Category Archives: Bible

David’s mighty men

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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I posted on the my website yesterday a chart of David’s mighty men, based on 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11. David was Israel’s greatest and paradigmatic king, and a man of many talents. He won worldwide fame for his great victories on the battlefield, which expanded Israel’s borders all the way from Egypt to the Euphrates River.

From the beginning of his reign, David kept a cadre of thirty elite warriors who were known as “The Thirty” or “The Mighty Men.” In modern terms, the Thirty would have been something like the U. S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6. These were the go-to soldiers that David could count on to turn the tide of the fiercest battles. Although both 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11 refer to the Thirty as a unit, 2 Samuel 23:39 states that the total number of mighty men was thirty-seven. This is because there were seven super-elite warriors who outranked the Thirty. One of these seven super-elites was King David, who was a great warrior in his own right but also Commander-in-Chief. Then there were two tiers of three elites, each of which was ranked from greatest to least. One of these two groups of three consisted of what were evidently the three most capable Israelite warriors—Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah. This group of Three was virtually unbeatable on the battlefield. The other group of Three—Joab, Abishai, and Benaiah—consisted of three men who were greater warriors than the Thirty, though not than the other unit of Three. The second tier of Three, however, had exceptional leadership capabilities, and so were given command over the army. The other great warriors were also given leadership positions, since in the days of hand-to-hand combat officers had to be capable of physically leading their men on the battlefield.

Second Samuel 23 lists thirty-one men in the group of Thirty, but with one duplicated from the list of the Three (Shammah the Hararite). First Chronicles 11 also lists more than thirty names, although the first thirty names in both lists are only slightly different. There are many slight differences in the forms of the names, which are easily explained by common copying mistakes; in some cases, men may have taken more than one name or may have been called by slight variations of the same name. The extra sixteen names in the list in 1 Chronicles 11 probably occur because there were different men in the group of Thirty at different times, due to age, death, injury, and so forth.

In addition to the Thirty, David also had two units of personal bodyguards, “the Cherethites” and “the Pelethites,” and by the end of David’s reign there were two new elite warriors, Shimei and Rei (1 Kgs 1:8). The famous group of Thirty itself does not seem to have outlasted David’s own fighting days.

There are a number of interesting names in the list of mighty men. One is Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite (2 Sam 23:34). Ahithophel, once David’s closest advisor, betrayed him when David’s son Absalom rebelled (2 Sam 15:12; 16:15–17:23). One wonders whether Eliam followed David when his father sided with Absalom. On the one hand, 2 Samuel 16:6 states that the mighty men went with David out of Jerusalem. On the other hand, it would be difficult for Eliam not to side with his father, and it is unlikely that Ahithophel would have proposed leading an army against David’s retinue were his own son in it. Since 1 Chronicles 11:36 names a different man in Eliam’s place, it is probable that Eliam sided with Absalom and was replaced after the rebellion was put down.

It is remarkable that there were a number of Gentiles among David’s mighty men—Zelek the Ammonite, Uriah the Hittite, Igal of Zobah, Ittai the Gittite, and perhaps others. It is evident that David’s deeds on the battlefield had made his God famous, and that David actively sought to convert foreigners to faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel. Missionary activity did exist in the OT period, and this is one example of it.

The description of David’s mighty men and their heroic deeds in 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11 certainly makes for interesting reading. But, more than that, the greatness of these men and their deeds reflect the greatness of the glory of David’s kingdom, which reflects the greatness of the glory of God. The men who fought for David were warriors for God, and their heroic feats were a demonstration of God’s power in exalting His people and the king whom He anointed.

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Ur of the Chaldees: Abraham’s original home

13 Friday Feb 2015

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Genesis 11:28-31 identifies Abraham’s original hometown as “Ur of the Chaldees,” or “Ur of the Chaldeans.” Sometime during Abraham’s adult life, probably while he was already about seventy years old, his father Terah moved the family clan to the city of Haran in northern Syria as the first step in a planned migration to the land of Canaan. Terah himself did not complete the journey; he died while the family was living in Haran. When Abraham was seventy-five years old, he received a personal call from God to migrate to Canaan (Gen 12:1-3). This caused a division in the family clan: Abraham’s nephew Lot went with him to Canaan, while the rest of Abraham’s family stayed in the area of Haran, where Abraham’s relatives are found living in later chapters of Genesis.

There are two ancient cities called “Ur” that are known from archaeology. By far the most famous is a city in southeastern Mesopotamia that was a great center of early civilization. A second Ur, which was far less prominent, is called “Ur in Haran” by an ancient tablet from Ebla. Islamic tradition identifies Shanliurfa, which is 24 miles (39 km) northwest of Haran, as Abraham’s original home. This city was refounded in the Hellenistic period as Edessa, and later became the center of the Syriac Christian community.

