How long is an age long, and why?

Part of the age issue is theological, which I don't think has attracted much attention.

Some thoughts:

Ancient (pagan -- or 'mimetic' and idealistic -- or exilic, such as Hinduism -- using Westphal's taxonomy) views of the age of the cosmos were of long ages ( far longer than modern), eternal existence or unquantified into myth. They all tended to dehistoricize the origin stories or myths (often accompanied by ludicrous and irrational causality and calling upon fantastical creatures -- perhaps related to pre-flood denizens?). That is, outside the flow of time we are in and thus unreachable by and uncontactable by us.

It is the 'uncontactable' that is important: they all thus tend to or actually de-personalize the creation event(s) and place the creating force at inaccessible remove from our life-world and historical flow. The 'gods' are incommunicado,  remote, and uninterested in the creature, except as fodder or slaves, it would seem

All of this serves to strand humanity in an impersonal cosmos with the only possible 'integration point' being, at best, fickle exploitative forces indifferent to man's good and often inimical to it. At worst enabling man's depravity, cruelty and assertion of determinative moral opinions 

Modern materialist 'long ages' touted as accommodating Evolutionary processes, but in fact far too short for NDE to produce the current biota, are in this league. As against the Genesis account (which extends across Genesis 1-3, IMO)  which places man for fellowship with God in the same time-space and historical flow that the stage of fellowship was created.

In this account God is communicatively with us and ontologically and actually present and active directly and personally in our time-space world, which he spoke (speaking the first gesture of fellowship) into existence. The creation is thus both historicized and personalized. It echos the love with which the Creator worked.

Furthermore, it grounds in what is truly real our epistemology, our ontology and our axiology, all in the God who is and who speaks, finally in his Messiah where the '2nd person of the godhead' takes on human form as the inheritor of the creation. The grounding is in our time-space shown in God's action in the days that we exist in without denigrating but rather exulting in them .They define the domain of his creatures who would reflect his image in his creation for them, in a resonant responsive relational congress.

So, modern 'long ages' push God's creative acts out of our sphere of action and history to de-couple the creation from our 'life-world' and intruding an existential barrier of an incomprehensible past unreflective of the warmth and care of the creation events. They make any interaction with God of dubious historical weight. This possibly invites back the Platonism which has dogged theology for too long and makes God personally differently from his revelation of self in Genesis 1-3. It detaches Messiah from the continuity of care (love) demonstrated in that account and fantasizes the New Creation, when the NT has it the palpable consummation of the Kingdom of Christ.

 

More cogitating on my previous note:

Long age views of creation displace God as he identifies himself in G 1-3 as the sole author of creation. They replace him with the creation itself in some way, To the extent that in TE he is merged into and becomes indistinguishable from the creation. However, long-age creationists similarly displace him more subtly because the bulwark against displacement is removed.

The work in days delineate God's self proclaimed relationship with the creation, and convey his identity as the one distinct from creation while able to, preserving that distinction, be its sole author.

This diminished identity then diminishes what it is to be in God's image and in communion with God...imperiling the communion we look forward to in the New Creation, which may now also be destabilized as the creation no longer bears the exclusive mark of God's love.

Other views challenge his sole authorship by deferring to views that were old when Epicureanism was current and use that story, which served to eliminate God as creator. These invented views then supplant the Biblical account, taking us somewhere else. At once God's identity and our relationship with both the creator and the creation as the creation is  changed. The priority that God reserves for himself in G 1-3.is now shared with or given to the creation.

The locus of 'creation' moves from the propositional and relation-building word of God, to the mute creation itself.

Christ's lordship is, as a result, diminished as the creation has  'done its own thing' absorbing God's work and anonymizing it, at best. In these terms the question as to what God did in the long age views remains unanswered or reduced to speculation adrift from revelation.

The various long age views fail to stand up to Nagel's forlorn description of life as a (meaningless) episode between two oblivions...despite that no sane person really lives this way.

Provisional thoughts, but may be of interest.

 

The Messianic Arc

Why are Christians, New Testament people, so interested in Torah, indeed the whole Old Testament, the Tanakh?

