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started father we do again thank you for this opportunity to be together to Fellowship among Believers to be in your word to discuss your Revelation to us we ask that your Holy Spirit would indeed guide us into all truth and also keep us
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from error we ask that uh As We Gather and as we talk that our fellowship would be edifying and also pleasing in your
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well I wanted to um revisit the discussion from last week it was obviously uh a little bit tense but I I personally thought it was for me very useful um in indicating
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a potential a potential misunderstanding um but also well actually several uh one of which is the concept of just biblical or canonical
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the theology that's what it's called and I've I've wrestled with this throughout the course and I in fact I think I've even mentioned it as to how is it a
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theology in the sense that it's not really a new way of studying either the history of Doctrine
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or Systematic Theology it's it's not that type of theology in fact I I can I personally included that we contined to call it theology because of what the word
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theology means it means the knowledge of God now we we've come to think of theology honestly it's kind of been my point we come to think of theology as
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Systematic Theology because that's the dominant means of theological discussion that we're familiar with whether it's Armenian or reformed it doesn't really
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matter but we think of you know Lutheran or or Anglican well I don't know about Anglican whether they have any theology but um we think of theology as as a systematic study of the doctrines of
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scripture but the word means the knowledge of God that's what it means and so I've mentioned several times that the other types of theology that we
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do we do because that's how we learn we learn systematically we learn by exegeting scripture by looking at passages and
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trying to determine what they mean and then what we do with them that's exegetical theology we learn from past Generations we don't reinvent the wheel every
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generation and that's historical Theology and of course we learn through preaching and teaching which is practical theology so we do theology in
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those senses because that's how we learn but i' I've made the point several times that we have to acknowledge that that's not how God has revealed himself to us
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in his in his word so when we look at canonical theology we're looking at a way of knowing god by reading his word the way
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he has revealed himself in it one of the reasons we spent so much time looking all this is because we have been massively
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influenced by atic Theology and even the way we read our Bibles is is dictated depending on whether you're dispensationalist or
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covenantal the way you read your Bible is largely influenced by the theological system of which you are a part and I mentioned the the the analogy
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or the example not analogy because it's an example of the Seminary that uh markk and I attended that they start their their curriculum of theology with intro
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to reformed theology they want to make sure you understand the framework before you start reading your Bibles okay uh because they want everything to fit into the framework
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that they set out first um biblical theology has been a stepchild mainly because it doesn't do that it doesn't try to systematize the
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word it doesn't try to be necessar necessarily doctrinal it just simply tries to read the whole Council of God as it is contained in our
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Canon one of the reasons that we spent so much time talking about Canon is because even among conservatives the Canon has
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been mauled not just manipulated the fact that we have in our minds two separate Testaments and then in our Biblical theologies we have Old
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Testament biblical theology or new testament biblical theology as if they're two different Bibles which frankly most people tend to think practically speaking one is the Bible of
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the Jews the other is the Bible of the church they were not determined to be Canon by any official pronouncement by either the Jewish Community or the
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Christian Church which shows us as we talked about several weeks ago that their recognition as authoritative was the inward working of
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the Holy Spirit within the community of faith it was not an outward official pronouncement now I think that's very important because it's the whole Council of God in
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which God has revealed his whole counsel so we're not really looking at a different way of studying the Bible as a different way of reading
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it so I want to make that clear and and we spent a lot of time talking about what Biblical theology is not but I want to make sure that in on this point I'm
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not adding biblical theology to the list of the different theologies in that sense it's not really a theology at all okay which kind of
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makes it hard to understand but I'm hoping it'll get a little bit clearer and also kind of rack my brain for a for maybe a different analogy in terms of of what we're going to be doing and I think
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it will become clear as we start to do examples and we start to talk about how the New Testament authors and even the Old Testament authors quoted earlier scripture but then also how they alluded
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to earlier scripture not not a quote but an illusion and then finally the the perhaps the most difficult and yet the deepest is the
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Echo and so we'll be looking at those three they're called rhetorical devices I hate that phrase because it sounds like the authors are trying to pull one over on you you know it's a rhetorical
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device but it's simply just a way of writing and we do it ourselves okay um you know there there are things that we can say that we do not have to site if
