Review: Eschatology: Biblical, Historical and Practical Approaches by D. Jeffrey Bingham and Glenn R. Kreider, editors. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2016, 501 pages. This book is a celebration of the work of Craig A. Blaising. Though I am not a Progressive Dispensationalist, I do like Blaising’s writing. He always approaches a subject from interesting angles, and usually makes important points. The book is divided into the three sections of the subtitle, plus a beginning section on foundational matters. The list …
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Two Abrahamic Covenants? To make things a little more tricky, some scholars claim to see not one but two covenants made with Abraham by the Lord. This is the position of Paul Williamson as set out in his fine book Sealed with an Oath. Williamson believes that the thirteen year time lapse between Genesis 15 and 17, plus what he calls “significant differences…in terms of their covenantal framework and their promissory emphases” argue for two covenants.[1] But the time gap …
Part Two The seventeenth chapter of the Book of Genesis affords us an occasion to distinguish between a covenant and a promise. This difference is seldom noticed in the literature, but it deserves our attention since it shows up a tendency to take things for granted which we ought perhaps to be more discerning about. There is no problem with the idea that a covenant includes promise. All covenants are about what one will do or refrain from doing at …
Part One The whole episode in Genesis 15 is highlighted by the time stamp in verse 18, “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram…” Yahweh declares that He has already given the land to Abram’s descendants. Therefore, as we have said, the covenant serves to reinforce and amplify the plain and clear word of God. But what about the dimensions of the Promised Land? Can they be determined? If they can, can we say that Abram’s …
This is another excerpt from the book I am trying to write. The Abrahamic covenant is pivotal to the history biblical which unfolds thereafter, and Genesis 15 is perhaps the key passage to understand with respect to it.[1] The initiative is God’s, and it is here that God binds Himself by oath to perform the details of the promises He makes to Abraham. It will be useful to reproduce the first part of the chapter. After these things the word …
My readers know that I don’t go in for autobiographical writing at my blog. But here is a brief note about my celebration of God’s living providence. Perhaps it will encourage one or two of you? The beginning of September 2016 finds me fuzzy headed with limbs aching after moving to our new home, only four miles away from our old one. The new place has three bedrooms with space for a fourth and plenty of yard. The old house …
Part One Before moving on I should say that the promise to make Abram’s name great[3] is not a part of the covenant oath which God takes in Genesis 15. It is worth noting that a covenant then is more than just a promise. God can promise something without including it within a covenant. As we shall see, a lot of confusion has come about by Bible teachers not taking care to differentiate between a promise of God within a …
Although he never held any official position or led any army or wrote any books, by any measure Abraham is one of the most important human beings in history. Jews, Christians and Muslims trace their roots in him in one way or another. This man who lived approximately two thousand years before Christ is a central figure to the biblical storyline in both Testaments. Now this book deals with covenants. And the covenant with Abraham is one of the most …
The movement from Noah in his post-diluvial world to the next great judgment; the division of human language at the plain of Shinar (Gen. 11:2) is the history of the decline of memory. Declension in the remembrance of God and His ways (i.e. God as He is) gradually dehumanizes us. Suitably enough, the movement ends with the impediments to joint remembrance which the disparate languages inevitably brought about. The first part of Genesis must be joined comfortably and naturally with …
Some of you know that I am a reluctant dispensationalist. In writing this (actually re-writing it) I thought it appropriate to use my moniker as a title. Dispensationalists have not always done themselves many favors. They have sometimes squandered the opportunity to make profound long term contributions to the Church through the publishing of detailed commentaries, biblical and systematic theologies and the like, for the sake of short term pragmatic and populist goals. Bestsellers seldom influence the direction of …
