January 22, 2016

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

By Clarke Morledge
Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets, has a major message in the Bible. (credit: Wikipedia - 18 century icon painter - Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, north Russia.)

Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets, has a major message in the Bible. Tucked away in a rather forgotten part of the Bible, the Apostle Paul uses Habakkuk to provide the central theme to his arguably greatest work in the New Testament, the Book of Romans.  (credit: Wikipedia – 18 century icon painter – Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, north Russia.)

Paul’s most “theological” book in the New Testament, the Book of Romans, is in many ways an extended commentary on one single verse from the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2:4:

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith (ESV).

That last phrase, “the righteous shall live by (his) faith,” stands in the main thesis statement of Paul’s letter, at the end of Romans 1:16-17. The problem is that this brief little phrase is not entirely self-explanatory.

My late pastor emeritus, Dick Woodward, would teach that the Book of Romans at a high level could be broken down into the different themes emphasized in different parts of the book (Note: “righteous” can also be translated as “just“, from Woodward’s MiniBible College, New Testament Handbook, p. 268):

The just shall live by faith (Romans 1-4).

The just shall live by faith (Romans 5-8).

The just shall live by faith (Romans 12-16).

So, how does one go about unpacking this verse? The great Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, puzzled over how to understand this Bible verse, as quoted by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans, for at least two years, as a young teacher of theology in the early sixteenth century. Luther’s main problem, at first, was that he considered the idea of righteous as being something that one had to work for, a type of status that one would have to earn before a Holy God.  As a person of faith, Luther was convinced that he had to modify his own behavior, such that if he were to become truly righteous, only then could he truly live. But his quest to live a righteous life led him into depression. No matter how righteous he tried to be, he never felt like he was ever good enough to meet God’s rigorous demands. In his own understanding at the time, he actually hated the Gospel message:

I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God (Luther’s account of his own conversion).

Eventually, Martin Luther came to see that he had the logic of the verse all wrong. Instead, he finally learned that a person becomes righteous only by having faith, an implicit trust in God. It was through this faith, and through faith alone, that Luther learned that he was “declared” to be righteous by God, and that, as a result, enabled him to live, to live an eternal life. In a total reversal of thought, Luther had now become born again, loving that which he had hated before:

I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.

Luther’s personal, theological breakthrough kickstarted the whole Protestant Reformation. The stumbling block of trying to understand Habakkuk 2:4 as presented in the Book of Romans was not unique to Luther. In fact, the debate over how the New Testament uses Habakkuk 2:4 for the sake of the Gospel remains a topic of considerable theological debate.
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January 18, 2016

Kirk Cameron’s Monumental Missed Opportunity

By Clarke Morledge
Kirk Cameron's 2012 film, Monumental, is worth seeing, but only if accompanied by good, historical scholarship to correct the inaccuracies and misguided theology.

Kirk Cameron’s 2012 film, Monumental, is worth seeing, but only if accompanied by good, historical scholarship to correct the inaccuracies and misguided theology.

I love history. I love it because history tells us who we are. The study of history tells us about where we have come from as individuals and as societies, and it helps to tell us where we are going. We ignore the lessons of history at our peril, as George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Sadly, we live in an age where we suffer as a culture, and particularly as a Christian church, from chronic amnesia. We risk fulfilling the prophecy of Santayana with such terrifying disinterest and apathy.

The story of the Christian faith is rooted in history. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as well as the narrative of ancient Israel, are events that exist within space and time. As believers, we are under obligation to get the story right. So, it bothers me when those of us as Christians, who should care the most about history, tend to misrepresent that history, fudging on the story at certain points to advance misguided theological agendas. Even if we deem the motives to be well-intended, we do no favors to the church and the surrounding world with unsubstantiated alterations that distort the telling of that history.

This explains the frustration I felt when I recently viewed Kirk Cameron’s 2012 documentary, Monumental. I was indeed entertained by watching Monumental, but I am not so sure if I was equally educated. As a work of amateur historiography, Monumental is worthy of consideration and a thoughtful discussion starter. But as a serious documentary of responsible scholarship, Monumental falls short. It made me want to plead with Kirk Cameron, the famous actor turned film producer, “can I call for a do-over?” I know that I am just a few years “late to the party,” but please allow me to explain.
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January 12, 2016

Deep Dive Into Romans: Why Saul Became Paul

By Clarke Morledge

Deeper-Dive

For those in the Williamsburg, Virginia area, you might be interested in an Adult Bible Class held at the Williamsburg Community Chapel, 9:30am – 10:40am, during the winter term of 2016, where we will be taking a “deep dive” into the Apostle Paul’s arguably greatest letter, the Book of Romans. Our church recently spent 10-weeks going through the first eight chapters of Romans. But frankly, Romans is filled with so many riches and questions that I thought it would be great to give an opportunity for folks to get together and dig deep into this most remarkable and influential book of the Bible. The course description:

Still not getting Romans? Have a lot of questions? Get ready to dive deep into Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and explore where church history, apologetics, and theology meet. An in-depth look into Paul’s greatest letter of the New Testament, paying particular attention to how the truths in Romans can be applied in a society today that is becoming increasingly indifferent to the Christian message.