Because it is the genealogy of the world!

And that of the world to come as it traces the great cosmic arc etched in history in the coming and accomplishment of Messiah and his New Creation.

 

"Behold, I make all things new". Revelation 21:5 

Why 4 Gospels?

Why not just one gospel?

The critical issue for any account of an event is evidence. The more witnesses the better. And better still if they have differing perspectives, that way you can be more sure that it is not a put-up job.

When police collect witness statements it gets very suspicious if they are the same, because everyone has a naturally different perspective. Same perspective points to collusion or fraud and raises the suspicion of just one witness giving a self-serving, and distorted report. This would probably be, in reality, an event in private and could be a complete fabrication

Such suspicion attaches to the Quran which was both 'revealed' in private and with circumstantial convenience, and the Book of Mormon, read by Joe Smith alone through magical glasses on gold tablets, which he did not and so probably could not produce!

Still, a sucker is born every minute...both these 'authors' had  predilections for multiple wives and violence, that would also attract the suckers!

Now think about the witnesses of a traffic accident where a number of reports are prepared by those who saw the event or attended the scene for the police to use.

The vehicle removal operative would have a report that was about vehicles and their condition, their place on the road and what had to be done to remove them.

The ambulance crew would talk about the conditions of the injured, perhaps how they were extricated from the cars, what immediate medical aid was given and the hospital(s) to which they were transported.

The on-lookers would give very different views depending on their location when the accident happened, their familiarity with cars and their degree of shock. If they knew the injured or  not would also be a factor.

The  police report from the GD police would provide one perspective, the technical report in evidence from Accident Investigation another.

All reports would differ, but al about the same accident with differing perspectives and purposes.

So the Gospels.

Mark gives a short action-filled account for the average Jewish disciple, let's say.

Luke is interested in fine detail for an educated Greek readership.

Matthew concentrates on the theology and

John writes with a more philosophical or spiritual interest for the more sophisticated Jew or Greek, perhaps.

Some different emphases are given by the writers for their different readers. Variously emphasizing this and sometimes that.

Differences don't mean contradiction, they mean different perspectives with different emphases and referring to different parts or aspects of the mission..

The multiplicity of gospels show this was not an mission or events in secret, but were before witnesses consistently.

If there is only one witness, the cops are understandably sceptical that there is a case without substantial evidence. Once again, compare the Quran where the only witness was self-proclaimed beneficiary of the 'revelation'.!

 

 

What about reading the Bible? Eh?

Over the past few years I've read the Gospels during Advent, Acts before Epiphany, then the remainder of the New Testament by Candlemas. Ive been blessed with the capacity to do this in a different translation each of the past 8 or so years.

I then seek to read the Pentateuch during Lent and other Old Testament sections, according to the Tanakh order up until the next Advent.

But, time to change.

My plan from next Advent is to go slower,

Month/Season	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4
Advent*	Matthew, Romans	Mark, 1 Corinthians	Luke 2 Corinthians	John, Galatians, Ephesians
January	Mark, 1 Corinthians	1,2 Thessalonians 1,2 Timothy, Titus	John, Galatians, Ephesians	1,2 Thessalonians 1,2 Timothy, Titus
February	Luke 2 Corinthians	Philemon, Hebrews	Matthew, Romans	Philemon, Hebrews
March	John, Galatians, Ephesians	James, 1, 2 Peter	Mark, 1 Corinthians	James, 1, 2 Peter
Lent (or thereabouts)	Acts, Philippians, Colossians	1-3 John, Jude,	Acts, Philippians, Colossians	1-3 John, Jude,
Post Pentecost	Pentateuch	Revelation	Pentateuch	Revelation
To Advent	Prophets – former	Prophets – Later	Writings – Ps, Pv, Job	Writings – Dan - Chron

 * Gospels really on an 8-year cycle as per the pattern above.

 

 

Encourage Bible reading.

One of the hired help that serves our church commented to me that the church encourages Bible reading.

I asked how it does this.

He replied: by encouraging it!

