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The Fruits of Disorder

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For decades, since the 1960s, there has been a pressing desire for females to assert their status for equality, differences, or preeminence, depending upon what liberal philosopher, liberal theologian, or historical figure was most outspoken about oppression. The consistent theme among all feminists thought and theology variances beginning in the 1960s was opposition to Western male dominance and patriarchy throughout history, including modern and postmodern societies. After World War II, independent-minded women within liberal ideologies were outspoken about their stature in society as held down, isolated, excluded, or marginalized by men.

With longstanding scriptural definitions about gender distinctions between male and female, Christian tradition, doctrines, and institutional norms, God’s created order was set toward biological, physiological, and social structures of humanity. Functionally ordered to fulfill a purpose defined by the Creator of people within the human race, there are specific roles necessary to satisfy in an effort to fill the Earth, build societies, love, honor each other, and glorify God. Fulfilling God’s design for humanity and its unique cultures must be accomplished through a framework of order, justice, morality, and truth.

The four female persons of interest within Livingston’s coverage of Feminist Theology were of significant and growing interest as their notoriety became more widely known. Their perspectives concerning the feminist cause were especially diverse about realizing or attaining desired objectives while within social conditions that were assailed as oppressive from a range of self-ascribed causes and viewpoints. Mary Daly, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Sallie McFague, and Luce Irigaray were all intellectually, emotionally, and socially persuaded by Liberalism. They did not place any weight upon the whole meaning of Scripture. Elizabeth Fiorenza sought to reinterpret Scripture to cast a different perspective on the anthropomorphic identity of God (i.e., as female, or something other than male). Moreover, between Daly and Fiorenza, they applied significant thought about the nature of the holy trinity to shape speculation about gender identity and the form of relationship within the perichoresis.

A common thread between all four liberal feminists appears to be about grievance, equal rights, and privilege to compensate for male-dominant conditions placed upon them. By feminists, the female, or women as a whole, were thought of as a class of inferiority, where great and irreversible changes were necessary. Feminist theology as a form of liberal opposition to conventional and proper hermeneutical interpretation of divine revelation through scripture abandons male authority and socially interrelated constructs such as language, identity, premise, functions, and traditions. With sympathy and support from other structurally oppressed or marginalized classes, the feminism of Daly, Fiorenza, McFague, and Irigaray aligns unorthodox, perverse, and evil perspectives against the male patriarchal figure.  

Feminism, or feminist theology, doesn’t merely take the form of these four individuals who pioneered their personal campaigns within academia and society in general to their discovery and sufferings. There are numerous iterations of feminist ideals as a social justice endeavor without a common cause other than just opposition to patriarchy. More specifically, while educated in a prestigious Dominican seminary in Switzerland (Fribourg), Mary Daly experienced male traditions and assumptions that set her on a path of feminist separatism in the abandonment of Christian orthodoxy and Scripturally originated theology. She was a post-Christian feminist. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza sought to re-interpret Scripture by using hermeneutical methods favorable to reframing the meaning of relationships. More generally, superior and subordinate references to males within familial obligations (i.e., father, mother). Fiorenza objected to “kyriarchal” oppression and even formal organizations that involve lordship, mastery, or male figures who have authority to apply power.

There are numerous ways to compare the four feminists in Livingston’s coverage of Feminist Theology. The historical background, philosophical differences, education, and life experiences of women who approach female liberation generally do so from a desire to correct injustices that arise from the male-dominated world that has existed for thousands of years. A modernist and postmodernist approach to theology as distinctly aimed toward disparate female interest represents a limited peace about created male and female order. Not from just oppression of sinful and unacceptable male behaviors, expectations, or attitudes, but simply by outright unwanted differences that bring distress or a need for feminism to assert its place. Numerous continuing manifestations of opposition or counter-perspectives appear to a person who has objections to male authority, power, and its prevailing mandate to “subdue the earth” (Gen 1:28) together with the female.

From the examples seen in the text and examples in society today, females who advocate feminist theology generally originate various formed alternatives to patriarchy or male leadership in the absence of insistent egalitarianism. For example, Sallie McFague advocates for changes in metaphorical language to account for sexist terminology (e.g., refer to YHWH as having female gender) or Luce Irigaray’s call for a feminine deity to center women around to gain power and access to status, resources, and self-realized sexuality as a form of divinity to project maternal, or matriarchal, recognition, and power. As there are intended differences between the female and male genders, there is a uniquely observable “hardwired” physiological separation characterized and made evident by masculinity and femininity norms.

There were and are many iterations and types of feminist objections to patriarchy and male dominance. Analyzing the theories, speculations, and interpretations of influential feminists who had grievances about the structured reality of gender is an often personal and exploratory exercise to determine what sources of systemic social injustices there were toward women. To craft a theology unique and exclusive to women as a feminist or separatist endeavor to achieve a favorable liberal outcome is to dilute and become amiss about the purpose of the gospel and work of Christ. It was Jesus Himself who prayed on behalf of His followers, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (Jn 17:20-21).”

NOTE: This chapter of the Livingston text makes reference to an article by Valerie Saiving Goldstein entitled, “The Human Situation: A Feminist View” (reference The Journal of Religion 40.2 (April 1960), pp. 100-112). Observations and impressions about the article are as written here:

I must confess that after reading through about 1/3rd of Goldstein’s paper, I stopped listening and put on my boots so to speak. I read it to acknowledge the points made, and the author’s views are very well thought out, but there are subtext inferences between the lines that are meant to cast a contentious “(human) situation” about men. Goldstein calls attention to the use of “man” in the generic sense to highlight the use of language under dubious pretenses about being “on guard” concerning sources of theological work. When, really, the point was to mark the use of the term “man” in the article to diminish the value of masculinity and the unique role of the male gender in the remainder of the paper. She doesn’t refer to “man” in a generic sense when she turns her attention to females (women) later toward the end.

Sin is spoken of as a condition that all men can’t help themselves about, but only seek to overcome it by a pursuit of power, righteousness, or knowledge. 

Goldstein goes on to catalog the sins by the male gender. She doesn’t state as much, but the article reads as offenses against the female and not as heavily weighted sins against God and humanity. She doesn’t list the same detail for the female, other than the planned mention of “will-to-power” and “pride.” The author, a student of theology, doesn’t make use of scripture, early church authorities, or tradition to reinforce her views or support her convictions. I understand this is a pioneering work from 1960 just before the sexual revolution, and it might be a misread from me, but the paper reads like a work of analytical resentment couched as a “situation.” I have more to learn about feminist theology, but the feel of the paper is confrontational and just isn’t productive. 

The catalog of the sins of the male gender: 

a. The article assumes the arrogance of all men
b. Men are generally driven to objectify
c. Men are manipulative by nature
d. Sin pervades everything man does

True, or not, the rationale appears that this catalog of sins gives cause to further explore the need for scrutiny of the human condition (i.e., male oppression).

The author also speaks from an assumed premise that women come from a position of inferiority. While equating sexuality with a person’s identity, Goldstein doesn’t write about gender. So this confuses me since she was a theologian and would know that the identity of female believers rests within Christ.

Positive and favorable perspectives of Goldstein appear within the paper as well. She highly values motherhood and childbearing, the God-given inclination to find joy and peace in her work, and a prevailing quality of empathy as a trait of femininity.

The Kerygma of Desideratum

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The legacy of modernity and its challenges toward historical theology has brought a sense of relief and clarity as to the developments that have come about as a result. The pernicious and corrosive effect of subjective liberal thought that developed into a flawed intellectual ethos proved chaotic. It yielded no meaningful substance as it concerned significant themes about the essence of Christianity in the 19th-century.  

Increasingly, by the impetus of Kant’s call for “autonomy,” individual reason and conscience became the arbiters of religious truth. Romans rejected but shifted to religious experience (pg. 2). Tradition emerged from the working of the “Divine Spirit” or religious experience of the Christian community. Others relied upon authority from antiquity (i.e., the early Church fathers) as they regarded the doctrine of apostolic succession as the guarantor of tradition of the ancient and undivided Church. Roman Catholicism fell back to Papal infallibility (1870) to secure the Church against modern rationalism, subjectivism, ecclesial chaos, and schism (as supported by John Henry Newman).

Albert Ritschl (Protestant scholar) rejected Schleiermacher’s appeal to the authority of religious feeling and experience and the orthodox rationalists’ appeal to reason and rational “proofs” as mediated through the Christian community (i.e., “consensus fidelium” or the collective mind of the people of God). Where authority is concentrated correlates to power and the source of it. Therefore, it is of interest to people and spiritual principalities who do not want the authority of the biblical authors (i.e., revelation by Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit) over their preferences around tradition or social feelings and imaginations.

Church Doctrine was a point of unification for the Church and, more broadly, Christianity. Eventually, the spectacle of doctrinal pluralism became an issue due to differences or disagreements about interpreting, understanding, and applying Scripture. As immutable truths were sought that theists could agree upon, a search for commonality was diluted to such an extent that orthodox unity around doctrine could be achieved. As matters grew worse, particularly during the unstable time of Zeitgeist, some began to insist that there were no immutable, unchanging, or normative doctrines. An inability to arrive at a consensus about the authority of doctrinal beliefs was a source of significant attention in the Church during the 19th-century.

Over the span of decades, Friedrich Schleiermacher (Protestant) and John Henry Newman (Catholic), among other Catholics, separately sought to find common ground about doctrinal belief in the face of significant differentiation and a plurality of traditions or faith practices. Schleiermacher drew his attention toward the affections and doctrines of expression to support a common interest as illuminated in the life of the Church. Livingston points out that the same “illumination” was present upon the early Church as given by the exegetical analysis of the New Testament. However, Livingston does not refer to the social or communal leanings of Schleiermacher concerning authority that rests upon the subjective nature of people and their interests (i.e., rather than Scripture). Conversely, with Newman, the Catholic Church places significant attention on the historical development of dogma in an effort to understand and define the essence of the Church. The rationale between both the Protestants and Catholics was that God’s truth could not be divided against itself (Livingston, 4) even when Protestants and Catholics remain separate within the body of Christendom (notwithstanding Eastern Orthodoxy).

Both Liberal Protestants and Catholics refused to return to the Bible as the source of authority to understand Christian essence. It was Newman’s view that “the essential Christian idea” was formative over the centuries and Scripture was a corruption of the apostolic witness from the first century Church. The opposition of immutable dogma from Liberal Protestants and Catholics focused on the rejection of Scripture. In contrast, Scripture held primacy, but not sole authority, to define the essence of Christianity and its expression within the Church. As propagated through centuries, preeminent tradition itself came in the form of Scripture testimony, Church doctrines, liturgy, worship, and the priestly organization. To John Henry Newman and Johann Adam Mohler, Christianity tradition carried equal distributed weight to define Christian essence.

Later in the 19th-century, further efforts were made to consolidate human reason and philosophical rationale around Christianity’s historical development. From pervasively errant understanding about the corruption of early canonical writings, it was of the utmost interest to spread the notion that authority was in revelation of Scripture, historical traditions, and Christian philosophy attending to human feeling and action. It was the role of the will and conscience to cultivate a knowledge of God.

Human intuition, experience, and feeling were prominent features of Liberal theology. These were the primary route to God as recorded by Schleiermacher and poets of the time. Natural expression through people and creation were in witness to God, and human understanding about Him was revealed primarily through those means. Kant and Albrecht Ritschl highlighted another route to belief in God to involve the demands of moral obligation, reason human freedom, and the world of Spirit. From “the will to power” (Nietzsche) to “will to believe” (William James), the philosophical views of Kant, Bergson (vitalism), and Blondel’s (L’Action), there was inevitable push-back against idealism and subjectivism. Princeton Theology (Protestant) and Neo-Thomism (Catholic) directed their counterarguments against agnostic, fideistic, and pragmatic thought as they both traced the chaotic intellectual ethos to Immanuel Kant and his influence. Both Protestants and Catholics drew much attention to both faith and reason, where each was complimentary and not in contradiction. Both schools of theology made substantial inroads with the support of Aristotle’s inductive and scientific realism and Scottish empiricist philosophy. Today, debates concerning faith and reason about the existence and authority of God and His revelatory work continues.

As the search for historical Christianity developed over the last two centuries, numerous challenges and competing interests were at the forefront of theological debate within the modern context of scientific and historical disciplines. From first-century A.D. Christianity, there was substantial and eternal value among the claims of testimony, early witness, tradition, and Scripture. Those claims were contested because of the anthropomorphic language of Scripture and the miracles espoused by historical accounts among theologians and philosophical leaders. Even simply, the historicity of the life of Christ and the Christian life were countered as probative questions were posed about modern Christianity while adapted to the Enlightenment period. It was questioned, as it is now, whether Christianity today is the same as the religion founded by Jesus and the apostles.

D.F. Strauss’s book, Life of Jesus in 1835, explored the historicity of Jesus against the theological presuppositions of early Jewish messianic traditions and preconceptions of the later and more modern interest in His life. The historical Jesus of the New Testament is distinguished from records of the antiquity of Him as early Jews looked back upon his identity as a legendary figure within Hebrew literature. Krauss also demonstrated that our view of Jesus is from a modern consciousness that the earliest Christians did not have. Their recognition and interest in Jesus were from a pre-scientific point of view as they interpreted Jesus from a mythopoetic standpoint. As a further interest to validate the historicity of Christianity developed, a new standard pursuit emerged where The historical Jesus must withstand the theological Jesus who produced signs and miracles. The same was true, vice versa. Strauss found that the historical Jesus was left untouched by harsh criticism and inquiry, especially concerning the supernatural Christ of Scripture.

In a further effort to find authority and validate New Testament claims about Jesus, later advancements were made by research through Form criticism. As this led to new doubts about the use of the Gospel records and getting a historical understanding of Jesus’s inner life, there remained a highly desirable understanding of Jesus’s personality and inner psychological life. This was the desideratum of the Life of Christ at about the turn of the 19th century. The life of Jesus from a historical context to recover details about His character, personality, and life from outside the New Testament was the desideratum for theologians of later years of the 19th-century and well into the 20th.

There were four pronounced efforts to pursue the historical Jesus and challenge theological and religious claims. Each effort was distinct in its way as they all had different objectives.

  • Comparative Religions (Religionswissenschaft)

“History of Religions” is a science to explore religion’s origin, growth, and commonalities to include Christianity. Exhaustive development of methods and materials to understand what themes or similarities existed to explain the historical value and merit of faith and follower claims of any given religion.

  • Eschatological Interpretation

The notion that Jesus could be properly understood within the apocalyptic framework of ancient Jewish traditions and expectations. As Jesus recognized an imminent catastrophic end to the present age, He gave Himself up to death in desperation to usher in the new supernatural Kingdom of God to which He would more immediately return.

  • History of Religions School (Religionsgeschichtliche Schule)

As a new generation of Jesus critics arose to explore the historicity of Christianity, a new crop of historians sought to interpret Jesus through its beliefs, Judaism, and Hellenism. As new scientific tools (e.g., textual criticism) were applied to historical research of Jesus, derived observations and comparisons were made to the social and cultural conditions of His time. Namely, a complex mixture of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology, Hellenistic Judaism, Greek and Eastern Mysticism, Stoicism, Gnosticism was formulated to arrive at a Jesus beyond the reach of meaningful historical analysis about His inner person. Instead, He was viewed as Jesus the Kyrios, or Christ the divine Lord and Savior.  