Although some scholars identify Ur of the Chaldees with the northern city of Ur, the arguments in favor of the southern location are compelling. In Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, he says that Abraham’s original home was in “the land of the Chaldeans” (Acts 7:4), a term which is used by other biblical writers to refer to southern Mesopotamia (e.g., Isa 23:13; Jer 25:12; Ezek 12:13). It seems that the author of Genesis intended to specify the southern location of Ur by identifying it as the one that is in the land of the Chaldeans. Stephen says that Abraham had to leave the land of the Chaldeans in order to travel to Haran (Acts 7:4), whereas the reference to the northern Ur as “Ur in Haran” shows that it already lay within the territory of Haran. Stephen also indicates in Acts 7:2 that what he means by “Mesopotamia”—Abraham’s original home—is a different region than the region around Haran, since he says that Abraham lived in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.

Abraham’s relatives are found in later chapters of Genesis to be living near Haran in northern Syria/Aram (now part of Turkey). However, as has already been noted, this does not mean that “Ur of the Chaldees” was in northern Syria, since Genesis 11:31-32 states that Terah had moved Abraham’s extended family to Haran prior to Abraham’s journey to the land of Canaan with Lot (Gen 12:5). Since Arameans dominated the region around Haran, the Bible calls Laban “the Aramean” (Gen 25:20; 31:20, 24), and portrays Laban as a speaker of the Aramaic language in Genesis 31:47. Deuteronomy 26:5 even calls Jacob an “Aramean” because of his twenty years spent with Laban in Paddan-aram (near Haran). But Jacob and Laban could not have been of Aramean descent, since they were descended from Shem’s son Arpachshad (Gen 11:10-26), whereas the Arameans were descended from Shem’s son Aram (Gen 10:22-23).

Some scholars argue that because Abraham seems to be culturally Semitic in the Genesis narratives, he must have been from the northern location of Ur, which was in Aramean territory, and not from the southern location of Ur, which was in Sumerian territory. Several points may be noted against this argument. First, although the southern Ur was in Sumerian territory, it was culturally Hurrian, and the dates of modern secular archeology are divergent enough from the Bible’s chronology so that we cannot be certain which group dominated the city at the time of Abraham. Possibly Ur was already dominated by the Chaldeans (an Aramean tribe) at the time of Abraham. Alternatively, the reference to the Chaldeans could have been made by a later writer (I would argue Ezra) who updated some geographical references in the Pentateuch. Second, Abraham himself was a Semite by birth, and therefore would have retained the culture of his clan, regardless of where he lived. Third, although most of the stories in the Abraham narrative of Genesis occur in a Semitic cultural setting (the Canaanites spoke a Semitic language even though they were not Semites by blood), Abraham and Sarah chose to move to an urban, sophisticated Egyptian culture during a famine, and they evidently had little difficulty living in that culture. Lot, as well, chose to live in the large urban center of Sodom, which seems to indicate that the family was used to life in a big city with a mixed population. When Abraham seems to act like a Bedouin, it may just be that he is conforming to the culture of the land.

Ur in southern Mesopotamia was founded by the Sumerian people. But the earliest Semitic texts in Mesopotamia are also from Ur. The Sumerians called the early Semitic migrants “westerners.” Abraham was evidently part of the huge Semitic minority that lived in the large Sumerian city-state of Ur. Ur had hot and cold running water, a sewer system, multistory buildings, paved roads, major temples, ornate furniture, and a variety of metal instruments. The Sumerians developed a sexagesimal system that divided the hour into 60 minutes, the minute into 60 seconds, and the circle into 360 degrees—a system that we still use today. There were well developed law codes and a standard system of weights and measures. There was a system of canals connecting the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to control floods and provide irrigation so farming could go on year-round. At the time of Abraham, Ur would have been on or very near the shore of the Persian Gulf, in the Euphrates River delta, though the vast amounts of sediment carried by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have since filled in about 150 miles of the original gulf. There was probably a port on the gulf shore that was alive with trade and fishing boats.

In my job working for BiblePlaces, I have looked at pictures of more than 10,000 ancient artifacts from the collections of museums all over the world. One would think that the artifacts from the most ancient periods would be crude, and the craftsmanship would become finer in later periods. But I would say that the artifacts from Abraham’s Ur are among the most impressive of all. Their craftsmanship is finer, more luxurious, better, than most of what came later.

If Abraham was a wealthy man in Ur, as he appears to have been, he must have possessed many treasures of the finest craftsmanship and the most exquisite materials. He would have lived in a mansion in Ur that would probably still look impressive today. As an upper class, free man, he would have attained a high level of education and must have been literate and fluent in Sumerian, Akkadian, various other Semitic languages (e.g., Amorite, Aramaic), and probably Egyptian as a trade language. He would have enjoyed a refined urban life in a highly advanced center of civilization. To leave all of this in order to journey to Canaan would have meant a huge sacrifice of material comfort for Abraham. Abraham lived in a tent in Canaan, not in a house, and he lived in rugged fields, deserts, and mountains, away from the conveniences of civilization. Whereas Ur had a perpetually dry and sunny climate with a stable water supply from rivers, Canaan had a far messier and more unpredictable climate, with rain, snow, frost, dew, and so forth. The only two centers of advanced civilization near Canaan were Egypt and Sodom, both of which were spiritually problematic and outside of the area where God wanted Abraham to live.

