (or will be) constituted as peoples by their solidarity with a biological ancestor. The church is a people, not because of its natural genealogy but by virtue of its spiritual union with Christ. This union is what constitutes it both as a people and as a people of God” (84).” It seems that Bauder is proposing that the church is the people of God between the comings of Christ, that Israel was the people of God before the church and will be again in the Millennium, and that the redeemed nations will be the peoples of God in the Millennium as well.

After laying out this model Bauder turns to Ephesians 2:11-22 and John 10 to answer the question, “how is the church related to other peoples of God?” (85). In reflecting on Ephesians 2:11-22, Bauder proposes that in the OT there were two basic ethnic groups: Jews and Gentiles, only one of which was the people of God. In the present age, there are three basic ethnic groups, Jews, Gentiles, and the church. He points out that 1 Peter 2:9 even calls the church a nation. In John 10 Bauder sees Israel as the fold in which there were two flocks, those who were truly his people and those who were not. Jesus leads those who are his out of the fold of Israel where he unites them in one flock with other sheep that are his which were not of the fold (Gentile believers). This one new flock is the church.

This is Bauder’s conclusion: “The church is a people of God. Because it is a people of God, it is like Israel in some respects, but it is also different. Israel was a visible nation with visible descent from a common ancestor. The church is a spiritual nation with invisible union created both by Spirit baptism and by following a common Shepherd. Israel and the church are both peoples of God, but they are not the same people. They are not even the same kind of people. The element that constitutes each as a nation is different” (88-89).

This leads Bauder to consider the relationship between Israel and the Church. He enumerates elements of continuity first. The saints in both the church and Israel are saved the same way, both pursue the same “life of faith,” (90), both are “branches from a common root (Rom 11:16-25)” (90), both are part of the “same household of God even though they are distinct peoples” (Heb 3:2, 5) (90), and “both belong to the category of ‘people of God'” (90). These continuities justify 1 Peter 2’s application of Exodus 19:5-6 and Hosea 2:23 to the church.

Bauder then considers whether identifying Christians as of the true, inner circumcision means that the church is the new Israel. He concludes in the negative, noting that a distinction between inner and outer circumcision persisted throughout the Old Testament. For the Jew, having the one did not negate the necessity of the other. The fact that Gentiles have inner circumcision does not mean, however, that they are Jews (who were distinguished by outer circumcision).

Evaluation

Bauder has written a careful essay that demonstrates the variety of biblical data that must be accounted for in developing a theology of the people of God. He handles this data well, and his position accounts for the range of the data.

However, I think there is one important theological concept missing from Bauder’s treatment of the people of God. At the same time that I read Bauder’s essay, I read Rod Decker’s article on the people of God in The Dictionary of Premillennial Theology. Decker, though also a traditional dispensationalist, synthesized the biblical data somewhat differently. Decker emphasized the importance of a covenant relationship for establishing a people of God relationship.

The first uses of your people or my people (with reference to Yhwh) occurs in Exodus 5:23 and 6:7. It then recurs throughout the narrative of the conflict with Pharoah, not least in the iconic phrase “Let my people go.” It is clear in these contexts that the term people refers to an ethnic group, and that group is is God’s people due to a covenant relation with God (the Abrahamic covenant at this point). In Exodus 19:5, in a statement of the Mosaic covenant, God says that if Israel kept that covenant they would be Yhwh’s “treasured possession among all the peoples,” which is to say that Israel would be God’s special people. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, Israel’s status as the people of God is rooted in the Mosaic covenant.

The New Testament data is more complicated. The angel told Joseph to name Mary’s Son Jesus because “he will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). Though this could be read narrowly as saying that Jesus would save the Jews from their sins (cf. Mt. 2:4, 6), it would be better to understand people in this context to refer to all those whom Jesus saves. In Matthew God’s people expands to include the Gentiles (cf. Mt. 4:15-16). Further, those whom Jesus saves from their sins includes all the redeemed from all periods of history. This points to the people of God as a comprehensive category for the redeemed.

This comprehensive usage does not negate the numerous places in the Gospels where the people are the Jewish nation (e.g., Lk 2:32; 7:16). There are also historical reference to Israel as God’s people (Acts 7:34; 13:17).

In the New Testament, the church is the people of God as believing Jews and Gentiles now both share in the new covenant. I’m not sure that the application of the people imagery to the church requires the church to be conceived of as an ethnic group, as Bauder does. To be sure, on occasion the church is singled out from Jews and Gentiles as a third race, but at other times the church is conceived of as comprised of people of various ethnicities. Thus, I am willing to see the label of people as applied to the church as figurative. The church is not an ethnic group as Israel is, but it can be described as the people of God because it is in covenant with God as Israel was.

In Romans 9:25-26 Paul takes statements from Hosea 1 that referred to Israel and applied them to converted Gentiles. Hosea revealed that the Israel which violated the Mosaic covenant were now “not my people,” but he also promised, on the basis of the Abrahamic covenant that one day they would again be called “my people.” Paul can apply these words to the Gentiles because when Israel became “not my people” they became as the Gentiles. Further the Abrahamic covenant not only guaranteed the restoration of Israel as the people of God but also promised the salvation of Gentiles. Thus Romans 9:25-26 seems to envision Jews and Gentiles in the new covenant era as part of the same people of God. In Romans 11, however, Paul can still speak of Israel in particular as “his people” (Rom. 11:1-2; see also Rom. 15:10). However, some think that the olive tree in that chapter represents a unified people of God.

