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All Christians are urban Christians. Whether you live in Graceville, Florida or Chicago, Illinois, the believer is on a pilgrim's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. You are not alone in your journey. As we travel the narrow path from our current city to the one whose Architect and builder is the living God, one such traveler is Urban Puritano.
This should be played at high volume, preferably in a residential area.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Urban Puritano. I wrote a book that I think you'll be able to use at church, at home, with small groups, in Bible college, even seminaries, and of course, by yourself with your Bible under a tree. What's it about, you may ask? One way to describe it is a fusion of Christocentric biblical interpretation, a test case Christocentric reading of an Old Testament text, and an apologetic for a Christocentric worldview, and all from a confessional Calvinist perspective. Gird your loins as we scratch the surface on the continuity of seeing Christ in all of scripture for all of life.
Speaker 1:All Christians are urban Christians. Whether you live in Graceville, Florida or Chicago, Illinois, the believer is on a pilgrim's from the city of destruction to the celestial city. As we endeavor to live unto God in this world, our faith looks for the city which is to come, whose architect and builder is the living God. You are not alone on your journey. As you travel the narrow way, know that a great cloud of witnesses went before you.
Speaker 1:Many travel alongside you. And while the Lord tarries, many will follow the same path after you. But until the heavenly city is brought to us or we to it, one such pilgrim is your fellow traveler. He is Urban Buritano.
Speaker 1:Like a bombshell on the lay theologian's playground, Christ's Scope and Scepter: His Word, His World scratches several layers below the surface on the continuity between a Christocentric interpretation of the word and a Trinitarian Christocentric interpretation of the world. It does so in 3 parts. In truly reformed fashion, part 1 starts with some basic principles of biblical interpretation. Why? 1, not enough basic hermeneutical principles from a confessionally reformed perspective are discussed where the rubber meets the road.
Speaker 1:What we do have nowadays is an erosion of basic hermeneutical principles from a reformed perspective. This erosion has manifested primarily in the academy and is trickling down to the churches, namely embracing the compatibility of the medieval quadriga with reformed theology and piety. I want to offer confessional reasons to reject the quadriga's multilevel senses of scripture with a robustly reformed multilevel reading of scripture's single census plenier. 2. We never graduate from and leave behind these basic principles of biblical interpretation.
Speaker 1:We use them to build further up and further out. They are as universal as the bible is for all people everywhere and at all times. I discuss 4 no. Five foundational principles of biblical interpretation according to confessional Calvinism. I combine, in one discussion, the analogy of scripture with the analogy of faith, but without conflating them as is commonly done.
Speaker 1:The other three principles are the verbal and plenary inspiration of scripture, to acknowledge the Bible's true nature and origins, respecting human and divine authorship. The perspicuity or clarity of scripture is defined in disgust to avoid possible caricatures that still persist to this day. Lastly, the unity and diversity of scripture gets to the nitty gritty of the bible's consent of all its parts, grounded in the person and work of Christ as found in the old and new testament. All of this involves, not an ascent, to higher realms of spiritual meanings, but through a sometimes arduous digging and descent into the text of scripture. No dualism exists in the scriptures.
Speaker 1:The bible's meaning is at once nothing more than literal and nothing less than spiritual. My own convictions on hermeneutics and theology went through a tectonic shift, if not a cataclysmic upheaval, in the nineties in Bible College, where I started off as an education major who was a dyed in the wool classic dispensationalist. And before graduation, becoming a confessional Calvinist of the reformed Baptist variety. After gaining some life and ministry experience, I started writing down some thoughts on basic hermeneutical principles that evolved into an essay, which years later evolved into a podcast script, which have expanded into the first part of this book, Christ's scope and scepter. His word, his world.
Speaker 1:Earlier along the way, those many years ago, I came across a famous essay in certain small circles of philosophically inclined believers. This essay was by doctor Alvin Plantiga called Advice to Christian Philosophers. 2 things stayed with me about his counsel. One was that believers doing philosophy should pursue the philosophical elucidation of the faith for its own sake, for its own reasons and not necessarily for defense against atheism and agnosticism. Also, his commendation of the integral wholeness of the Christian faith resonated with me.
Speaker 1:My growing Reformed convictions about the faith involved that they were systematic. Integral wholeness was the phrase he used, if I remember correctly. Could this ideal be realized in the life of the church? To what degree? Ironically, in God's providence, while I was able to apply some of that integral wholeness in a teaching capacity for a reformed Baptist church plant, It wasn't until sitting under the ministry of a Presbyterian church planter and seeing him in action, both preaching and sometimes engaging in apologetics.
Speaker 1:For reasons known to our sovereign God alone, those church plants didn't last. But the spirit's persevering grace upheld us. And as we went our own separate ways, joining churches and faithfully serving the lord, I became a member of a non confessional Baptist church where I continued to teach and was actually taught there for the very first time on expository preaching. I was privileged for the first time in my life there to preach the word of God to the people of God. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Speaker 1:Studying for teaching an adult Sunday school class is one thing. Studying for preaching from God and before God is a whole different reality, at least in my experience. 1 Sunday after Sunday school, my pastor approached me before the service and asked if I could preach in 2 weeks. I was caught off guard and felt my temperature level rise with what I thought was short notice. I had previously taken up to 4 weeks to study and write a full sermon manuscript that I would deliver Jonathan Edwards style.