When we read the narrative of the call of Abraham, it is easy to overlook the fact that Abraham gave up a lot of wealth and comfort when he left Ur and went to Canaan. Abraham also gave up the linguistic sophistication of Ur, since his descendants would adopt the language of the land of Canaan (Hebrew), which was not one of the major literary languages of the ancient world (outside of its use by Abraham’s descendants). That Abraham obeyed God’s call to settle his family in the land of Canaan shows that when he was forced to make a choice between God and money, he would choose God. The depth of Abraham’s commitment to God is shown again in Genesis 22, when Abraham chose to obey God even at the cost of his own son Isaac’s life. Abraham was truly a man with a great heart for God.

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New Year’s Day, a great time to start reading through the Bible

01 Thursday Jan 2015

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But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. – Matthew 4:4

Jesus’ reply to Satan in Matthew 4:4 implies that Christians should be nourished by the Word of God on a daily basis. Living and eating bread are daily activities, and so should be the consumption of spiritual nourishment from the Word. For such daily study of the Scriptures the Bereans were commended in Acts 17:11. We cannot live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God if we have not read every one of those words, or if we do not continue to read God’s words on a regular basis.

Throughout the Bible it is assumed that God’s people will read and know God’s Word, and yet reading the Bible is something that many Christians neglect to do. Some even feel that it is a matter of secondary importance to more “practical” issues or more “practical” books. Some people think the Bible is boring, and many will only read a paraphrase or rewrite of the Bible such as The Message, rather than an actual translation of what God said. But reading the Word must precede everything else in the spiritual life of the believer. Every Christian is first saved by hearing the Word (Rom 10:13-17), and the evangelist cannot be successful without it. The Word tells us how to pray. The Word of God is the primary tool that the Spirit of God uses to guide, convict, and teach us; such things as inner feelings and experiences are very much of secondary importance to the Word. Thus, believers cannot be filled with the Spirit or led by the Spirit without the Word. The Word tells us what love is, and how to love. It tells us what to believe, how to act and think, how a church should operate, and how to raise a family. It accurately reveals the whole history of the world, from beginning to end, and puts it in proper perspective. Thus, the study of the Word is the only means by which a Christian can grow in knowledge and in spiritual wisdom and understanding (Col 1:9)—all of which is essential for a proper Christian walk.

As a student of the Bible and a teacher of the Bible, by far my most helpful training in knowing and interpreting the Bible has been my own personal Bible reading and Bible study. Last year, 2014, was the fourteenth consecutive year that I have read the Bible from cover to cover. This has given me a knowledge of the Bible that I never could have gained from studying in the classroom. As I have studied theology and the writings of countless scholars in seminary, my analysis of their claims has constantly been framed by statements made in the Bible, rather than by a philosophical analysis or debates over archeology and methodology. Reading the Bible has enabled me to think of verses that are relevant for whatever the issue at hand may be, whereas if I had not read the Bible so many times I would not be aware of all the cross-references and connections.

I do not like most of the plans that I see today for reading through the Bible in a year. The length of each day’s reading varies widely, so that some readings are very short and some are very long. Also, most plans have one reading from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament each day, and sometimes a Psalm. This breaks up the continuity of the reading and hinders focused reflection. I like reading the Bible the way God inspired it—book by book, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. You can download the Bible Reading Schedule that I use here, or access my 2019 reading schedule as a Logos document here. Reading the books in the sequence they appear in the Bible allows one to follow God’s dealings with the human race as God’s plan unfolds sequentially through the ages. When you read the Bible in order, you begin each new year by reading Genesis, which tells how everything began, and you end each year by reading Revelation, which tells how everything ends. But if three chapters a day (on average) seem too much for you, I also have on my website a Bible Reading Record which allows you to check off chapters of the Bible one at a time as you read them.

Reading the Bible is obviously more profitable if one understands it, or has a guide to interpret it. Now that I have published my own Interpretive Guide to the Bible, this is of course the first resource that I recommend; it is available on my website here, or on my Amazon author page here. Many people use study Bibles to help with interpretation, but in my opinion these are a poor “crutch.” Because the study notes are right next to the biblical text, people tend to just read the notes right away rather than first thinking about the text on their own.

The most accurate English Bible translation is the 1901 American Standard Version, which is one of the few Bible versions out there that consistently relies on the oldest manuscripts for translation of the New Testament. It is also public domain, free of copyright restrictions, and free of headings supplied in the text by a translator or editor. The most accurate translation in modern English is the New American Standard Bible. In Spanish, the two most accurate translations are the 1960 Reina-Valera and La Biblia de las Américas. I personally do some of my Bible reading in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (i.e., not in a translation). My knowledge of the Spanish language has been greatly aided by my reading of the Bible in Spanish, and I can recommend reading the Bible in another language as a great way to improve one’s abilities in that language. But improving language knowledge is only of secondary importance to the transformation of one’s life and thought by hearing and obeying the Word of God.

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The world’s most educated man

26 Friday Dec 2014

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Meeting with Dr. Nicholson

Today I met with Dr. Michael Nicholson for brunch. Dr. Nicholson is a truly unique man: he holds the unofficial world record for the most earned college degrees, at 30 and counting. Most of his degrees are master’s degrees, all of them are from fully accredited institutions (except maybe the first one), and none was earned online. Most of his degrees are from mid-level institutions of higher learning, and many are in various educational specialties. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called him “the most credentialed person in modern history.” Dr. Nicholson and I also have two alma maters in common: Grand Valley State University and Dallas Theological Seminary.