  • Form Criticism (Formgeschichtliche Schule)

While prior pursuits of organized research came up empty to understand and recognize the historical Jesus, further work was undertaken to develop a critical method around a Framework of the Story of Jesus (K.L. Schmidt (1891-1956), Der Rahmen der Geschichte Jesu). Schmidt concluded that the traditions of Christianity were arbitrary and artificial while there was considerable geographical detail within the gospel of Mark. Time and place weren’t so much of a synchronized historical account of the life of Jesus but more of a story to support tradition.

Another approach to Form criticism involved the work of Martin Dibelius (1883-1947) entitled From Tradition to Gospel (Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, 1934). Here Dibelius traced the different forms of oral traditions to include paradigm, novelle (tales), legend, parenthesis, and myth. From among the five forms, Dibelius found that paradigms to illuminate the sayings of Jesus were the clearest way to understand the historical Jesus.

Form criticism further advanced through the efforts of Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1966), who wrote History of the Synoptic Tradition (Die Geschichte der Synoptischen Tradition, 1921). This was a radical approach to Form criticism. Bultmann observed that there were traditions in the Gospels written to meet the needs of the early Church. This meant that the written synoptic text wasn’t a collection of historical documents as such, but a compilation of writings to satisfy a spiritual need as confessions and instructions for life and worship. It was clear that Jesus to know was through the apostolic witness, proclamations, and traditions given in the Gospels of the New Testament. This was the kerygmatic theology that neutralized pursuits of the historical Jesus that was out of reach. The kerygma was unquestionable, and it served as the bedrock for Dialectical theology in the years to follow.

When it comes to Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), during this era of historicism, and research, about historical Jesus, the essence of Christianity, the absoluteness of Christianity (among other religions), Christology, and theological rationale, his pursuits and ideas appeared detached from Scripture. As he relentlessly pursued the historical Jesus, it doesn’t appear that he placed authoritative weight on Scripture. He did not concern himself with the historicity of Jesus much farther than comparisons among other religions, sociopsychological influences, traditions, and other means outside of the revelatory discourse of Scripture. Karl Barth was right; Troeltsch’s efforts were a “dead-end street” in the absence of what facts were revealed in Scripture to attain clarity about the identity of Jesus. Through various methods of Christological understanding from Scripture, there is much to explore as it concerns Jewish ideas of messianic rule, kingly accession, ceremonial customs, familial relationships, economic status, refugee trials, and other hardships in Scripture to develop a portrait of Jesus. History is simply the backdrop or canvas by which events occurred across time. In contrast, the social, geographical, and historical conditions were subordinate and in service of the theological intent and meaning of Christ’s work. Christ’s identity and historical significance are best placed upon the kerygmatic interpretation of divine revelation.  

The Locus of Triangulation

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This post attempts to collect in one place various belief systems, traditions, and theologies by name and description. As an open-ended post, it will be edited over time to add, delete, change, and format changes as they come about. The purpose is to set in place a personal record of who’s who of given theological and eschatological protestant beliefs. Individuals listed appear among the various systems are notable and historically of some significant contribution or influence to the widely distributed perspectives that are less than obvious.

This post is simply a component among others to map how individuals, churches, agencies, and institutions organize around historical interpretations of faith and a more coherent understanding of humanity’s existence and relationship with God and His creation. The numerous individuals listed as having a personal alignment are a matter of historical record. Within context to understand what systems and theologies fit together among persons with other adjacent beliefs and commitments that have a bearing on worldview, credibility, and truth or error.

Belief Systems

TitleDescriptionPersonal Alignment
Arminianism [4]A theological system based on the teachings of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius and his early followers, the Remonstrants. After Arminius’s death, the Remonstrants issued five articles summarizing their beliefs in opposition to Calvinists, who countered with the Canons of Dort, much later summarized by TULIP. While originally condemned as heretics by the Synod of Dort, the Remonstrants later obtained legal toleration in Holland, and many Protestants still adhere to Arminianism today. While it has many doctrines in common with Reformed theology, it differs significantly in its teaching on predestination, free will and atonement. The system follows Arminius’s original teachings that God’s election is conditional on his foreknowledge of human free choice, that God provides prevenient grace to everyone in order to enable people to choose faith in Jesus, and that believers are able to lose their salvation since they always have the free will to accept or reject Christ. Contemporary Arminianism includes a wide variety of viewpoints on key issues, like whether the governmental or penal-substitutionary atonement is more accurate. Arminians today also differ at times with Arminius’s own views, such as his support of infant baptism, which is now opposed by most Arminians.Abraham, William J.
Andrews, Herbert T.
Basinger, David
Basinger, Randall G.
Carter, Charles W.
Cottrell, Jack W.
Craig, William L.
Earle, Ralph
Evans, C. Stephen
Findlay, George G.
Finney, Charles
Forester, Roger T.
Fritz, Guy
Graham, Billy
Headlan, Arthur
Lewis, C. S.
MacDonald, William G.
Mantey, Julius R.
Marshall, I. Howard
Marston, V. Paul
Melanchthan, Philip
Miethe, Terry L.
Miley, John
Montgomery, John Warwick
Osborne, Grant R.
Pinnock, Clark
Reichenbach, Bruce R.
Rice, Richard
Sanday, William
Sanders, John E.
Shank, Robert L.
Simpson, Albert B.
Taylor, Vincent
Turner, George Allen
Walls, Jerry L.
Wesley, John
Wiley, H. Orton
Calvinism [4]As a synonym for the Reformed tradition, this term highlights the influence of John Calvin and his work in Geneva in shaping the movement. While Calvin did wield considerable influence, Calvinism is a complex tradition shaped in its early stages by many leaders, including Ulrich Zwingli, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Martin Bucer, and John Knox. Calvin himself was interested in reconciling with Lutheranism, which shared similar concerns for sola scriptura, justification by faith, rejection of a corrupt and theologically errant papacy, and the marks of the true church. By the mid-sixteenth century, however, differences had solidified, and the Reformed or Calvinist perspective was demarcated by a commitment to the comprehensive sovereignty of God, a view of the Lord’s Supper distinct from Lutheranism, an emphasis on the positive third use of the law and a distinct practice of church polity. It is difficult to generalize, however, because as the theology and cultural system of Calvinism spread from Switzerland to France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, England, Hungary, and eventually North America, it continued to develop and adapt to particular localities, controversies, and personalities. The Canons of Dort were a benchmark for distinguishing the movement from Arminianism, although numerous confessions of faith had previously outlined Calvinist belief and practice. Consequently, while some identify TULIP as an accurate summary of the five points of Calvinism, these doctrines alone actually limit, and in some cases even caricature and misrepresent, the complexity and breadth of the tradition.
Adams, Jay Edward
Alexander, J. A. St.
Augustine
Bavinck, Herman
Beeke, Joel
Berkhof, Hendrikus
Bloesch, Donald
Boetner, Loraine
Boice, James
Bridges, Jerry
Buswell, J. O.
Calvin, John
Carson, Donald A.
Dabney, Robert L.
Dever, Mark
Duncan, J. Ligon
Edwards, Jonathan
Ferguson, Sinclair
Filson, Floyd Vivian
Frame, John
Hacket, Horacia
Haldane, Robert
Haykin, Michel
Hendricksen, William
Hodge, A. A.
Hodge, Charles
Horton, Michael
Hughes, Philip
Johnson, Phil
Keller, Timothy
Kik, Jaboc Marcellus
Lawson, Steve
Lecerf, Auguste
Luther, Martin
MacArthur, John
Malone, Fred
Marcel, Pierre
Martin, Albert
Mohler, Albert
Moore, Thomas V.
Moule, H.C.G.
Murray, Andrew
Murray, John
Nicole, Roger
Orr, James
Packer, J. I.
Pieters, Albertus
Pipa, Joseph A.
Piper, John
Robertson, O. Palmer
Rushdooney, R. J.
Ryken, Philip Graham
Ryle, J. C.
Schaeffer, Francis
Sproul, R. C.
Steele, David N.
Storms, C. Samuel
Strombeck, J. F
Strong, A. H.
Thiessen, Henry Clarence
Thomas, Curtis C.
Van Til, Cornelius
Ware, Bruce
Warfield, B. B.
Watson, Thomas
Well, David
White, James
Whitney, Donald
Wilson, Jeffrey B.
Molinism [5]Molinism is a view of the relation between God’s grace and human free will, emanating from the Spanish Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina (1535–1600). Molina asserted that God has a special kind of foreknowledge of human free acts, which are the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation. Molinism was widely adopted by Jesuits and opposed by Dominicans. After examination by a special congregation in Rome (1598–1607), both views were allowed in Catholic schools.

According to Molinism, God has three kinds of knowledge: natural, middle, and free.
1.) Natural knowledge is God’s knowledge of all possible worlds. This knowledge is essential to God. It is concerned with the necessary and the possible.
2.) Free knowledge is God’s knowledge of this actual world. After a free act of his will, God knows these things absolutely, but such knowledge is not essential to God.
3.) Middle knowledge or scientia media is distinctive of Molinism. God cannot know future free acts in the way he knows other things. God knows some things absolutely, but future free acts are known only contingently. “God, from a most profound and inscrutable comprehension of every free will in His essence, has intuited what each, according to its innate liberty, would do if placed in this or that condition” (Garrigou-Lagrange, The One God, 460; see FREE WILL). Unlike natural knowledge, this middle or intermediate knowledge is in some sense dependent on what free creatures choose to do. God’s omniscience “waits” to see what a free creature does “before” he selects those who will be saved. Since God is eternal, the sequence is only logical, not chronological.
Craig, W.L.
Molina, Luis de

Primary Theologies

Title Description Personal Alignment
Covenant Theology [6]Also known as federal theology, this form of biblical theology focuses on the way God relates to his creatures through covenants—binding relationships between God and humanity involving mutual promises and responsibilities. In Reformed theology, this perspective traces back to Zwingli’s emphasis on God’s covenant with Abraham, which he used in defense of infant baptism. Bullinger wrote the first full Protestant treatise defending a unified biblical covenant, although Calvin similarly stressed the unity of God’s covenant of grace and continuities of law and gospel in both Testaments. The covenant theology of Johannes Cocceius, who built on the work of Calvin, Zacharias Ursinus, Caspar Olevianus and others, is important because of the distinctions he developed between an eternal covenant of redemption between Father and Son and two basic redemptive-historical covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. God established the covenant of works with Adam and Eve, promising life conditional on obedience, but after Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God established the covenant of grace as a promise to bring victory over the devil (Gen 3:15). This covenant is reiterated in various forms throughout redemptive history and culminates in the new covenant of Christ. Cocceius’s perspective was widely received by Reformed theologians and found expression in the Westminster Standards. Covenant theology continued to be a prominent theme in Reformed theology in contrast to dispensationalism, although significant debate emerged regarding the distinction between a covenant of works and a covenant of grace, which was rejected by Karl Barth and John Murray but accepted by others in the tradition.
Allis, O. T.
Bass, Clarence B.
Bear, James
Berkof, Louis
Carson, Herbert
Cotton, John
Fuller, Daniel Paxton
Gerstner, John
Goodwin, Thomas
Hendricksen, William
Hodge, A. A.
Hodge, Charles
Ladd, George Eldon
Lincoln, C. Fred
Mauro, Philip
Murray, John
Orr, James
Owen, john
Payne, J. Barton
Poythress, Vern
Robertson, O. Palmer
Sproul, R. C.
Van Gemeren, Willem
Van Til, Cornelius
Dispensational Theology [7]Dispensationalism, a periodization of human history into distinct time periods, or dispensations, during which God relates to humans in unique ways, was popularized in Darby’s frequent trips to America and contributed to the rise of fundamentalism.

A theological system dividing the history of redemption into separate periods (dispensations) in which God relates to his people in unique ways, first developed by Englishman John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) and primarily popularized in the United States through the Scofield Reference Bible. Dispensationalism differs from covenant theology by identifying two separate peoples—Israel and the church—to whom God relates in distinct ways, thus introducing greater discontinuity into the biblical story than normally affirmed in the Reformed tradition. Given its wide-ranging influence, however, dispensationalism has been affirmed by some Reformed theologians, particularly in North America.
Barnhouse, Donald Grey
Brooks, James H.
Chafer, Lewis Sperry
Darby, John Nelson
English, E. Schuyler
Feinberg, Charles L.
Gaebelein, Arno C.
Gaebelein, Frank
Graves, J. R.
Hoyt, Herman
Ironside, H. A.
Kelly, William
MacArthur, John
Mackintosh, C. H.
Mason, Clarence E.
Mayhue, Richard
McClain, Alva J.
Pache, Rene
Pentecost, J. Dwight
Pettingill, William
Ryrie, Charles
Sauer, Erich
Scofield, C. I.
Scroggie, W. Graham
Walvoord, John F.
Ultra-Dispensational Theology [8]
(Church began with Paul, not at Pentecost)		In modern times, the term dispensationalism is most often associated with nineteenth-century theologian John Nelson Darby, who was associated with the Plymouth Brethren Church in England. Darby’s key work, Synopsis, clearly delineated human history into well-defined time periods called dispensations. In each dispensation, God demands different expressions of faith from believers. In the dispensation of law, for example, the faithful were obedient to the Mosaic code, but this no longer applied after the death of Christ, when the dispensation of grace began. Later teachers, such as C. I. Scofield (1843–1921), expanded the number of dispensations to seven periods. Each dispensation ended in judgment, and only a few, a remnant, survive that testing to begin the next dispensation. Important to this view is the idea that Israel is distinct from the church and the promises and covenants made to Israel do not necessarily apply to modern-day believers.
Baker, Charles F.
Berean Bible Society
Bullinger, Ethelbert W.
Gelesnoff, Vladimir
Knoch, A.E.
McGee, J. Vernon
O’Hair, J.C.
Sellers, Otis Q.
Stam, Cornelius R.
Welch, Charles H.

Secondary Theologies

Title Description Personal Alignment
Antinomianism [9]A form of spiritual anarchy, which rejects the law as having any place in the Christian life, whether as instructor or as assessor. Paul’s teaching that Christians are free from the law is sometimes misunderstood as antinomian. But Paul reveres God’s law, and teaches believers, who are free from the law as a system of salvation, to keep it out of gratitude for salvation freely given, and because holiness, as defined by the law, is the Christian calling.
Agricola, Johannes
Brearley, Roger
Crisp, Tobias
Eaton, John
Hutchinson, Anne
Saltmarsh, John,
Traske, John
Towne, Robert
Black Theology [10]Derived from both traditional African-American religion and the historical process of liberation, Black Theology focuses on God in Christ as deliverer of oppressed people, and blackness as the key to understanding that deliverance.
Cleage, Jr., Albert B.
Cone, James
Roberts, Deotis
Charismatic Renewal [11]
(Generally Arminian)		Neo-Pentecostalism – The classical Pentecostal movement usually traces its origin to New Year’s Day, 1901, when Agnes Ozman first spoke in tongues in Charles F. Parham’s Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. The movement that ensued was ridiculed by many outsiders as the religion of the economically deprived, the socially disinherited, the psychologically abnormal and the theologically aberrant. However, by the 1960s many sociological, psychological and theological theories had given way under the increasing evidence that Pentecostals were becoming middle class and educated. At the same time, their characteristic teachings were gaining acceptance among Christians within mainline Protestant denominations, as well as the Catholic Church. As the national media publicized this new movement, American Christians began to grapple with a phenomenon that would come to be known as the charismatic, or neo-Pentecostal, movement.
Benett, Dennis
Braham, William
Bredesen, Harald
Christensen, Larry
Coe, Jack
duPlessis, David
Harper, Michael C.
Irwin, David
Osborne, Tommy Lee
Roberts, Oral
Smith, Chuck (Calvary Chapel)
Wilkerson, David
Creation Spirituality [12]New Age Movement (NAM) – The NAM is both eclectic and syncretistic, drawing on sources as diverse as Vedantic Hinduism, assorted varieties of spiritism and avant garde theories in quantum physics. It is best viewed not as a unified denomination, sect, cult or conspiracy—although these factors are not lacking—but rather as a world view shifting away from both monotheism and atheistic materialism, and toward the “ancient wisdom” or “perennial philosophy” (A. Huxley) of various Eastern religions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc.), pre-Christian Western religions (e.g., Druidism), Christian heresies (Gnosticism, heterodox mysticism) and the occult (e.g., divination, magic, spiritism).