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for some reason in your conversation you say four scor and seven years ago no one needs a citation for that okay they know where it's coming from and there are a lot of those types I think in one of the
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notes I start out you know it was the best of times it was the worst of times and I didn't put a reference to that so hopefully I didn't throw any of you you know off the trail but you know it was A
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Tale of Two Cities so that's we do it all the time we do it in our speech we do it in our writing um so it's it's not like the authors of scripture are trying to to to to be cute in their writing
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that's not it at all um they quote scripture they quote scripture not exactly the way we have it in our scriptures they introduce quotations of
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scripture that darn Even in our Old Testament okay and they use the introductory so we're going to get into that that's kind of the nuts and bolts of of trying to read the Bible the way
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the disciples read their scriptures um but going back to the idea you know thinking about the idea of themes themes in the Bible and you know that I maybe
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I'm using the wrong word there I'm not sure maybe I should be look looking more like a at a word like Mo motifs a little less Vos uses the word Contours Contours
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okay yeah Voss uses the word Contours um and I'm going to actually use an example where they would be more like refractions okay and and I I hope that
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by doing this it will become clear why I say that Jesus is not the unifying theme of of of of scripture even though he is the one to
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which all other themes come together and culminate okay and and rather than in
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any way trying to detract from the centrality of Christ in God's revelation because as he says in Hebrews 1 he has spoken in many parts and portions through the prophets in times past but
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in these last days he has spoken in his son it goes without saying the writer doesn't say it he has spoken to us fully in his son that that's clear okay
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because it's his son and therefore it is the full revelation of God but that he's not in saying that he is not detracting from the revelation of the parts and
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portions through the prophets he's not sweeping them under the rug or saying that they are of no account now uh in fact they are
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they are part of the time that led up to the fullness of time so I want to do a different analogy and see what you think and if if it doesn't click then be
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patient we'll get into some examples in coming weeks and I hope it'll it'll become more so but I've got two prisms up here and you know what a prism does it it uh takes light white light and
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refracts it into the the light the visible spectrum now um what I'm going to start with of course
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is we can we can accurately say that the the the major character throughout scripture throughout scripture is the Jesus Christ that he is the image of God he is the culmination of God's
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revelation but even he says and Paul says as well in both Philippians 2 and 1 Corinthians 15 that all that Jesus said and did and
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all that Jesus is is somehow mysteriously to the glory of God the father so that in 1 Corinthians 15 when all things all things are submitted to
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the son he will then submit all things to the father so that the father might be all in all now that challenges our trinitarian foundations but we
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understand that there is no itial difference between the father and the son they are both fully God but we also understand that scripture reveals an economy within the godhead so that the
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son is submissive obedient to the father he does what the father Wills the spirit proceeds from the father we might say it this way from the father through the
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son right um so there is there appears to be a hierarchy which of course led to heresy es modalism and whatnot um but we
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understand that that does not diminish the deity of Jesus Christ it simply sets out in the godhead the Primacy of the Father which frankly the terms
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themselves do father son okay so it it's it's not really uh radical so we start with God with God now God did not
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need to do any anything in order to be I'll use it just a vernacular to be happy in the fullest sense of that word
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to be perfectly complacent he did not need to create anything he was not lonely the godhead was fully complacent within itself which is actually a
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statement of reformed theology um actually most Orthodox the theologies will say that God's creation was fully his choice that there was no necessity
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of it but in doing so we know that it was in the very Act of Creation was an act of Revelation okay so we start
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with this concept of Revelation now I think it's very interesting that both John 1 and Genesis 1 should have do it the done it the
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other way around um what was the first thing God created in Genesis 1 light
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okay John 1 one is an illusion not a quotation he doesn't say as the scripture saith in the
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beginning okay he simply says in the beginning using the exact same two Greek words as are in the Greek Old Testament Genesis 1:1 that's an illusion anyone
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who knows their even in the English okay it's translated in John 1:1 in the beginning and as soon as you read that your mind goes back to Genesis 1:1 the
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point of an illusion is it's not just back to that those two little little words in Genesis 1:1 it's to Creation so John is taking us back as he
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is revealing Jesus Christ he's taking our minds back to creation and in the in the prologue of um John of the Gospel of John he says in
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him was life and the life was the light of men so life and light are in Jesus Christ life and light of course are in