Similarly, In 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 Paul applies passages that originally applied to Israel to the church at Corinth. Specifically, he applies the covenant formula, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” This can be said of Gentiles in the church because they are included in the new covenant.

In Titus 2:14 Paul said that Christ “gave himself for us … to purify for himself a people for his own possession.” This would seem to refer to a unified people spanning both Testaments; all people comprised of all the redeemed.

In the book of Hebrews the concept of people of God is applied to Israel, to the church, and to all the redeemed throughout the ages. The author of Hebrews says, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). In the immediate context, the people of Israel are in view, but the author is applying this teaching to all the redeemed: “let us therefore strive to enter that rest” (Heb. 4:11). Thus, “people of God” here seems to stand for all the redeemed. There are a few additional places in Hebrews where “the people” seems to be used of all the redeemed (Heb. 2:17; 13:12). Hebrews 8:10 applies the new covenant promise, “they shall be my people” to the church. Likewise, quotation of Ps 50:4; 135:14 applies a “my people” that originally referred to Israel to contemporary believers.  Note, however, that there are places in Hebrews where people does specifically refer to Israel (Heb. 5:3; 7:11, 27; 9:7, 19). The use of “people of God” in Hebrews 11:25, the people Moses chose to mistreated among would in the first place be Israel, but in this context would most likely connote believers specifically.

In 1 Peter 2:9-10 language that was used of Israel is used of the church. The church is called “a chosen race,” “a holy nation,” and “a people for his own possession.” These are all ethnic terms applied to a body made up of many ethnicities. Thus verse 10 says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.” I don’t think that we need to find a way to make the church literally another ethnic group. Rather, I think that we should see terms that were ethnic terms when originally applied to Israel applied to the church metaphorically, with the emphasis being that the church is now the new covenant body of people possessed by God just as Israel was the old covenant people possessed by God.

In Revelation 5:9 there are many peoples that worship the Lamb, while in Revelation 18:4  God can refer to “my people” in the singular. Revelation 21:3 has a textual variant in the covenant formula with some manuscripts reading singular people and others reading plural peoples. On balance, the plural is more likely: “God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God” (CSB). Thus in this last statement of the covenant formula the plurality of the peoples of God is emphasized. And yet, this phrase is announced from heaven at the descent of the new Jerusalem to earth. This new Jerusalem has the names of the twelve tribes of Israel inscribed on its gates and the names of the twelve apostles inscribed on its foundations, which would point to the unity of the people of God in the Old and New Testaments.

Conclusion

I think Bauder has provided a plausible synthesis of the biblical data regarding the people of God: Old Testament Israel was a people of God, the church is a people of God due to its connection to Christ, and in the future there will be many peoples of God. He also acknowledges that people can be used of all the redeemed.

However, when the category of covenant is introduced, I think a slightly different synthesis of the data comes to the fore. A group becomes a people of God by entering into covenant with God. Thus Israel was identified as the people of God primarily by virtue of its covenant relationship with God. Further, Israel as the people of God included both the redeemed and the unredeemed since the Mosaic covenant included both the redeemed and unredeemed.

When used of Israel, the term people retains its full ethnic sense. It is a people or nation in covenant with God. The church, on the other hand, is the multi-ethnic new covenant people of God. I do not think that the theologian needs to find a way to conceive of the church as an ethnic group (as Bauder does by appealing to union with Christ). Rather, I think the terminology of people, used literally of Israel as a nation in covenant with God, is applied metaphorically to the church. While in one place the category of church is placed alongside the ethnic categories of Jew and Gentile (1 Cor. 10:32), in other places it is clear that neither Jews nor Gentiles in the church give up their ethnic identities by becoming part of the church.

In addition, passages like Deuteronomy 30 indicate that the truly redeemed of all ages are those who called out by faith to receive the internal circumcision and union with Christ that the new covenant promised. Thus, the core of people who experience regeneration in both Testaments form a unity that enables one to speak of a unified people of God even as one speaks of an Old Testament people of God and a New Testament people of God.

Finally, because of the covenant lens, I’m hesitant to follow Bauder’s three-stage people of God: Israel in the Old Testament, church at present, many peoples of God in the millennium and new creation. The new covenant remains the covenant in force into the millennium and beyond. However, there are occasions when the Bible speaks of various nations as peoples of God in the new creation (Isa. 19:25; Rev. 21:3).

My conclusion would be that the Bible uses the terminology people of God in various ways. It can be used of Israel under the Mosaic covenant. It can be used of the church as the new covenant people of God. It can be used of all the redeemed throughout the ages. And it can be used of nations in the new creation. Some of these senses are limited to stages in redemptive history. For instance, Israel is a people of God under the Mosaic covenant only while the Mosaic covenant is in force. The nations are peoples of God only in the new creation because in the new creation alone are all the people in those nations redeemed. But some of these senses span ages. The sense of all the redeemed throughout the ages, clearly spans the ages.