In the 1980s the Dominican priest Matthew Fox was teaching what he called “Creation Spirituality” in books such as The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (1988) and through his Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality. Clearly a proponent of the New Age perspective, in October 1988 Fox was ordered silenced by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Matthew Fox (Catholic)
Feminist Theology [13]Feminist theology has an unmistakable ideological slant (Colin Grant, “Feminist Theology Is Middle Class). It is patently tied to the women’s revolution in society, which insists on equal pay for equivalent work and presses for the liberation of women from male domination. God becomes the Empowering Matrix (Rosemary Ruether) that enables both men and women to realize their full potential as sons and daughters of a new age in which sexual differences are no longer a barrier to economic and political advancement as well as to spiritual leadership. The immanentalistic bent of feminist theology is tied to its reconception of God as the vital force within nature rather than as Sovereign King or Lord (Cf. Dorothee Sölle: “God is our capacity to love … the spark that animates our love.”). Feminist theology converges with process theology at many points, for both mirror the new wave of democratic egalitarianism that seeks to eradicate all hierarchy in human relationships.
Bilezikian, Gilbert
Frymer-Kensky, Tikva
Gundry, Patricia
Hardesty, Nancy
Jewett, Paul
Mollenkott, Virginia
Myers, Carol
Ogden Bellis, Alice
Scanzoni, Letha
Spencer, Aida Bensancon
Trible, Phyllis
Williams, Dan
Liberation Theology [14]The term “liberation theology” is attributed to the Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. In 1970, Gutierrez published A Theology of Liberation, in which he offers a theological perspective “from the underside of history” (Huebner, Introduction, 466).

According to Thiselton, a liberation hermeneutic shares these common themes with feminist and womanist hermeneutics (Thiselton, New Horizons, 410):

1.) They critique frameworks of interpretation.
2. ) They offer alternative reinterpretations.
3.) They unmask the ways in which interpretations are used to serve the interests of those in power.

Liberation theologies and hermeneutics find expression in critical scholarship, but more so among theologians in active, missional movements that derive their theology from an “ecclesial location,” such as Gutierrez who is known for theological reflections located in stories from his life among the poor (Gutierrez and Muller, On the Side). Juan Luis Segundo, a Uruguayan liberation theologian, suggests that the key to a “this-worldly” hermeneutic (and not an “other-worldly” one, meaning one that is practicable now) is the kingdom—preached, lived, and initiated by Jesus (Segundo, Grace, 73). Liberation theology and hermeneutics attempt to inform a kingdom of justice, which is often described as a spirituality that holds in tension divine transcendence and human action, gift and initiation (Segundo, Grace, 73).
Boff, Leonardo
Gutierrez, Gustavo
Miguez-Bonino, Jose
Lutheranism [15]The theological and ecclesiastical tradition based on the teachings of Martin Luther (1483–1546), who is credited with launching the Reformation in Germany. Luther’s “tower experience” convinced him that the essence of the gospel is that justification comes only by the gift of God’s grace appropriated by faith (see sola gratia; sola fide). According to Luther, God declares the sinner righteous through Jesus’ death rather than through human merit or works. Faith entails trust in and acceptance of God’s gift of salvation through the “merits” of Christ.Althaus, Paul
Bornkamm, Heinrich
Chemnitz, Martin
Forde, Gerhard O.
Gerhard, Johann
Jensen, Robert
Kolb, Robert
Lohse, Bernhard
Luther, Martin
Maier, Paul L.
Melanchthon, Philip
Montgomery, John W.
Pieper, Franz
Preus, Robert
Sasse, Hermann
Veith, Gene Edward
Walter, C. F. W.
Wengert, Timothy
Mercersburg Theology [16]Mercersburg Theology was a German-American theological movement that began in the mid-19th century. It draws its name from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, home of Marshall College from 1836 until its merger with Franklin College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) in 1853, and also home to the seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) from 1837 until its relocation to Lancaster in 1871.

A significant aspect of the Mercersburg Theology is the view of history and theology found in Philip Schaff’s Principle of Protestantism. In this work, Schaff takes a Hegelian model of history and applies it to the history of theology. Theology must come to one final synthesis, as Schaff expressed in his remark that “the Reformation must be regarded as still incomplete. It needs yet its concluding act to unite what has fallen asunder, to bring the subjective to a reconciliation with the objective.”[4] By this, he proposes a reunion of the subjective doctrines of Protestantism with the objective character of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, an outworking of this belief is a generous ecumenism extended toward all, especially toward Roman Catholics.

The Mercersburg Society was founded in 1983 to maintain the sacramental and ecclesial approach of the theology. 
Nevin, John Williamson
Schaff, Philip
Liberal Theology [17]
(Neo-Liberalism)
(Existential Theology, Existentialism)		American liberal theologians in the early twentieth century emphasized Scripture as experience. Standing in the tradition of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) and Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), these theologians sought to reconstruct traditional orthodoxy to meet the challenges of the modern world. They viewed the Bible as an ancient document written by fallible, human writers who were “religious geniuses.” These inspiring writers produced a literature that conveys religious experience to its readers as it brings them into contact with the great questions of human existence. Thus the liberal pulpiteer Harry Emerson Fosdick spoke of the Bible as presenting “abiding experiences and changing categories.” This means the basic human experiences of which the Bible speaks will be the same in any age, though expressed in various concepts and frameworks at different periods of history. Theologians must search out the abiding experiences that underlie biblical categories and express them in ways appropriate to the present times. For liberal theology, God is revealed in the events of history and especially in Jesus Christ. Humans may open themselves to this revelation and find the ring of truth in Scripture as biblical experiences coincide with their own religious experiences.
Bultmann, Rudolf (existential)
Coffin, Henry S.
Gilkey, Langdon
Van Dusen, H.P
Schleiermacher, Fredrich
Fosdick, Harry E.
Kierkegaard, Søren (existential)
Ogden, Schuber
Niebuhr, Reinhold (“post-liberal”)
Tielhard de Chardin, Pierre
Tillich, Paul (existential)
Tracy, David (Catholic)
Neo-Orthodoxy [18]The Swiss theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner are associated with neo-orthodox theology, a movement which characteristically speaks of Scripture as witness. Barth, reacting strongly to the liberal theology in which he was schooled, developed a dialectical theology that in its early stages stressed the great contrast and distance between the transcendent, holy God and finite, sinful humanity. In Jesus Christ, this gulf was bridged. Christ is God’s self-revelation so that to say revelation is to say the Word made flesh. Barth spoke of the threefold Word of God as the Word revealed (Jesus Christ), the Word written (Scripture) and the Word proclaimed (preaching). Scripture “becomes” God’s Word when, through its proclamation, it witnesses or points to the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. The inspired writers of Scripture were witnesses to God’s revelation. Barth could speak of “verbal inspiration” in the sense that the witnesses to God’s revelation recorded their witness in words. But these were fallible words of humans, having “the capacity for errors,” yet nevertheless used by God to accomplish his own purposes. Scripture gains authority insofar as the Holy Spirit takes human witnesses and through their witness creates faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.
Barth, Karl
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
Bunner, Emil

New Covenant Theology [19]A position teaching that the person and work of Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Bible. One distinctive assertion of this school of thought is that Old Testament Laws have been abrogated or cancelled with Jesus’ crucifixion, and replaced with the Law of Christ of the New Covenant. It shares similarities with, and yet is distinct from, dispensationalism and Covenant theology.
Wells, Tom
Zaspel, Fred
Lehrer, Steve
Reisinger, John
Pentecostalism [20]Pentecostalism is a movement that began in the early twentieth century that emphasizes a post-conversion “baptism in the Holy Spirit” for all believers, with glossolalia (speaking in tongues) as the initial evidence of such baptism. Historically, Pentecostals have been missionary-minded people, due in part to the fact that the first Pentecostals taught that one central purpose of baptism in the Spirit was to endow the believer with power for evangelism.
Hayford, Jack
Mason, Charles H.
McPherson, Amy Semple
Pietism [21]Pietism as it is now widely understood has its roots both in the magisterial and radical phases of the Reformation, as well as in the emphasis on “godliness” of many Puritans. It gradually comes into view in what is sometimes referred to as “precisianism” in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands. Among the Dutch Reformed it was represented by men like Willem Teellinck (1579–1629); the scholarly Gysbertus Voetius (1509–1676); Jadocus van Lodensteyn (1620–1677); as well as the Brakels—Theodor Gerardi (1608–1669) and his son Willem (1635–1711). Among separatists with a Dutch Reformed background, mention should be made of the former Jesuit Jean de Labadie (1610–1674) and his gifted disciple Anna Maria van Schurmann (1607–1678).
Arndt, Johann
Francke, August Hermann
Spener, Philipp Jakob
Zinzerdorf, Count Von
Process Theology [22]
(Panentheism)		Panentheism is not to be confused with pantheism. Pantheism literally means all (“pan”) is God (“theism”), but panentheism means “all in God.” It is also called process theology (since it views God as a changing Being), bipolar theism (since it believes God has two poles), organicism (since it views all that actually is as a gigantic organism), and neoclassical theism (because it believes God is finite and temporal, in contrast to classical theism).
Cobb, John B.
Hartshorne, Charles
Peters, Eugene H.
Whitehead, Alfred North
Prosperity Theology [23]Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, or seed faith) is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth.

Prosperity theology views the Bible as a contract between God and humans: if humans have faith in God, he will deliver security and prosperity. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment, proposing that it is God’s will for his people to be blessed. The atonement (reconciliation with God) is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty, which are viewed as curses to be broken by faith. This is believed to be achieved through donations of money, visualization, and positive confession.
Capps, Charles
Cho, Paul
Copeland, Kenneth
Hayes, Narvelle
Hagin, Kenneth
Kenyon, Essek William
Osteen, John
Price, Frederick K. C.
Savelle, Jerry
Puritanism [24]A reform movement heavily influenced by Calvinism but initially part of the Church of England that had its zenith in the seventeenth century in England and North America. The stereotype of a Puritan as someone who is prudish and legalistic is quite misleading; Puritans enjoyed their beer and knew how to laugh. They were agents of cultural renewal in spheres as diverse as poetry and political philosophy, and they left a lasting imprint through the colonies founded in New England.
Ames, William
Baxter, Richard
Bolton, Robert
Bridge, William,
Brooks, Thomas
Burroughes, Jeremiah
Bunyan, John
Charnock, Stephen
Clarkson, David
Cotton, John
Flavel, John
Goodwin, Thomas
Gouge, William
Hooker, Thomas
Manton, Thomas
Owen, John
Perkins, William
Rutherford, Samuel
Shepard, Thomas
Sibbes, Richard
Swinnock, George
Ussher, James
Watson, Thomas
Scholasticism [25]Through their intense study of the Bible and their preservation of ancient manuscripts, the monks did much to keep the spirit of learning alive during the Dark Ages. The cathedral and monastic schools were centers of study that served as seed beds for the later universities. Scholasticism refers both to the revival of learning that occurred during the Middle Ages and the method of study by which it occurred—the process of careful, rational scrutiny, logical deduction, and the systematic ordering of truth.
Abelard, Peter
Anselm
Aquinas, Thomas
Bonaventure
Ockham, William of
Secular Theology [26]
(“God is Dead”)		Secular theology rejects the substance dualism of modern religion, the belief in two forms of reality required by the belief in heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Secular theology can accommodate a belief in God—as many nature religions do—but as residing in this world and not separately from it.

Historians such as Charles Freeman hold that the AD 325 Council of Nicaea did much to establish dualism in Christian thought. Dualism has greatly influenced not only religion but science as well. By desacralizing the natural world, dualism has left it vulnerable to exploitation and damage.

The field of secular theology, a subfield of liberal theology advocated by Anglican bishop John A. T. Robinson somewhat paradoxically combines secularism and theology. Recognized in the 1960s, it was influenced both by neo-orthodoxy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harvey Cox, and the existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Secular theology digested modern movements like the Death of God Theology propagated by Thomas J. J. Altizer or the philosophical existentialism of Paul Tillich and eased the introduction of such ideas into the theological mainstream and made constructive evaluations, as well as contributions, to them.

Altizer, Thomas
Cox, Harvey
Hamilton, William
Robinson, John A. T.
Rubenstein, Richard L. (Jewish Rabbi)
Vahanian, Gabriel
Social Gospel [27]
(Liberal Theology, Liberalism)		The Social Gospel was a social movement within Protestantism that applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean environment, child labor, lack of unionization, poor schools, and the dangers of war. It was most prominent in the early-20th-century United States and Canada. Theologically, the Social Gospelers sought to put into practice the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10): “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. They typically were postmillennialist; that is, they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. The Social Gospel was more popular among clergy than laity. Its leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the progressive movement, and most were theologically liberal, although a few were also conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important leaders included Richard T. Ely, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.
Ely, Richard T.
Gladden, Washington
Rauschenbusch, Walter
Third Wave Movement [28]Although Wagner has been influential in the wider evangelical world, his extensive research into and writing on the Pentecostal and charismatic movements have given him particular expertise in these areas. Through his longtime association with the charismatic leader John Wimber, leader of the Vineyard Movement, and their joint teaching of a controversial course on charismatic ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary entitled, ‘MC 510 Signs and Wonders’ (1984), he became identified with the charismatic movement. He is credited with originating the term ‘third wave’, to designate the increased openness among other evangelicals to the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and joint ministry with Pentecostals and charismatics.
Wagner, C. Peter
Wimber, John
Wesleyan Theology
{Wesleyan Quadrilateral)		The various groups and churches associated with, spawned by, or that look for their genesis in John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) and his theology. These include the various Methodist churches, the Holiness Movement and Pentecostalism. Wesley’s theology attempted to balance the doctrine of justification by faith with an emphasis on the Spirit’s ongoing process of sanctification in the life of the believer. Wesleyans are often known for certain doctrines, including entire sanctification and the second blessing. Wesleyans tend to be Arminian as opposed to Calvinist in their understanding of the dynamic of personal salvation.