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creation Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord Romans 8 tells us that the the creation itself is groaning for the revelation of the sons of God now that means that the
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moment God said let there be light he began revealing himself that was an act of God's will to
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reveal himself he was revealing himself even before as at least as far as man is concerned even before there was anyone
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to acknowledge and contemplate that Revelation now we don't know about the Angels when they were created but he did create them um and so we can look at
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time we have the Advent of God's son the seed of woman the Seed of Abraham the son of son of David Jesus David Jesus Christ okay and in that we have now this
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is going to this might be a little bit confusing I'm not using this word eschatologically I'm using it canonically consummation which just means the
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summing up okay now we understand from especially 1 Corinthians 15 that all things have not yet been summed up okay
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so there is a consummation yet to come and I'm not using it in that sense but I can't think of a better
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word is that right I think so okay so in the fullness of time God sends forth his son born of a woman that establishes the link with Eve okay born under the law
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that establishes the link with SI and with the people of Israel and so we it's it's that beam of
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then to which all of the refracted light from the first prism is then gathered together once again in the person of Jesus Christ when that is fully
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acknowledged and and that's what um the the Messianic song in Philippians too that every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord right
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that's actually another illusion to Isaiah okay where it speaks the same language regarding language regarding Yahweh right that's a very important
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illusion because it means that Jesus Christ is Yahweh and yet Paul also says in Philippians 2 to the glory of God the
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Father okay so we we have this and then we then we return to the fullness of the
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godhead so that leaves the middle and the middle is where we are in canonical theology because God didn't simply even when Adam fell he didn't simply cut to
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the Chase and send Jesus and make things all right all right again and he didn't reveal himself and his will all at once in one book like you know um Joseph Smith got with
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reformed Egyptian on gold plates he didn't do any of that he didn't really even reveal himself in himself in writing until several thousand years
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well at least um if we consider Enoch you know if we consider the anti delians where he did reveal himself but in terms of of the call of Abraham that was
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probably a good it was almost probably almost a thousand years before The before The Exodus and yet nothing you know nothing's being written down so God is
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revealing himself really he's revealing himself through a people and through creation itself so when we when we start to look at I don't have all the colors so I'm not going to
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try that and I can't remember which is on top and which is on bottom anyhow um we have
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scriptures in various motifs that are themselves historical events these events don't become analogies or examples they become
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symbols they signify something that God is doing revealing of himself which then culminates in Jesus
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Christ so for example I mentioned this last week creation itself is one of those motifs it's one of those things that
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happened historically six days God created the heavens and the Earth that that is how everything got started it's not a metaphor it's not a legend it's
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not a myth it is historical reality but in its historical realism it is also perhaps the most one of the most powerful symbols that God initiates his
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Revelation I I already mentioned Psalm 19 and re or Romans 8 but there are there are so many Illusions and and references quotations and they even even
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more Echoes of creation that ReSound through the rest of scripture and when and I didn't leave myself enough room here so I I'll do it this way I'll number the ones I'm going to use but
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what does what does creation stand for I mean what does it symbolize one thing in terms if we look back from the culmination in Jesus Christ we see it it's the new creation but we already have seen that in we've
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seen it in Eden then we're going to see it in the in the in the furnishings and trappings of the Tabernacle and then in the temple and then Isaiah we have the prophecy of the new Heaven and the new
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Earth and finally in Revelation we have a River the trees that bear fruit throughout the year you know we have we have Eden Revisited okay so it's it's
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beginning and end Alpha and Omega but it's it's one of those motifs that just runs through and the point of it is is developed as the as the reading goes on
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as you go through progressive revelation this symbol of creation becomes part of the language and the thought world of God's inspired authors and it's just one
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of many now I guess one of again one of the reasons why I did say that that Jesus isn't the unifying theme is because I don't want him to get I don't want him to get how do I say
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this I don't want God's revelation that culminates in culminates in Christ to Christ to be narrowed into one beam of light when
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he has a in fact refracted it into many because it's the many beams of light the many parts of that one beam of
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Revelation that gives most glory to God because that's how he's revealed himself but also the deepest understanding to us as we read his
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word okay I I used at the very beginning the analogy of of just starting a novel at the last quarter of it or another analogy just going through and reading
