Inter-Varsity Press

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. The Covenant Relationship
Scott J. Hafemann

2. The Commands of God
Thomas R. Schreiner

3. The Atonement
Frank S. Thielman

4. The Servant of the Lord
Stephen G. Dempster

5. The Day of the Lord
Paul R. House

6. The People of God
Elmer A. Martens

7. The History of Redemption
Roy E. Ciampa
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INTRODUCTION Extract ...

In 2000 several biblical scholars met at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois to discuss the past and future of biblical theology as a discipline in the academy and in the church. It was an exciting conference, one in which veteran biblical theologians such as Peter Stuhlmacher, Daniel Fuller, Graeme Goldsworthy, Elmer Martens and William Dumbrell presented papers, and one in which younger scholars participated as well. This conference proved that interest in biblical theology has not waned in evangelical circles. Indeed, it evidenced a vitality that probably surprised even the participants. The collected conference papers appeared as Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect (Apollos, 2002), and the volume was well received.

After that event the editors of the present volume discussed ways to build upon the stimulating experience of the conference. We agreed that one way we could do so was to gather a group of like-minded scholars to explore biblical themes that contribute to the wholeness of the Bible. We chose people we believed shared our commitment to ‘whole-Bible biblical theology’, a term we coined for the sort of biblical theology that tries not only to examine the theology of biblical books, which we applaud, or to use biblical categories for discussing theology, which we also applaud. Rather, we wanted to bring together people who saw the need to trace themes and overarching structural ideas through the whole Bible. We wanted to discuss the type of biblical theology Elmer Martens defines as:

"that approach to Scripture which attempts to see Biblical material holistically and to describe this wholeness or synthesis in Biblical categories. Biblical theology attempts to embrace the message of the Bible and to arrive at an intelligible coherence of the whole despite the great diversity of the parts. Or, put another way: Biblical theology investigates the themes presented in Scripture and defines their inter-relationships. Biblical theology is an attempt to get to the theological heart of the Bible."

With these basic principles in mind, we selected the contributors to this volume and met in Wheaton, Illinois and in Birmingham, Alabama to present our research on seven basic themes in biblical theology and to gain the insights of our colleagues. Participants chose the theme they wished to address. This meant that some significant themes would have to be handled by other experts at other times, or were deemed to have been discussed effectively by others in the past. We did not determine the seven most important themes in the Bible and assign them to one another. Individual interests were allowed latitude, but we nonetheless found that the themes the participants chose provided a solid sample of key biblical ideas.

We came together as fellow students of the Scriptures to pursue with one another the ways in which the Bible presents these great themes across the canon.We came together not because we all shared the exact same methodology and opinions. Rather, we came together because we are like-minded when it comes to pursuing the unifying message of the Bible as it unfolded throughout redemptive history. We came together in the awareness that all our efforts are only preliminary in this world, yet certain that the work we were doing would help our understanding of the Scriptures in a way that would hopefully help us teach others more effectively. To pursue the unity of the Bible in a circle of scholars unified by their faith, their commitment to the Scriptures, their dedication to the church and their collegial relationships with one another was a unique opportunity, and we were grateful to be part of it.

As could be expected from the preceding paragraphs, the contributors to this volume share at least three core convictions about the unity of the Bible. First, we are convinced that the Bible is a unity because it is the word of God, who is a unified and coherent being, and that a unified biblical theology should thus span the entire range of the Scriptures because they are all part of the written word of God. Though not a uniform opinion, it is common in our age for scholars to write of the many competing ‘voices’ and various ‘theologies’ of the Bible.

These essays oppose such trends. They seek to uncover the overarching theology of the Bible as it develops throughout the canon. The themes they treat are studied with an eye to their integration into the whole fabric of the Bible, their use and reuse by the Bible’s writers, and thus to their development across the canon.

Each contributor was allowed to pursue the chosen theme across the Scriptures in the manner they deemed best, but they all pursued that theme in a way calculated to demonstrate biblical wholeness. Stated simply, the contributors do not pit the Old Testament against the New Testament, for they do not think the biblical writers do so. This pursuit of unity does not reject legitimate diversity. Indeed, it affirms that effective literature utilizes tension and diversity to create its unity. Nonetheless, this diversity contributes to the overall unity; it does not negate it. Tragedy, for instance, must have comic elements to work, but such diversity aids the creation of the whole.