I think he meant that he would say to people "best to read your Bible day by day" or some such.

That's not 'encouragement' that's mere urging.

Here's how one encourages Bible-reading: by making it easy, attractive, and purposeful.

The best way that springs to mind is to make the Bible accessible.

Perhaps two or three times a year, a short seminar might be held to introduce people to the Bible.

Let's call it 'Open Bible', or ''Bible made Simple'...name is up to you.

It need only be an hour or so long but it would cover the structure, message and history of the Bible.

To most new readers, the Bible is an intimidatingly large, incomprehensibly complex and diverse collection of books of unknown antiquity and relevance. Typically, none of it makes sense; particularly when they might be advised to start with a gospel. Usually the word 'gospel' would be unexplained and the point of starting in the middle-ish of the volume would not be self-evident.

This sounds crazy from the get-go.

A simple introductory session, appropriately illustrated with diagrams and timelines  would possibly make it far more interesting and make sense of the Bible as an anthology that traced the works of God in history to restore us to fellowship with him, and the creation to its true purpose as the place where God and mankind come together.

So, just three segments:

What the Bible is

How the Bible is

and

Why the Bible is

At the end of the course a little booklet (yes, I still believe in booklets) with a short introduction to each book would be given, with a suggested reading plan that has a low bar: "take it at your own pace".

The plan I aspire to: Each morning a psalm, or part, it it is long, and each day 4 chapters, or only two if they are long. Take your time, digest, re-read if you drifted off, look up words you don't understand.

I aim to read the gospels during Advent, Acts between Christmas and New Year, then the rest of the New Testament by Candlemas (the feast of the presentation of Our Lord). I read in a different translation each year. This has been my practice for the past 7 or 8 years. I love it.

Then I work through the Old Testament in the Tanakh order. I aim for 4 chapters a day, but can't keep to it, so, without worrying about it, I just keep going until all read, then I start again.

I keep a journal divided into the pericopes that some editions indicate with sub-titles. I make any jottings under the sub-title I'm reading. If  I've got no bright ideas, I note down the highlight event(s) of the particular section.

NEXT 

A follow-on session or sessions might deal with apparent contradictions or problems in the Bible. 

Another might deal with Biblical archaeology.

BTW, for the really keen: Until a few years ago the church I am part of had a small group that met to read the New Testament in Greek. None were theologians, but just people who had learnt the language. I was not one of them, as it happens. 

Natural Theology: its place and purpose

For those who say NT is not a 'salvation' issue.

From Bray, 2012 God is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology, p., 27

"Natural theology has its importance and is taken seriously in the Bible,  but it is a preparation for the gospel and not a substitute for it. It gives people enough knowledge for people to be able to respond to the message of salvation, but not enough to work it out for themselves."

Emphasis, mine.

The days of Genesis do this by placing creation and God's direct action in the history that we are in and showing that God is close, active in history, communicative, and personal. And we are connected to him by his word.

Chosen?

I commented to a post on FreeGrace blog on Ephesians 1:

You wrote: "Verses 4-6 expound on how the Father is involved in the church’s salvation: He chose us."

They DO NOT. This passage is not about salvation, but about  the blessings from God by our position as saints based on our being 'in Christ'. This phrase or its analogue 'in him' is the drum-beat of the first chapter, and they are all showing that our blessings revolved around our being 'in him'.

The passage is about Christ not about us. It is about us, being regenerated we are 'in Christ' for the purpose that we would be holy and blameless being in him.

Correspondingly, we are not predestined for salvation, but being saved we have a destination previously set by God for those who would be in Christ: adoption as sons!

 Incidentally, if we are talking about salvation, the order of salvation is set out in 1:13, 14:

In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

See the order: Listened--Believed--Sealed (regenerated).

We could set it out thus:

    "In him, you also, after

    listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also

    believed, you were

    sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance,

[For?]

    with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

 

The young Christian

As a young Christian, brought up in a church devoid of any real Christian education, or teaching, I knew nothing.

For many years, while I gradually came to grips with aspects of the Bible as anthology (without knowing that word), it's overall form and 'story' escaped me.