The four “sources” on which Wesleyan theology is often constructed and defended: Scripture, reason, tradition and experience. There is some debate today as to whether the Wesleyan quadrilateral actually dates to Wesley himself, although there is general agreement that it does represent Wesley’s own theological approach.
Allen, Richard
Asbury, Francis
Coke, Albert C.
Varick, James
Wesley, Charles
Wesley, John

Eschatological Systems

Derived from the combination of the Greek eschatos, meaning “last,” and logos, meaning “word” or “significance.” Refers to the biblical doctrine of last things. The doctrine of last things normally focuses on a discussion of the return of Christ at the end of the age, the coming judgments, various expressions of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, the nature of the glorified body, and the prospects for eternal destiny. Generally, eschatology sets itself apart as a theology of the future and in juxtaposition to both history and the present age.[1]

Millennialism

This expression, taken from Latin words, means 1,000 years. The Bible passage that mentions the “thousand years” is Rev. 20:1–7, where the word appears six times. The Latin Vulgate uses mille anni and its variant renderings to translate the Greek chilia ete. Various theological proposals have been offered to explain this passage from Rev. 20 as well as various other Scriptures that might be taken to speak to the same issue. One’s view on this text will be determined by one’s approach to interpreting predictive prophecy and by one’s view on symbolic and apocalyptic language.[1]

Title Description Typical AssociationPersonal Alignment
Amillennialism [2]The belief that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 do not represent a specific period of time between Christ’s first and second comings. Many amillennialists believe instead that the millennium refers to the heavenly reign of Christ and the departed saints during the Church Age. Amillennialists usually understand Revelation 20 to mean that the return of Christ will occur at the end of history and that the church presently lives in the final era of history.

Amillennials usually commit to Covenant theologyAdams, Jay Edward
Allis, Oswald T.
Augustine
Bass, Clarence B.
Beckwith, Isbon T.
Bennett, T. Miles
Berkof, Louis
Berkouwer, G. C.
Bowman, John Wick
Brown, David
Calvin, John
Charles, Robert H.
Colclasure, Chuck
Ellison, Henry L.
Farrar, Fredric W.
Ferguson, Sinclair
Foster, Richard J.
Gerstner, John
Gifford, Edwin H.
Hamilton, Floyd E.
Hendricksen, William
Hoekema, Anthony A.
Hoeksema, Herman
Kik, Jacob Marcellus
Laetsch, Theodore F. K.
Lenski, Richard
Leopold, Herbert C.
Luther, Martin
Machen, John Gresham
Mauro, Philip
Morgan, George Campbell
Morris, Leon
Pink, A. W.
Pusey, Edward B.
Ridderbos, Herman
Riddlebarger, Kim
Sproul, R.C.
Summers, Ray
Swete, Hanry Barclay
Van Til, Cornelius
Vos, Gerhardus
Waltke, Bruce
Warfield, B. B.
Young, Edward J
Premillennialism [2] The view that the millennium follows the return of Christ, which therefore makes his return “premillennial.” In the teaching of some premillennialists, the millennium will begin supernaturally and cataclysmically, preceded by signs of apostasy, worldwide preaching of the gospel, war, famine, earthquakes, the coming of the antichrist, and the great tribulation. Jesus will then return and rule on the earth with his saints for one thousand years, during which time peace will reign, the natural world will no longer be cursed and evil will be suppressed. After a final rebellion, God will crush evil forever; judge the resurrected, nonbelieving dead; and establish heaven and hell.Historic premillennialists usually commit to Covenant Theology, with post-tribulation eschatology.

Dispensational premillennial is generally pre-tribulation.		Alford, Henry
Amerding, C. A.
Anderson, Robert
Beasley-Murray, G. R.
Bengel, _
Blackstone, William E.
Bonar, A.A.
Bowman, John (Historic)
Chafer, Lewis Sperry
Culver, Robert D.
Darby, John Nelson
DeHaan, Martin R.
Ellicott, C.J.
English, Eugene Schuyler
Erickson, Millard (Historic)
Fausset, A. R.
Feinberg, Charles L.
Fuller, Daniel Payton (Historic)
Gaebelein, A. C.
Gill, John
Goodwin, Thomas
Grudem, Wayne
Hiebert, Davis Edmond
Hoyt, Herman A. (Disp.)
Ironside, H. A.
Jennins, Frederick C.
Jeremiah, David
Keach, Benjamin
Kromminga, D. H.
Ladd, George E. (Historic)
Lange, John
Lightfoot, J.B.
Lillie, (John?)
Luck, G. Coleman
MacArthur, John
MacIntosh, C.H.
Mauro, Philip (Historic)
Mayhue, Richard
McClain, Alva (Disp.)
Meyer, F.B.
Morgan, George Campbel
Mounce, Robert
Newell, William Reed
Ottman, Ford C.
Payne, J. Barton (Historic)
Piper, John
Ross, James Robert (Historic)
Ryle, J.C.
Ryrie, Charles (Disp.)
Seiss, Joseph A.
Smith, Jacob B.
Smith, Wilbur M.
Steir. _
Stevens, W. C.
Stifler, James M.
Strombeck, J. F.
Tatford, Frederick A.
Tenney, Merrill C.
Tregelles, Samuel P.
Unger, Merril
Walvoord, John (Disp.)
Westcott, B.F.
Wiley, H. Orton

Postmillennialism [2] The view that Christ’s second coming will follow the millennium; that is, his return is postmillennial. Postmillennialists assert that the millennium will come by the spiritual and moral influence of Christian preaching and teaching in the world. This will result in increased conversions, a more important role of the church in the world, earthly prosperity, the resolution of social ills and a general adoption of Christian values. Evil will diminish until the time of Christ’s second coming, which will mark as well the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment.
Alexander, Archibald
Alexander, Joseph A.
Barnes, Albert
Boettner, Loraine
Brown, David
Dabney, R. L.
Dabney, Robert T.
Edward, Jonathan
Fairbairn, Patrick
Hodge, A. A.
Hodge, Charles
Marcellus, K. K. J.
Murray, John
North, Gary
Shedd, W. G. T.
Snowden, James H.
Strong, Augustus H.
Warfield, Benjamin B

Rapture

God’s taking the church out of the world instantaneously. The Latin term rapio, which means to “snatch away” or “carry off,” is the source of the English word. While there are differing views of the millennium (Rev. 20:2–7) in relation to Christ’s second coming (e.g., premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial), nevertheless, all evangelicals affirm a literal return of Christ to the earth preceding the eternal state. In premillennialism, however, the distinct event of the rapture is often emphasized.

The main biblical passage for the rapture (Gk. harpazo) of the church is 1 Thess. 4:15–17. Other texts often used to support the doctrine of the rapture are John 14:1–3 and 1 Cor. 15:51–52. There are three main approaches to understanding the rapture in premillennialism:

Title Description Personal Alignment
Pre-Tribulational [3] In the pretribulational view, Christ raptures the church before any part of the seven-year tribulation begins (Dan. 9:24–27; Matt. 24:3–28; Rev. 11:2; 12:14). Upon Christ’s coming in the air, which is distinct from and that precedes His coming to the earth, believers will be “caught up together … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). In this view, believers are delivered “from the coming wrath” (1 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 3:10) by being taken out of the world.
Harrison, Norman B.
Hogg, Charles F.
Stanton, Gerald B.
Theissen, Henry C.
Vine, Howard Frederick
Mid-Tribulational [3] A midtribulational view also sees the rapture as a distinct event that precedes Christ’s second coming and delivers believers from the last half of the seven-year period, the “great tribulation” (Matt. 24:15–28; Rev. 16–18).
Peters, George N. H.

Post-Tribulational [3] A posttribulational view holds that the rapture and the second coming occur at the same time. Therefore, the church remains on earth during “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jer. 30:7 NASB). Unlike the world, however, believers who go through the tribulation will be protected from the devastating outpouring of God’s wrath and judgment (1 Thess. 5:9).
Erickson, Millard
Ladd, G. E.
Lang, George H.
Tenney, Merrill C.

Citations

[1] Doros Zachariades, “Millennium,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1127.
[2] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 8–9.
[3] Pete Schemm, “Rapture,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1366.
[4] Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 29–30.
[5] Norman L. Geisler, “Molinism,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 493.
[6] Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 38–39.
[7] Ibid, 41.
[8] Nathan P. Feldmeth, Pocket Dictionary of Church History: Over 300 Terms Clearly and Concisely Defined, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 52–53.
[9] Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009).
[10] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990).
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Donald G. Bloesch, Freedom for Obedience: Evangelical Ethics in Contemporary Times (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002), 266–267.
[14] Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, “Liberation Theologies and Hermeneutics,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[15] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 74.
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercersburg_theology
[17] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990).
[18] Ibid.
[19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Covenant_theology
[20] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 90.
[21] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990).
[22] Norman L. Geisler, “Panentheism,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 576.
[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology
[24] C. Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 98.
[25] David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 865.
[26] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_theology
[27] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Gospel
[28] D. Hedges, “Wagner, Charles Peter,” ed. Timothy Larsen et al., Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 691.
[29] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 120–121.

The State of Perdition

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Historically, Christian Realism centers around the brothers Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) and Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), who both were immersed in 20th-Century theology as influential thinkers of their time. They were both American Realists and were primarily concerned with human nature and human history. Their epistemological concerns were largely driven by individual and social conditions that they believed had explanatory power about the Christian faith. Their contributions to theological discourse were largely situated upon the doctrine of man and the human condition, especially as it concerns the life of faith from the perspective of Liberal theology.

James C. Livingston, the author of the text, refers to Niebuhr as a “post-liberal“ theologian as his exposure and acceptance to Barthian neo-orthodox theology is of coherent influence, but as one traces Niebuhrs’ life’s work, his writing, speaking, collaborative efforts, and criticisms, it is easy to dismiss the proposition as “post-liberal.” The functional name of “Christian Realism” is simply a rebranding of a social gospel (i.e., justice as the only proper outworking of agape love) that seeks to make use of the historical and eternal work of Christ for purposes of attaining distributed human power through social acquiescence or upheaval. It seeks to weaponize theology through social means as it concentrates on the human condition at the expense of sovereign, supernatural, limitless purposes of God. More specifically, in the here and now, it exchanges the pursuit of God for the pursuit of utopia by social means. Instead, biblical justice is simply an important and necessary component of deep and enduring theological interest. Instead of the default social pragmatism of Christian Realists, the practical imperatives of God through Christ are revealed in history to function as a pressing necessity for Godly living. A type of living that serves as a foundation for doctrine and confessional commitments that shape attitudes, conduct, disciplines, worship, devotion, and outreach. Charity, missional work, shelters, poverty relief, disaster recovery, hospitality, and economic justice are merely components of outreach and permanent support that extends from the proper application of the New Covenant.

As Livingston refers to the “social gospel,” it is normally attributed to Christian Realism. A person of liberal social interest would normally conclude there is a universal meaning associated with the term gospel. Aside from God’s redemptive work through Christ, the gospel takes on a useful purpose to achieve social objectives. Rather than for the purpose of saving individuals, and society, from real justice as eternal condemnation and separation from God in a permanent punishment of Hell. The meaning of “gospel” is reserved explicitly for a specific purpose as articulated in Scripture and the Greek semantic range found in BDAG and elsewhere. There is no “social gospel,” or “American gospel,” or “European gospel,” or “individual gospel,” as such. There is the “gospel” without descriptive adjectives to redefine its meaning. As clearly expressed in Scripture, the gospel is the saving work of Christ from personal sin against God (whether through idolatry, biblical injustice, social neglect, and various other covenant violations).

The meaning and background of Christian Realism set the terms of faith in God as relative to social interests. Specifically, where theology cannot describe God as such but only through human language and experience (Livingston, 169) to set the conditions by which people understand what traditions, practices, and lifestyles should be lived out. This indicates that divine revelation was purely codependent upon people without observation in Creation, direct encounter, Holy Spirit testimony, historical facts, archaeological discoveries, ancient literature, and means of communication other than immediate verbal or written interaction. Not to dismiss the purpose and intent of spoken and written communication among those who experience shared faith (such as at Pentecost), but to place proper and necessary emphasis upon revelation through absolute primary means. Where reason, language, culture, tradition, etc., are entirely subordinate to revelation with various weights of relevance.

Among the numerous explanatory positions Richard Niebuhr wrote, the Livingston text does not present Niebuhr as using scripture as a source of rationale to form substantive arguments to support his views. Philosophical consideration in support of a coherent and persuasive understanding of divine revelation toward Christian Realism would produce a lot of traction. He otherwise acknowledges the necessity of revelation to become informed of theological truth, and especially as interpreted among peers, but Niebuhr’s verbiage is a word salad of articulation that goes from revelation to knowledge, to experience, to reason, and back again to knowledge, experience, and reason as the whole endeavor is progressive for a desired or suitable outcome.

Reinhold Niebuhr viewed himself as a social critic and moralist. He also held to Liberal theology and attracted a lot of criticism from Protestants who were doctrinally grounded as his concern with justice was the embodiment of love (according to Livingston). Reinhold’s perspective concerning liberal theology revolved around love, justice, and power. Livingston’s interpretation of Reinhold’s views was that the failure to acquire and use power for the common good in one’s interests (Livingston, 189) was a persistent human sin. It was a failure to recognize one’s own will to power, as it was otherwise left to another group or class where injustice would be certain to arise from a secular or Christian source. Power, or equilibrium of it, was to be the objective, for the stated ideal of “love of neighbor.” More specifically, not through the Kingdom with its prescribed methodology by revelation or Scripture, but to achieve a systemic love-of-neighbor through the State, or socialism through the Church if need be. This is Liberal theology. Reinhold is noted for his changed thinking toward neo-orthodoxy later in life. Still, he did not develop a robust and coherent theology that was a source of reliable thought and influence among Protestants in the 20th century. Reinhold Niebuhr was a professor and Union Theological Seminary (liberal theology). He significantly influenced progressive political leaders such as Carter, Albright, Clinton, Obama, Comey, and others along the progressive-socialist spectrum.

Dialectical Thought & Paradox

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With the emergence and development of Dialectical theology, it is apparent that early German Reformers and Liberal theologians had a lasting and permanent influence upon 20th-century theology. The chapter stretches across the time of socialist thought around theological meaning at a time it underwent a remarkable change for the better. The cultural degradation of society marked the inferior theology of liberalism and social doctrines as it sought meaning in the absence of God and His divine revelation through His inspired Word.  

At the forefront of the Dialectical Theology movement was Karl Barth (1886-1968). He was a German Reformed Protestant Theologian who opposed the Nazi’s National Socialist movement in his native Deutschland. He was the most influential theologian of the twentieth century. His notoriety began with an encounter of betrayal as he observed 93 German intellectuals and his teachers as signatories of the Nazi war policy of Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. Barth stood up for Jews and other oppressed people while he viewed the compromise of his leaders as an ethical failure. He had concluded that 19th-century German theology was gone and of no further interest, so he set about to develop a “Theology of Crisis,” which is also understood as “Theology of the Word of God.” Both titles were correlated to the name and meaning of Dialectical Theology.  