In my conversation with Dr. Nicholson, I found him to be professional but affable. He seemed like a nice guy, if a bit eccentric. As one might expect, he leads a disciplined life. He is also an evangelical Christian with a strong faith. He gets up every morning at 4:30am (without an alarm clock!), takes a two-mile walk, reads the Bible, and prays. He says he is not exceptionally gifted academically, but he always attends classes, arrives on time, does all the assignments, turns them in on time, and studies for tests. He meets the course requirements, but does not do extra work. He does not own a television.

Dr. Nicholson earned his B.R.E. (Bachelor of Religious Education) degree in 1963 and a Th.M. (Master of Theology) degree in 1967. He originally intended to get a Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary and teach, but his life took a series of twists and turns which led him to get two more master’s degrees and an Ed.D. in order to get teaching qualifications. (He did teach high school for two years during this time and worked as a counselor.) Then physical issues prevented him from taking a job with the stress of a full time professor, which resulted in a job writing parking tickets at Western Michigan University. His wife also had a job at WMU, and Dr. Nicholson took advantage of tuition discounts to earn a number of degrees from the university. In later years, he did some substitute teaching as well, but he also continued to earn more degrees. He currently leads music at a small country church and also leads a weekly song service at a nursing home, but never has felt comfortable with the idea of taking a pastoral ministry. At the age of 73 he graduated with his 30th degree earlier this month (an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Grand Valley State University), and he is considering earning even more degrees if his health allows it.

A disclaimer: while it may be that God has called Dr. Nicholson to a special ministry of earning college degrees, this certainly is not the will of God for most seminary graduates (thankfully!). As a rule, seminary graduates should use their degrees to teach, pastor, write, and so forth. I suppose Dr. Nicholson is the extreme example of the “eager student” who loves school and wants to learn everything. While most people with “eager student syndrome” eventually want to publish books and articles and obtain a professorship, Dr. Nicholson just kept learning and getting degrees. Also unlike most eager students, Dr. Nicholson actually had the opportunity to stay in school for his entire life.

But there was a more profound takeaway from my meeting with Dr. Nicholson than merely the curiosity of meeting a man with so many degrees, or enjoying the camaraderie that comes from shared alma maters. Sometimes secular people caricature conservative evangelical Christians as anti-intellectual ignoramuses. The way you hear these people talk, you would think for sure that all of the smartest, best-educated people in the world are atheists. In fact, Dr. Nicholson has had more education than anyone else in the world, as measured by college degrees earned, and all but two of his degrees are from non-religious institutions. After going through a lifetime of university classes, Dr. Nicholson still holds to the same basic Christian beliefs that he held before he first enrolled in college. He has never read, heard, or learned anything that destroyed his Christian faith or his confidence in the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, Word of God. He told me that his education has made his faith stronger because, he said, “the whole idea of an education is to pursue the truth, and God is truth.”

Here is a lesson for Christians: the Christian faith is true, and therefore Christians do not need to fear that there will be some archeological discovery, some scientific discovery, or a philosophical argument that will destroy the Christian religion. Scholars like Dr. Nicholson and I have read vast amounts of scholarship, we have had a very broad exposure to what else is “out there,” and we have heard “the other side” present its views every which way, yet the more we hear the better the Bible looks. There is no other religion or philosophical system out there that has “the real truth”; Christianity is the real truth. There is no archeological or scientific “fact” out there that proves even a single error in the Bible; the Bible is wholly and completely true. The reason why secular scholars reject the Bible and Christianity is not because of any genuine problem with the Bible or Christianity. Belief in the Bible is eminently reasonable by any measure, and the Christian faith can be proven true in many different ways. But acceptance of the Bible and of the Christian religion involves moral and spiritual issues, not just intellectual issues, and in fact the minds of unbelievers are blinded by Satan (2 Cor 4:4) and their hearts are hardened by sin (Eph 4:18). New Christians are born again by the transforming power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God, which illumines their minds and changes their way of thinking. Dr. Nicholson said about his unbelieving professors, “They think they know what they’re talking about, but they don’t know what’s going on right under their noses.”

You can read more about Dr. Nicholson here:

Here’s the list of 29 degrees (from the Kalamazoo Gazette)

Alumni with the most diplomas (from the GVSU alumni magazine)

Twenty-seven degrees and counting (from the Kalamazoo Gazette)

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The Johannine Christmas story

19 Friday Dec 2014

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the unique One from the Father), full of grace and truth.

So begins the fourth Gospel. In the Johannine Christmas story, there are no shepherds, no wise men, no angels, and no manger. There is no Bethlehem and no Nazareth. There is no census, no king, and no inn. John does describe Jesus’ entrance into the world, but he does this by presenting the Christmas story as a theological narrative. The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written, so John was able to assume that his readers had an understanding of Jesus’ earthly origins from Matthew and Luke. This allowed John to start his presentation of the good news (gospel) about Jesus with a theological overview of Jesus’ origins and ministry.