So is there one, two, or many peoples of God? The answer is “yes” depending on the sense in view. This is a different answer than I would have given before reading Bauder’s essay. I commend the essay for compelling readers to think through the issue of the people of God with greater precision and clarity.

Matthew Franck about the Danger of Voting for Unqualified and Morally Corrupt Candidates

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The Dispatch published yesterday an article by Matthew Franck which makes the case for withholding one’s vote from the candidates in this year’s election. Here is the nub of the argument: “What we must consider … is not our role in the outcome of the election (which is negligible, and unknown to us when voting), but the effect on our conscience and character of joining our will to a bad cause.”

Here is a further argument.

Eight years ago, I published an essay for Public Discourse about why I could not vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. “Vote as if your ballot determines nothing whatsoever—except the shape of your own character,” the piece concluded. “Vote as if the public consequences of your action weigh nothing next to the private consequences. The country will go whither it will go, when all the votes are counted. What should matter the most to you is whither you will go, on and after this November’s election day.”

There is nothing in what I said then that I would now retract. I rejected the idea that I, as one individual, must treat my choice as confined to the binary of Clinton versus Trump, as though the weight of the outcome were on me alone. It is frequently the case that we vote for one major-party presidential candidate principally because we are against the other one—usually because we find “our guy” a less than optimal choice but “the other guy” strongly repellent. But when we conclude that both of them are wholly unfit for office, our habitual partisan commitments, and our fond hope that the one representing “our side” will be normal, or guided by normal people, do not compel us to cast a vote in that direction. What we must consider, I argued, is not our role in the outcome of the election (which is negligible, and unknown to us when voting), but the effect on our conscience and character of joining our will to a bad cause.

The last eight years have made me more certain I was right. In 2020, although the Trump administration had done some things I could applaud (Supreme Court appointments topping the list), I still found Trump himself wholly unqualified for an office he had never learned to respect or master. This was even before the insurrection of January 6, 2021, which, I have argued, constitutionally disqualified him. And Joe Biden? Please. He became my senator shortly before I entered high school, and I had long watched his career with consternation and loathing. I didn’t want to have to defend, even to myself, having cast a vote for either man, and once again I threw away my presidential vote on a hopeless write-in.

Franck makes this perceptive observation:

For at the end of the day, that is what voting is: a kind of investment. Not of our money, but of ourselves—our will, our intention, our passion, and our conscience. Of course, our investment can be a light matter to us, if we cast our vote in a throwaway mood, thinking “better this guy than the other guy.” Then we might cut our emotional losses when he disappoints us. “Live and learn.” Yet paradoxically, if it took a great effort to “screw your courage to the sticking place,” as Lady Macbeth put it—if, that is, you had to swallow hard to vote for a candidate, and he won—you may find your investment in him very heavy, and your felt need to defend him equally so.

As a resident of South Carolina, where I know my vote for president will make no difference in the election, it is easy to vote my conscience. However, it is arguably the right thing even in a swing state.

With regard to deontology: A vote is an authorization for an elected offical to act. To vote for someone who is unqualified and who has demonstrated a willingness to abuse power is to bear some culpability for that person’s misuse of power in office.

With regard to consequences: In the last several elections people have been pressured to vote for an immoral and unqualified candidate because of the perceived consequences the opponent’s victory. But it is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to stop someone else from doing wrong. Further, it is only when voters will not vote for candidates who violate their principles that they have any leverage with the party to put forward better candidates. For instance, if pro-life voters vote for Donald Trump (or Joe Biden) despite his recent attacks on pro-life legislation (or longstanding support for abortion), we will get more candidates opposed to pro-life legislation. If conservatives had withheld their votes from Trump in 2020, delivering him a decisive loss, Republicans would likely have a conservative running for president now. They would likely have a stronger position in Congress which, along with the Supreme Court, would have been able to be a stronger check on the Biden administration. Doing the right thing won’t necessarily bring good consequences in the medium term, but in that case it likely would have.

With regard to virtue: This is what Franck’s article focused on. How will my vote shape my character? What vices will it lead me to start to defend if I attach myself to a vicious candidate. Note that this works both ways in this election. There are some people who voted for Trump who have started to defend his moral defects as virtues. There are others who who voted for Biden out of concerns regarding Trump and have begun to shift their positions on abortion or other moral issues. To be sure that there are others who have not allowed their votes to deform their character or moral sensibilities, but this is nonetheless and important consideration—especially for those inclined not to leave the presidential line blank this year.

Articles and Reviews in the Spring 2024 issue of the Journal of Biblical Theology and Worldview

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The Spring 2024 issue of the Journal of Biblical Theology and Worldview just released.

I contributed an article, “The Futurist Interpretation of Revelation: Evidence from the Seal Judgments’ Reliance on the Olivet Discourse.” Here’s my conclusion:

This article has sought to make the case that the best interpretation of the Olivet Discourse understands its first section to be about both the events culminating in the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and about the eschatological Day of the Lord of which those events were types. On this understanding of the Olivet Discourse, the best interpretation of the seal judgments is a futurist interpretation.

