God's Story and You!

Well, our semester has ended, and grades will be posted soon. This "blog" was not a roaring success. I do think it could be a good idea, especially for off campus students and adjunct professors! Perhaps we should have "required" interaction, at least at the beginning of the semester, to get things going. I enjoyed our class times and the opportunity to get to know you all. In our section we had a great bunch of students with great potential for a life that will impact other lives for eternity. God has a plan for you, a good plan. You can look ahead with excitement and anticipation as "his story" unfolds and your part in that story is revealed. Keep looking up!
Vão com Deus!
Dr. Nash

Four Gospels, One Jesus

This week we talked about the challenges of reading the Gospels. Why did God give us four parallel, complementary accounts of Jesus' life, ministry, and teachings, and not a single, more comprehensive volume presenting his complete biography? We need to remember that these too are occasional documents, written to specific audiences with definite pastoral concerns and theological interests. We have talked about the importance of context in interpretation, and the Gospels are certainly no exception. We need to look at the historical situation of Jesus, and appreciate what his actions and teachings revealed to his disciples and to the multitudes. We also need to think about the historical context of the writer, years after the cross and resurrection. The writers used selectivity in bringing together and arranging their accounts of the teachings and works of Jesus in order to teach and minister to the needs of their audiences. The Gospels are reliable accounts of what Jesus did and said, but they are not exhaustive biographies. They have a message. They teach theology. We need to read each of the four as complete narratives, and study them carefully to understand what the writer was teaching his original readers. Having done that, we can ask how the principles taught relate to us in our 21st century context.

Reading Biblical Narratives

The title of this blog, "What's the Story?", relates directly to our current topic: reading Biblical Narratives. Narrative is the most common literary genre in the Bible. We must read these texts remembering that they present a trustworthy account of what was said and what happened as redemptive history unfolded. I am convinced however that none of these documents were written merely to preserve an account of "what happened back then." They were written for the "here and now" of the author, with a purpose of speaking to the community of faith, and encouraging them to know God better and to walk more closely with him. All this means that as we read these books we need to ask what God was doing in and through the people in the story, and also what the writer was trying to teach his readers about knowing God and living faithfully. Once we understand what the writer was saying to his readers, we can ask what God is saying to us through these stories. Keep reading, and have a great weekend!
Dr. Nash

How to read a letter

"Read a letter, I thought this course was about the Bible?" The New Testament epistles are, for the most part, letters written by an apostle to a church or individual. They are what we call "occasional documents" in that they were written at a particular time to particular people to meet specific needs in the community. It is a bit like playing "Jeopardy!" from our perspective in that the letter is the answer, and as we read it carefully, in order to understand it properly, we need to discern the question (s) that occasioned its writing. We are at a distinct disadvantage from the original readers: they understood their own historical situation, the relationship they had with the writer, and the challenges and struggles of the community. They also did not have the same cultural distance that we have with the writer. As 21st century readers we face some challenges in understanding the first century letters, but they are not insurmountable. We need to read the epistles as letters and ask questions about what is being said and what is being presupposed. We need to be students of the historical context and culture. Once we understand what the writer said to his readers (and why he said it) we can better ask what God is saying to us in these writings. As you read Romans this week, and Philemon for the final project, remember you are reading a letter, and see what windows of understanding that opens for you.

Who needs interpretation?

Since the last part of our course is about interpreting the Bible, you might anticipate my answer to the title for this post: we all do! The thing is, we are all interpreting all the time, whether or not we are conscious of the fact. We hear what someone says, or we read what they have written, and based on our common experience and understanding of language we determine what they "mean" by the symbols they have used. Most of the time we do a pretty good job of understanding what we are saying to each other. But what happens when we speak to someone from a radically different culture, say a foreign student from a central asian country about which we know little? The cultural, geographical, and linguistic distance between us can sometimes make understanding one another challenging, especially when we try to communicate abstract concepts. Think about reading the Bible as a cross-cultural experience. Most of the biblical documents were written over a 1500 year period, by writers coming from a very different historical and cultural setting. Things that would have been self evident to the writer, and to his readers, may be harder to discern for us. What was his purpose in writing? What were the needs of his community that prompted the communication? What could he presuppose about their understanding of the images and language he used? We need to be students of the biblical world, trying to understand as much as we can about the writers and their audiences, in order to "hear" more fully and correctly what the biblical documents have to say to us! Fee and Stuart will be a guide to get us started on a lifetime of learning and deepening our understanding of "How to read the Bible for all its worth"!
Dr. Nash

The Fullness of Time had come!

This week we saw how God was in control, preparing the stage for the arrival of Messiah Jesus at just the right time. The messianic expectation in all of its diversity was in full bloom, and few were ready for the coming of the Son of God when he burst on the scene as the son of the carpenter (or so it was assumed!). But why do we have four accounts of the story of Jesus? Would it not have been better for God to inspire someone to write an inclusive and exhaustive biography? As we continue discussing his life and then the birth of the NT church, we'll see that each writer, from his own perspective, complements the others, and wrote with the needs of his readers in mind. What do you think?

"Break the teeth of my enemies!"