After the onset of the First World War in 1914, Barth found himself at the head of a theological revolution with the formation of a Dialectical Theology program with fellow contemporaries. The national socialist policy had a lasting and devastating impact on him, and the credibility of his theological leadership was lost. In the 1920s, Barth organized and led a group of young theologians as he counted his leadership within liberal socialist theology of Herrmann,  Weiss, Troeltsch, and Schleiermacher as completely corrupted. Barth remained adherent to the Socialist Democrat Party while developing a new theology as the Bible came alive to him during a period of rediscovery of Scripture as divine revelation. While he functioned as a pastor and head of Reformed theology at Gottingen (1921), his continued progression toward opposition of the German National Socialist movement led to his exile. Eventually, he taught theology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, until retirement. Barth’s developed theology led to his rejection of socialism and its inherent effect of oppression upon people and economic injustices.

Within the formation of Dialectical theology, the notion of “Wholly Other” originated from Barth and was positioned among those who recognized a dire need for theological revolution. The biblical revelation of God as wholly other moved Barth to cast a different sort of reality less favorable to socialistic ideals. Moreover, entrenched social theologians who objected to Barth’s views about divine revelation through the “Word of God” spared no criticism. Barth’s detractors were numerous and persistent while sympathy and interest in Dialectical theology grew. “Crisis Theology” introduced doubts about subjectivism and the corresponding personal religious experience advocated by Schleiermacher while students, peers, and younger theologians demonstrated a loss of confidence in culture and state religion.

As a matter of course, a new generation of dialectical and liberal theologians arose to counter one another. They were divided on a number of subjects, but of critical interest was faith and modern historical consciousness. To the liberal theologians, it was important to understand the historical Jesus as it was necessary for faith in Christ. Advocates for theological historicism extended their rationale that knowledge of God, including moral and religious principles, definitively appears through relationships within biblical history. Rather from God as the source of divinely inspired revelation.

Friedrich Gogarten (1887-1967), a co-founder of dialectical theology, was a defender of Barth’s work while against the historicism of liberal theologian Ernst Wilhelm Troeltsch (1865-1923) of the German Democratic Party. As Livingston uses painstaking and extraordinarily elaborate prose to describe the dispute between Gogarten and Troeltsch’s views about the passage of time and God’s use of it, it becomes clear that the liberal and social theologians’ Jesus is a product of history and His place within the unfolding of time is requisite to knowing Him (i.e., as a counter to divine revelation through Scripture where Christ is within history). God instantiates and uses events and the passage of time to telegraph theological messaging as He is situated within it as the person of Christ. Still, He is wholly other or transcendent from creation to include time itself.

The crux of the dispute between Gogarten and Troeltsch appeared as the difference between the relative and absolute passage of time. Where, to Troeltsch’s view, the relationship between history and revelation of God was somehow mutually exclusive. As Troeltsch’s frame of reference was squared upon a social and subjective worldview, God’s work and existence in Christ had to be within the parameters of time and place where people were set in history. To understand their relationships with one another and with God was to become informed about how God provided theological truth. Whereas to Gogarten and Barth, the testimony and witness of Scripture revealed theological truth within history to situate absolute events and passage of time as prescribed for necessary outcomes (i.e., theological truth by divine revelation). “The ‘historical Jesus’ reconstructed from the records is not identical to revelation, to the act of God, which cannot be directly perceived in history” (Livingston, 71).

The Dialectical Method is a third way between dogmatism and mysticism or liberalism and orthodoxy. It doesn’t propose immediate solutions, but it leads to better-formed questions and a more coherent premise of thought around what God reveals about Himself. The wholly other God as present within our existence of space and time is revealed in a limited way through Christ, Creation, and Scripture. Yet, an inner and direct understanding of God is unattainable while in this plane of existence, and He cannot be fully known within this finite realm. To adopt the dialectical method is to embrace paradoxical expressions and works of God and what becomes comprehensible to us by His revelation.

Circus of the Centuries

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The developments of evangelicalism from its fundamentalist roots in contrast to liberal and Catholic forms of religious tradition read as contentious and challenging. By denominational identity of historical, traditional, and theological commitments, it appears that individuals and groups situated themselves as counter positional to the preferences or convictions of people and entities who did not share a common interest or unity in Protestantism. The propagation of evangelical thought appeared in a continuous search for stability and coherence with fragmented organizations of influence and stature. 

Through the historical development of evangelical theology or evangelicalism, the formation of the Kingdom to involve discipleship, the gospel, missions do not appear to elevate these as imperative matters of course from Christ across generations and cultures. The history of evangelical theology suggests such pursuits were merely incidental or adjacent to defense against liberalism and anti-intellectualism. The ever-present pressures of modernism and liberalism have taken a toll on the growth and development of Protestant interests. To such an extent that they had a leavening effect upon the Church. Especially from early institutions such as Princeton Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary, among others (Union, Vanderbilt, etc.).

Reactions from the Presbyterian General Assembly sought to establish pillars of unity around essential beliefs to include five fundamentals that countered theological Liberalism and Modernism. These convictions were centered and interrelated around the gospel, but their stated purpose read like an abbreviated form of confession to stave off theological dilution. It opened the door to a type of Walmart Christianity that brought about stigma and derision among unbelievers within Western culture. While fundamentalists sought to defend against Liberal Christianity, they instead achieved forms of isolation and separation of culture from society at large. The efforts of fundamentalists had an insulative effect as it withered in decline until it took on a new identity by the use of the respectable term “evangelical.”

Evangelicalism represented the transformation of fundamentalism as it valued academic scholarship, reformed tradition, confessional loyalty, and intellectual theologians to build a rightful and necessary stature around doctrine and revealed truth. Notably to gain its footing upon grounded theology as a formidable defense that took shape in the form of apologetic and eristic disciplines while making use of the sciences, philosophy, logic, and human reason to support its cause. Evangelicalism served as a reset from earlier fundamentalism that was repugnant to Western society. That is, it wasn’t an accommodation or capitulation to Liberal theological thought but a growing answer to its growth, influences, and pressures within the Church and academic institutions.

Conservative theologians of a Reformed heritage became further engaged within the Protestant Church and academic institutions to again bring scholarship as a grounded set of disciplines around doctrines, dogmatics, and a coherent repudiation of anti-intellectualism. Moreover, some had ecumenical aspirations to build limited solidarity around meaningful theological thought against Liberalism and Socialist Theology. As cases on point, Emil Brunner (1889-1966) regularly reached out to Catholic and Interdenominational organizations, while Carl F.H. Henry (1913-2003) founded the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. Notably, while various other enterprises stood against earlier fundamentalist perspectives, further advancements were made in Europe with the growth of Neo-Orthodoxy from leaders Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Emil Brunner.

There were tensions between rationalist reformed theologians like Carl Henry and formative leaders of neo-orthodoxy. Adherents to traditional confessional heritage were at odds with the Enlightenment’s challenges to theological methodologies. While more developed Protestant orthodoxy from the theology of Karl Barth and others was at odds also, it was best able to come to terms with the Enlightenment and more effectively assert Christian rationale and doctrines. The direction of theological discourse took a turn for the better. New and innovative methodologies emerged from the Bible and proper interpretation as supported by divine revelation with more meaningful presuppositional criteria, historicity, and compelling traditions.

The new theological trajectory of the 20th century was cast forward from fundamentalism by key influential figures. While Cornelius Van Til, E.J. Carnell, and Carl Henry stood in opposition to a new modern theology of Barth and other Neo-Orthodox theologians, it was C.G. Berkouwer and Bernard Ramm who called attention to the need for an answer to the Enlightenment (i.e., Immanuel Kant, Francis Bacon, and others). Consequently, the appeal of Barth’s neo-orthodox theology gained strength to adapt to changing social conditions brought about by more advanced philosophical thought.

Clark Pinnock (1937–2010), a Canadian theologian, sought to define the essence and identity of Christianity through narrative theology that involved community traditions like creeds, liturgies, hymns, prayers, and various actions unique to the faith. His efforts appealed to human interest in Christianity as a whole, where no single individual had the right to change its traditions. His perspective focused upon human benefit, the practice of worship, and the use of Scripture for the betterment and consumption of people. The idea of narrative theology to Pinnock was primarily a “Christian story” and secondarily a God-centered form of understanding through revelation. Pinnock emphasized the humanness of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit within it as he questioned the doctrine of inerrancy and aligned with the Pentecostal tradition of the Church. He sought to dissuade against the inspiration and illumination of Scripture but directed attention to the work of the Holy Spirit within people.

According to Livingston, some additional postmodern thinkers centered themselves on social and individualistic interest around tradition for religious meaning and truth within the greater evangelical sphere. They centered themselves around a contextual view of doctrine due to historical and cultural conditions that prevailed over time. Clark Pinnock and Stanley Grenz gave more weight to social interests concerning theological truth than to what divine revelation specifies about new covenant obligations, the life of faith, discipleship, and the gospel. It is highly suspect that this form of evangelical theology contributed to the rise of the social gospel and the enormous growth of “exvangelicals” in recent years. The expected course of liberal theology empties the use of divine revelation and its historical presence. It de-values the meaning and weight of redemptive intervention with the necessary truth claims made through Scripture. It helps explain trends toward individuals deconstructed from their faith where apostasy is on the increase, church attendance is significantly reduced, and evangelical theology is set on a trajectory of dissolution. Until Protestant interests return to the principles of Christ-centered theology, rather than the Wesleyan “quadrilateral” (i.e., Scripture, tradition, experience, reason), it has nowhere to go but inward while fraught by contradiction and confusion.

The Authority of Self-Witness

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My reading this week made a connection between the method of interpretation and the authority of Scripture. The reason why some choose “reader response” as a hermeneutical method of scripture rather than “authorial intent” is because they do not want the authority of God’s Word on its divinely inspired terms. They want the meaning of scripture in human terms to suit personal interests.

Two Methods of Interpretation:

1. Reader Response (wrong & dangerous)
2. Authorial Intent (right & productive)

Reader response is reading the Bible to suit what you want it to say and mean. Authorial intent rests upon what the Biblical authors intended by the Spirit in terms of meaning and principles (patriarchs, kings, sages, prophets, apostles, etc.). The tension is reminiscent of making something “in your own image” vs. accepting scripture as God’s revealed and authoritative word. Even further, the Bible is authoritative only to the extent people agree with it (i.e., it is not authoritative to those engaged in Reader Response).

Key gems in our reading distill these assembled facts: Those who refuse to acknowledge the Bible’s authority will not experience spiritual transformation by the Spirit and the Word. The Bible inherently possesses authority regardless of whether or not the church or individual recognizes it. The ontological ground of the text’s authority is not the same as the epistemic acceptance of the text’s authority. God’s act of inspiration grounds the Bible’s status as God’s revelation. God speaks through the Word whether people recognize or accept its authority or not and it is for this reason that contemporary agendas will never gain control over theology.

The weight of authority comes from a source of authority by revelation as God’s self-witness (e.g., fulfillment of prophecy, miracles, promises, judgments, etc.). This stands as warranted belief in the face of a multitude of defeater claims.

There is a difference between “what it meant” and “what it means.” “What it meant” leads to “what it means” as a matter of coherent principle where implications follow the intent and not what a reader surmises. Especially to form preferred outcomes according to biases stemming from cultural contexts. Moreover, it is possible to treasure biblical principles more than the Bible itself.

Structures of Poetic Resonance

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There are numerous meta-details around the poetry of Scripture, especially throughout the Psalms. An analysis of facts and details around the structure and background of poetry from a historical, theological, and literary perspective offers a deeper and more comprehensive view of ancient biblical literature and worship.

Themes of Psalms

A. The Sovereign God

  1. The God of Creation (Ps 33, 74, 89, 95, 104, 135, 136, 147, 148)
  2. The God of Israel (Ps 105, 106)
  3. The God of the Nations (Ps 33)
  4. The God who will establish His Rule upon the Earth

B. The People of God – the Righteous; the Enemies of God – the Wicked

C. God’s Attributes Known to His People (Ps 100, 107)

  1. Loyalty
    Ps 5:7; 6:4; 13:5; 17:7; 18:50; 21:7; 23:6; 25:6, 7, 10; 26:3; 31:7, 16, 21; 32:10; 33:5, 18, 22, 36:5, 7, 10; 40:10, 11; 42:8; 44:26; 48:9; 51:1; 52:1, 8; 57:3; 10; 59:10, 16, 17; 62:12; 63:3; 66:20; 69:13,16; 77:8; 85:7, 10; 86:5, 13, 15; 88:11; 89:1, 2, 14, 24, 28, 33, 49; 90:14; 92:2; 94:18; 98:3; 100:5; 101:1; 103:4, 8, 11, 17; 106:1, 7, 45; 107:1, 8, 15, 21, 31, 43; 108:4; 109:12, 16, 21, 26; 115:1; 117:2; 118:1, 2, 3, 4, 29; 119:14, 64, 76, 88, 124, 149, 159; 130:7; 136:1-26; 138:2, 8; 141:5; 143:8, 12; 144:2; 145:8; 147:11)
  2. Goodness
    Ps 16:2; 25:8; 34:8; 54:6; 68:10; 73:1; 86:5; 100:5; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1, 29; 119:68; 135:3; 136:1; 145:9
  3. Faithfulness
    Ps 33:4; 36:5; 40:10; 88:11; 89:1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 33, 49; 92:2; 96:13; 100:5; 119:75, 86, 90, 138; 143:1
  4. Righteousness
    Ps 7:9; 11:7; 15:2; 22:31; 31:1; 35:24; 50:6; 51:14; 69:27; 71:2, 15, 16, 19, 24; 72:1; 89:16; 97:6; 98:2; 103:17; 111:3; 112:3, 9; 119:40, 142; 143:1; 145:7
  5. Compassion
    Ps 25:6; 40:11; 51:1; 69:16; 77:9; 78:38; 79:8; 103:4, 8, 13; 106:46; 111:4; 112:4; 116:5; 119:77

D. The Davidic Covenant (Ps 78, 89, 132)

Authors of Psalms

NameQuantityReferences
David73Psalms 3-9, 11-32, 34-41, 41-65, 68-70, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138-145
Asaph12Psalms 50, 73-83
Descendants of Korah10Psalms 42, 44-49, 84-85, 87
Solomon2Psalms 72, 127
Ethan1Psalm 89
Heman1Psalm 88
Moses1Psalm 90
Anonymous50Remaining
Authors of Psalms

Divisions of Psalms

PsalmsChaptersQuantityTheme Correlation
Book I1 – 4141Genesis: Creation, Sin, Salvation
Book II42 – 7231Exodus: Redemption
Book III73 – 8917Leviticus: Sanctuary
Book IV90 – 10617Numbers: Desert Wanderings
Book V107 – 15044Deuteronomy: Word of God
Divisions of Psalms

Categories of Hebrew Poetry

  • Pilgrimage
  • Wisdom
  • Lament
  • Thanksgiving
  • Imprecatory
  • Praise
  • Royal
  • Messianic

Rhythm of Thought – Types of Hebrew Parallelism

NameExampleReferences
Synonymous ParallelismO LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your wrath.		Ps 1:2, Ps 6:1, Ps 7:16, Ps 15:1, Ps 19:1, Ps 49:1, 51:3; Prov 9:10, Prov 16:18, Prov 16:28, Prov 19:29
Antithetical ParallelismThe wicked borrows and does not pay back,
But the righteous is gracious and gives.		Ps 37:21, Ps 1:6, Prov 10:1, 2, 4, 7
Synthetic ParallelismGod is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.		Ps 46:1, Ps 3:4, 29:1, 95:3, Eccl 11:1
Climactic ParallelismIn You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You
delivered them.
To You they cried out and were
delivered;
In You they trusted and were
not disappointed.		Ps 22:4-5
Emblematic
Parallelism		As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God. 		Ps 41, Ps 42:1, Ps 103:13
Formal
(Catch-All)		“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”		Ps 2:6, others
Rhythm of Thought – Types of Hebrew Parallelism