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about the one character okay that you're you're not getting anything like what the author intended for you to get okay and I think the same is true with the Divine author that the the point of
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focusing on the Canon is it's all one author it has many human authors but only one Divine author and so it is not
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two books and it is not 39 plus 27 books books 66 books is one book that contains 39 and
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39 and 27 little books okay and recognizing that it is one book helps us as we continue to read to hear the Illusions
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the quotations and The Echoes that actually like an echo they go back and forth now I'm not saying that an older writer Echoes something from a newer writer I'm not saying that I'm saying
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like within the New Testament within the Old Testament you will you will
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hear references that are not explicit but they're moving back and forth between the Psalms and the prophets for example and we don't actually know the chronology of many of
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the books of the Bible whether Old Testament or new okay we we're we're certain that the pentet took was the earliest okay that's we can say that we know that many of the Psalms were
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written by David but clearly not all of them because they say they aren't um the same may be true at least is it is true of one or two of the Proverbs they were not written by Solomon we don't know
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when all of the books were written in the Old Testament we don't like the prophets we don't really know exactly what order they were in same thing is true in the New Testament we think that
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maybe James was one of the earliest or maybe first Thessalonians we don't really know when when the gospels were written but they were probably after the Pauline letters um you
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know that's not important because as we have our Bibles recognizing that that's not the same order of the books that has always been
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the case but even when the arrangement of the same books was different than it is now the message was still consistent because of this unifying authorship of
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one God one God so we we look at uh the revelation of God as it is refracted one of the you know I
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think um I'll I'll do it this way Adam or Adam is of course the Hebrew word for
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word for man the creation of man in God's image is a motif that then runs through the rest of scripture even uh After the
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flood you know God says to to Noah that if any man shed the blood of Man by man his blood blood must be shed because Man
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was created in the image of God which is what James picks up and John picks up in their letters so it it is a motif that then runs all the way through and the
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whole concept then of idolatry um man is the image of God to make any other image for man to make any other
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image is a mockery of what God has already done in man so the it it's it it branches out into others but if we look
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at of at of course Jesus he is the last Adam and that is a whole lot more he his favorite name for himself was the son of man
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Systematic Theology seems like a good place to start for new coner doesn't have church have church background uh Systematic Theology is a good place to start I do think yes in
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the teaching of disciples you you have to start with systematic Doctrine I I agree I I don't think this is um I I don't think what we're talking about
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here is where you would start um like you would just ask a new convert to start Genesis and to figure out no oh no no I wouldn't ask a new
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convert to start in Genesis and try to figure out all the motifs of scripture no no and I don't I don't frankly think I've figured them all out I still see new ones I mean I I I heard new ones
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when Tim was teaching through job and new ones when he's teaching through Amos or when we're in Deuteronomy or in Leviticus uh I think it's just the more and more you read scripture The More You
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Hear The Echoes you hear hear the Symphony of God's holy spirit just echoing through with that Revelation but in such Myriad and multifaceted ways that the the light of
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Revelation just it shines to me okay you a suggestion like let's say for the first five to 10 weeks you go through
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like M doctrines like the Trinity of baptism creation baptism creation want to go that we doing 10 hours a day
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five to 10 weeks is that what we're doing yeah okay I didn't know I didn't know how we get it all in and
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just after how would you direct I would honestly say that it's a parallel path depends on how old the believer is first of all okay because I if if the believer is a child then they
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have not they have not yet learned much in the literary Arts to begin with okay so I wouldn't I wouldn't throw them into a class in Canon canonical
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theology because I don't think they're ready for that if the if a person comes to Faith in um Teenage and older they've read Jane Austin they've
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read Dickens they've they've read um even Harry Potter I mean they understand the idea of plot development character development but also they understand the idea of of the
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threads of of um rhetoric that go through a story and I know it it sounds like it's like it's trivializing when you when you call the
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revelation of God a story there's nothing wrong with that word okay the the it's not just you know when you think oh it's a story well we we can
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tell stories that are true can't we you know we we just because we're telling a story doesn't mean it's false and I know that that people use that word to say oh these are just Jewish Legends these are
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just stories that the church made up in order to justify its existence I hope you know I do not mean to use that word in that way ever but I do think that reading the