Rather than calling Jesus by His human name, John characterizes Jesus theologically as the eternal logos (Word) who is the Revealer of the Father. John begins his description of Jesus’ origins by describing the Word as the eternal God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Giver of life, and the Revelation of God in the world (1:1-5). The Word’s coming was announced by a forerunner, John (1:6-8), and yet when He came, His own revelation of Himself was rejected by the world which He created and by His own people (1:9-11). However, even though the Word’s own did not receive Him, the invitation to receive Him is open to all, and those who receive Him become His own (1:12-13).

The rejection of the eternal Word by His own people was powerfully ironic, but John saves the most powerful irony for v. 14, in which he at last describes how it is that the Word came into the world and was manifested. The eternal Word, who is the perfect revelation of the Father’s glory, became flesh and dwelt among us! To either a Gentile or a Jew, this was and remains a mind-boggling concept: the Word became flesh, without ceasing to be God! John completes the prologue to his Gospel by describing how the Word’s incarnate glory was seen by the world, attested by John, and experienced by believers apart from the Law as the Revelation of God (1:14-18).

Babies are helpless and fully dependent, and yet even as that baby in Bethlehem’s manger cried out for His mother’s attention, He was at the same time upholding all things by the Word of His power (see Heb 1:3). Extraordinary, isn’t it? It is good to be reminded at the Christmas season that this Baby whom we celebrate is the Creator of all things. Our God was in that feed trough, the One whom we worship and serve.

Source note: Some of the material in this blog post is copied from Volume 6 of my Interpretive Guide to the Bible.

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Exegetical insights from the Matthean Christmas narrative

15 Monday Dec 2014

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An English reader might miss the full significance of Matthew 1:16, which reads as follows: And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

In English, the relative pronoun “who/whom” can refer to either a man or a woman, and to either a single individual or a group of people. But in Greek, the relative pronoun is spelled differently depending on whether it is referring to a man or a woman, and whether to a single person or a group. There are several places in the New Testament where this feature of the Greek language is useful for clarifying statements that are potentially ambiguous in an English translation. One of these places is Matthew 1:16.

A Christian English reader might assume on theological grounds that the word “whom” in Matthew 1:16 refers to Mary, but it could also be interpreted as referring to Joseph, or to both Joseph and Mary. However, in Greek, the ambiguity is removed. The word “whom” is a feminine singular pronoun. Because Joseph is masculine, and “Joseph and Mary” would be masculine plural, the feminine singular pronoun can only refer to Mary. Thus, Matthew 1:16 states that Jesus was born of Mary, but not Joseph. Matthew carefully worded this verse to protect the doctrine of Jesus’ virgin conception and birth. Beyond the use of the feminine singular relative pronoun, Matthew also uses the passive verb was born, rather than the active begat/bore, to avoid the implication that Mary was Jesus’ biological mother. Matthew thus carefully avoids saying either that Mary was the biological mother of Jesus or that Joseph was His biological father, but only that Mary gave birth to Jesus and that Joseph was her husband.

The next verse in Matthew’s Christmas narrative may seem a little puzzling to the modern reader: So all the generations from Abraham unto David are fourteen generations; and from David unto the carrying away to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon unto the Christ fourteen generations. – Matthew 1:17

Have you ever wondered why Matthew makes a big deal out of the fact that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile, and fourteen from the exile until Christ? Matthew does this to show that Jesus came at the exact time when the next Davidic king was scheduled to appear. The generations from Abraham to David were the first period when Israel was without a Davidic king; the generations from David to the exile represent the time when Israel had a Davidic king; the generations from the exile to Christ were when Israel was again without a Davidic king. Thus, fourteen generations had gone by and it was again time for Israel to have a Davidic king. But while Matthew says there are fourteen generations from the exile until Christ, he only lists thirteen between Jechoniah and Jesus; therefore from the birth of Jesus until the beginning of John’s ministry another generation would have passed, and the time would be right for the next Davidic king to appear.

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Jesus, Immanuel

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

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And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. – Matthew 1:21

Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us. – Matthew 1:23

Matthew’s Christmas narrative gives two names by which the Christ child would be called: Jesus and Immanuel. The name Jesus is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua or, in its later contracted form, Jeshua. It occurs frequently in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) as the Greek equivalent of these Hebrew names, and it was a fairly common name in the first century B.C. and A.D. (cf. Luke 3:29; Acts 13:6; Col 4:11). After the first century A.D., the Jews stopped using the name “Jesus” because of its Christian associations, while ancient Christians refused to use it as a common name out of reverence for their Lord.

When the angel told Joseph to call the Christ child “Jesus,” he gave an explanation of this name: it is he that shall save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means “Jehovah (Yahweh/the LORD) saves” or “Jehovah who saves.” Although other men in Christ’s day bore this name, only Jesus Christ actually fulfilled the meaning of it. Others with the name simply stated it as a fact, which they could not personally fulfill; but Jesus bore the name as a statement of His life’s work.

Unlike the name “Jesus,” the name “Immanuel” was not an official designation of Christ’s human name by the angel, nor was it a name by which Christ was known during His earthly life. Instead, Matthew cites it in a quotation from Isaiah 7:14, where a son is promised as a sign to the house of David. Matthew gives the meaning of this name himself: “God with us” (or, “God is with us”). This meaning of this name is significant because it testifies to the divinity of Christ and to the reality of the incarnation. This Jesus is God, yet He has come as a man to dwell with mankind.

