Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Avoiding Shoot-First Apologetics

    My Christianity Today Connection e-mail this morning contained a link to an excellent article, Shoot-First Apologetics. I don’t want to steal the thunder from the article itself–go read it in place, but I do want to quote from the e-mail:

    And while defending the core elements of our faith is imperative, we sometimes shoot too hastily at those we’ve misidentified as enemies.

    I would like to note that the folks involved in this discussion are conservative evangelicals. The issue of courtesy in what we say, and care in determining friend and foe is one that cuts across the lines of the various parties in Christianity. It’s very easy to identify “different” as “hostile.”

    Of course we do need to remember that even if we identify someone as hostile, Jesus commands that we love that person, and not in the cartoon sense–“love those meeses to pieces!”

  • Hebrews 7:1-3: Reuniting Priesthood and Kingship

    1Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham when he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 2Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything to him. He is first “King of Righteousness” and then King of Salem which is “King of Peace.” 3He is without father, without mother, without genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but, in a way similar to the Son of God he remains forever. — Hebrews 7:1-3

    There is a critical element to the Melchizedek priesthood which is often neglected. It’s mentioned in the first verse of chapter 7: Melchizedek is both king and priest.

    In reading the Bible story we are accustomed to a substantial separation between royal authority and priestly activity. Though we have a brief hint at something different in the time of David (2 Samuel 8:18), there is a strong them of separation between the civil authority and the priesthood. This is emphasized by the experience of Uzziah, who tried to usurp priestly functions and became a leper for his efforts (2 Chronicles 26:16-21).

    But it’s easy to miss the significance of this element in the theology of the book of Hebrews. In Biblical history, this separation begins with Exodus 19 when the Isralites are afraid of hearing the voice of God from Mt. Sinai. They are invited to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests, but they prefer to have a safer distance. In the New Testament, this theme is picked up in 1 Peter 2:9 in which Christians are referenced in the same terms. To someone acquainted with the Hebrew scriptures, this was a not so subtle way of suggesting that we have entered into the Messianic age.

    In Hebrews, the Melchizedek priesthood serves to make the same point. While civil power was separated from the priesthood from the time when the tabernacle was being built in the wilderness forward, the Melchizedek priesthood was also a royal priesthood. Thus besides being eternal, which is of great importance to our author, authority and priestly intercession are combined in one person, Jesus who is both king and priest.

    This connection is emphasized by the use of Psalm 110. In its original setting, Psalm 110 is an accession psalm, a poem or hymn celebrating the accession of the king to the throne, and thus YHWH says to “my lord” (the poet is speaking), sit at my right hand, vesting the king with divine authority and promising him victory.

    While by modern standards of exegesis, our author uses the wording of Psalm 110 in a substantially different way (I think he’s allowed that as an inspired writer), he still manages to pull in a great deal of meaning by using that precise reference.

    In the incarnation, God becomes human, experiences humanity, and at the same time royal authority (lawgiving, enforcement, sovereignty) with the priesthood (intercession, communication, connection) and God-become-man thus reaches us directly. As Jesus said, “On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;  for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:26-27).

    Asking the Father himself, and knowing that the Father himself loves us, is one of the great gifts of the incarnation. Priestly and royal power have come together again.

  • Just What the Bible Says – Again

    By reading the new Methoblog portal, I located an entry The Use and Misuse of the Bible . Most of this is a quote of a sermon by A. Allen Brindisi at Davidson College Presbyterian Church, which you can read here, though there is a substantial quote in the blog entry.

    To quote from the sermon:

    There is the rub: to distinguish between what the Bible seems to say, and what it “really

  • Different Standards of Evidence

    In a post some time ago titled The Dog DID my Homework I commented on the odd inequity of intelligent design advocates asking for detailed evolutionary histories of each structure, while expecting no more than raw assertions of themselves.

    Carl Zimmer on The Loom has written a National Geographic article on the evolution of complex structures (I haven’t read it yet, but will get there soon). Casey Luskin responded (?) to the article, and Zimmer has in turn responded to him.