I also contributed a review of Schreiner’s commentary on Revelation in the BECNT series and a review of Michael Vlach’s The New Creation Model.

Of Schreiner’s commentary I concluded:

Schreiner’s commentary on Revelation provides readers with a well-executed commentary on Revelation from an idealist perspective. It also presents readers with an intriguing interpretation of Revelation 20, which gestures in the right direction on many points but which ultimately fails to satisfy. The commentary is worth buying as the now clearest in-depth exposition of the book from an idealist perspective. However, for those who believe a futurist perspective is correct, Grant Osborne’s contribution to the Baker Exegetical Commentary (which remains available) and Buist Fanning’s recent commentary in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series are to be preferred.

My assessment of Vlach was mixed. I agree with his new creation eschatology, but I was compelled to register three critiques. “First, the exegetical case of the New Creation Model could have been stronger. Second, Vlach did not engage primary sources arguing for the Spiritual Vision Model. … Third, Vlach worked too hard to tie the New Creation Model to dispensationalism. … One can argue, as Stephen James does effectively in New Creation, Eschatology, and the Land, that a consistent New Creation viewpoint should have a place for nations and a restored Israel in its land. However, it is difficult to argue that [certain] theologians do not adhere to the New Creation Model when some of them have been some of the most significant promoters of the model.”

Thoughts on Mark Snoeberger’s “‘Received’ Laws of Language” and Dispensational Hermeneutics

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In the last couple of posts I’ve interacted with Roy Beacham’s argument for a literal hermeneutic. I indicated that while I share Beacham’s concerns about approaches to Old Testament interpretation that re-interpret the text contrary to authorial intent, I think that the approach he advocates makes it difficult to understand numerous New Testament interpretations and fulfillments of Old Testament passages.

A few years back I raised a similar concern regarding Mark Snoeberger’s contribution to Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies: Four Views.

[Traditional dispensationalists] often begin by laying out their hermeneutic as if it is axiomatic and then insist that all passages conform to this hermeneutic without having first demonstrated the validity of their hermeneutic. Here Snoeberger explicitly affirms this approach. This approach violates the sufficiency of Scripture, since Scripture’s own self-interpretation should be the foundation for any biblical hermeneutic.

Interestingly, an article in the most recent volume of the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal responds to the concern I raised. In “‘Received’ Laws of Language: The Existence, Ground, and Preliminary Identification of a Hermeneutically Disputed Notion” and an accompanying blog post, “The Sufficiency of Scripture and Transcendental Knowledge,” Snoeberger provides a substantial defense of his approach.

In the article, Snoeberger argues for the existence of natural laws. He further argues for a Van Tillian understanding of how these laws are “received.” Finally, he argues that natural laws are not restricted to matters of morality but that they encompass matters such as linguistics. I want to agree with Snoeberger on these matters.

In the blog post, rejects the sufficiency of Scripture critique by noting, “there must exist some tentative/provisional awareness, prior to reading the Bible, of certain basic hermeneutical a prioris. Otherwise, we would be caught in a paradox: we could not access the very Bible from which we learn how to read the Bible.”

I take the point. Further, I share his concern about the resurgence of pre-modern multi-sense interpretive approaches. Appeals to the Great Tradition to defend these interpretative models often undermine the sufficiency of Scripture.

Nonetheless, I have three reservations about Snoeberger’s argument. The first is practical, and the second two are theological.

First, while one can respond to the resurgence of pre-modern multi-sense interpretations by appealing to the received laws of language, I think it would be more fruitful to make the case that the apostles themselves did not adopt the allegorical approaches that became common in the patristic and medieval periods. This seems to me a more straightforward argument than appeals to the natural laws of linguistics. For an example of this kind of argument, see chapter 6 of my dissertation.

Second, while I affirm the reality of creational norms / natural laws, and while I think Christian’s should study creation (which includes the facility humans have in language) to discern these creational norms, all efforts to determine creational norms or natural laws need to be tested against Scripture. A key test would be to see how Scripture writers in both the Old and New Testament interpreted previous Scripture passages.

Third, while it is the case that “there must exist some tentative/provisional awareness, prior to reading the Bible, of certain basic hermeneutical a prioris,” a doctrine of biblical hermeneutics needs to be grounded in Scripture because of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. In other words, a doctrine of biblical hermeneutics needs to ground hermeneutical a prioris in the biblical text.

I should clarify that Snoeberger does in his contribution to the Four Views book and in other places seek to give an account of the New Testament’s use of the Old. For instance, in another recent post to the DBTS blog, Snoeberger argues that the New Testament often uses Old Testament language by way of analogy, metaphor, and corpus linguistics. In other words, the New Testament may be using Old Testament language without claiming to be interpreting those Old Testament texts. In particular, he claims this approach is better than seeing Old Testament types fulfilled by New Testament antitypes.

I grant the NT may well make use of the OT in the way Snoeberger describes, and I fully grant that many hymns and later Christian writings certainly do so. But I’m not convinced that analogy, metaphor, and corpus linguistics will account for all of the OT’s use of the NT.