Second, we are convinced that to do biblical theology is not merely to survey the contents of the Bible. In pursuit of an understanding of God and his ways, a biblical theology that spans the canon seeks not only to unpack the content, but also to establish the conceptual unity of the Scriptures as a whole as they unfold in human events. Thus this type of biblical theology endeavours to reflect synthetically on the history and significance of the relationship between God and his people and God and his world, past, present and future, as delineated in the Scriptures. To achieve this goal, whole-Bible biblical theology does not settle for describing the discrete theological emphases of individual writers or sources. Nor does it settle for focusing on constructing the religious experiences or historical events behind the text that gave rise to the text. Instead, biblical theology seeks its content and coherence in the final propositions and basic ordering of the Old and New Testaments read in their entirety, in their final form, and in concert with one another. As attempted in this volume, biblical theology is the study of God’s self-revelation to human beings for the purposes of redemption through the interpretation of the events and experiences written down in the Scriptures. This sort of biblical theology affirms that God’s self-revelation can never be separated from the historical context in which it was given, and that this context is in concert with the literary record in which it is found.

Third, we are convinced that these days doing whole-Bible biblical theology most likely should be a collaborative effort. The subject matter of biblical theology and the literature associated with it have grown too complex and the questions too many for most of us to pursue the task by working alone. There will always be dramatic exceptions to this rule. Still, keeping pace with current scholarship in Old Testament, New Testament and Theology, to say nothing of supporting disciplines such as Ancient History, can be a daunting task. Therefore, we met together at the beginning and end of the work and kept in contact in the interim and afterwards. We learned a great deal from one another. We found working in dialogue with one another to be fruitful and encouraging. Of course, readers will have to judge the results themselves.

Finally, we present the results of our research with a certain progression in mind. The first essay establishes ‘covenant’ as an integrative concept that spans the Bible. Scripture takes shape as two interrelated covenants, so this choice is not astounding, yet it is a vitally important point to make. Based on this introductory principle, we then present essays on God’s commands, God’s means of atonement, God’s sending of servants and God’s warning about the Day of the Lord as natural outgrowths of the Bible’s covenantal structure. The final two essays, on God’s people and the history of redemption, are considered summaries of God’s purpose for relating to human beings in a covenantal way. Stated simply, God is in the process of gathering a holy people, which in effect means that God pursues a redemptive mission in our world. ...

Extract from Chapter 3 ... THE ATONEMENT

Frank S. Thielman

In recent years a long and gruesome list of social horrors has been laid at the doorstep of the substitutionary view of the atonement. Some scholars claim that the image of Christ’s willing suffering has forced Christian women into the role of he ‘suffering servant’, encouraging them to accept their status as victims and become complicit in their own oppression. Others say that the picture of a wrathful Father punishing his Son unavoidably paints God as an abusive parent, and so fuels violence against children. One scholar believes that Great Britain and the United States have patterned their cruel and ineffective penal systems after the image of God’s retributive justice contained within the ‘satisfaction’ view of the atonement. Another scholar claims that the conquistadors used Christ’s acceptance of suffering, if not a particular theory of the atonement, to encourage the Aztecs to submit to oppression.

Some evangelical theologians are also concerned that the ‘penal substitutionary’ understanding of atonement is unintelligible to many cultures outside North America and Western Europe, and is increasingly unintelligible even in Western cultures as they move into a postmodern mode of thought. Crude expressions of it dominate popular, evangelical Christianity, they observe, and this both frightens children and gives the impression that God is mean and vindictive.

The implications of these criticisms are clear. To insist on the theological importance of a substitutionary atonement is to become complicit in the oppression of the weak and dispossessed. Depending on how this view is expressed, it may also hinder the progress of the gospel.

These are serious charges. If one of the essentials of evangelical Christianity is its claim to stand under the authority of Scripture, then there is no question that it must be committed to relieving the burdens of the poor, the oppressed and the unevangelized. It must also be committed to the winsome proclamation of the gospel in sensitive ways that do not confuse the ancient cultural medium in which the message is contained with the message itself. But if the central understanding of the atonement in evangelical Christianity both oppresses the weak and hinders the gospel’s advancement with a simplistic hermeneutic, then evangelicals face a large problem. Either our understanding of the essential meaning of Jesus’ death is flawed, or the teaching of Scripture on atonement is incompatible with the Scriptures’ own approach to the poor, the oppressed and the unevangelized. Much more than a short essay is required to sort all this out, but the attempt to do so must begin with the biblical witness. ...