Have you ever read a portion of the Old Testament and wondered to yourself, “What does any of this have to do with the larger story of the Bible?” In this book, Stephen Dempster helps us grasp the grand story of the Hebrew Bible by examining the twin themes of genealogy and geography (seed and land). Dempster takes us on a journey through the Old Testament, showing us how it’s not just a random collection of stories but a carefully woven narrative that brings coherence to the Bible’s overall message.
Biblical Theology
According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy (Book Recommendation)
How does the whole Bible, in all its various parts, fit together to tell the story of God’s redemptive plan accomplished by Christ? This month’s book recommendation is According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible by Graeme Goldsworthy.
What is Biblical Theology? (Definition)
Biblical Theology – A discipline of Biblical studies concerned with doing theology according to and stemming from the contours and categories presented within the Bible itself (i.e., attending to scriptures diachronically rather than synchronically, tracing its themes, and considering the unique contributions, perspectives, and voices of particular Biblical authors and corpora).
There then seem to be three major forms of Biblical theology that stem from these general concerns (as defined above):
- Systems of redemptive-history — how the Bible fits together (“whole-bible” Biblical theology).
- Tracing themes across scripture, e.g., a Biblical theology of temple or land.
- Studying the particular theology of a given author, book, or set of books, e.g., a Pauline theology, a theology of Romans, an Old Testament Theology, etc.
The Presence of the Future: The New Testament’s Inaugurated Eschatology (with G.K. Beale)
The Old Testament tells a unifying story of God working to restore his creation and establish his kingdom. This would finally happen permanently and irreversible at the end of history, the “last days.” But the New Testament presents this time as already having dawned in the arrival of Christ. We are living in those “last days,” as Peter said (Acts 2). Premier New Testament scholar, G.K. Beale, visits the Church Theology podcast to talk about the New Testament’s “inaugurated eschatology,” or as George Eldon Ladd put it, “the presence of the future.”
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Understanding Typology (with Mitch Chase)
Jesus is the true and better Adam. He’s our Passover Lamb whose death brings about a new Exodus. Indwelt by God’s Spirit, Christ’s church is the end-time temple of God. And on and on we could go. The Bible is littered with types, “prophetic patterns,” that anticipate and find their fulfillment in Christ. But what exactly is typology, and how does it function? What are its underlying assumptions, the theological operating system if you will, on which it runs? And should we be imitating the apostles by practicing typological interpretation even today? Mitch Chase joins us to help us answer these questions.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Kirk E. Miller 