Roy Beacham, “Literalism and the Prophets”: Case Study: Joel 2 and Acts 2

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In yesterday’s post I looked at Beacham’s chapter in defense of literal interpretation of the prophets. Despite being somewhat critical of the chapter, I should acknowledge my appreciation of Beacham’s scholarship. My engagement with it here due to the fact that I find myself challenged by his arguments and helpful to work through a response to them.

Beacham’s article commendably makes its case directly from Scripture. However, I would have appreciated some engagement with how the New Testament interprets Old Testament prophecy. In footnote 54 Beacham does give a hint of his approach.

He argues that “Joel 2 … is applied argumentatively by Peter in his sermon recorded in Acts 2.” He further claims that this application “in no way necessitates or even suggests their actual fulfillment (59, n. 54). He is especially concerned that this prophecy not be “assign[ed] … to a different time, place, people, or outcome in contradistinction to those originally stated” (59, n. 54). Given this statement, and Beacham’s article, “Joel 2, Eschatology of” in the Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, I take him to locate the events of Joel 2:18-27 to latter part of the Tribulation and beginning of the Millennium.

Beacham does not understand the “afterward” in Joel 2:28 to refer to the immediately preceding verses “because those blessings are framed in terms of unending time” (“Joel 2,” 217). Rather, he relates the “afterward” to Joel 2:11. These are events that I’ll happen after “great and very awesome” day of Yhwh. On this reading, Joel 2:12-27 “constitute a digression that bisects the first and last sections of the chapter” (“Joel 2,” 217-18).

This interpretation, however, creates a tension with Peter’s statement, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Beacham’s interpretation of Joel 2 precludes a fulfillment in Peter’s day, but it is difficult to read Peter’s “This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” as anything other than a statement of fulfillment. Peter did not say, “This is like what Joel uttered” or “this is analogous to what Joel uttered.” He said, “this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” (emphasis added).

Another reading of the Joel prophecy allows for a more harmonious understanding of Joel 2 and Acts 2. If 2:18-27 is read as telescoping together the restoration of the land after the locust plague recounted in chapter 1 as well as the restoration after the final day of Yhwh judgment from the first part of chapter 2, the “afterward” in verse 28 could take place anytime after the original restoration. Beacham himself provides a rationale for not tying the “afterward” to the ultimate restoration—it is never ending. The rationale for this telescoping in 2:18-27 would be that Joel 1 relates to a historic locust judgment in Joel’s day while Joel 2:1-11, as I understand it, predicts and eschatological judgment that will be fulfilled during the final Day of Yhwh. Thus the restoration section that follows telescopes both the historical and eschatological restorations.

This reading allows for a literal reading of Peter’s “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” and a literal reading of Joel. Peter replaced Joel’s “And it shall come to pass afterward” with “And in the last days it shall be.” As the New Testament elsewhere emphasized the last days began with the ascension of Christ. The events recounted in Acts 2:17-18 occurred in Acts just as prophesied at the beginning of these last days. The events in verses 19-20 will occur at the end of the last days. Peter, of course, did not know that this would be over 2,000 years later. Verse 21 is God’s call to people all through this time.

Roy E. Beacham, “Literalism and the Prophets: The Case for a Unified Hermeneutic,” in Dispensationalism Revisited

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Central Baptist Theological Seminary just published Dispensationalism Revisited: A Twenty-First Century Restatement. This book is a Festschrift for Charles Hauser, Jr. that is comprised of chapters by his former colleagues and students. The first three chapters focus on the classic sine qua nons of dispensationalism. This chapter by Roy Beacham defends literal interpretation as a sine qua non of dispensationalism.

Beacham’s thesis is that dispensationalists are correct to insist that “God intended all prophetic foretelling in Scripture to be understood literally and only literally” (32; cf. 36). He clarifies that literal interpretation does not negate “figures of speech” or “exaggerated” language, but he is not inclined to abandon the term (32, n. 1). Beacham’s method in this chapter is to demonstrate that what God says in Scripture about the genre of predictive prophecy requires such prophecy “to be literally and only literally understood, interpreted, and fulfilled” (33). He further clarifies that the involves rejecting “any form of other-than-literal, less-than-literal, or more-than-literal interpretation of prophetic predictions” (37).

Beacham makes his case by examining what Scripture says about the “purpose, ground, nature, function, and test of divinely appointed predicative prophecy” (37).

Beacham argues that the purpose of predictive prophecy is “apologetic”—it is designed to demonstrate that only God is the true God. In support of this thesis he cites Isaiah 41:21-24, 26; 42:8-9; 44:6-8; 45:18, 20-21; 48:3-5. From these texts Beacham concludes, “Any hermeneutical viewpoint that espouses any form of other-than-, less-than-, or more-than-literal fulfillment of God’s foretelling negates the declare purpose and evidentiary worth of this genre” (41). I see how this arguement counters “other-than” and “less-than” fulfillments, but I’m not sure it holds for “more-than.” If everything God predicted happened exactly as God said it would, but more happened in addition to what God predicted, how does the “more-than” negate this purpose for the prophecy? In fact, given the fact that no prophecy is exhausive, how does one escape “more-than” fulfillments.