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reading the Bible as a literary work with a unified singular author who is divine is something that a Believer should learn early in their life in Christ because I
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do think that you can go far too far down the road of systematic theology to the point where you have erected a system of doctrine that then
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becomes that believer's framework of reference and frankly I think that's usually what's usually what's done certainly within both dispensationalism which I did experience
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firsthand and reform theology which I have experienced have experienced firsthand you get a you get a system of Doctrine and that becomes um your your
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Paradigm your thought world and then what you do read in scripture is going to be filtered through that Paradigm and I don't think that's a good thing so I would say rather than okay do this and
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then do then do that I would want to introduce a reading through the Bible very early like at the beginning
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okay I may not give all of this but you you need to be reading the Bible and reading the Bible and it's something that we should be doing all our lives because what that does is it it it
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correctly forces correctly forces us to hold up our Doctrine against the Paradigm of God's revelation rather than the other way around that's what I've
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been trying to say is my experience of systematic theology is that it becomes the Paradigm to which our reading of the scripture is then forced through okay
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which is why I've opposed confessionalism again not because there's anything wrong with confessions and Creeds and catechisms they're very beneficial Systematic Theology is
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incredibly beneficial but none of them are the standard by which we read the scriptures that's the other way around does that does that make sense
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okay so really again this is more about how we read our Bibles than what we get out of it because most of us do do have a a system of theology that we think is
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is correct but I think that none of us should ever have a system of theology that is that is uncritical okay it should always be held
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against scripture I don't think you have to you know keep holding the Trinity up against the scripture but I think it's an exercise that every believer should do rather than simply accept the
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doctrine of scripture of of the Trinity they should work through the through the biblical um establishment of the unity
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of God there is one God right the shama but also the personality of the three persons God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit the angel of the Lord
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the spirit of the Lord okay all these different references and then recognize how each of them are um clearly set forth in scripture as Divine so you have
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one God and three Divine persons and you can work through that from from genes even let us I mean I know that this is not what critical commentators will
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allow let us make God in our image oh that means God and the angels no that would make no sense because they're not in the image of God so why would he include them when he says let us make
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man and oh it's the Royal we which didn't come about for Millennial to you know this the idea that the king always used the plural well not every King does
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that and they haven't always done that the most natural reading of it is that there is a plus plus especially if you get into the details and look at the subject and verb
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agreements okay you you've got a plural noun and a singular verb so either Moses hadn't learned his grammar or we're looking at the Trinity here we don't
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know it's the Trinity because it says us right it doesn't say usens us three you know nothing like that it just says us but it does say us and it's not a
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textual error so you know I think we could start even there in Genesis 1 and move all the way through and work through the biblical Theology of the doctrine of the Trinity and I think
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every believer should do that rather than to Simply accept the aanan Creed for example okay hopefully if you run your theology through the filter of
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scripture frequently enough you won't have to change it all that often in fact it will probably deepen and expand rather than change but you will also
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find some things that you were taught that you've come to believe that don't really have any biblical support and that's the idea that that is um it is the motto of reformed theology
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and also the boogeyman of reformed theologians and that and that is Ecclesia reform
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reformanda Reformed Church is always reforming they'll say that all day long but don't do it on my word that's bad ju guu the land I mean I'm just throwing
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these out we'll we'll you know these are just things that came to mind that that that uh you you start with a garden and and from then on you the the
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idea of land of a of a of a place there that God dwells with his his people that's another one okay but the the idea of the inheritance of land becomes a a motif
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that runs through and yet we see from the Nate from what happens with Israel Abraham starting with Abraham you know he's brought into the land but he's not given the land in fact he's not going to
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have the land for for how many generations after after Wards four generations after his grandson you know it's like and then they're in Egypt so what about this land and then they have the land but then they don't have the
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land and yet they're promised the land okay so and then you know the meek shall inherit the land and then Jesus says in in Galilee the Meeks shall inherit the
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earth okay so there's a see that's a quote that's an illusion okay but he changes it because he is changing it okay so in Christ
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we have the inheritance that's what the land meant you were not allowed to uh to move the boundary Stones because that was the inheritance of that family that tribe