Several of you commented in last week's paper about the prayers in the psalms that ask God to defeat or destroy the enemies of the psalmist. These passages, called "imprecations", present a rather thorny moral dilemma from our modern New Testament perspective. Are we to pray for our enemies' destruction? Should we ask God to crush those who oppose us? It is important to note a couple of factors: 1) Salvation in the OT routinely had two aspects, one positive (life and blessing in the land), and another we could call negative, destruction of enemies (so that the people could have security and peace, the life of blessing in the land). So a call for the enemies destruction was one way for the psalmist to pray for deliverance in the midst of crisis. 2) Another factor is that it is important to ask, who are our enemies? In the conquest God used Israel to bring judgement against the pagan inhabitants of Canaan. The enemies were the pagan peoples who opposed the Jews receiving God's good gift of the Land. We however, wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our adversary is spiritual. In a certain sense when we pray "thy Kingdom come..." we are praying for God's reign to manifest itself, and with that, that our adversary (Satan) be defeated. Feel free to give feedback!
Dr. Nash

David, the King, and his coming Son

Though Judges ends with the statement that there was no king in Israel in those days and "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" the desire for a king "like the nations around them" was less than an ideal response by the people. A king who reflected God's sovereign rule and acted as his vice-regent would be quite different from the "deified" status of the pagan kings. Saul's failure is followed by God's unlikely choice of Jessie's youngest son, David. We certainly see David's failures and his "humanness" as the story unfolds, but he loves God and does not waver toward idolatry. The promise is given in the Davidic covenant of an ideal Son who would have an eternal reign. This forward looking hope won't be fulfilled until we get to "Act 4" of the "Drama of Redemption" and the sending of Messiah Jesus.
Dr. Nash

The King chooses a people...

The story of God in human history is initiated in the opening chapters of Genesis and takes an exciting turn in the stories of the patriarchs as God chooses the line through which the Messiah would come. We'll be looking at the story of Israel over the next two weeks. I have uploaded the powerpoint file as a PDF document to e-learning for this week and next, covering "Act 3" of The Drama of Scripture. If you print out the document before class it might help you to follow the discussion without trying to write down everything. By the way, you should have received an e-mail with your grade for the first assignment. If not, it is avalable on e-learning. I was impressed with the effort most of you put into the first assignment, keep up the great work!
Dr. Nash

In the beginning God...

Last week we started our journey through the scriptures with a quick overview of the Story. This week we will be going back to the beginning and looking at the start of God's Story in human history. Beginnings are important in any story. They are often essential to understanding the plot as it develops. In this case, the first three chapters of the Book will show us who God is, and who we are in relationship to him and in relation to his Creation. We will see a story that begins beautifully, but suddenly tension, even disaster enters. We will also see hope. Though humankind fails miserably, our failure will not impede the plan of God. I trust you have begun by now your reading of Genesis. I strongly recommend that you try setting aside a couple of hours this week to read through this "Book of Beginnings" in a single setting. You can then go back and look at the details of the opening chapters. Remember to read the story keeping in mind the amazing truth that this is God's Word to us.

Seeing the "Big Picture"

This week we tried to look at the idea of the Bible as a narrative revealing God's unfolding plan in history. It is important to recognize that we all interpret our experiences and live our lives in terms of some kind of metanarrative or "Grand Story." Do we buy into the arguments of modern secular science that would say, essentially, that we are the end result of chance, random, processes? Too many Christians live as though that kind of worldview controls their thinking. They look to the Bible for inspiration or moral lessons or encouragement, but they miss the big picture. We need to step back and understand the unity of the biblical narrative and its revelation of the unfolding of God's plan in history. If we do that we will begin to see our lives differently as well. Our story is a part of His story. Feel free to post your comments, questions, or observations below (click on "comments"). Have a great weekend!
Dr. Nash

First Class, let's get started!

Well our first class is history, let the fun begin as we explore His story and discover our role in it. As you get into the first readings, please feel free to post any questions or observations you have. I'll try to check back here regularly and respond to your questions and input. I uploaded todays powerpoint to the e-learning page as a PDF file. Keep looking up!
Dr. Nash

My Story

I thought it might be good to start with a short account of my own story.
In 1979, I was called to serve as a juror on a murder trial. A man had killed his wife; his plea was temporary insanity. She had become a "born again Christian," and he said that her talk about religion, God, and Jesus, drove him to a state of temporary insanity, when he killed her. As evidence was presented in the course of the trial, witnesses were brought in to testify of the change in that woman's life. To me it seemed like a very positive change. They spoke of the peace she seemed to have, and of the assurance she had that she was going to heaven. As the jury began deliberating we were sequestered in a hotel. I noticed a book on a night stand by my bed, and began reading a Gideon Bible. For the first time in my life, I read John 3:16. It sounded too good to be true. I always felt that if I were to get to heaven it would be through my good works, now I was reading that it was through faith in Jesus and his finished work that I could be saved. After the trial concluded, I went home and tried to tune into the "Rock" radio station I liked in those days, and "accidentally" heard the radio program "Unshackled!" (from the Pacific Garden Mission, in Chicago). I realized I was hearing the same story in another life, that as God comes into someone’s life through faith in Jesus, they don't simply hope they might get to heaven someday, they know they are forgiven and have full assurance of salvation. They gave an invitation. I recognized my need, that my sin had separated me from God, and trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ for my salvation. He did it all, my part was simply to believe and receive.
I soon sensed God was calling me to the ministry and I withdrew from the night classes I was taking at a secular college and the next semester began attending Northeastern Bible College. From there I went on to Westminster Theological Seminary for further study in the Biblical languages. After finishing a masters degree I went on for a Ph.D. in hermeneutics and biblical interpretation, focusing on on the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. The Lord has given me opportunities to serve him in pastoral ministry and as a seminary teacher on the mission field.
My life purpose is to know God intimately, to love him passionately, and to serve him joyfully as a part of his church, and to use my gifts, experiences, and abilities to help others grow as his disciples.