Beacham argues that the ground of predictive prophecy is “God’s immutable person and efficacious speech” (42). Isaiah 45:18-19; 45:22-25 are cited since these are passages in which God swears by himself to perform what he has stated. He also appeals to Isaiah 44-48, noting that since the prophecy regarding Cyrus was fulfilled as stated God’s words about the nation Israel in this passage will also be fulfilled as stated. He concludes, “The prophecy itself gives neither the original hearers nor the ensuing readers any indication that God intended some of these sworn forecasts to be fulfilled exactly as stated, while others he intended to signify, typologize, expand, and/or spiritualize” (48). Once again, “expand” strikes me as an outlier in this list. How does expanding on a predictive prophecy undermine the fulfillment of what was predicted? In fact, what is progressive revelation but an expansion upon previous revelation. For instance, is not every subsequent revelation about the Messiah’s redemptive work an expansion of Genesis 3:15?

Beacham’s concern about expansion is detailed in note 32: “The argument seems almost ubiquitous among partial nonliteralists and  complementary heremeneuticians that people should be thankful and that God should be admired if he produces a ‘more expansive’ fulfillment than those that he originally swore. According to this innovative hermeneutical theory, God can do more than he promised, he just can’t do less…. In any case, the outworking of expanded nonliteral fulfillment usually does not result, formulaically, in the equation, ‘God promises to do x but instead he does x+,’ (something more than x). Rather, it results in the equation ‘God promises to do x but instead he does y, which, in their view is ≻ x (something greater than x). In reality, however, y us not x at all. It seems more theologically sound to assert, in every case, that if God swears on his own person and nature to do x, then God will in fact do x, nothing more and nothing less. Any other outcome, expanded or diminished, would call into question the efficacy of hiw words, not to mention the integrity of his person. No outcome can be ‘better’ than the exacting accomplishment of God’s self-sworn pronouncements all the time” (51, n. 32). I agree with Beacham that if x+ in reality means y instead of x, there is a problem. But that doesn’t really describe an “expansion” of the promises; it describes replacement under the lablel of expansion. Thus, I do not see who this argument negates expansion in principle as Beacham goes on to do. In fact, I am again left to wonder how expansion can be eliminated without predictive prophecy being exhasutive. For instance, is it not an expansion that the prophecies regarding Christ are divided into a first coming and a second coming?

Next Beacham argues that the nature of “predictive prophecy was univocal” (51). He argues that “there is no divergence of meaning between the human authors and the divine author” (52). He roots this in Deuteronomy 18:15-22, from which he concludes that “the human prophet served as no more than a mouthpiece” (55). (It is important to recognize that Beacham is here speaking specifically of prophecy.) Thus, “The prophet may have fully understood the prediction that he announced on behalf of God (1 Kgs 22:17, see 22:28) or the prophet may have found the forecast utterly perplexing (Dan 7:15-16), but neither case affected the prophecy’s meaning or intent whatever. If a true prophecy consisted of God’s words alone, and it did, then that true prophecy bore God’s meaning alone” (55). I’m not sure that this arguement advances the thesis. Those who wish to find a fuller sense find it God’s meaning. So negating the human meaning to focus on the divine meaning doesn’t really address this challenge. 

I would agree that there can be no contradiction between the divine and human authors of Scripture in terms of meaning, but as I’ve written elsewhere, “God, who knows all things, knows the whole scope of what he will reveal in Scripture along with all of the potentially correct applications. The human author is limited in what he can intend” (Scripture, Hermeneutics, and Theology, 211-12). For instance, Moses recorded the redemptive promise of Genesis 3:15. But did he understand all that God intended in that promise? Did he understand even what New Testament believers understand to day in reading that text? I am doubtful even though I also think that Old Testament believers understood more than scholars often give them credit for. Moses and God did not intend differenet things in Gensis 3:15 but God certainly intended things beyond what Moses could have known.

Beacham is also critical canonical interpretation. He is right to be concerned about appeals to canonical interpretation that negate promises like the land promises to Israel. But canonical interpretation seems to simply be the way that texts are read. If a person is reading a series of novels and one character seems ambiguous or evil in earlier volumes while a later volume reveals him to have been a secret agent working for the good side, that later information will necessarily reshape how those earlier scenes are understood. Likewise, when the seed promise of Genesis 3:15 is read in light of all the progressive revelation that develops that promise, a richer understanding of that promise is had by readers of Genesis 3. The abuse of canonical readings does not negate its proper, even inevitable, use.

To make his approach work, Beacham draws a stark line between meaning and  “implications and applications” (59). But it is not clear that the line between these is stark. E. D. Hirsh wrestled with this problem. At one point he said, “‘There is no magic land of meaning outside human consciousness.’ But Hirsch realized that humans often intend their meaning to be true in situations of which they presently have no knowledge (the distant future, for instance). Thus Hirsch was willing to broaden his statement so that principles from the original statement may be applied to new situations without violating authorial intention. But, he notes, his original statement ‘would be true if, godlike, we could oversee the whole of human consciousness, past, present, and future.'” This leads me to conclude, “One of the difficulties, where to draw the line between meaning and significance, is greatly mitigated if the Author intends all possible right applications from the beginning” (Scripture, Hermeneutics, and Theology, 210-11, citing E. D. Hirsch, Jr., “Meaning and Significance Reinterpreted,” Critical Inquiry 11, no. 2 (Dec. 1984), 202, 204).