Rhythm of Sound – Types of Hebrew Poetry

NameDefinitionReferences
AcrosticText stanzas begin with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet and continue sequentially until completion. A memory device.Ps 9, 10, 24, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145; Prov 31:10-31; Lam 1, 2, 3, 4
AlliterationThe same sound begins with different words through the text.Ps 122:6
AssonanceThe end of each line is a sound alike. Ps 119:29
ParonomasiaA play on words as written and read – Mispat (justice) vs Mispah (bloodshed)Is 5:7
OnomatopeiaA word that sounds like what it is describing. Ps 81:7
InclusionA line of text is repeated again in the same text. Ps 118:1, 29
Rhythm of Sound – Types of Hebrew Poetry

Messianic Psalms

InstanceMessianic DescriptionPsalmFulfillment
1God declares Jesus to be His Son.Ps. 2:7Matt. 3:17
2All things will be put under Jesus’ feet.Ps. 8:6Heb. 2:8
3Jesus will be resurrected from the dead.Ps. 16:10Mark 16:6-7
4God will forsake Jesus in His hour of need.Ps. 22:1Matt. 27:46
5Jesus will be scorned and mocked.Ps. 22:7-8Luke 23:35
6Jesus’ hands and feet will be pierced. Ps. 22:16John 20:25-27
7Others will gamble for Jesus’s clothing.Ps. 22:18Matt. 27:35-36
8Not one of Jesus’ bones will be broken.Ps. 34:20John 19:32-33, 36
9Jesus will be accused by false witnesses.Ps. 35:11Mark 14:57
10Jesus will be hated without a cause.Ps. 35:19John 15:25
11Jesus will come to do God’s will.Ps. 40:7-8Heb. 10:7
12Jesus will be betrayed by a friend.Ps. 41:9Luke 22:47
13Jesus’s throne will last forever.Ps. 45:6Heb 1:8
14Jesus will ascend to God’s right hand.Ps. 68:18Mark 16:19
15Zeal for God’s house will consume Jesus.Ps. 69:9John 2:17
16Jesus will be given vinegar and gall to drink.Ps. 69:21Matt. 27:34
17Jesus will be a worldwide king. Ps. 72:1-19Rev. 19:11-20:6
18Jesus will pray for His enemiesPs. 109:4Luke 23:34
19Jesus’ betrayer’s place will be filled by another. Ps. 109:8Acts 1:20
20Jesus’ enemies will be made subject to Him.Ps. 110:1Matt. 22:44
21Jesus will be a priest like Melchizedek.Ps. 110:4Heb. 5:6
22Jesus will be the chief cornerstone.Ps. 118:22Matt. 21:42
23Jesus will come in the name of the Lord.Ps. 118:26Matt. 21:91
Messianic Psalms

Interpretive History of Psalms

A. Writings – Individual and Freestanding

Psalms separately inspired and valued as:

  1. Prophetic
  2. Instructive
  3. Allegorical
  4. Historical-Grammatical

B. Worship – For Choirs and Others

C. Compilations – Scrolls, Codices or Books

Ancient Development of Psalms

The process of origination of the Psalms followed (1) individual personal development (2) giving of the Psalms to the Levites for temple worship (later synagogues), and (3) for collection to the book or compilation.

Each psalm originated as a separate piece of individual original work among the political and cultic leaders of Israel (Levites). The political leaders of Israel include Moses, David, and Solomon, and the cultic leaders include Asaph, the sons of Korah, Heman, and Ethan among them all.

After the Psalms were given to the Israelites for public worship in the temple, they were arranged in collection for retrieval and use. The origination of the Psalms was not collected in chronological order, theme, or by the author. They were collected and arranged with editorial intent. The words were retained, but the accompanying music detail was lost.

Psalm Order Formation by Intent

Hebrew Terms of Intent:ZakarYadahHalel
Meaning:RemembranceAcknowledgmentPraise
Idea:A plea to God we are in troubleAcknowledgment of answered prayerExaltation to God for who He is
Type:Dirge: Lament
(Psalms of Disorientation)		Gratitude: Declared Praise
(Psalms of Reorientation) 		Hymn: Descriptive Praise
(Psalms of Orientation)
Psalm Order Formation by Intent

Psalm Order Formation by Type

The Laments
(Psalms of Disorientation)		 The Declaratives
(Psalms of Reorientation)		 The Descriptives
(Psalms of Orientation)
Components:Address
Lament
Confession of Trust
Petition
Vow to Praise or
Declarative Praise of God		 Components: Proclamation to Praise God
Summary Statement
Report of Deliverance
Praise of God 		Components: Call to Praise
Cause of Praise
Renewed Call to Praise
References: Individual Laments:
Ps 3-7, 9-10, 12-14, 17, 22, 25-28, 31, 35, 38-43, 52-57, 59, 61,
63-64, 69-71, 77, 86, 88, 89, 109, 120, 140-142
National Laments:
Ps 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 9		 References: Ps 18, 30, 32, 34, 40, 65, 67, 92, 106, 107, 116, 118, 121, 124, 138 References: Ps 33, 36, 105, 111, 113, 117, 135, 136, 146, 147
Psalm Order Formation by Type

Psalm Order Formation by Author

Distribution of Books within Psalms

Book 1Book 2Book 3Book 4Book 5
Ps 1 – Ps 42 Ps 43 – Ps 72 Ps 74 – Ps 89 Ps 90 – Ps 106 Ps 107 – Ps 150
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Distribution of Books within Psalms

Book 1 – Majority of Davidic Psalms

Anonymous
(cf.: Acts 4:25-26)		David
(Anonymous Ps 10, 33)
Ps 1 -2Ps 3 – 41
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Book 1 – Majority of Davidic Psalms

Book 2 – Majority of Davidic Psalms

KorahAsaphDavid
(Anonymous 66, 67, 71)		Solomon
Ps 42 – 49Ps 50Ps 51 – 71Ps 72
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Book 2 – Majority of Davidic Psalms

Book 3 – Central Position of Davidic Psalm

AsaphKorahDavidKorahEthan
Ps 73 – 83Ps 84 – 85Ps 86Ps 87 – 88Ps 89
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Book 3 – Central Position of Davidic Psalm

Book 4 – Davidic Psalms Evenly Distributed

MosesAnonymousDavid
(Anonymous 102)		Anonymous
Ps 90Ps 91 – 100Ps 101 – 103Ps 104 – 106
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Book 4 – Davidic Psalms Evenly Distributed

Book 5 – Davidic Psalms Evenly Distributed

AnonymousDavidAnonymousAscentsAnonymousDavidAnonymous
Ps 107Ps 108 – 110Ps 111 – 119David:
Ps 122
Ps 124
Ps 131
Ps 133

Solomon:
Ps 127		Ps 135 – 137Ps 138 – 145Ps 146 – 150
Psalm Order Formation by Author
Book 5 – Davidic Psalms Evenly Distributed

Prayers through Psalms

By on in Theology

Songs to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. Psalmoi (Greek) or Tehillim (Hebrew) to mean songs of praise or interest to the reader or listener. My personal prayers while reading through the Books of Psalms.

Book One

ChapterContextResponse
Psalm 1The Righteous and the Wicked ContrastedLORD, you alone are completely righteous and You are my everlasting source of righteousness.
Psalm 2The Reign of the LORD’S AnointedLORD Jesus, You are the all-powerful and ultimate ruler of all, and I praise You for Your authority, wisdom, and reign.
Psalm 3Morning Prayer of Trust in GodLORD Jesus, You are my shield and my rock and there is salvation by no other name than Yours.
Psalm 4Evening Prayer of Trust in GodHoly Spirit, Your presence is what I desire to worship You, LORD, for who You are when I draw near to You.
Psalm 5Prayer for Protection from the WickedLORD, I trust in You to lead me in Your way to keep me safe as you are my refuge.
Psalm 6Prayer for Mercy in Time of TroubleLORD, let not my iniquities keep me from You while I plea for your mercy and forgiveness.
Psalm 7The LORD Implored to Defend the Psalmist against the WickedLORD, you have sustained me all these years and it is my continuous heart of repentance that I offer to You.
Psalm 8The LORD’S Glory and Man’s DignityLORD, how awesome is the work of Your hands to bring to existence the Universe and all that exists.
Psalm 9A Psalm of Thanksgiving for God’s JusticeLORD, let the people of all nationalities see Your glory and what You have made and decreed.
Psalm 10A Prayer for the Overthrow of the WickedLORD, let not the wicked prevail and lend Your strength to the afflicted who trust in You.
Psalm 11The LORD a Refuge and DefenseLORD, as you hate the wicked and violent, let Your compassion be the source of refuge for those who are Yours.
Psalm 12God, a Helper against the TreacherousLORD, while many have abandoned You and Your ways, remember me, and deliver me to safety as I trust in Your word.
Psalm 13Prayer for Help in TroubleLORD, while at times I grow distant, may Your steadfast love cause me to rejoice in Your salvation.
Psalm 14Folly and Wickedness of MenLORD, You cannot abide those who deny You exist while You restore the fortunes of Your people.
Psalm 15Description of a Citizen of ZionLORD, You dwell with those who walk blamelessly before You by the power of Your Spirit.
Psalm 16The LORD the Psalmist’s Portion in Life and Deliverer in DeathLORD Jesus, Your defeat over death and Your resurrection is astonishing and I confess as my testimony that You are God.
Psalm 17Prayer for Protection against OppressorsLORD, as I call upon You day-by-day, deliver me of any wickedness within me and let my praise please You.
Psalm 18The LORD Praised for Giving DeliveranceLORD, You are the source of my security and significance while my identity and whole being rests in You.
Psalm 19The Works and the Word of GodLORD, never let Your word depart from my heart and mind as I worship and honor you throughout all my days.
Psalm 20Prayer for Victory over EnemiesLORD, as I bear Your name, let it be both in voice and deed that I remember all You’ve spoken in Your word.
Psalm 21Praise for DeliveranceLORD, I exalt You over all authorities and powers that reside on the Earth for all time.
Psalm 22A Cry of Anguish and a Song of PraiseLORD Jesus, You are worthy of all power and authority as the lamb who was slain for the redemption of the world.
Psalm 23The LORD, the Psalmist’s ShepherdLORD, Your goodness and mercy are a comfort to me as I seek You and dwell in Your house forever.
Psalm 24The King of Glory Entering ZionLORD, You are the King of glory, and it is You in whom I delight.
Psalm 25Prayer for Protection, Guidance and PardonLORD, I am completely reliant upon You to guide my decisions and the course of this life You have given to me.
Psalm 26Protestation of Integrity and Prayer for ProtectionLORD, You are my focus, and I will proclaim You, and serve You as my delight all my days.
Psalm 27A Psalm of Fearless Trust in GodLORD, if not You in my life, then nothing as You are the One I desire above all else.
Psalm 28A Prayer for Help, and Praise for Its AnswerLORD, you are the refuge of Your anointed, and those who trust in You rejoice!
Psalm 29The Voice of the LORD in the StormLORD, Your voice is full of power, majesty, and splendor as it speaks of Your glory and holiness.
Psalm 30Thanksgiving for Deliverance from DeathLORD, my heart sings of your mercy and abundant forgiveness that I would tell others of your love, kindness, and faithfulness!
Psalm 31A Psalm of Complaint and of PraiseLORD, as I age and become drained of vitality and strength by wear and decay, I place into Your hands my entire being.
Psalm 32The blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in GodLORD, You are my hiding place as my sins are covered and my transgressions are forgiven.
Psalm 33Praise to the Creator and PreserverLORD, by the guidance of Your word, in spirit and truth, I worship You as Your abundant love is steadfast and my continued delight.
Psalm 34The LORD, a Provider, and DelivererLORD, the presence of Your Spirit overflowing within and over the pages of Your Word testifies to my spirit Your goodness.
Psalm 35Prayer for Rescue from EnemiesLORD, You are Great and above all, and I trust You to go before me during trials and encounters of heavy burden.
Psalm 36The wickedness of Men and Lovingkindness of GodLORD, Your steadfast love is new every morning and it stands as an example of the love You have empowered me to give to people when it sometimes isn’t so easy.
Psalm 37Security of Those Who Trust in the LORD, and Insecurity of the WickedLORD, You have demonstrated again and again that when I delight in You, You, in turn, give me the desires of my heart and help make my steps sure and straight.
Psalm 38Prayer of a Suffering PenitentLORD, while on my knees and face to the floor before You, You know my heart and my day-by-day desperate prayers of deliverance and repentance from the sins that I despise.
Psalm 39The Vanity of LifeLORD, PLEASE hear the complaint of my distress for permanent sanctification as I desire to walk by the Spirit and continuously bear the fruit You desire.
Psalm 40God Sustains His ServantLORD, while the pressures and evils of this world clamor for my attention and interest, I remember Your work of faithfulness and mercy as You are my ever-present help and deliverer.
Psalm 41 The Psalmist in Sickness Complains of Enemies and False FriendsLORD, I confess I have greatly sinned against You and others, and yet by Your grace, I trust in You for forgiveness and cleansing You have done.

