Biblical Theology Chapter One: Exegetical Tools

As Lawrence points out, his book is a practical tool for pastors. In many respects, though, Biblical Theology is also useful for every believer, because we are all called to be "theologians": thinking rightly about God.

In Chapter One Lawrence begins a discussion of a method of interpreting Scripture so that we can be reasonably assured that we are understanding the meaning of Scripture. Whatever method we use, our system of interpreting Scripture is called "hermeneutics."

Lawrence states the fundamental principle that we as readers of the Scripture text can understand what God is saying to us in it, and that there is a correct meaning: not what the text "means for you," or what it "means to me," but, simply, what it "means."

The method Lawrence proposes is the "grammatical-historical method," a key component of which is the understanding that we are not -- primarily -- seeking to understand what a particular word means, but what a sentence means, as the author originally intended it. Though understanding words is important, "context is king," and we ignore the context in which the word is found at our own peril.

An important component of the grammitcal-historical method is recognizing the different genres in Scripture -- poetry, history, prophecy -- because how we arrive at "units" of teaching and preaching will depend in part on what sort of genre we are dealing with. For instance, a unit of teaching from the epistles will be much shorter than a unit of preaching from the book of 2 Chronicles.

Lawrence gives a brief description of the way to interpret each genre, for which he gives seven categories. Though a serious student of Scripture will want to explore more thorough treatment of interpreting each of the genres, Lawrence's summary is a good illustration of the importance of recognizing Scripture genres before we set about the task of interpretation.

Giving the example of teaching a group of sixth grade boys in Sunday school, Lawrence demonstrates that every believer -- given the proper exegetical tools -- can rightly understand Scripture, in a way that comforms us into the image of Christ.

Biblical Theology, Introduction

In the "Introduction" to his Biblical Theology, Michael Lawrence tackles the foundational issue of what the Bible is, after all. Lawrence says that we need and understanding of the Bible that "doesn't reduce it to life's little answer book, but keeps the focus on God." Additionally our definition shouldn't "reduce it to the story of how we get saved and go to heaven."

According to Lawrence, biblical theology is the attempt to demonstrate what systematic theology assumes, that the Scriptures are a single, unified narrative of God's message.

Lawrence identifies four characteristics of divine revelation: it is 1) progressive -- revealing God's truth over time; 2) it is historical -- dealing with real events in history; 3) it is organic -- more like a growing plant than constructed building; 4) it is practical -- useful for pastoral counsel and believer-to-believer admonishing.

He also identifies five characteristics of the Bible, which task itself is a bit confusing and overlaps somewhat with his description of divine revelation: 1) historical/human; 2) divine; 3) narrative; 4) structured by covenants; 5) centered in judgment.

Lawrence gives a bit of insight to his description of Scriputre as "narrative" when he explains that this "story doesn't just interpret us, it exercises authority over us. ... The narrative of Scripture has a normative, or authoritative, function in our lives and over our churches.

This is the point at which Scriptural narrative looks much different from other historical accounts or stories (in the sense of true events, not "fairy tales"). Yet Lawrence perhaps confuses the issue when he contrasts a Christianity of "a limited set of doctrinal propositions" with one that "claims the totality of our lives."

He is not quite clear, here, of how the normative nature of the biblical narrative dispels dry orthodoxy with vibrant orthopraxy. Perhaps this will become clearer.

Lawrence does make a good point in re-emphasizing what he calls "salvation through judgment." This is an echo of Romans 3:26, in that we are not saved when God's just wrath is neutralized, but when it is cast on One able to endure it in righteousness, God's own Son. This makes God both just and justifier.

Lawrence's premise -- that proper theology is also imminently practical -- is correct. I look forward to discovering his demonstration of this truth in the remainder of the book.

A Smorgasbord of Dysfunction

Wisconsin has been known in the rest of the country for one particular foodstuff: cheese.

Now it is not so much one homogeneous block of curdled milk product (whether hole-y, or bleu, or moldy), so much as it is a veritable cornucopia of public dysfunction.

A buffet of buffonery, if you will.

The dust-up caused by Governor Scott Walker's attempt to reign in public spending has revealed in one place, at one time, the virtual inanity of thought in no less then four (4) separate spheres: State legislature, unions, public education, and the media.

Democrat legislators fled the State to avoid giving Republicans -- who hold the majority after recent elections -- the ability to vote on legislation that the Democrats don't like. They have, in effect, blocked the democratic process, while at the same time they and their supporters in the streets claim to be promoting the democratic process.

Unions representing public employees are encouraging the defeat of Gov. Brown's collective-bargaining restrictions, asserting that they are interested in "working people" -- working people who, with salary and benefits, reportedly earn over $100,000 per year on the public dole.

Teachers claiming to do nothing but labor "for the children" are calling in "sick" -- complete with faked doctor excuses -- to join street protests and State capitol sit-ins, apparently unaware that the act of abandoning the classroom to argue for salary and union power is not quite consistent with an interest in kids' learning.

The media, reporting on the kerfuffle, describes the event as "Cairo coming to Madison" (if your teacher was 'sick' that day in your Government class, Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin). Really?

This would be quite amusing, if it did not spell such trouble for public life. It seems that integrity and honesty are in short supply, while greed and self-interest are abundant.