    Zimmer comments:

    It’s remarkable that he calls for an absurdly detailed reconstruction of history as evidence for evolution, while expecting nothing of the sort from advocates of intelligent design. Apparently the rules are different at the Discovery Institute. There you need only make vague references to a designer, claim some supposed shortfalls of evolution, and you’re done.

    I think this issue of the level of original research required of each side is the most telling point in the ID debate. ID advocates need to get down to doing and publishing original scientific research. Unfortunately, I don’t see any promising lines of such research, and apparently neither do the qualified scientists who should see them if there are some available.

  • Pseudo-Polymath Series on Genesis

    I’ve been intending to mention this since last week’s Christian Blog Carnival came out, but I’ve been distracted. Mark Olson at Pseudo-Polymath has started a series on Genesis from a philosophical perspective. The first entry is Reflections on Gensis: Chapter 1, and he has now posted the second entry, Reflections on Genesis: Chapters 2-3 (part 1).

    Right now I only want to make one comment and mention a couple of my own related posts. At the end of the first entry, Mark says:

    However, Kass suggests that scientific views evolution may deny the intelligibility and primacy of species (the separation noted in Genesis) and the importance and uniqueness of man. And in that sense it might be in opposition, but I’m not expert enough on evolution to know how notions “kind” and “species” which arise from Genesis are denied by evolutionary theory.

    I’d simply like to link to two of my previous posts that may relate; Design, Direction, and Evolution and An Evolutionary View of Kinds.

  • Familiarity with God’s Voice

    Laura has another good post on Pursuing Holiness on hearing the voice of God. She says:

    It’s very convicting to realize how easily I recognize voices – even of people I’ve never met – from the world, and how I struggle to discern God’s will in my life. So what’s the difference? Exposure.

    Just so! If you ask my wife in the evening she will be able to tell you whether I spent the necessary amount of time on my devotional reading, meditation, and prayer that day. And she’ll be right. I’m not talking about how much time I spend reading the Bible academically, as in research for my writing, but devotional reading, but how much time I spend listening to what God has to say to me.

    Go and be convicted by Laura’s post. 🙂

  • Chocolate Cat Cake

    OK, I don’t usually post this sort of thing, but it’s just too funny.

    This morning while driving I was listening to a morning show, and one of the folks is about to get married and was having trouble picking a groom cake. He has finally decided to have his two cats done in chocolate cake form. Chocolate cat cake.

    This is a bit too weird for me! But look at these:

    I guess I’m just a boring person, but I think I’d skip this.

  • Methodist Blogroll Change

    I have changed the code here to reflect the new Methodist Blogroll from the new Methodist portal. I understand (and observe, for that matter) that the older blogroll has fallen into disrepair, and this new one is being diligently maintained.

    Many features of the portal are also of great interest, and I intend to use it more and more as I try to do my part to keep the conversation going. Head on over and check it out.

  • Christian Carnival CXLVII

    Rev-Ed has recovered from election day activities and posted the Christian Carnival CXLVII. Hopefully my schedule this week will allow me to link back to a few of these posts. My post is from my Participatory Bible Study Blog as usual.

    Thanks to Rev-Ed for a nice carnival.

    I divide my posting between three blogs, this one for posts of general interest, the Participatory Bible Study blog for Bible study posts, and the Jevlir Caravansary for fiction, poetry, literature and related book reviews, including my translations and/or transformations of Biblical material.

  • Hebrews: Exercising Confidence

    I’ve been blogging about the book of Hebrews for some time, and I’ve also read and intended to link to some posts from Chasing the Wind that I found through the Christian Carnival, but as the book of Hebrews would tell you, you’ve got to follow through! 🙂

    But this week’s carnival brought us a post from Michael that I think is exceptionally good, and I hope anyone who has been following my series will go read it (and even some who aren’t following mine). It goes point by point into exercising confidence, and is very practical, and well in tune with the overall theme of Hebrews.

    Go read and enjoy!