How to answer exam questions

Because of the unreliability of the postal service in Malaysia, before posting off our Moore College exams to Sydney, we photocopy the answers so that if they get lost we can produce a copy. This has the side effect of being able to look at the answers of the candidates before we post them off. Occasionally, you learn about the about methods of answering a question when you don't quite know any of the details required to do so.

One the "Introduction to the Bible" scripts shows this art beautifully. In answer to a question asking for an outline of the book of Colossians, the answer given was:

"Paul writes to counter false teaching in the Colossian church, to bring the believers back to the gospel and to teach them how to live among non-believers."

I hope this obtains a high mark, in all seriousness it is a great summary of the form of most of Paul's epistles, the only criticism is it's lack of application to the specific book mentioned in the question. I was very impressed though...

Bible Study Resource

Just a quick post to point out something that I've come across since coming out to Malaysia. Point your browser in the direction of bible.org. I've found the site to have some interesting articles and other helpful bits and pieces, and is generally worth a look, but particular mention needs to be given to the NET Bible (short for New English Translation). This is a project to produce a completely free, on-line bible. Now, the reason I'm pointing you towards this isn't because it's a particularly good translation (I haven't found anything wrong with it, but I'm still not seeing a reason to throw away my ESV...), but it includes rather extensive footnotes, often giving translator's notes describing how one phrasing was preferred over another. Definitely worth including as an extra reference during your bible study. And while I'm here, I'll recommend e-Sword again as being an excellent bible study resource, worth downloading if you haven't already.

A final disclaimer is that bible.org is connected with Dallas Theological Seminary, and so a certain amount of dispensationalist theology is to be expected. Please don't let that keep you from checking it out, as most of their stuff is firmly evangelical, but let this be a call to, as the good folks from Moore Theological College would say, "read with discernment".

Passover, the Last Supper and the Four Cups

This is a little bit of thinking while I write prompted by my revision for my Moore College New Testament 1 exam. Apparently, during the celebration of Passover, every person would be expected to drink four cups of wine. This represents the four "I will" statements that can be found in Exodus 6:6-7.

"Say therefore to the people of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians."

Exodus 6:6-7

So a cup of wine would have been drunk to remember each of God's promises in these verses - he will bring them out from under their burden, he will deliver them from slavery, he will redeem them and finally he will take them to be his people. These cups would have been drunk at various points during the Passover meal - the first before the Grace before the meal, the second during the meal over which the story of the passover would be told, the third during the Grace after the meal and the last was drunk before the singing of a final hymn at the end of the meal.

A few of the commentaries I've been looking at comment that at the Last Supper, which of course was a Passover meal, Jesus did not drink the last cup, a cup that was sometimes referred to as the "Cup of Consummation". If we were to look at the account of the Last Supper from Mark chapter 14, Jesus says after the distribution of bread and wine:

"Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.""

The next thing that happens in v. 26 is they sign a hymn and then go to the Garden of Gethsemane. The commentators argue that Jesus' specific mentioning of not drinking wine again is of cultural significance, saying that the disciples would have realised that he was referring to fulfilling what the final cup was pointing to - God's taking of his people.

I'm not sure I'm convinced, but that's a summary of what little I've looked at. It's certainly an interesting point if it could be shown a little more clearly, and another slight problem is that today, there are actually five cups, not four. The fifth is kept for Elijah, in anticipation of the Messianic age, and isn't drunk, but I'm reckoning that might be a more recent addition...

Being a Peacemaker

In my bible readings at the moment, I'm reading through the Sermon on the Mount. While reading Matthew chapter 5 this morning, I noticed something from the Beatitudes that I can't remember noticing before. Verse 9 tells us:

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

It just caught my attention as to how this is lived out by Jesus, who of course is the Son of God. As Paul says in Colossians 1:19-22:

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,"

Christ's mission was one of a peacemaker, it was the Son of God who died to reconcile God with those who were "hostile in mind" towards him by his sacrifice. It's easy to jump from this and say that our application is to be sacrificial as we work towards reconciliation, and that would be a right application, but it is important to also important to keep in mind the means by which reconciliation is achieved. As Paul goes on to say in verse 23:

"if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."

The ultimate reconciliation, that is the one between a sinner and God, comes from a proclamation of the hope of the gospel of Christ. Not quite the peacemaking role we expect at a time when standing for truth is seen as being "unnecessarily divisive", but if we want to be peacemakers, and so be known as sons of God, this is the road we must follow.

The Goal of the Reformation

Firstly, a quick note to point out that I am indeed still alive, although I have been quite busy recently. In general, I try and keep this 'blog for more considered posts, and I simply haven't had time to do that in the last couple of months. As it is, there are a couple of topics that I've come across recently that I want to 'blog about, but it shall have to wait until I can put aside a bit of time to do it.

For the meantime, I shall try to keep this updated a bit more regularly, and put up a few more observations rather expositions, although of course I'll try and put up the more detailed thoughts when I can. This brings me onto my topic for this post. As many of you know, for the last couple of months I've been leading the SMACC Moore College Class for Reformation Church History, which has been a real encouragement. In doing some extra reading for leading the class talking about Cranmer's Liturgical Reformation, I was pointed in the direction of reading the Preface to the 1549 Prayer Book, recorded in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer under the title "Concerning the Service of the Church". If you haven't read it, I suggest that you make amends now - it is a clear expression of the goals of the Reformation. The emphasis is firmly placed on the reading of God's word to enact a change in the hearts of clergy and congregation. Whereas in the past only parts of the bible were read, and when it was it was obscured by a myriad of ritual and superstition, Cranmer's aims were to place at the centre of the church God's word, and every letter of it in a clear and understandable fashion.

Further than that, Cranmer's prayer book sought to simplify the matter of figuring out what needed to be done in the church at any time. The medieval church had developed such an intricate system that figure out what readings were required was almost in itself a full time job, as Cranmer himself puts it:

"...that to turn to the Book only was so hard and intricate matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out."

Cranmer's solution was to cut through confusion by reducing the number of services authorised by the church, and to reducing the various orders to a single book, so that Church of England services could always be conducted solely using a Bible and a the Book of Common Prayer. But lest we concentrate on the means to which it was achieved, let us admire the goal that led to those means - to remove all barriers to the clear proclamation of the gospel.

It was this period that saw a most dramatic turn to true religion that has been seen in Europe, and study of the Reformation shows that the main cause of this change was a disclosure of the gospel from the chains of superstition. It's strange to see so many modern churches screaming out for revival neglect the cause of that of that great revival, choosing to seek it rather in some ritual or the other rather than true devotion to God's self-revelation in His word the Bible.