From Sunday School, it struck me as a bunch of disconnected stories and precepts. Not helpful

I came to university knowing nothing of theology, of the history of the church, or the chain of themes that made the Bible the story of reality,  to borrow Greg Koukl's phrase.

One thing conspicuously absent was a table of contents, a meaningful one, of the Bible. A list of Books was only minorly helpful, and only for navigation. A list of the pages of Chapters would have been of some minor use in the early years of Bible reading, but what I needed, I think what everyone needs is a list of contents that are the actual thematic content of the Bible. After all, the navigation aids were as useful for this as discussing a holiday by giving the latitudes and longitudes that one had visited.

The Twentieth Century NT in some editions has such a table of contents, but it is a little too much.

But recently I found in the back pages of my NRSV just the thing. Crossed with the editorial paragraph headings of the NASB, I've adapted these and compiled just what I would have been much helped by (along with teaching of the biblical theology) as a teenager.

I hope it helps you too.

The Old Testament

                                Book   Topic                                                 Chapter

The books of the law (Torah) and history: The Pentateuch
	GENESIS	The Creation	1, 2
		The Fall	3
		Genealogies	5
	2350 BC	The Flood	7
		Babel	11
	2091 BC (call)	Abraham	12
	2066 BC (b)	Isaac	22
	2006 BC (b)	Jacob	27
	1915 BC (b)	Joseph	37
	EXODUS	Moses out of Egypt	3
	1446 BC	Israel out of Egypt	12
		Israel at Mt Sinai	19
		The Law	20
		The declaration of creation	31:17
		The exodus continues	33
	LEVITICUS	Sacrifices	1
		The priesthood ritual	7
		Unclean things and the law	11
		Day of Atonement	16
		A holy congregation	19
	NUMBERS	The camp at Sinai	2
		Called out of Sinai	10
		A wandering people	21
	DEUTERONOMY	The Ten Commandments	5
		The Book of the Covenant	12
		God’s chosen people	28
		Blessing from Moses	33
The historical books:
	JOSHUA	The Promised Land	1
	1406 BC	Each tribe’s allotment	13
	JUDGES	Tribal conquests	1
	1224 BC	Deborah	4
	1177 BC	Gideon	6:11
		Jephthah	11
		Samson	13
	RUTH	Ruth and Boaz	1
	1 SAMUEL	God calls Samuel	3
	1043 BC	Saul	9
	1011 BC	David	16
	2 SAMUEL	David, King of Judah	2
		Absalom’s conspiracy	15
	1 KINGS	Solomon	2
	930 BC	A torn kingdom	12
		Elijah	17
	2 KINGS	Elisha	2
		Samaria conquest	17
		Jerusalem destruction	25
	1 CHRONICLES	Official lists	1
		The city of David	11
		The ark of the Lord	13
		Temple appointments	23
	2 CHRONICLES	Building the temple	2
		Solomon’s reign	8
		Kingdom of Judah	11
		Josiah’s reform	34
		Babylonian captivity	36
	EZRA	Return to Jerusalem	3
	536 BC	The great assembly	10
	NEHEMIAH	Ancient walls and gates	2
		The dedication	12:27
	ESTHER	Haman and Mordecai	4
The Poetical Books
	JOB	Job’s affliction	1
		The questioning	4
		God’s blessing	42
	PSALMS	Book 1	1-41
		Book 2	42-72
		Book 3	73-89
		Book 4	90-106
		Book 5	107-150
	PROVERBS	Proverbs of Solomon	1
		Guidance for wise living	22
		Words of Agur	30
		Words of Lemuel	31
	ECCLESIASTES	Quest for wisdom	9:13
	SONG OF SOLOMON	The song of songs	1
The Major Prophets
	ISAIAH	Isaiah and Ahaz	7
		Prophesies about the nations	13
		Isaiah and Hezekiah	37
		Captivity prophesied	39
		Concerning the return	40
		Cyrus	45
		The Lord’s anointed	61
	JEREMIAH	God calls Jeremiah	1
		The prophet’s persecution	27
		Concerning the nations	46
	LAMENTATIONS	The fall of Jerusalem	1
	EZEKIEL	The sins of Jerusalem	4
		God’s judgement	20
		After the fall of Jerusalem	33:21
		The temple of the Holy City	40
	DANIEL	Nebuchadnezzar’s dream	2
	607 BC	The golden image	3
		Omen at the feast	5:5
		Daniel’s visions	7
The Minor Prophets
	HOSEA	Hosea’s experience	1
		God yearns for Israel	11
	JOEL	The day of the Lord	1
	AMOS	Judgement of the nations	1
		God and Israel	2:6
		Amos at Bethel	7
	OBADIAH	The pride of Edom	1
	JONAH	The prophet’s disobedience	1
		The prophet’s education	2
	MICAH	Deliver from Bethlehem	5
	NAHUM	The end of Nineveh	2
	HABAKKUK	At the watchtower	1
	ZEPHANIAN	The day of the Lord	1
	HAGGAI	Rebuilding the temple	1
	ZECHARIAH	Visions of the night	1
		Visions of prosperity	8
	MALACHI	A call to remembrance	4