Book Two

Chapter ContextResponse
Psalm 42Thirsting for God in Trouble and ExileLORD, even as some who are known by your name are contentious and contradictory, let Your grace and peace rest upon me as I seek Your truth.
Psalm 43Prayer for DeliveranceLORD God, my hope is in You even while some within the household of faith are in turmoil and live in a spirit of error.
Psalm 44Former Deliverances and Present TroublesLORD, You are my ever-present and constant source of help and confidence.
Psalm 45A Song Celebrating the King’s MarriageLORD, You are my delight, and I worship You and honor You as my everlasting and glorious King.
Psalm 46God the Refuge of His PeopleLORD, be forever exalted among the nations as You are our eternal rock and high tower worthy of all glory, praise, and honor.
Psalm 47God the King of the EarthMy LORD Most High, Your reign and seat of power over all Heaven and Earth is filled with righteousness and praise.
Psalm 48The Beauty and Glory of ZionLORD, Your steadfast love is abundant while You dwell in our hearts by Your Holy Spirit.
Psalm 49The Folly of Trusting in RichesLORD, even in times of fear and anxiety, I will attend my heart, mind, soul, and strength to You and Your Kingdom as You are worthy of all praise and glory.
Psalm 50God the Judge of the Righteous and the WickedLORD, as my thought life is my biggest problem, I will trust in Your righteous judgments and discipline as I desire to be close to You always.
Psalm 51A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for PardonLORD, I have sinned against You innumerable times, yet I trust you and desire to please You in repentance as I love You and want to serve You all the days You have given to me.
Psalm 52Futility of Boastful WickednessLORD, all that I have is Yours, and it is Your steadfast love that I will always trust.
Psalm 53Folly and Wickedness of MenLORD, I ask for Your continued presence and protection all my days as I seek You and call upon You as my God who I love and worship.
Psalm 54Prayer for Defense Against EnemiesLORD, hear my prayer and uphold my life to glorify You and serve Your Kingdom in every way that You desire as I trust and obey You in truth.
Psalm 55Prayer for the Destruction of the TreacherousLORD, yet while in distress about society today, I trust in You as You are Just, and I am assured and confident that You are at work in Your Kingdom.
Psalm 56Supplication for Deliverance and Grateful Trust in GodLORD, as You know my pleas for deliverance from besetting sin and obstinate selfish interest, I have faith in You, and I trust You for what You’re doing to transform my heart.
Psalm 57Prayer for Rescue from PersecutorsLORD, awaken my spirit to produce a love that I wish to live in full all my days before You.
Psalm 58Prayer for the Punishment of the WickedLORD, Your judgments upon the wicked are righteous, and I rejoice in Your acts of justice.
Psalm 59Prayer for the Deliverance from EnemiesLORD, deliver me from the enemy of sin as I trust You to permanently remove corrupt desires that set a distance between us.
Psalm 60Lament Over Defeat in Battle, and Prayer for HelpLORD, my courage originates from You as You are my shield and my defense.
Psalm 61Confidence in God’s ProtectionLORD, appoint Your steadfast love and guidance over those who are shepherds of Your word.
Psalm 62God Alone a Refuge From Treachering and OppressionLORD, You are my safety and security, and You are the source of my significance while I trust you for fulfillment and nourishment; Your word is my lamp and my guide.
Psalm 63The Thirsting Soul Satisfied in GodLORD, while adversaries of Your kingdom are contentious and critical, I will trust in You and Your word for instruction and truth by Your Spirit.
Psalm 64Prayer for Deliverance From Secret EnemiesLORD, keep my heart and mind from the deceptive and wicked influences of evil people who appear well-meaning and of “goodwill.”
Psalm 65God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and ManLORD, forgiveness, restoration, and salvation are made possible through Your Son so that You are glorified and given all due honor and praise.
Psalm 66Praise for God’s Mighty Deeds and For His Answer to PrayerLORD, You have given me the ability to perceive by the sense within me You have designed, and with these faculties, I choose to see and hear You, and learn Your ways and praise You.
Psalm 67The Nations Exhorted to Praise GodLORD, the nations are under Your rule and subject to honor You and confess before You that You are LORD and Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Psalm 68The God of Sinai and of the SanctuaryLORD, may You be blessed by your graciousness and peace upon Your people who are known by Your name.
Psalm 69A Cry of Distress and Imprecation on AdversariesLORD, may Your name be magnified through my life, conduct, and character as You are faithful and my anchor during times of trouble.
Psalm 70Prayer for Help Against PersecutorsLORD, be promptly attentive to my pleas for your presence so that I would be delivered of anything and everything that might offend You.
Psalm 71Prayer of an Old Man for DeliveranceLORD, it is my prayer that the fruits of the Spirit would reign within me as I age according to Your will.
Psalm 72The Reign of the Righteous KingLORD Jesus, may I model Your heart for the needy, the poor, and the oppressed as You are my treasure and everlasting perfect King.

Book Three

Chapter ContextResponse
Psalm 73God is My Strength and Portion ForeverLORD, You alone possess the words of eternal life and salvation, and You are my refuge in who I trust to guide me with Your counsel and Spirit.
Psalm 74Arise, O God, Defend Your CauseLORD God, call to remembrance how I have trusted You and delighted in You where You were at work in my heart and soul for your glory and good pleasure.
Psalm 75God Will Judge with EquityLORD, Your judgments are righteous and just as You lift up and redeem some while holding down and casting aside others.
Psalm 76Who Can Stand Before You?LORD, You are awesome and wonderous; who can stand before You and Your majestic glory?
Psalm 77In the Day of Trouble I Seek the LordLORD, without You, life is desolate and unfruitful, yet I remember Your work in my heart and spirit to love and worship You to honor and praise You all my days.
Psalm 78Tell the Coming GenerationMy LORD Most High, deliver me with permanent repentance that I would not offend You by repeat offenses. Please pierce my heart to change it where I would delight in You more than any other thing that I would want or desire.
Psalm 79How Long, O LORD?LORD, deliver me from any and all competing interests that would draw me away from You. My desire is to be holy, pure, and righteous as You are, and as You are the God of salvation, I trust in You for the work of Your compassion.
Psalm 80Restore Us, O GodLORD, save and restore me from my lapses in attention and sincere devotion. My desire is with You, but I ask You to cleanse and sustain me as my spirit is nourished by Your steadfast love.
Psalm 81Oh, That My People Would Listen to MeLORD, I call to You from within my mind and soul to transform my heart and fill me with Your Spirit. You alone are my delight and satisfaction.
Psalm 82Rescue the Weak and NeedyLORD, I am in awe of Your pronouncements of justice among those who were appointed to govern and judge the nations. Let Your heart for justice and compassion be seared into my heart and mind as I want to be marked and indwelled by Your righteousness and holiness.
Psalm 83O God, Do Not Keep SilenceLORD, You are great and most fearsome over all the nations and across all generations for all time!
Psalm 84My Soul Longs for the Courts of the LORDLORD of Hosts, I trust in You, and I am ever grateful to appear before You in Your presence. Accept my worship and prayer as I honor You all the days of my life.
Psalm 85Revive Us AgainLORD, let me not turn back to the folly of my old ways as You are faithful. Keep me from temptation and stumbling as I offer You my prayers and devotion.
Psalm 86Great Is Your Steadfast LoveLORD, even in the face of my repeated sin which I despise, I lift up my soul to You. Hear my pleas for Your mercies and grace for sanctification. Let Your Spirit remind me each day of Your ways and to fear Your name.
Psalm 87Glorious Things of You Are SpokenLORD, it is entirely pleasing that You would love to dwell among Your people!
Psalm 88I Cry Out Day and Night Before YouLORD, every day my prayers are offered to You in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, where I am calling to You for peace and right relationship with You. Please hear my prayers and answer me in Your abundant mercy and kindness.
Psalm 89I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the LORDLORD, how abundant are Your mercies and faithfulness as You are awesome and worthy of praise and exaltation. Your steadfast love for David and Your people proves to me Your faithfulness, and Your works of salvation give me hope.

Book Four

Chapter ContextResponse
Psalm 90From Everlasting to EverlastingLORD, the prayer of Your servant Moses is a delight as he is faithful and loyal to You and Your name. Let me bear the heart of Moses and the heart of David by what I learn in Your Word. You are generous and satisfying as I seek to know You through Your faithfulness to who You have appointed as leaders of Your people.
Psalm 91My Refuge and My FortressLORD, the beauty of Your Word in this Psalm is unmatched by words uttered by human voice. For many years I have dwelled in Your Word, and by Your Spirit, I have been in Your keeping. I delight in Your dwelling places and where You would want me to be, where You would want me to go, and what You would want me to do. LORD, never let me forsake You and make Your keeping of my soul permanent as I seek You and abide in You.
Psalm 92How Great Are Your WorksLORD, as I worship You and give offerings at Your church I attend, let this time and effort bear fruit as righteousness grows among members to glorify You.
Psalm 93The LORD ReignsLORD, as You reign in the hearts of Your people, let everyone see and understand how awesome and powerful You are. To see Your glory and holiness and proclaim Your goodness and trustworthy ways.
Psalm 94The LORD Will Not Forsake His PeopleLORD, how long will You permit people to mock and profane Your Imago Dei in the name of modern “social justice”? Let Your justice and care for the impoverished, fatherless, abused, and oppressed grow in the hearts of Your people.
Psalm 95Let Us Sing Songs of PraiseLORD, in joy, overflowing, I praise You and worship You. You are my peace and rest as I adore You because of who You are and by all Your wonderful attributes.
Psalm 96Worship in the Splendor of HolinessLORD, You reign over all the Earth, and You are worshiped by all Your people as creation testifies of Your goodness.
Psalm 97The LORD’S Power and DominionLORD, I give thanks to Your holy name, and I rejoice in You. You are most high exalted over of creation and far above all elohim.
Psalm 98Sing Praise to the KingLORD, Your judgments upon the nations are righteous, and Your steadfast love and faithfulness upon Your people bring praises to my lips. I rejoice in You by song and adoration as You are my everlasting confidence and peace.
Psalm 99The LORD is HolyLORD, You are holy, holy, holy as You are great and exalted above all Your creation and all nations!
Psalm 100Give Thanks to the LORDLORD, Your enduring love, which began from before Your creation, is steadfast and faithful.
Psalm 101Remembering God’s LoveLORD, let Your people and appointed leaders be subject to Your wisdom according to Your truth and righteousness.
Psalm 102A Prayer for HelpLORD, when I am in distress and circumstances seem hopeless, and without any viable way through hardship, You are there and bring me through. You are able to deliver Your people and Your creation through difficulties and disasters because You are God and in total control.
Psalm 103Praise God, who ForgivesLORD bless You as your kingdom rules over all and as Your authority is set over all of the heavens and the Earth.
Psalm 104 Praise God, who CreatesLORD God, by Your will, You created everything, and by Your will, they are sustained. How incomprehensible are Your ways, and how marvelous are Your power and glory.
Psalm 105 Thanksgiving for God’s DeliveranceLORD God, I thank You for Your faithfulness to Your covenant across all generations. Your covenant fulfilled through Jesus, where the new covenant of Your kingdom lives on for Your glory is my joy and delight.
Psalm 106 The Unfaithfulness of God’s PeopleLORD God, I thank You for Your faithfulness to Your covenant across all generations. Your covenant fulfilled through Jesus, where the new covenant of Your kingdom lives on for Your glory is my joy and delight.

Book Five

Chapter ContextResponse
Psalm 107Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say SoLORD, Thank You for Your steadfast love as it is wonderous and everlasting. By Your steadfast love Your people are delivered.
Psalm 108With God We Shall Do ValiantlyLORD as I praise and worship You, I am moved and heartened as I desire to obey You with all my mind, heart, and strength.
Psalm 109Help Me, O LORD My GodLORD, please be merciful to me as I have sinned in attitude, thought, and mind against Your people who are willfully disobedient against Your word. Please forgive me as I work to live out the fruits of the Spirit in gentleness, kindness, and grace.
Psalm 110Sit at My Right HandLORD Jesus, it is awesome to consider who You are and Your authority over all of creation. You are the eternal High Priest and King of kings as our Messianic mediator between God and humanity.
Psalm 111Great Are the LORD’s WorksLORD, thank You that You have given us Your word to learn of who You are, what You have done and what You are doing.
Psalm 112The Righteous Will Never Be MovedLORD, while Your word says that perfect love casts out all fear, I am in awe of Your fearsome power, knowledge, and presence.
Psalm 113Who Is like the LORD Our God?LORD, let me be humbled to witness Your glory as Your power and work are revealed throughout creation.
Psalm 114Tremble at the Presence of the LordLORD, just as You have delivered Your people from captivity thousands of years ago, please deliver Your people from indifference, corruption, and their own spiritual preferences against Your interests.
Psalm 115To Your Name Give GloryLORD, much of what is produced in Your church is about money and status, as compared to Your instructions and glory. My heart and mind rests in You and as You have given abundant grace to Your people, that is my desire, too.
Psalm 116I Love the LORDLORD, You are gracious and righteous, and my gratitude belongs to You for who You are and what You have done through Your Son and the work of creation.
Psalm 117The LORD’s Faithfulness Endures ForeverLORD, as Your lovingkindness is great and Your truth is everlasting, let all the nations praise and exalt You above all else.
Psalm 118His Steadfast Love Endures ForeverLORD, as isolation, rejection, and enmity of people in Your church become pressed against me, and one another, my confidence stands in You and Your word as an anchor.
Psalm 119Your Word Is a Lamp to My FeetLORD, Your Word lights my path before me as Your truth and instructions are a delight to my soul. Your Word is pleasing, and the source of nourishment needed to glorify You and dwell in Your truth. By Your Spirit, teach me Your Word as it was originated and intended for Your purposes and good pleasure.
Psalm 120Deliver Me, O LORDLORD, I confess that at times my word is terse and abrasive from unwanted emotions or circumstances that have become contentious. Please help me to guard my tongue from deception and error where dishonor or indifference gets in between us, or those we love.
Psalm 121My Help Comes from the LORDLORD, I trust You to keep my heart and soul directed to Your ways and Your interests all my life.
Psalm 122Let Us Go to the House of the LORDLORD, let my worship be directed to You and just for what You have done for me. I want to be in worship where Your holiness and beauty is cherished and admired without sensational allure or mere emotional entanglement.
Psalm 123Our Eyes Look to the LORD Our GodNon nisi te, Domine.
Psalm 124Our Help Is in the Name of the LORDLORD, I am susceptible to worldly influences that direct my attention away from the path of sanctification You have set before me. As you have directed my steps in life, I trust You to bring me to completion as Your workmanship.
Psalm 125The LORD Surrounds His PeopleLORD, it is You alone I trust for my security and significance. It is not my desire to derive my sense of self-worth or value from anything other than who You say that I am. You are my prize and the treasure that I long to have. Please let Your Spirit keep my heart and mind directed toward You even in the face of towering obstacles.
Psalm 126Restore Our Fortunes, O LORDLORD, I am available for the work You see fit in which I could honor and serve You. Bring me to people and ministry that is for Your kingdom as suitable to Your interests.
Psalm 127Unless the LORD Builds the HouseLORD, You provide the resources necessary for Your people to dwell in You. As the birds of the air are cared for, and the lilies of the field are arrayed in beauty, warmth, and sunlight, You care for Your children because You love them.
Psalm 128Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the LORDLORD, the lived and labor of this household belongs to You, and it is my desire that we honor You in obedience and by the fruit of the Spirit.
Psalm 129They Have Afflicted Me from My YouthLORD, I respect, admire, support, and defend Your people of modern Israel as I love Your people of ancient times even during their times of tribulation and alienation.
Psalm 130My Soul Waits for the LordLORD, I do hope in Your word and my soul waits for You to dwell in Your lovingkindness. Thank you for Your lovingkindness, forgiveness, and renewal that I could stand before You.
Psalm 131I Have Calmed and Quieted My SoulLORD, how You guide me and where You take me is where I want to be. Even with persistent worldly pressures, and desires of the flesh, I will trust in You for my present and my future as You have guided me and kept my soul with You in the past.
Psalm 132The LORD Has Chosen ZionFather God, thank You for Your Son who makes it possible to love and honor You with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Thank You for Your servant, David who You love, and for Your promises fulfilled down through the ages as You are faithful.
Psalm 133When Brothers Dwell in UnityLORD, You are the origin of unity in truth. In You there is peace through You where the unity of Your people is found by what we accept as truth in what we understand and conclude about how existence, creation, and social order really is.
Psalm 134Come, Bless the LORDLORD, as blessings come from You, we bless You by praising You. Your blessings are abundant and beyond measure, as You bring to Your people the capacity to receive and give due honor and praise to You for Your glory.
Psalm 135Your Name, O LORD, Endures ForeverLORD, You provide all that we need as You are good and above all gods, all pleasures, and anything above creation itself. I treasure You for the good that You have done and Your Son for what He is doing.
Psalm 136His Steadfast Love Endures ForeverLORD, for the numerous works You have done for Your people, Your presence and power are undeniable and praiseworthy.
Psalm 137How Shall We Sing the LORD’s Song?LORD, as You have permitted the captivity of Your people to Babylon, I am reminded of the times of spiritual exile I have endured over the course of life. Help me to learn from those seasons of dryness where I am fully confident in You and Your sovereignty.
Psalm 138Give Thanks to the LORDLORD God, I do not want to set anything before You or above You. LORD, transform my heart will full and lasting repentance and obedience where I am able to walk according to the Spirit, according to Your will.
Psalm 139Search Me, O God, and Know My HeartSearch me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 140Deliver Me, O LORD, from Evil MenLORD, Your servant David serves as a model for me as praises and prayers are offered to You. When hardships from others are upon me, I will recount Your promises about maintaining my desire, will, and efforts to follow You and obey.
Psalm 141Give Ear to My VoiceLORD, be merciful to me a sinner. The root of my unacceptable thoughts and words is my heart that needs regeneration and renewal. As I call out to You in repentance, please guard my heart that I would not think or speak in ways displeasing to You.
Psalm 142You Are My RefugeLORD, in our distress we reach out to You for mercy and deliverance. We at times become afraid because of what hardships and circumstances are upon us. We wish to avoid pain and suffering, and so we call to You even when our motives are not pure. Please be merciful to us who are unable to pray, praise, and petition correctly out of proper reasons to love and obey You.
Psalm 143My Soul Thirsts for YouLORD, the urgency of restored fellowship with You by Your Spirit is heavy on the heart and mind as I reach out to You in prayer for cleansing, deliverance, and sanctification. Let my prayers be heard and answer them according to my plea, so that I would not ever offend You.
Psalm 144My Rock and My FortressLORD, Your ever-present help is needed before, during, and after times of conflict with personal temptations, pressures, and interpersonal struggles. Let my voice be heard and anticipate what is needed for my continued and lasting work of devotion.
Psalm 145Great Is the LORDLORD, the best part of following You is Knowing You for who You are. You are my joy and my righteousness and my heart’s desire is to know You, LORD. I want to be found in You as I belong to You. You are my treasured possession, my peace, and I am nothing without You.
Psalm 146Put Not Your Trust in PrincesLORD, it isn’t enough that my thoughts and words praise You and honor You. My desire is that my actions and conduct reflect Your grace and presence in my life. Let my life be a living sacrifice acceptable to You by what I do for those whom You love.
Psalm 147He Heals the BrokenheartedLORD, the power You have demonstrated since the beginning has been made evident by historical records from antiquity. Even today and until the new Heaven and Earth, You are at work to bring together Your interests and purposes for the nations and mankind.
Psalm 148Praise the Name of the LORDLORD, how wonderful is the splendor and magnificence of Your creative work. When I look to the mountains, I see You there. When I look to the stars and galaxies, I see You there. In my limited capacity to understand You and Your ways, I worship You.
Psalm 149Sing to the LORD a New SongLORD, as I sing and play my instruments of praise, may they be an acceptable offering to You. Bring to my heart more time and energy to commit the music I play in honor to You for worship and praise pleasing to You and Your people.
Psalm 150Let Everything Praise the LORDLORD God, may my offerings of praise, worship, confession, lament, and adoration be acceptable and pleasing to You. Let the accumulation of all my lifetime praises be as fruit that is well-pleasing and a blessing to You. I praise You and love You.

