Does it matter whether Christians know Biblical Theology or not? from Gospel Growth Fellowship on Vimeo.
Ok, we need to know something about Biblical theology. BUT, What is Biblical theology?
I. Definition of Biblical Theology?
What is Biblical Theology? from Gospel Growth Fellowship on Vimeo.
So Biblical theology is a way of looking at the Bible that sees the big picture of its overarching story and how each part connects with the rest. It sees how God’s plan unfolds to reveal Himself and His purpose – all with its focus and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. When doing biblical theology, We should seeks to understand the Bible through the lens of God’s progressive revelation, particularly focusing on the Old Testament’s forecasting of God’s redemption of His people through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Still not clear click the video from 9Marks.
2-Biblical Theology from 9Marks on Vimeo.
II. Clearifying the idea of Progressive Revelation.
An Unfamiliar terms to most is Progressive Revelation. It may sound like odd or heretical. Many theologians have noted how problematic the phrase can ne but they affirm the idea it conveys. Progressive revelation speaks of how the story of redemption unfolds from cover to cover of the bible. it is a way of speaking about the unfolding of God's redemptive plan. The term, revelation speaks of the information about the full story of redemption. Progressive means a growing clarity of that plan and how the bible slowly unfolds it till it is revealed in Jesus.
An image of a seed in helpful at this point. In the beginning of the bible the history of redemption is like a seed and like a seed it is sometimes difficult to determine what kind of "tree" it is going to grow into. So in the biblical narrative redemption unfolds from Genesis to Revelation like a seed grows, and matures progressively into a tree. The seed was always a tree. The seed just needed the process to show its tree-ness. The further along you get in its development, the clearer it becomes with it is.
The Christian concept of progressive revelation differs drastically from the Islamic understanding in which successive revelations of God might annul or change former revelations, completely replacing them with a new truth. Nor is it the idea of a series of course corrections or discreet steps where God tries desperately to work with Israel and then change to plan B in redemption through Christ. Jesus is not second string but the point ofthe book. The story of God in the bible is an unfolding, clarifying, story of redemption that slowly emerges from the bible as you read from cover to cover, Creation's light, the falls dark, the promsed hope and unshakable kingdom slowly become clearly evidnet in the person and work of Jesus. When Christians speak of progressive revelation. we do not mean replacement or even a series of discreet steps but a growing clarity, like a gradual dawning of the light.
III. Short Overview of Biblical theology.
1. How the Story Ends and Begins
My dad alwasy told me, how something begins and ends tell alot about whats in the middle. I agree. The closing pages of the Bible in Revelation 21-22 help us to see what the Bible's story is all about. They reveal how God will ultimately fulfill his purpose and plan. When we compare the ending (Revelation 21-22) with the beginning (Genesis 1-3), we begin to see the important connections and significant ideas in the opening pages that help us understand the story as a whole. We also see the tragedy and loss that make everything written in the pages in between so crucial and necessary. The story is from creation to new creation all summed up in Jesus as the fulfillment God's promise.
2. The Promise and Person that Connect It All Together
The thread that connects the beginning and end of the story and holds it all together is the promise of God that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ - in a word, it is the gospel. The promise of God is an unfolding one. God, in His grace, gave the first promise of salvation in the Garden in the face of judgment and death after Adam and Eve's disobedience. The storyline moves forward as God, throughout the Old Testament, gives His promises to Abraham, King David, and the prophets, that the kingdom of God and its king will come brings salvation in his wake. Finally, God's promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ - in who He is and what He came to do. Seeing Jesus as the focus and fulfillment of Scripture gives us the interpretive key to unlock its meaning. The task of Biblical theology is to see how Christ fulfills God's promises in the Bible.
IV. Why do we need biblical theology?
It is important to locate a passage in its place in redemptive history ... This means more than organizing the historical material of the Bible into its chornological sequence, though it does not mean less. It means trying to understand the theological nature of the sequence.
V. How does biblical theology help me read the scriptures?
Is Biblical Theology just a technique for reading the Bible? from Gospel Growth Fellowship on Vimeo.
VI. What role should Biblical theology have in our study of the Bible?
- It is a method of reading scripture. Scripture was meant to be read over and over.
- It gives a frame from which to read scripture.
- Biblical theology gives us God’s intention in inspiring Scripture. Through biblical theology we understand God’s intent as the author of Scripture. So when we read all of Scripture it is understood in light of its theological context. Jesus showed this grand narrative of redemption to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:19-27).
a.) Right a short paragraph in your own words laying out the story of the bible.
b.) the theme of promise and fullfilment is all through scripture. Gives some Examples.
a) Read quote from Christopher Wright, and answer the following questions:
“When we grasp that the whole Bible constitutes the coherent revelation of the mission of God, when we see this as the key that unlocks the driving purposefulness of the whole grand narrative, then we find our whole world view impacted by this vision. As has been well documented, every human worldview is an outworking of some narrative. We live out of the story or stories we believe to be true, the story of stories that ‘tell it like it is,’ we think.
So what does it mean to live out of this story? Here is The Story, the grand universal narrative that stretches from creation to new creation, and accounts for everything in between. This is The Story that tells us where we have come from, how we got to be here, who we are, why the world is in the mess it is, how it can be (and has been) changed, and where we are ultimately going.
And the whole story is predicated on the reality of this God and the mission of this God. He is the originator of the story, the teller of the story, the prime actor in the story, the planner and guide of the story’s plot, the meaning of the story and its ultimate completion. He is its beginning, end and center. It is the story of the mission of God, of this God and no other.”
- Who is at the center of the story of the bible?
- From your examples of promise and fullfilment, describle God's mission through the exanples?
- How would this view change your reading of the Old Testament? (Lk 20:25-27)
- Does Wright’s view give a better way of viewing the theological context of all scripture?
- How does the meaning of a passage shift in light of this larger context?
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