Taken together, the names Jesus and Immanuel form a Matthean Christmas message: God is with us, and He has come to save us from our sins.

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Some insights from Bible scholars

23 Sunday Nov 2014

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This past Wednesday through Friday, I attended the 66th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, which is the world’s largest gathering of evangelical Christian theologians and Bible scholars. As always, I could attend only a small percentage of the hundreds of presentations at the conference. I have summarized insights from a few presentations below.

Bryant Wood of Associates for Biblical Research presented an update of ABR’s ongoing excavation of Khirbet el-Maqatir, which he has argued convincingly is the biblical city of Ai. The most important recent find at this site was a scarab which, according to Wood’s analysis, can be dated specifically to the period immediately before the biblical date of Joshua’s conquest of the city (1405 B.C.). This find was ranked by Christianity Today as biblical archeology’s most significant discovery of 2013. ABR is looking for volunteers for their 2015 dig at Khirbet el-Maqatir.

Daniel Lanz, who is a doctoral student at Wheaton and a personal friend, presented a paper in which he gave a technical explanation of the geographical references in Deuteronomy 11:30. Essentially, he was responding to a common viewpoint among theologically liberal scholars that this verse mistakenly locates Mounts Ebal and Gerizim by the Jordan, near Jericho. An outline of his paper is posted online here.

John R. Rice was one of the most well-known fundamentalist church leaders of the twentieth century. Matthew Lyon, who is a doctoral student at Southern Baptist Seminary, presented a paper on John R. Rice’s view of women. He argued that Rice held a much more reasoned position on the issue than what his opponents have portrayed him as holding. Rice argued that wives should be in subjection to their husbands, and that they should not be preachers or teachers in the church, although men and women are equal before God—a position not unlike that held by many conservative evangelical Christians today. What made Rice a lightning rod for criticism was his penchant for stating his views in strong and sometimes provocative language.

On Thursday, I attended a breakfast for alumni of Dallas Theological Seminary in which President Mark Bailey gave a report on how the school has done in the past year. Essentially, enrollment is steady and there have been some big construction projects started. The school is doing well financially. Bailey did not make reference to any of the theological controversies at the school. (Note: There are not just theological controversies at DTS—most evangelical seminaries are dealing with the same trends in scholarship and the same tensions with traditional scholarship.)

Daniel Janosik of Southern Evangelical Seminary presented research which shows how the repression of Christians in Islamic countries today is no different than the way Christians were historically treated under Islamic rule. The only period in the history of Islam in which Christians were treated well was the colonial period, during which European powers forced a greater toleration of Christians by the Muslim majority. Janosik’s paper is posted on his website.

Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis presented a paper in which he argued that the Bible does not allow for millions of years of death and suffering before the fall of man. One interesting point he made was that the Old Testament only uses the word “death” for plant life once, in a poetic speech in Job. Plants do not have consciousness, and therefore are really only complex machines. In response to a question from the audience, Terry stated that he does not know of any credible contemporary creationist who argues that the second law of thermodynamics was not in operation prior to the fall. He said that digestion of food is an application of the second law of thermodynamics, but digestion is not a moral evil. Another questioner asked whether Adam could have stubbed his toe and felt pain before the fall. Terry said he knows a 17 year old girl who was born without the ability to feel pain, and it has created great problems in her life. She cannot, for example, sense that she should take her hand off of a hot stove, because burning skin does not cause her pain. Terry’s point was that pain can be a good thing; it is a sense that makes us aware of our surroundings and keeps us from seriously injuring ourselves. Terry also pointed out that the curse of Genesis 3:16 promised to greatly increase a woman’s pain in childbirth, implying that childbirth would have been painful in a limited way even before the fall. Pain that is too great or too persistent could not exist in a world in which everything was “very good” (Gen 1:31), but limited pain would have been part of the prelapsarian world. An earlier version of Terry’s paper can be read online here.

Although this was not part of the conference, Ken Ham refers in a blog post to a recent article in a scientific journal that presents new neurological research which indicates that true atheism is psychologically impossible. If this is right, then people who claim to be atheists are attempting to suppress an innate belief in God that they can never actually destroy. (I do think that everyone has an innate knowledge of God, but there is a question as to the extent to which someone can ignore or suppress this knowledge; see, for example, Psalms 10:4; 14:1; 53:1.)

It was also great to meet with dozens of friends, old and new, at the conference. Looking forward to next year’s meeting in Atlanta!

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The war in the heavenlies

09 Sunday Nov 2014

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In my last post, I described what I think are the most significant battles in military history. In this post, I will give an overview of the war the Bible describes between spirit beings in heavenly realms. The two greatest battles in this conflict occur at the beginning and end of world history, but the Bible teaches that there is a constant, ongoing struggle between Satan’s forces and God’s forces.