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the Year of Jubilee everything was to be reset to the original tribal boundaries because that was The Inheritance but that and that was a historical law that
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was supposed to be obeyed wasn't but it was supposed to be obeyed and yet it was also a also a symbol and I think this helps us understand as the dispensational
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dispensationalist doesn't understand is that what really wasn't about the land the inheritance of the Saints is the whole the whole earth not just a parcel of land
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in Palestine in in that area in the western part of the Mediterranean that that was a symbol a very important one but we we can
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avoid uh entangling literalistic interpretations when we recognize the symbolism of these historical
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realities and all we're doing is the same thing that the prophets and then the apostles are doing okay we're we're not actually doing anything new we're just understanding more deeply what they
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were doing when they especially when Christ had come and they were were able and I think this is probably what Paul did before he actually went out on the mission field 14 17 however many years
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it was I think everything he had Learned was now reoriented through the reality of the Messiah having come having died and having risen and so in in that
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sense um that's what I mean by consummation that that everything you know everything that God has promised is yay and amen in Christ so not the
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eschatological consummation eschatological consummation but the canonical consummation which is why there cannot be any more Revelation because he has spoken in his son and that's such a
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finality that there's there's no other Revelation that should be expected nor did the vast majority of the church ever expect any further Revelation than what the apostles had
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given as as essentially eyewitnesses of the Risen Lord okay that was Paul's um defense of his own a Apostolic office that he had seen the
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Lord and that he had received his commission as well as his instruction directly from the Lord so um the the that that's again why I don't I don't
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want Jesus to get lost in these motifs even though he's clearly going to be found in found in them but he's found in them when we get here and look
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back so if we read through the Old Testament as it was given as God revealed himself we cannot help but see Jesus in
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these things because we're on this side of the empty tomb and I don't think we should ever try to get rid of that thought although I do think it's it's beneficial to try to to try to think
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okay how okay how did how did Isaiah understand what he was being told you know how did Ezekiel understand the vision of the temple rebuilt that he did what he was given
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did he really think it was a physical Temple that would be rebuilt or did he understand that it was going to be a temple of a body the body of Jesus
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Christ so that's another one the Tabernacle Temple complex again that that you know you
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think oh well that doesn't come until you know um the pentet took and the and the Exodus no no that's Eden Eden is the first Tabernacle Eden is the first temple
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because it's where God dwells with his people and so when we get to the Tabernacle we see that it is very much U put together like Eden like the garden
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and even what the you you read and you don't know this unless um although if it if you've got a good translation you'll catch this God commanded he set Adam in the
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garden and the first commandment that he gave him was to tend and to keep it and then when you get to Exodus and the the Levites and particularly the
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ironic priesthood is separated from the rest of the tribe to minister in the Tabernacle what were they supposed to do tend and keep it now those are exactly the same words
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in the Hebrew and in the Greek but they should be the same words in the English as well before God created anything when when he first said let there be light it says and the Earth was formless and
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void that's only used one other place it's actually in the prophecy of Jeremiah when it speaks of the Judgment of God upon the rebellious people and
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their rebell and their wicked neighbors Jeremiah's vision is of toou vaboh formless and void see that's an echo okay and it's if your English
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translation is a good one Jeremiah says formless and void Genesis 1 says formless so it's not a matter of having to know the Greek or the Hebrew it does matter of having a good I mean that's
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where the NIV will kind of mess you up okay the the um the the Bibles that try to smooth out the translation will miss
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these things okay there are others that are somewhat more difficult to read because the syntax is not quite as smooth but I've also pointed out when we've
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done exegetical studies where in the very same passage the same word might be translated into English two or three different ways that's confusing okay if
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if our translators give us a good Bible we don't need to know Greek or Hebrew but it doesn't hurt as I I've said before I think every congregation should have several people who can understand
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the Greek and the Hebrew I really do and I say people I don't think they have to be men I think any any uh anybody because I do as
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I've said this before biblical theology is a community exercise not an individual one this is why um these classes are so important because it's
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iron sharpening iron Sunday school is the same way I love to hear the comments oftentimes I take more notes from what everyone else is saying than the person standing up here because there's a lot
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of insight that comes out out from the individual believer that is is um uh suppressed in most congregations you know the idea of you