Speaker 1:But I had been reading a certain book and studying a certain biblical passage mentioned in the book. I agreed to preach. The text was from an old testament passage. The book I was encouraged by was about Christocentric preaching in Korea. Over the years, the Old Testament was becoming more dear to me than it had been in my earlier Christian life.
Speaker 1:Whereas before, the Old Testament was occasionally Christological. It was increasingly unveiling to me its Christocentric vistas. Thankfully, I was able to preach Christ from all of scripture to his people. In the midst of life circumstances, that particular sermon evolved into an essay, which months later evolved into a podcast script, which months later, I have expanded into part 2 of Christ's scope and scepter, his word, his world. It represents an extended, multilevel reading of scripture's single census pleniar, as opposed to the arbitrary and capricious, multisense medieval quadriga.
Speaker 1:Now because this material touches on an increasingly hot topic, namely typology, a few words are in order. A streamlined working definition of typology, I largely assume and proceed by, is that it is a textual feature of scripture, whereby a one person, place, thing, event or idea prefigures or increasingly comes to symbolize and eventually come to full expression in another person, place, thing, event, or idea. I adduce reasons for this that are closely tethered to the text of scripture. This ensures the avoidance of arbitrary and capricious interpretation, which tends to take focus off of the text and relies more on making clever mental connections without good and necessary textual warrant. Typology isn't my goal.
Speaker 1:Christocentrism is. Since it's there in the extended reading case study that comprises the content of part 2, I recognize it insofar as it serves to demonstrate the shadow of Christ in the conquest of Zion, typology in the service of Christocentrism by privileging the text. Parenthetically, a learned rabbi I previously worked alongside once volunteered an insight he had regarding his reading of the new testament. He observed, quote, the new testament is just a copy and paste of the old testament. Close quote.
Speaker 1:I will always be struck by how, unbeknownst to my rabbi colleague, in a very Caiaphas the high priest fashion, he perceived something of the congruency of the new testament with the old testament, even if he didn't recognize it was centered on Jesus, the divine messiah, who is the savior and redeemer of all. This immediately reminds me of an illustration of Christocentrism. There is a painting technique called mirror anamorphosis. It is an artistic technique in which a hidden image in the painting can only be revealed by placing a mirror in the middle to observe the reflection. What my rabbi friend experienced was something of the consent of the scriptures without Christ's reflection.
Speaker 1:Many such cases exist. When it comes to the contents of part 3, this portion of the book originated over 20 years ago. I was a 5th grade teacher at a Christian school in the heart of Chicago. While driving to work on September 11, 2001, I was listening to sports radio. They were speculating on the return of Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1:As I parked my car, the broadcast was interrupted by news of the first plane crashing into a skyscraper in New York City. As I made my way into the building, I asked for a television to be turned on. Calls started to come in from families. It became apparent that the nation was under attack. School children were gathered in the large common area with a TV set up to watch the news.
Speaker 1:The terrible events had to be processed. They had to be interpreted and explained in such a way that all the students could process it. Tall order since the adults in the room could hardly process it all. That was the day the religion of peace appeared on everybody's radar. But it was also the day that I began to ponder again why we do what we do as Christian school teachers.
Speaker 1:Does Jesus make a difference? Certainly, he does for ethics and bible as subjects. Are we short changing his crown rights in the rest of the areas that education deals with? This birthed an essay on the challenge of Christian education that 20 years later evolved into a podcast script, which months later, I modified into part 3 of Christ's scope and scepter, his word, his world. It represents a Christocentric worldview, the Trinitarian contours of which children under our care should be learning.
Speaker 1:If it is true, good, and beautiful to see Christ in all of the word, what are the prospects for seeing Christ in all the world for all of life? Remember, my burden in this work is to paint a Christocentric portrait while painting a portrait of Christocentricism, from hermeneutics to an Old Testament extended reading test case and, lastly, an apologetic application to some deep issues that education introduces to children that cannot be considered neutral territory outside of the crown rights of the Lord Jesus. How can this work serve the people of God? I hope that it glorifies God by edifying his people. As I look back on books that have impacted me or people I know, It is my prayerful hope that readers may be encouraged and inspired to live out their various callings, learn again or for the first time the fortunes of a reformed, Christocentric view of the word and the world.
Speaker 1:Some listeners may remember reading books that rocked their theological world. Maybe books like The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers, All Truth is God's Truth by Arthur Holmes, Escape From Reason by Francis Schaeffer, Basic Christianity by John Stott, Knowing God by J. I. Packer. Maybe others think of books and authors further back.
Speaker 1:Whatever the case may be, my book represents a modest attempt to apply timeless truths to the here and now of seeing Christ in all of scripture for all of life. The times we're living in are tumultuous and rapidly changing, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He alone is sufficient for his scope and scepter extend powerfully throughout his word and his world. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is king.
Speaker 3:Who's the king of kings?
Speaker4:Jesus. Before Abraham was, was who? Jesus.
Speaker 3:Who's the first and the last? Jesus.
Speaker4:If I'm on the devil's head list, who do I have by my side? Jesus.
Speaker 3:Who's the leader of the valley?
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us at Urban Puritano. We look forward to catching up with you on your next stop along your journey to the city prepared by God for all true believers.