The war in the heavenlies began when Satan, who like the other angelic beings was created morally perfect but with the ability to choose to confirm this perfection or to rebel against it, pridefully coveted God’s lordship of the universe and determined to rebel (Isa 14:12-14; Ezek 28:14-15). (For more detail regarding the interpretation of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, see volume 4 of my Interpretive Guide to the Bible.) Satan left his station as the cherub who covered God’s throne (Ezek 28:16) and persuaded large numbers of other angels (one-third, according to Rev 12:4) into following him in an attempt to take over heaven (Isa 14:12-14; Rev 12:3-12). Presumably Satan promised to make them princes in his new world order. Satan then attempted to storm God’s throne and take it for himself. Although Satan could never win a direct battle with God, in fact he was not even able to break through to the divine Presence: a great battle was fought between Satan’s angelic army and God’s angelic army, and God’s angels won this battle decisively. Satan and his angelic followers were cast down to earth for a time (Isa 14:12; Ezek 28:16; cf. Rev 12:9), and the lake of fire was created immediately to be the place of eternal punishment for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). Satan then continued his war against God on the earth by tempting Adam and Eve to sin (Gen 3:1-6), and the rest of the Bible tells the story of how God comes to the rescue of the fallen human race.

Daniel 10 describes how Satan and his angels are fighting God’s angels in the present age. It describes how heaven’s second most powerful angel (excluding the four cherubim) was sent to deliver a critically important message to the prophet Daniel, but was blocked en route to Daniel by Satan. While Satan and this powerful angel were fighting each other, many other good angels and evil angels joined the fray; however, Satan successfully blocked this angel’s path for twenty-one days. Daniel continued to pray throughout the twenty-one days, until finally God dispatched Michael, the chief angel (archangel), who freed the other angel from Satan’s grasp and enabled him to reach Daniel. Before this angel revealed his prophetic message to Daniel, he described how he had been engaged in a constant conflict with Satan since the establishment of the Persian Empire, with the object of their struggle being influence over the king of the empire. He described, further, how he would return to this conflict with Satan immediately after he left Daniel, and how this conflict would continue in the new Greek empire after Alexander the Great had conquered Persia. Angelic beings are capable of exerting a powerful influence over human thought and behavior in ways that we do not fully understand, and Satan’s forces are fighting God’s forces for influence in the governments of every country in the world. The conflict which the prophecy of Daniel 11 describes between kings, between governments, and between wicked rulers and the people of God, is the visible manifestation of the invisible conflict between armies of angels; what is happening in the spiritual realm drives what happens in the physical realm.

Since the object in the war between good and evil angels is influence in the human realm, it stands to reason that Christians are participants in this spiritual battle. Indeed, Ephesians 6:10-20 teaches that the Christian’s real and primary battle is in the spiritual realm. However, we do not fight this battle the way the angels do, since we do not possess supernatural powers. We fight this battle by using all the tools at our disposal—prayer, the Bible, fellow believers, and the exercise of our faith—to lead a righteous and holy life that is pleasing to God. This is the way to resist the devil’s influence, and thereby to win victory in our spiritual war. James 4:7 teaches that by subjecting ourselves to God we are resisting the devil, and he will flee from us.

Christians also have a duty to pray for the leaders of government, in order to have peace and stability in their land (1 Tim 2:1-2). While there is a spiritual battle being waged in every country in the world, I believe that today powerful Satanic forces are fighting in Washington, D. C. with the angel who appeared to Daniel, in order to influence the government of the world’s most powerful country. Michael is identified as the special guardian angel of the nation of Israel (Dan 10:21; 12:1), which means that he is very likely in Jerusalem today, fighting with powerful Satanic forces who want to block the fulfillment of biblical prophecy by removing the Jewish people from their land. The prayers of believers have a profound effect on these struggles, as demonstrated by Daniel 10.

At some point after the fall of man, Satan and his angels (the demons) were given access to heaven once again, but only to present themselves before God (not to fight—see 1 Kgs 22:19-23; 2 Chr 18:18-22). Satan’s main activity in heaven in the present age consists of slandering God’s people on earth for their real or alleged faults (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Rev 12:10). But at the end of history, when he knows his time is short, Satan will make one more attempt to do what he originally set out to do—to gather all his forces and make an all-out assault on heaven in order to cast God off His throne (Rev 12:7). The release of large numbers of particularly bad demons from the abyss (Rev 9:1-11) will augment Satan’s forces, and Satan’s henchmen (the antichrist and the false prophet) will be in the process of seizing political power over the earth at the same time (Rev 13). However, Satan’s second attempt to storm heaven will be just as unsuccessful as his first attempt, and when Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels, they are expelled for all time (Rev 12:7-10). The final 3½ years of the tribulation period, which occur after Satan’s final fall from heaven, will be particularly difficult from a spiritual point of view because the energies of Satan and his forces are focused exclusively on the earth (Rev 12:12-17).