Next, Beacham appeals to “the function of predictive prophecy” according to Deuteronomy 18:19. On the basis that the prophets were to be obeyed, he concludes that “all that they foretold, was both comprehendible and practicable by the ordinary person…. There could be no vast passing of time until the ultimate true meaning of God’s words to Israel could acquire their final significance through canonical reinterpretation and/or typological fulfillment” (61, emphasis added). I understand Beacham’s concern, expressed in footnotes 56-57, regarding interpreters who conclude that God will not do exactly as he predicted through the prophets but might actually do something other than the prophets said. I share that concern. But I’m not confident that Deuteronomy 18:19 is saying that that everything the prophet said was comprehended by the original audience. I’m not even sure that Beacham truly wants to press the point that far, since he acknowledged earlier that the prophets didn’t fully understand all that they were saying all that they were given to say. Nor do I want to diminish what the Old Testament saints could understand. I think they often understood more than modern scholars given them credit. Nevertheless, to turn again to Genesis 3:15, surely the understanding of the ultimate true meaning of God’s words has grown as God progressively revealed more about his redemptive plan in Christ. Doubtless Christians understand the meaning of Genesis 3:15 better than Adam or Moses. Or, to give another example, the Old Testament revealed much about the gospel going to the Gentiles and about Israel’s role in God’s plan in connection to this mission to the Gentiles. Surely Old Testament texts about the gospel coming to the Gentiles should be read in light of Acts and the Epistles.

Finally Beacham argues that the “test of predicative prophecy” supports his view (63, emphasis added). Deuteronomy 18:21-22; Jeremiah 28:7-9; Ezekiel 33:30-33 all affirm that the test of a true prophet is that his predictions come true. Beacham observes, “No caveat existed in God’s declared test of genuine prophecy to allow for spiritualized, typified, multi-intentioned, expanded, or canonically resignified fulfillments” (64). Once again, I would agree that interpretations in which the fulfillment of Old Testament texts are replaced with spiritual interpretations or resignified are condemned by these texts. Allegorical interpretation was something the pagans had to do to make sense of their sacred texts. It was not a method that Christians needed to or should have resorted to. But I remain puzzled about the inclusion of “multi-intentioned” and “expanded” in the list. If there are texts in which God says, “I will do X for believing Israel,” and he does X for believing Israel while also revealing later that he always intended to do the equivalent for believing Gentiles as well, how does that fall afoul of the above passages?

While the texts that Beacham adduces do rule out the spiritualizing approaches that were popular in previous centuries and some of the approaches today that reinterpret Old Testament texts, I do not think that the texts he cited contradict a complementary hermeneutic or interpretations in which the Old Testament texts retain their integrity while progressive revelation clarifies or extends the these OT texts.

In sum, while I share Beacham’s concerns about approaches to Old Testament interprertation that re-interpret the text contrary to authorial intent or which posit a “reality shift” (to borrow terminology from Craig Blaising) between the Old and New Testaments, I think that the approach he advocates makes it difficult to understand numerous New Testament interpretations and fulfillments of Old Testament passages. I want to interpret the Old Testament literally. I also want to interpret the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament literally.

Thoughts on Exodus 15:22-27, the Mosaic Covenant, and the Gospel

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I had a very stimulating conversation with a co-worker this morning about Exodus 15:22-27, and what follows are reflections from that conversation.

Exodus 15:1-21 marks the end of Israel’s redemption from Egypt. Exodus 15:22-27 thus marks the beginning of a transitional section between that redemption and the giving of the Mosaic covenant (a section that begins with chapter 19). This transitional section (15:22-18:27) begins with three pericopes in which the people are grumbling against Yhwh and against Moses regarding food and water. These three pericopes reveal that even though Israel was physically redeemed from Egypt, the Israelites were still in need of new hearts. They still needed redemption from sin.

At the end of the first of these grumbling pericopes, the text provides a brief preview of the Mosaic covenant: “There Yhwh made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, ‘If you will diligently listen to the voice of Yhwh your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am Yhwh, your healer'” (ESV, adj.).

Note the conditional nature of the statement: If Israel keeps Yhwh’s law, then God will keep the judgments of Egypt from Israel. The implication is that if Israel does not keep Yhwh’s law they will receive the judgments of Egypt themselves. A case and point would be the locust plague Israel experienced as recorded in Joel 1.

Note also Yhwh’s identification of himself at the end of this statement, “for I am Yhwh, your healer.” This is given as a reason for why Yhwh will not bring the diseases of Egypt upon Israel. It is not a statement that Yhwh will heal Israel from these diseases. My coworker observed that an attentive listener to this statement from Yhwh would recognize that he is the one that needs to be healed so that he will be able to obey Yhwh’s law and not have these diseases come upon him.

The fact that this pericope is followed by two more in which Israel grumbles at Yhwh demonstrates that the nation did not come to Yhwh for healing. Israel’s rebellion at the golden calf incident and in Numbers shows that Israel remained in need of healing.

