How Biblical Theology is done at Kosmosdale.

On Feb. 28th and Mar. 1st, I went to 9 Marks at SBTS. It was a great experience and learned a lot about how to better incorporate biblical theology in areas where I teach. However, I am not the only one that teaches biblical theology. Our pastors teach us biblical theology every week, and you might not even know it. So, this conference helped me to appreciate Pastor Mitch's preaching even more, and his faithfulness to the text. So I want to help you understand what is biblical theology and how Pastors Mitch and Tim teach us it within their roles.

What is Biblical Theology?

Biblical theology is theology as it found in the Bible as a whole and in books individually. Biblical theology is not systematic theology, e.g. Grudem's Systematic Theology. Systematic theology connects different passage that talk about different themes while also looking at historical development. Some examples of these truths are: God's attributes, the person of Christ, and a doctrine of sin and man.  From these understandings, it is applied to today's context for further growth.

Biblical theology, however, looks only at how the Bible develops theology within itself. Different theological concepts, like temple imagery, what the Messiah will do, and God's plan to save the world, are repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments. An example from Pastor Mitch's sermons is the new exodus, which is found in Christ. We have learned that this theme is developed from the Old Testament and Jesus embodies the exodus story in His own Life as the "Son of God."

Pastor Mitch's Preaching

I want to explore is Mitch's preaching first, and I will use the Mar. 2nd message as an example (listen here). This sermon was about obeying Christ's preaching from the Sermon on the Mount. I want to recall two distinct references to biblical theology in his sermon. The first was the rock, and the second was the storms. In both references, he went back into the Old Testament and showed us where these illusions were found. Mitch made it clear that Jesus is not just thinking up an illustration. Instead, Mitch explained that the rock represented God as a constant refuge from judgment. The storms, then, represented the judgment of God. Jesus uses this illustration to enforce the seriousness of following His teaching, which they would have already known.

With that, Mitch's preaching connects the whole canon as one storyline with Christ as its beginning, middle, and end. Every sermon develops the different themes found that the Biblical authors before and after also talk about. When he preaches, we learn where the authors are developing their idea before them and also how other authors after them develop the idea further. This helps us also study the Bible by finding these same themes in other passages and seeing how the Bible relates to itself.

Pastor Tim's Sunday School

Tim also demonstrates biblical theology in his Sunday School class. Currently, Tim is teaching in Old Testament narrative. Like Mitch, Tim brings the whole canon together by showing the development to Christ. So while reading through David's life, he places the stories within the storyline of the Bible and connects its developments to Christ. An example is Samuel growing in favor with God and man (1 Sam. 2-3). Luke will use a similar wording when he describes Jesus in Luke 3. Tim also pointed out that King David did some actions we would expect priest would do. The author Hebrews, as we have seen from Mitch's series, shows Jesus as the ultimate priest. 

Conclusion

These are two examples of biblical theology at Kosmosdale. My hope is that you see what they are doing and how it is important for a fuller understanding of Scripture. The Bible is multiple books with one storyline with many developments. Biblical theology helps us to understand the Bible better and not allowing us to forget or neglect parts because we do not found relevance.

As church members, we can also learn biblical theology. This is a consistent study of the Bible and knowing it by reading both Testaments and also the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds. It is knowing the Old Testament stories and the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to see these connections. It is looking at the footnotes of quotes and going back to the stories that are alluded to and seeing how the biblical authors understood Scripture. A resource that can help understand better biblical theology is a book by James Hamilton called What is Biblical Theology?. There is also a 9Marks book called Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church.

N.B. This was originally posted at Kosmosdale Baptist Church's Blog.

Reflection from Missiology Class.

This past December, I took a J-term with a former missionary for the IMB, who is now lead's their theological education. This class covered a different perspective from what I received at Liberty. It was theological and practical, which was theologically founded. Here are some thoughts from the class:

1. The church needs to become mesmerized with the gospel again. Missions flows from people that believe in the saving power of the gospel. American Christianity has a problem that people attend Sundays and maybe Wednesday but they really do worship God every day. Now worship is more than singing songs. Traditionally, worship included singing, praying, and listen to God speak through His word (thus hearing and listening). The Bible shows the pereminates of the gospel as God's ordained way to bring sinners to life in Him.
2. Worship, Theology, and Missions are completely interdependent of each other. Simply put, Worship without theology is idolatry, Theology without worship kills the soul by lead to pride, Worship fuels missions, missions is needed because worship is not, theology is the basis of missions, in missions, we teach theology. When one of these is missing, the church becomes ineffective in this world. Now this also displaces the people are too heavenly minded to be earthly good. Theology is the foundation of doing anything good in the world.     
3. The American church as a whole fails to see the importance of missions in the daily life of the church. Missions requires us to to give up and lean on Jesus. It requires a devotion that cannot be found in money or possession. It calls us to die to self and follow Jesus even through suffering. It calls to rethink our possession and be more willing to give for the advancement of the gospel.

These are some quick comments about my class but there needs to be output. All of these require a response of obedience to the call of missions. All of these reflect a deficiency with my own life and most likely yours too. God desires to save the nations and He has accomplished it through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son when people repent and trust in Him. 

A New Semester is Here!

So this week starts a new semester as I finish my second year. This semester's courses will provide more than enough problems with reading and translation. I finish learning the basics of Hebrew and I take a more advance Greek class. All of this will provide me some background for Historical Theology class.

All of this last night made my freak out last night as I look at all of my syllabi for this year. There is tons of reading which I am not good at but this also provides a great opportunity to force to find my strength in Christ. This has been the biggest lesson I have needed to learn while at seminary, that and time management. This next semester will provide abundance opportunity to realize that I am weak.

There are a couple of passages that come to mind while I think about the great strength that God gives to those that trust Him. 1 Samuel 16 provides a great example. David and Goliath, a well know story for sure, shows that God is faithful to His promises and will deliver them in mighty ways. David knew the promises that God will provide the land and he trusted God that he would deliver Israel from their enemies. God provided the strength that was needed for David to kill Goliath. So with my pending semester, God can provide the power to push and learn more about Him. He must the strength that I lean upon as a weak vessel.

Another verse is Matthew 6:25-34. Here Jesus explains that God provides the necessities for living. He tells His disciples that all they need to do is trust God and seek after Him and the things they NEED will be provide. This need part is important because God does not promise that He will give everything that we feel we need. He gives to us what we need to live in this fallen world. This may be different items but everything comes a gift. Yet I do not worry about how this semester is to go because He will be with me and provide for me always. I need not worry but to trust Him fully.

As my pastor said yesterday, a good theology is needed before bad times hit so you can come to Him boldly in prayer and get help in times of need (Heb 4:14-16).