Part Three

The Prophet as Actor and Two Covenants

     In various parts of the Old Testament some of the prophets were ordered to act out a scenario as a pictorial revelation to onlookers.  In 1 Kings 20:35f. a prophet asked a man to strike him so that he could act the part...

Review of New Creation Eschatology and the Land: A Survey of Contemporary Perspectives, by Steven L. James, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2017, xvii + 164 pages, hdbk.

This book provides an informative introduction and critique of the recent trend among scholars to stress earth-centeredness of the...

Part Two

The Ominous Visions of Chapter Five     

There is without any doubt an eeriness about the two visions of Zechariah 5.  The flying scroll he sees first (Zech. 5:1-4) is thirty feet long (which is somewhat out of the ordinary), and fifteen feet wide (which definitely...

Part One

The Branch Builds Yahweh’s Temple

But the scene changes when three visitors from Babylon leave a gift of silver and gold (Zech. 6:9-10).[1]  From these precious materials he is told to make a crown, and then do an odd thing with it; place it on the head of Joshua the high priest...

Zechariah was active from 520 to about 480 B.C.  He is mentioned along with Haggai in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14.  His post-exilic book is remarkable for its imagery[1] and for its sustained messianism.  This has caused some interpreters to despair at an interpretation, especially of its...

Part Four

A Literal Reading

The structure of Ezekiel reaches its crescendo in the theme of the returning Glory to the Temple in Ezekiel 43:1-7.[1]   This return must be linked with the abandonment of Solomon’s Temple by the Glory-cloud in chapter 11.  There is a narrative-theological...

Part Three

Gog and Magog Against Israel

There has been a lot of debate about Ezekiel 38 and 39.  Those who think they ought to be read symbolically appeal to the apocalyptic character of the descriptions.[1]  But it appears sometimes that appeals to certain genres are a little too...

Part Two

A Valley Full of Dry Bones

     The first vision in Ezekiel 37 is the best known in the book.  If people are ignorant of everything else in the book, they are often aware of the valley of dry bones, though frequently they have no idea what it means.  It surely...

Part One

On the Mountains of Israel

Ezekiel 34 – 39 is bound together by the theme of the return of the presence of God.  But one should also note the repeated refrain “the mountains of Israel.”   The phrase is a favorite one with Ezekiel, who uses it seventeen...

A review of Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust The Gospels? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 153 pages, pbk. 

This excellent little book by the English biblical scholar Peter J. Williams (not to be confused with the apologist Peter S. Williams) is a readable and informative introduction to some of...

The Glory of the Lord

Ezekiel begins with a vision of what appears to be a moveable throne, with a kind of platform beneath it (Ezek. 1:22-26).  At its sides, just below the platform were wheels (Ezek. 1:19-21), and creatures full of life (“living creatures”), who had some sort of...

Part Four

This is the final installment of this short series.

What Yahweh Thinks of Covenant-Breakers

Having just uttered what is undoubtedly one of the most unambiguous promises in literature, and coming on the back of an entire extended portion on the subject of Israel’s eschatological hope...

Part Three

The Abundance of Peace and Truth

Jeremiah 33 opens by referencing the destruction that has been made upon Jerusalem (“this city” in v.4), where the inhabitants had to demolish houses to build fortifications (Jer. 33:1-4).  Yahweh declares that although He will not save...

Part Two

The Guarantee of the Lord of Creation and Providence

Returning to where we left off in Jeremiah 31, after Jeremiah has revealed a New covenant to replace the Mosaic covenant, he is given revelation which underlines its validity.

Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the...

Part One

The Locus Classicus of the New Covenant

Then we arrive at the prophecy about the New covenant (Jer. 31:31-34).  The verses are immediately followed by a Divine guarantee of future fulfillment (Jer. 31:35-37).  So it behooves us to look at it carefully:

Behold, the days are coming,...

Excerpts from the book The Words of the Covenant: A Biblical Theology  (forthcoming)

As far as biblical covenantalism goes, the prophecies in Jeremiah 30 through 33, supported by chapters 34 and 35 are critical.[1]  After the prophet is heard in his own right, the covenantal picture that...

I was thinking about how one might visualize “Biblical Covenantalism.”  Traditional Dispensationalism has its seven dispensations; Progressive Dispensationalism its four.  But BC does not regard dispensations as basic to the system.  That is to say, dispensations do not...