Lead:

Christian atheism? What’s up with that? And how does this relate to interpreting the Bible?

Intro:

Who would call a Christian an atheist? Well, believe it or not, there was a time in the second century Roman empire when Christians were accused of being atheists. It was because they refused to acknowledge the gods of the state…so no god = a-theist. “If god doesn’t send rain, blame the Christians and send them to the lions!” So, there’s your factoid of the day, just another service we provide here at the For The Hope show bringing you Jesus with a little bit of what you might not get on Sunday morning.

There is also a sense in which this ties into our All Our Minds segment today, but as we always do, we start with the Bible.

Hey, if you’re new with us, welcome. Today we head into Ephesians, and since we follow along with an ever-so-slightly modified version of The Bible Project’s reading plan, a new book of the Bible means we’ve also got a new video. You’ll find it at the bottom of today’s post – go to forthehope.org and just search for #942.

A couple background thoughts: Unlike when Paul wrote to the churches in Corinth and Galatia that we just went through, there’s no apparent precipitating event for this letter to the church in Ephesus other than Paul mentioning that he wants them to know how he’s doing while in prison. Tim Mackie points out that this was the “epicenter of worship for most of the Greek and Roman gods,” and that in two broad swaths, this letter retells how the climax of history is found in Jesus, and then how that Gospel story should influence every part of the lives of this multi-ethnic community. And that, of course, includes us.

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Bible:

Passage: Ephesians 1-2
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 45
Words: ~874

All Our Minds:

As we move into our All Our Minds segment, let me draw you back to something we read in chapter one verse ten, namely that God’s plan was to unify all things under Christ. I point this out for two reasons. One, unity among God’s people is a big deal to Paul and especially in this letter. Second, because some philosophers have argued that the defining headwaters of our day is God or no God — theism versus materialistic naturalism.

Today, however, I want to take theism one step further. You’ve heard me say many times that the entirety of the created order reflects the very character and nature of the Creator. So unity in the church under Christ ultimately should reflect Him as the Way, Truth, and Life. It doesn’t, and one reason, besides sin, is that people interpret the Bible differently. Does that mean there are different versions of the truth? No. But we don’t all get it right. Except me. Just ask me. LOL

Here’s the tie-in with the Christian atheist hook. Did you ever stop to think about why atheism isn’t addressed in the Bible? Or why it’s only a minor part of theology and apologetics for the next 1700 or so years? Because almost nobody denied the existence of deity in some form. The question wasn’t whether or not there was a god or gods, it was simply which one. This was true in significant measure until what philosophers call the Enlightenment starting in the 18th century.

So…it was reeeeally interesting to me when a religion professor, Matt Emerson at Oklahoma Baptist University, tweeted out something he called “Premodern Interpretation in 10 Sentences.”(1) In other words, in broad brush strokes, how did people interpret the Bible before Emmanuel Kant and Charles Darwin and others started saying that you had to separate science and faith? What happened before theologians started caving to culture and trying to come up with, dare I say, a-theistic ways of approaching the Bible?

Today I’m only going to touch on the very first point Emerson made, because it relates to this unity thing we’re talking about. Bear in mind, this is still true. I’m going to share his first three points explaining some stuff along the way, and over the next couple days in Ephesians we’ll see how this relates to what Paul is writing about.

1. Interpretation is grounded in metaphysics; in that regard, there is a divine taxis in the life of the Godhead - the Father is Eternally Unbegotten, the Son is Eternally Begotten of the Father, and the Spirit Eternally Proceeds from the Father and the Son.(1)

Here we have a couple four dollar words and an essentially critical perspective. “Metaphysics” is the branch of philosophy that deals with first things. So God is the ground, the basis of, interpretation. And “taxis” is the systematic ordering of things, like when you studied “taxonomy” in biology — is something a plant, animal, or mineral. If an animal, that ordering ended with genus and species.

So Emerson’s point here — even in the Godhead, the Father is eternally unbegotten, Son eternally begotten of the Father, and Spirit eternally proceeds from Father and Son. That’s the basis for some heady theology, but catch this next point:

2. In accordance with this taxis, all of creation finds its life and pattern in the Father’s Son, his divine Image, the Logos, and therefore everything is interconnected through this logocentricity.(1)

Everything in the cosmos, including our interpretation, derives from a God whose very nature as one essence in three persons is itself orderly. And creation interconnects because of the Logos, Jesus. Oh, and someone named Paul is argues that Jesus’ resurrection and the good news of the Gospel is the grounding of everything, right?

3. Scripture’s primary author is the Holy Spirit - the One who Eternally Proceeds from the Son and thus the One who in his economic mission testifies to the Son - and therefore Scripture’s primary referent is Jesus Christ.

This is the basis for biblical interpretation. Emerson then goes on to talk about how this affects the goal and process of interpretation. But do you see a problem that emerges when you hear people say, “That’s just your interpretation?” More often than not they’re talking about what humans do, which I’ll grant is often flawed. But the goal isn’t coming to our own interpretation, it’s discovering God’s pattern for life.

Emerson wraps up with a summary:

You might summarize it this way:
1. Because all of creation is metaphysically patterned after the Father’s Son, all of Spirit-governed history & all of Spirit-inspired Scripture testifies to and centers on him & is intricately connected historically & literarily & theologically.
2. Therefore to interpret a text is to understand its literal sense in a way that points to & is intricately connected to its Christological referent, its tropological immediacy for the people of God, and its eschatological end so that we might follow the double commandment.(1)

The bottom line

That double commandment, of course, is the Great Commandment to love God, and love people. That’s our charge. So in the book of Ephesians we hear Paul do two things broadly — he talks about the wealth that Christians have in the Good News of Jesus, and the walk they are called to as followers of Jesus. And where does this all come from? Some preacher or teacher and their interpretation? In part, and hopefully guided by the Holy Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit is involved, it will all point back to an order of things that is rooted in the very nature of God which itself has an order of things…something that has particularly been under attack from secular philosophy in the last few hundred years.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 125
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 5
Words: ~82

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

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(1) Matt Emerson (@M_Y_Emerson), “Premodern Interpretation in 10 Sentences (a thread),” Twitter, November 9, 2019, 10:43 a.m., https://twitter.com/M_Y_Emerson/status/1193335833874632704.

Not used today, but stuff I like:

D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993). <—this, and it’s OT companion, are great commentaries if you like something more than a study Bible and less than a set of 66 books — they add a lot of interesting details. Keener’s a killer apologist, too.

The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl — Love this book. A killer intro to the Christian worldview that is philosophically and theologically sound while being accessible to all readers.

#942: Ephesians 1-2 | Christian atheists? | Psalm 125