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actually contributing to the theological development and deepening of the congregation is not something you find in most in most churches so um there are so many more
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I'll just mention a couple others um the people of God uh so uh this one here of course what is the temple well Jesus is the true
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Temple everything that we read about but the temple is where God dwelt with his people okay so we have another one here the people God did not reveal himself
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equally to all mankind but revealed himself through a people that he called for his for his name and that whole lineage now that doesn't really start until till Abraham
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but even then not really it starts even earlier than that it starts with Seth it starts with the the I guess as Eve viewed it the replacement son for
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Abel and I'm not even sure that if you if you look at the age of Adam you you look at the lineage this may rattle some cages I
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hope not we can't prove from the Hebrew that Abel was the third born
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I'm sorry Seth yeah Seth was the third born thank you that that's not necessarily the case and there's some indication by Cain's response that they were already other siblings because when
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he was cast out his fear was someone would find me who would have been a kinsman redeemer and would kill him okay now I'm not not dogmatic about that because this is not dogmatic
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theology I I I you know I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to die on that on that that hill but my my point is God chose Seth and then the sons of men I'm sorry
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the sons of God then descend from Seth they go through the flood and then once again Shem is chosen so his his um his
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discriminating election begins very very early not not just with Abraham now OB viously with Abraham you know things take off and and become um a a people who are descended
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from one man but they are all also descended through Shem Noah and through Seth that's all one lineage okay and so we look at this people and what what is
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well this people is the body of Christ which itself is an incredible um concept not just a metaphor but that God is is um and we then we we put the when we put the them
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together we have such a rich christology so Jesus is still the centerpiece of it all as I mentioned with the tapestry when when all of the warp and woof have
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been run through the through the um the what's it called the I think the loom the portrait is Jesus to the glory
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of God the Father the portrait is the perfect image of God the Father okay Jesus Christ so in that sense I I don't
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call Jesus a unifying theme as much as a culmination of all of scripture and maybe I'm using the word theme incorrectly or I'm using it with a
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lowercase T instead of a capital T but um this is what canonical theology is all about and again these are this is just a short list of the many law is
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another one um there's there's so many motifs that God his his Revelation refracts into and then they they move
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like an arc all the way through scripture and then they come back together in Jesus Christ and so the purpose of canonical theology is to gain in ever increasing
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measure the richness of God's revelation as he has revealed himself so hopefully that helps clarify um I did I did make a note that you know
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that that that that the my purpose in this class is not as I said to introduce a new theology a new way of studying the
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Bible but to try to help you understand how I do theology in the hopes that it'll Mak the other classes make more sense as well
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okay and and the thought actually came to me I mean it has been coming for many years but we're we're looking at Leviticus as a parable because the
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writer of Hebrews calls Leviticus a parable he calls the whole levitical system he uses the word parab now it's not translated like that in any of our English Bibles
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English Bibles but that is the word Parable which does not mean that those things didn't happen they absolutely did happen but it indicates the way the New Testament writers understood the symbolic world of
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the Hebrew the Hebrew scriptures and as they were writing they drew from that world they drew with quotations they drew with Illusions and I think even
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more so with Echoes so that the more we read our Old Testament and the more read it not so much with the purpose of of of uh
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getting through this book or even studying this book but rather listening to God revealing himself it's kind of a it's not the only
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way we read our Bible I'm not excluding exog Jesus or even just reading through the Minor Prophets for example but advocating rather a a method of reading
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where we're we're recognizing in yeah this is the book of Isaiah that's the context of this Pro prophecy but the context I mean you can
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say okay the the reign of Hezekiah you know that's the context the Assyrians were doing this you know all that but the context is the Canon see the context of Isaiah now includes all the way to
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Revelation the context of Deuteronomy includes Genesis to Revelation the context of every single book we read so the context of the Gospel of Mark includes Genesis to Revelation because
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that's the full revelation of God in scripture and it's not a matter of of um doing word studies between all these it's just it's really a matter of
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listening okay uh again to use another analogy I mean I have to confess I know my my daughter is an avid bird lover um
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for years I'm guilty of never hearing anything but now I I hear the hear the owls in the morning never used to cuz I
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wasn't listening okay and if the roosters would shut up I think I'd hear the owls even better uh um you know but but it's really it's it's kind it's neat when you