Significantly, Deuteronomy 28-29 describes at length the conditional nature of the Mosaic covenant. It describes the covenant blessings for obedience and the covenant curses for disobedience. Deuteronomy 29:4 reveals that Yhwh had not yet given the people new hearts, and 30:1 reveals that Israel will in the end come under the covenant curses. In this context Moses looks forward to the new covenant (30:5-10), and indicates that participation in this future new covenant could be theirs by faith right then (Dt 30:11-14; cf. Rom 10:6-9).

From the beginning it is clear that the Mosaic covenant is conditional and that this is bad news for sinners who will not be able to meet its condition. And from the beginning it is clear that the Mosiac covenant preaches the gospel to sinners by directing them to Yhwh, the only one who can heal them from their sins.

Douglas Brown, “The Glory of God and Dispensationalism: Revisiting the Sine Qua Nons of Dispensationalism”

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Central Baptist Theological Seminary just published Dispensationalism Revisited: A Twenty-First Century Restatement. This book is a Festschrift for Charles Hauser, Jr. that is comprised of chapters by his former colleagues and students. The first three chapters focus on the classic sine qua nons of dispensationalism.

This chapter by Douglas Brown, dean of Faith Baptist Theological Seminary, investigates whether the glory of God is one of the sine qua nons of dispensationalism.

Brown begins by noting that not all dispensationalists, especially progressive dispensationalists, agree that Ryrie’s sine qua nons (the Israel/church distinction, literal interpretation, and God’s glory as God’s fundamental purpose) mark out the essentials of dispensationalism. Brown, by contrast, defends the inclusion of the glory of God in the sine qua nons of dispensationalism.

Brown notes that the emphasis on the glory of God emerged as a response to the critique that early dispensationalists undermined the “unity of the Bible” by having two redemptive purposes for the two peoples of God: “John Walvoord responded to these charges by affirming that there is one overarching purpose of Scripture—the glory of God” (17). This was seen by dispensationalists as superior to seeing the covenant of grace as the unifying principle in Scripture.

There are two lines of critiques for including the glory of God in the sine qua nons. First, before Walvoord no dispensationalist made it an “overarching principle” and contemporaries of Walvoord, as well as dispensationalists of the following generation, have argued that the kingdom of God is the “unifying theme” of Scripture (Brown mentions Pentecost, McClain, and Blaising). Second, non-dispensationalists also emphasize the importance of God’s glory as is seen in WSC 1 and Jonathan Edwards’s The End for Which God Created the World.

In response, Brown argues that there remains something distinctive about the glory of God as a unifying principle of history that sets traditional dispensationalism apart from both progressive dispensationalism and non-dispensational theologies.

In the remainder of the chapter Brown offers seven premises regarding a dispensational understanding of God’s glory

  • “Premise One: God is a glorious God” (20).
  • “Premise Two: The ultimate goal of all creation is the glory of God” (22).
  • “Premise Three: God wants every creature to glorify him” (23).
  • “Premise Four: Glorifying God is bound to God’s self-disclosure” (25). Here Brown highlights that God has revealed himself in both general and special revelation. In special revelation God has revealed himself in the Word of God and in the Son of God.
  • “Premise Five: God has chosen to reveal his glory progressively and systematically through redemptive history (i.e., through every dispensation)” (26).
  • “Premise Six: The climax of God’s glorification in human history will occur at the second coming and during the millennium” (27).
  • “Premise Seven: The ultimate completion of God’s glorification before all creation will occur only as he fulfils the national promises to Israel in the millennium” (28).

In light of these premises Brown concludes that “the glory of God is the overarching purpose of God” (31). He grants that this conclusion is not unique to dispensationalism, and he observes that this is the reason why many dispensationalists do no think it is a valid sine qua non of dispensationalism. Brown responds, however, that it should be retained as the “unifying principle” of dispensationalism. In addition, he argues that “the dispensational view of God’s glory is unique” in that it sees the millennial kingdom as the culmination of God’s display of his glory. He thinks that this observation has the potential to unite dispensationalists who make the kingdom the “unifying principle of the Scripture” (31).

Brown is careful in his presentation of this theme to acknowledge that adherents to other systems also recognize the importance of the glory of God, and he does a good job of demonstrating its importance as a “unifying principle” in the dispensational system. That said, I’m not sure that a single center to Scripture is necessary. If I were asked for Scripture’s central theme(s), I would provide three: glory, kingdom, and redemption. If given the opportunity to elaborate I’d observe that the kingdom theme is developed through a series of covenants which forward God’s plan of redemption—all for the purpose of bringing glory to God.

I appreciate Brown’s purpose in uniting the glory and kingdom themes by emphasizing that the glory theme culminates in the millennial kingdom. However, it does seem strange to make the millennium to the exclusion of the new creation the climax of the theme. In addition, while I agree with Brown about the fulfillment of God’s promises to the nation of Israel, it seems strange to omit the extension of God’s purposes to all the nations. From the beginning, God chose Israel to bless the nations. It seems that their omission detracts from the worldwide international scope of God’s glory.