Here is a very rough schedule of topics for the weeks ahead, subject to change (Room 156, most weeks):

  • January 10: Introduction to Romans
  • January 17: Romans 1:1-17. Paul’s Thesis for the Letter.
  • January 24 (location TBA): Romans 1:16-17. How Paul Uses the Old Testament.
  • January 31 (location TBA): Romans 1:18-2:5. Natural vs. Special Revelation.
  • February 7: Romans 1:26-27. Same-Sex Attraction and a Christian Response.
  • February 14: Romans 2:6-29. Judgment by Works.
  • February 21: Romans 3. The Righteousness of God and Justification.
  • February 28: Romans 4. The Example of Abraham.

A student in the first class this past week asked a very interesting question: So why was “Saul’s” name changed to “Paul”? Is there any significance in his name change? (Acts 13:4-12 ESV)

Well, the answer is, quite simply, we do not know for sure. Throughout the Bible, there have been incidents of name changes that reflect drastic changes in someone’s life, such as when “Abram” became “Abraham” in Genesis. In Paul’s case, his given Jewish name was “Saul.” However, Saul was also a Roman citizen, so by virtue of his Roman pedigree, he was also given a Roman name, “Paul.” Mosts scholars agree that Paul eventually adopted the name “Paul” exclusively as part of his calling to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Since Paul did not want to put up any unnecessary barriers in building relationships with the Gentiles, he opted to forgo using his Jewish name, Saul, when meeting new friends in his Gentile audiences. Paul’s sensitivity towards the cultural differences among the Gentiles helped to further his objective to break down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, perhaps the greatest concern expressed in his letter to the Roman Christian community (For a rough timeline of Paul’s life, with approximate dates for his letters, consult this graph from the Blue Letter Bible).

If you want to catch up from what we talked about last week, you can read up from an early Veracity post introducing the Books of Romans. Enjoy!

 

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January 7, 2016

Second Temple Judaism Timeline

By Clarke Morledge
Second Temple in Jerusalem, from the Holyland Model in Jerusalem. I saw this on my trip to Jerusalem years ago, but this photo from Wikipedia is better.

Second Temple in Jerusalem, from the Holyland Model in Jerusalem. Based on the writings of Josephus. I saw this on my trip to Jerusalem years ago, but this photo from Wikipedia is better.

When the Jews returned from the Exile in Babylon, in the late sixth century B.C., Jerusalem and its original temple lay in ruins.  Leaders like Nehemiah and Ezra helped to lead the people to rebuild the city and the temple. This “Second Temple” survived until being destroyed in 70 A.D., by the Romans. During that 600 year period, the Jews were dominated by a range of empires, including the Persians, the Greeks, the Syrians, and finally the Romans, though they were able to manage a brief period of self-rule during the Maccabean Revolt. Much of the later part of the Second Temple period is unfamiliar to many students of the Bible, as the last prophet we have in the Old Testament is Malachi, leaving about a four hundred year gap in the biblical chronology unaccounted for until the birth of Jesus. But modern scholarship today indicates that knowing this period of Israel’s history is critical to understanding the cultural context for the New Testament.

Recently, I discovering this interactive timeline for the Second Temple Judaism period at the BibleOdyssey.org, sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature.  I have been looking to something like this for awhile, so I am glad that BibleOdyssey.org put it together fairly recently. This is a great reference tool for your study of the Bible.

Just a word of caution: the Society of Biblical Literature includes a very wide spectrum of scholarship, conservative evangelical as well as liberal critical, so some of the dates given for a few of the biblical books might raise a few eyebrows.  For a comparable list of dates for the writing of Old Testament books from a conservative evangelical perspective, you might want to look as well at Matt Slick’s listing at CARM.org.

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January 5, 2016

The Great Christ Comet

By Clarke Morledge

Just in time for the Christian celebration of Epiphany, on January 6….

A few years ago, John Paine and I (following John’s lead) introduced the apologetic work of Rick Larson, regarding the date of Jesus’ crucifixion and the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus. Rick Larson is most known for his work on researching The Star of Bethlehem.

The father-in-law of Bible scholar Colin R. Nicholl got a copy of The Star of Bethlehem DVD, by Rick Larson, and convinced Nicholl to watch it. Despite the excellent production value of the film, Nicholl was not convinced by Larson’s argument. Egged on by his discussion with his father-in-law, Nicoll left his teaching position at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to devote himself fully to the study of the Bethlehem star. The fruit of his research is available in the new book, The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem. You can read a brief interview with the author at the Gospel Coalition blog.

I would normally pass over something like this, except that the book comes with some high recommendations, including megachurch pastor Louie Giglio, Oxford scholar John C.Lennox, popular Christian writer Eric Metaxis, New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole, whose work has been discussed previously on Veracity, and my New Testament professor from my seminary days, Donald Hagner, among others. I took a peak at Eric Metaxas’ interview with Nicholl and I thought I would share it with you.  As John Paine would say, “judge for yourself.” Let me know your opinion: Do you think Colin Nicholl is right?

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