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when you learn to we don't think we I mean you've all experienced this where you just didn't hear things until until that became something important to you
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and then you're amazed at all that you do hear and I I guess that's what I'm saying is we we need to hear as we read not not even so much I mean we
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always need to think and we need to connect the dots but we're going to connect the dots more accurately if we're listening and I'm not sure this isn't
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why Jesus used that phrase so often he who has ear who has ears to hear Let Him hear okay uh who was it
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maybe he ba he's basically said there's only one organ in Salvation it's the ear okay well faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God right so um I
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think it's fair to say that on the one hand um our culture has has um um diminished our auditory
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capabilities we don't listen as well as we used to but I also think that our um theology has also filtered how we
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hear we we hear according to what we think we're supposed to hear and what I'm trying to Advocate is let's just listen to
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listen to scripture which is why last week we we did begin I want to try to conclude our disc discussion because um it goes with the week five notes um but let me ask does anybody have any
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questions of this just this summary of what I'm trying to do
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here all right well we'll we'll keep going and see how it goes all right the idea in talking about the different types of theology New Testament biblical theology Old Testament biblical theology
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again as I mentioned last week the book BS that these men have written in some cases are are very good and they're very helpful but they be they betray a
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division of the Canon which is not real and in fact can be quite harmful um Peter schooler has this to say uh stool marcker excuse me he says I think I read
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this last week it has become standard procedure in exegetical scholarship to work with the Old and New Testaments separately and to discuss the question concerning the of both Testaments in the
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one Christian Canon only on special occasions he says this development is as understandable as it is regrettable okay um I'm not suggesting that we republish
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our Bibles without the division between old and new because frankly there is an old Covenant and there is a New Covenant and I but I guess I agree with those who say that that each of those
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has a voice that should be heard on its own terms own terms But ultimately the understanding of either requires the understanding of
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both so I I'm I don't think we should always read the Old Testament consciously from the perspective of the
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New Testament I have to be careful how I say that because we cannot possibly ignore the fact of Jesus Christ and the culmination of the canon in him
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and I don't think we're intended to but if we're going to read the scriptures as and the revelation of God as as Paul did or John or James or Peter then in a
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sense we do have as as Richard Hayes says we have to read the scripture as nons scripture we have to read it as as God in the process without ever being able to
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completely ignore the fact that we have the fullness that shines back on it but if we start from here then then what often happens is we
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superimpose a doctrinal understanding on the scripture that we're reading rather than gaining from it the depth of the revelation of God God is revealing
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himself in all of this and that's what he desires for his children to know Jesus said this is eternal life to know you the only God and Jesus Christ to
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whom you have sent okay um it's pretty important that we know God again going back to the definition of theology that is what we're doing in that sense excuse
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go ahead is it possible to it seems to me almost impossible for me to read about the
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Exodus and think of what did Israeli person think of EX the only way because I
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because I back exactly yeah it is come up with an understanding at all being a gentile KN of Christ I
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cannot possibly well you cannot possibly and I I I agree with you in fact I just said that you you neither can nor should remove the revelation of Jesus Christ of
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God in Christ from your reading okay you can't do that because every you you're you're standing at the point of the consummation of the cannon it's impossible to erase that and yet it is
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possible to to put yourself back in the situation and even when Moses says stand aside and behold the salvation of our God okay that is what they were
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witnessing they were witness a revelation of God in power for their Redemption Majesty of God the Majesty of God um the yeah the Majesty the power
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and the mercy of God egptian over the Egyptians and and the the the yeah now Paul when you read that and you read it as as its own narrative then when you
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come to Paul in Romans 8 Romans 8 is incredibly Exodus incredibly Exodus themed okay but it also is very Genesis themed as well so you begin to see how
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the New Testament writers this is what this this was what their minds were steeped in was the Old Testament Redemptive history
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okay we have been raised in the church without that foundation and without that atmosphere I think we can
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read The Exodus narratives to some extent in their own historical context and in doing so that actually deepens
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the the New Testament revelation of the meaning okay and we're going to get into that when we talk about typology because I think that's where the answer is is that we begin to see these events as
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themselves symbols then knowing more about the event brings the symbol into sharper