 The New Testament

The Gospels
	MATTHEW	The saviour is born	1
		His baptism, temptation	3:13
	27 AD	In Galilee	4:23
		In Jerusalem	21
		The crucifixion	27:32
	30 AD	The resurrection	28
	MARK	Jesus in Galilee	1
	29 AD	Jesus in Judea	10
		Passion week	11
	LUKE	Saviour’s birth, youth	2
		His baptism, temptation	3
		His message, mission	5
		Journey to Jerusalem	9:51
		Death and resurrection	23:26
	JOHN	Here is the lamb of God	1:29
		The first Passover	2:13
		The second Passover	6:4
		The third Passover	13
		High priestly prayer,	17
		Passion, Resurrection	18
The Early Church
	ACTS OF THE APOSTLES	In Jerusalem	1
		In Judea, Samaria	8
		In Antioch	11:19
	47 AD	First mission journey	13:4
		Council at Jerusalem	15
	50 AD	Second mission journey	15:22
	53 AD	Third mission journey	19
		Paul in Jerusalem	21:17
	59 AD	Paul goes to Rome	27
Letters of Paul
	ROMANS	Message of salvation	1
		The Jews and Gospel	9
		Life in Christ	12
	1 CORINTHIANS	Dissension in the church	1
		The Lord’s Supper (church gathering)	11
		Gifts of the Spirit	12
		The resurrection	15
	2 CORINTHIANS	God’s comfort and mercy	1:3
		Ambassadors for Christ	4:16
		Paul’s suffering	11
	GALATIANS	The gospel of Christ	1:6
		Life in Christ	5
	EPHESIANS	The household of God	1
		Christian living	4
	PHILIPPIANS	The mind of Christ	1
	COLOSSIANS	The supremacy of Christ; creator	1
	1 THESSALONIANS	His coming is at hand	5
	2 THESSALONIANS	Prayer and praise	2
Paul’s pastoral letters
	1 TIMOTHY	The Christian ministry	1:3
	2 TIMOTHY	The servant’s duties	2
	TITUS	Stewards of God	1
Paul’s personal letter
	PHILEMON	The runaway slave	1
Other apostolic letters
	HEBREWS	Christ our high priest	4:14
		The better covenant	8
		Heroes of faith	11
	JAMES	Strength through faith	1:2
		Faith and action	2:14
	1 PETER	Hope in Christ	1:3
		Stewards of God’s grace	4
	2 PETER	False prophets	2
	1 JOHN	Fellowship with the father	1
	2 JOHN	Love one another	1:4
	3 JOHN	Co-workers	1
	JUDE	Resist evil ways	1
Prophesy
	REVELATION	Letters to seven churches	1
		Heavenly worship	4
		Opening the seals	6
		Trumpet blasts	8
		The church triumphant	14
		Judgement visions	17
		The New Creation	21

Link to download a PDF of this guide.