by Dr. Ronn Johnson
I have been away from this blog for some time, though it has been constantly on my mind. Since my last post, I have written and presented a course at our church on the big story of the Bible. It was rewarding, yet undoubtedly the toughest challenge I had ever faced as a Bible teacher. As I told the class several times, sometimes out of desperation, it’s one thing to teach a passage of the Bible, or even a survey of books within the Bible—most of us have tried that—but something entirely different to approach the text with the sole intent of tracking its largest narrative. Sometimes I felt like I knew where I was going, while at other times I felt very unsure of myself, even within an hour of walking into the class. Now that it’s over I look forward to stepping back and reviewing what I said, thinking through where my work needs improvement.
I would like to return to this blog for such a purpose, in fact: to review what I said in the class and hear myself talk. I invite your response if you have the time. In previous blogs my thinking has been largely negative, pointing out perceived problems with evangelicalism’s traditional understanding of the big story of the Bible. It will feel good to turn the ship around at this point and head in a positive direction. As you could guess, my understanding of the story will be categorically different from the Sin Paid For model that I have been talking about—where the punishment required for sin by God was voluntarily paid by a behaviorally perfect individual, with this payment then being applied to those who accept this gracious provision of Christ on their behalf. I realize that many people like this story because it offers God a way to relieve the tension between his justice and love through Jesus while remaining true to his own demands of grace and impartiality. But as I’ve recommended, this does not seem to be the tension played out in the biblical story. And once we change the tension or crisis of a story we are in effect writing a different story altogether.
In my class, I developed the biblical story by working through the chronological flow of the text. This is easier said than done, I came to realize, and I’ll talk more of this below. But in general, I tried to not give away what happened until it actually happened. I did this for those in the class who were unfamiliar with the Bible, as well as to experiment how this would work within my own presentation. For purposes of this blog, I will lay out the whole story right up front, from beginning to end, then return back to go through the details in upcoming posts. I presume that readers of this website are familiar enough with the Bible to not be annoyed at being given the end of the story too soon.
I have used the analogy of a brick wall before so I will continue the analogy here. What follows are the one hundred bricks which make up, in my opinion, the big story wall of the Bible. Ending up with this round number is not accidental, as you could guess, but mostly because I didn’t like the idea of ending on an odd number, like 89 or 105. I constantly reworked my pile to keep it at the century mark, which is unimportant in the long run. The number can certainly change. Here are my bricks listed in the order in which they appear (or occur) in the story, starting with Genesis 1:1:
- God creates the universe
- God creates elohim above humans
- God creates humans below elohim
- Humans fail a loyalty test
- Humanity dies and awakens
- Creation is sentenced to frustration
- Adam’s family shows divided loyalties
- Elohim interfere in human affairs
- God destroys the earth
- Elohim receive territorial rule
- Elohim abuse their authority
- God judges ruling elohim
- Abraham switches spiritual loyalties
- Abraham is promised blessing
- Elohim come to earth as messengers
- God designates loyalty as right
- God designates disloyalty as wrong
- Abraham’s family shows divided loyalties
- God’s family is named Israel
- Jacob bears twelve tribes
- Joseph saves the family in Egypt
- Pharaoh enslaves the family
- God reveals his name
- Passover redeems Israel
- Israel accepts Torah
- Israel worships Baal
- God clarifies his jealousy
- Loyalty is demanded
- Disloyalty is predicted
- Sacred space is institutionalized
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2 Comments
"57. God goes silent"
If Dr. Johnson is talking about the 400 years of time where God is "silent", more or less between the Testaments, that might need further review.
This is because, according to Dr. Chuck Missler, God was not silent, but had prophesied this period of history in advance, which can be found in the Book of Daniel.
Below are some quotes from the Daniel study PDF, by Dr. Chuck Missler.
"Though the site of Esagila was cleared, work ceased on Alexander’s ambitious plans at his death in Babylon on June 13, 323 B.C. The career of Alexander is detailed in Daniel 8. His successors, in Daniel 11. Alexander died at age of 32; the Greek Empire took 22 years to divide. The “silent years” (between the testaments) is profiled in advance in Dan 11:5-35."
"Israel endures being a buffer zone between the struggles between the two dynasties. The “400 silent years” between the OT and NT are detailed in advance with such accuracy that skeptics have attempted to “late date” Daniel…"
Daniel 11:1-35 The “Silent Years”
The most comprehensive and detailed prophecy of future events to be found anywhere in the Old Testament. Cf. Dan 2, Rev 13, 17.
Review: Daniel 8 (The Ram and the Goat)
Two years after the vision of Daniel 7 and 12 years before the Fall of Babylon in Daniel 5…
Vision of a Ram and a Goat – The Ram is defeated by the Goat from the West; – The “notable horn” of the Goat divides into 4; – A “Little Horn” has a key role at the end…
Daniel interprets – A Leader from the West (Alexander) will subdue the Medo- Persian Empire…Alexander’s Four Generals (Daniel 8): – – – – Cassander Lysimacus Macedonia & Greece; Thrace, Bithynia, most of Asia Minor; Egypt, Cyrene, Arabia , Petraea; Syria and lands to the East all the way to India
(Antiochus Epiphanes appears as the “Little Horn”)
https://soteriology101.com/
I have not had time to properly digest it, but it seems to be a former Calvinist who has a DMin. trying to address where he sees where various forms of Calvinism fail in his thinking and may be of use to some here interested.