Suffer the Afflicted

By on in Theology

While the reader of the book of Job is presented with extraordinary hardships placed upon a blameless servant of God (Job 1:8), it becomes apparent that suffering can have a transcendent meaning and purpose that is not readily grasped. From a careful and thorough understanding of the Job text, we are presented with a poetic narrative that describes Job’s encounter with a spiritual adversary. From among the “sons of God” (benê’ hā’ ělō·hîm’) who appeared before Yahweh God, the satan figure in the narrative challenged the morally excellent state of Job in contradiction to how pleased God was with him. The formation of the presence and spectacle of imposed suffering upon the innocent outside of personal responsibility or external natural causes is an alarming theological possibility from a historical perspective.

What is suffering and what causes it?

Job’s antagonistic challengers Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu, bring to mind the possibility of what causes for suffering arises from sin or lifestyles of disorder and unwise conduct. Even while Job was falsely charged as guilty of such causes, the underlying consistent premise among them indicates a more narrow validity of what the false accusations were. Throughout scripture, we observe numerous occurrences of suffering as an outcome of evil behaviors as a matter of course. In contrast to the absence of evil thoughts, words, or deeds of Job, Scripture is replete with mistakes, errors in judgment, and outright defiance that led to various levels of undue or unwanted misery. Consider the cause-and-effect relationships that exist between evil and suffering among the numerous stories of the Bible that serve as a source of wisdom for its readers.

From before the fall of mankind, the presence of evil in the universe exposed susceptible humanity to suffering. To eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to disposition humanity toward perpetual suffering as a consequence of its defiance against Yahweh. When the “serpent” (hā nā·ḥāš) contradicted Yahweh at the garden of Eden to beguile Eve (Gen 3:4), prior to the fall of humanity, there existed a precedent form of disorder within creation that in turn set the environment for participative human suffering. Disorder and evil that entered creation was a betrayal of Yahweh as Creator and separation or alienation, was to propagate for thousands of years with its corresponding expression as human suffering and misery. With violations of the Edenic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants, through the New Covenant toward today among believers and unbelievers alike, people are subject to the effects of suffering that arise from spiritual conflict and natural causes, including corporate, generational, or personal sin.

To define human suffering is to understand the experience as pain or distress, both physical and emotional.1 As to the ultimate cause of sin, Genesis 3:14-19 explicitly details the historical root background that explains the fall of humanity. However, suffering doesn’t necessarily stem from particular sins (Job 1:1, Jn 9:1-3, Job 5:6-7, Rom 5:12-14). As demonstrated in the New Testament, Jesus’ healing of the man born blind casts into a clear understanding that it was not a particular sin of the person suffering (or his parents) who would be responsible for the hardship. Moreover, the author of Romans makes clear that the presence of sin was in the world before the Mosaic law was delivered and sin is not counted where there is no law. Specifically, while suffering certainly existed since the fall and as a consequence of sin, suffering wasn’t recognized as an outcome of a particular sin as prohibited and condemned by a corresponding law or covenant stipulation.

Aside from human wickedness, suffering also results from calamity, adversity, or mishap. Examples include accidents (2 Sam 4:4, 2 Kings, 1:2, Luke 13:4), sickness (Gen 48:1, Ps 42:10; Matt 8:6), hunger and want (Job 30:3, Isa 29:6, Matt 25:42-43), and disasters (Isa 29:6, Matt 24:7, Acts 27:18-20). There are numerous sources of suffering that originate from the fallen nature of creation, too. Such as aging (2 Sam 19:34-35, Ps 17:9, Ecc 12:1), bereavement (Gen 23:1-2, Job 1:18-19, Jas 1:27), anxiety (Prov 12:25, Deut 28:65-67, Lk 21:26), foolishness (Ps 107:17, Prov 10:1, Jdg 11:34-36), satanic activity (Job 2:6-7, 1 Jn 5:19, Rev 2:10), demonic possession/oppression (Matt 8:28, Matt 12:22, Matt 15:22), and God’s will (Jn 9:3, Eph 1:11) all to serve as scriptural examples to contemplate, mitigate, or ease the gravity of suffering.

Why is suffering a pervasive condition throughout humanity?

The German philosopher Leibniz (1646-1716) originated the term “theodicy”2 in 1710 to form an understanding of evil in the world that is not in conflict with the goodness of God. Leibniz asserted that the presence of evil in the world with the goodness of God is “the best of all possible worlds.”3 The inference of the theodicy about the best of all possible worlds, with suffering, brings attention to the sovereignty of God as a way to recognize Him as Creator with trust and confidence from His created beings about His purposes and intentions.

With the abundance and growth of evil and sin as a function of increased populations, moral decay, and the presence of spiritual darkness over societies and nations (Eph 6:12), there exists an increased and widespread effect of suffering notwithstanding the various other causes outlined above.

Where does suffering come from and where does it go?

In the discourse between Job and his accusers, it is evident there is a common cause that gives reason to those who suffer. The consistent premise among those who call Job to repent includes the presence of wickedness to explain why there is misery, loss, pain, and agony. As an assumption universally applied to those who undergo unexplained suffering, there must be a reason for its existence among the guilty. Notwithstanding natural or supernatural causes, the presence of suffering correlates to the presence of sin where the unwise can falsely conclude adverse judgment through natural, social, or unwanted personal outcomes. The voices of false accusations against Job from among his friends add to the suffering and contribute to the pressure that he would prove out the satan’s assail against God and curse Him to His face (Job 1:11).

Justice dispensed from wrongdoing often appears in the form of consequences that bear upon people in the form of adversity, hardship, or suffering. Intuitively, through life experiences, the notion of “what goes around comes around” makes for a type of resolution to injustice, wickedness, and evil that cannot stand. Even after Job’s confession and repentance (Job 42), Yahweh rebuked Job’s friends and informed them that His servant Job would pray for them to dismiss their folly (Job 42:8). Moreover, to dissipate the anger of Yahweh (Job 42:7), they were directly instructed to offer up burnt offerings of seven bulls and seven rams. Justice served in the form of sacrifices for sinful and unwise words against Job provided an escape from suffering, but there was still a loss of life and the cost of assets as a type of restitution.

Who does suffering affect? Who endures suffering and who causes it?

As Christ suffered, believers are expected to suffer too (Mk 13:13, Mt 10:17, Lk 12:16-17). It is the cost of godliness (Heb 12:11, Isa 38:17, Jn 15:2), and it is a condition of service to the body of Christ (Col 1:24, 2 Cor 4:10, Acts 9:16). The innocent are prepared for heaven through suffering (2 Cor 4:16-5:4) as they trust God for endurance as He sustains them (Ps 55:22-23, Ps 56:3-4, Ps 59:16). There are numerous references to God’s response to suffering, including deliverance of the afflicted (Job 42:10-12, Ps 34:19, Rev 7:16).

As Jesus spoke of the provisional grace of God upon the good and evil alike (Matt 5:45), His anger remains present upon the wicked who are among the suffering and afflicted (Ps 11:5, Ps 59:8, Ezek 36:6-7, Hab 2:9-12). Moreover, historically, and eschatologically, the judgment of God rests upon the wicked (Mal 3:5, Ex 3:19-20, Ps 73:16-18, Amos 1:3, Jas 2:13, 1 Pet 4:18, Rev 18:6-7).

How does suffering have a bearing on people, and our relationship with God?

As suffering implies physical and emotional distress, it at times accompanies initial or continuing pain, discomfort, anguish, anxiety, and other bodily or mental disorders that affect the well-being of individuals. In such a way, the person undergoing suffering is affected to include those in an immediate or more far-reaching sphere of influence. The weight of suffering affects the person and his surroundings to cascade to friends, family, coworkers, the community, and even further. There are wrong answers along the course of suffering (Job 4:7, Jn 9:2-3, Ezek 18:25). Adverse reactions include resentment (Job 2:9-10), terror (Job 23:13-15), strife (Job 40:2), envy (Ps 73:3), or disillusionment (Ps 73:13) as compared to a proper frame of mind or disposition. For example, submission to the interests and will of God can bring peace (Job 1:21, 2:9-10) and reverence (Matt 10:28).

How to respond in wisdom to the presence of suffering

As a conscious decision in response to personal suffering, numerous scriptural answers bear out the wisdom of God as given by examples in His word.

  1. Share the burden of those who are subjected to medical hardships, poverty, incarceration, grieving, and insurmountable loss that brings despair. Galatians 6:2 advises us to bear the burden of others, and 1 Peter 4:12-19 leads us to enjoin our sufferings with Christ.
  2. Live in empathy and of shared mind as we are urged to persevere and weep with those who weep (Rom 12:12-16).
  3. Refrain from following the examples of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Job’s friends). They were in error about assumptions and the causes or conditions of those subjected to suffering due to no immediate fault of their own.
  4. Recognize that sovereign causes, the presence of evil, and personal consequences can involve mercy and grace as we are instructed to pray for those in affliction.
  5. Draw close to God in humility (Jas 4:8) and let the adversity bring you and those you love to close unity with God and His intentions for your work, life, and spiritual well-being.

Citations

1 Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009).
2 G. W. F. Leibniz, Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1969).
3 Craig G. Bartholomew and Ryan P. O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham: IVP Academic; Apollos, 2011), 158.

Song of Solomon Walkthrough

By on in Theology

Short OT book (eight chapters) containing only poetry. Its beautiful poetic passages describe the many dimensions of human love; there is little in this book that is explicitly religious. In addition to the popular title, the book is sometimes referred to as the “Song of Songs”; this is the most literal translation of the short title of the book in the original language and means “the best of all possible songs.” Some writers also entitle the book “Canticles”; this title is based on the name of the Latin version of the book, Canticum Canticorum.1

Song of Solomon 1: 
The bride of the king extols her desire and love.  

Song of Solomon 2: 
Bride and bridegroom speak of devotion and intimacy toward one another.  

Song of Solomon 3: 
The bride delights in her bridegroom as the king arrives for the wedding.

Song of Solomon 4: 
The bridegroom delights in his bride and her beauty.  

Song of Solomon 5: 
The wedding ceremony of the bride, bridegroom, and guests.

Song of Solomon 6: 
Women, young women, and the groom praise the bride.

Song of Solomon 7: 
Expressions of intimacy between bride and bridegroom.

Song of Solomon 8: 
The bride and bridegroom share a strong desire for one another.

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1 Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Song of Solomon,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1978.

Book of Ecclesiastes Walkthrough

By on in Theology

Ecclesiastes, Book of. OT book of wisdom literature. Ecclesiastes is philosophical in character, posing deep questions about the meaning and nature of human existence. “Ecclesiastes” is the Greek title for the book and has come into English from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT). In keeping with an early Jewish practice of adopting the first few words of a book as the title, the Hebrew title of Ecclesiastes is “The Words of Qoheleth, the Son of David, King in Jerusalem.” It is also known simply as “Qoheleth.”

The term “Qoheleth” is the author’s title for himself throughout the book (Ecc 1:1, 2, 12; 7:27; 12:8–10). It is the Hebrew participial form of a verb meaning “to assemble,” and thus it seems to designate one who speaks in an assembly. The word has often been translated “the preacher” in English. Because of the philosophical nature of the book, however, the title possibly indicates the author’s function or station as a leader in the community of wise men.1

Ecclesiastes 1: 
All is pointless and vanity, even the pursuit of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 2: 
Self-indulgence, extravagance, and hard work are pointless and vain.

Ecclesiastes 3: 
The purposes of timing, life, and works of the righteous as they are gifts from God.

Ecclesiastes 4: 
The futility and vanity of human reason without Godly wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 5: 
Wisdom by the fear of God is of far greater worth than wealth and honor.

Ecclesiastes 6: 
Life and the ability to enjoy it is a gift from God.

Ecclesiastes 7: 
Reject folly and evils of the world to consider the works of God and practice wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 8: 
Those who do well, and fear God are those who abide by His commands.

Ecclesiastes 9: 
Live well and in wisdom as life is short and everyone dies.

Ecclesiastes 10:
Principles of wisdom and folly.

Ecclesiastes 11: 
Preparing for the future and old age.

Ecclesiastes 12: 
Remember God, fear Him, and keep His commandments.
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1Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Ecclesiastes, Book Of,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 651.