The resolution of the war between spirit beings comes at the second coming of Jesus Christ to earth, when Satan is bound for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-3) and his angels are judged by the saints and sent to the lake of fire forever (Isa 24:21-23; 1 Cor 6:3; Rev 20:4). The ensuing thousand years (the “millennium”), in which Jesus and the resurrected saints rule over a human population with mortal bodies, will be a time of great peace and order, since the world will be entirely free from the destructive influence of Satan and his angels. But at the end of the thousand years, Satan is briefly released from his prison in order to reveal which people are genuine followers of God and which were insincere (it turns out most were insincere—Rev 20:7-8). Satan shows that he has not changed, as he leads the people of the world to surround Mount Zion in yet another attempt to cast God off His throne. Satan’s followers are killed, but are raised shortly thereafter for the final judgment, while Satan himself is immediately sent to the lake of fire for all eternity (Rev 20:9-15). In the final creation (the “eternal state”), the saints are entirely separated not just from their own personal sin, but from the very presence of evil, which is confined to the lake of fire (Rev 21:1–22:5). The spiritual conflict which is now being fought in the heavenlies will have been won forever, with God, God’s angels, and God’s saints fully triumphant.

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The most significant military battles in history

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by in Bible prophecy, History

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One characteristic of some newer books on military history is that they tend to just present a narrative of what happened without a reflective analysis which shows the significance of what happened. This was a complaint I had with an otherwise excellent book that I purchased, The Encyclopedia of Warfare (Metro Books, 2013). More than 5,000 battles from the history of world civilizations are listed chronologically and described, but the reader struggles to develop a sense of which battles were the most significant ones for the course of world history. So let me try here to identify history’s most significant battles (not wars). From my biblical Christian worldview, the most significant battles will be ones that had the greatest effect on the place of true religion in the world.

There are many battles recorded in the Old Testament, and each was significant in its own way. Probably the most significant ones were Joshua’s conquest of Jericho in 1405 B.C. (Josh 2–6), followed by his defeat of a coalition of southern Canaanite kings (Josh 10) and his defeat of a coalition of northern Canaanite kings (Josh 11). It was Joshua’s providential victories in these battles that gave the Israelites possession of the land of Canaan, to which the nation of Israel has been tied ever since.

Many historians consider Marathon (490 B.C.) and Salamis (480 B.C.) to be the two most important battles in world history. In these battles, the Persian king Darius Hystaspes (in 490) and his son Xerxes (in 480) were soundly defeated by the Greeks. The presence of an unconquerable and vengeful foe on the western border of the Persian Empire made eventual conquest of Persia by the Greeks inevitable, which in turn resulted in the spread of Greek language and culture throughout the center of world civilization. It was largely the two battles of Marathon and Salamis that determined the future of Western civilization, and that indeed created the concept of a common civilization. These battles therefore largely shaped the biblical world of the New Testament and the early church—though, in truth, Marathon and Salamis were only the outworking of the predetermined plan of God, and were not determinative in themselves (see Dan 8:3-8, 20-22; 11:2-4).

There is another battle which had nearly as great an impact on the course of world history as Marathon and Salamis, but which is much less famous because the victors did not celebrate the battle in literature, theater, or art. As Caesar Augustus expanded and consolidated the Roman Empire, he recognized the threat posed to Rome by the Germanic tribes, and he sought to conquer and annex Germania (Germany) for this reason. His invasion failed disastrously: three Roman legions, along with their auxiliary forces, were annihilated by a makeshift army of Germanic tribal warriors at the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in A.D. 9. Stung by this rout, the Romans contented themselves with establishing a strong defensive perimeter along the Rhine and Danube rivers. However Augustus’ failure to subdue Germania, like the failure of Darius and Xerxes to subdue Greece, portended a further disaster for some future day. It was the invasions of such Germanic tribes as the Visigoths, the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, the Franks, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths which gradually weakened the Roman Empire and directly caused its fall. Germanic culture melded with Roman culture to form the culture of medieval Europe, and the influences of “barbarian” Germanic culture are still strongly felt in the Western world today.

Also deserving of mention is Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312, fought under the sign of the cross. This battle, which gave Constantine control over the western Roman Empire, had a profound effect on the history of Western civilization as a whole, and on the history of the Christian church in particular. Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313) freed the church from official persecution, and the later adoption of Christianity as the state religion led to the development of a distinctly Christian civilization. Constantine is also significant for moving the center of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, and for convening the Council of Nicaea in 325.

The rapid conquest of the Middle East by Islamic armies created a grave crisis for the church in the early Middle Ages. In what has often been called one of the most significant battles in all of history, Charles Martel (“the Hammer”) and his Frankish army decisively defeated an invading Muslim army at Tours (Poitiers) in 732, driving the Islamic forces back from the heartland of Europe. Although the Muslims retreated south of the Pyrenees Mountains, they were not finally driven out of the Iberian Peninsula until 1492, the year Columbus discovered America. Martel’s force was the last Christian line of defense in Europe against Muslim expansion, and there can be no doubt that the hand of God was with him to preserve Europe as a bastion of Christendom in the Middle Ages.

The American Revolutionary War was one of the most important wars in the history of the world, for it created what has become the most powerful and prosperous country that the world has ever seen. More than any other entity, the United States has essentially shaped the world of the end times. The battle that led Great Britain to concede defeat was the Battle of Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis surrendered a British force of 8,000 to General Washington on October 19, 1781. However, Yorktown would not have been possible without earlier American victories—especially at Saratoga, where the surrender of 5,000 British soldiers on October 17, 1777 convinced France to enter the war on the side of the fledgling United States.

Surely World War I and its sequel, World War II, were two of the most significant wars in the history of the world. They vastly reshaped world civilization, altered the balance of power in the world, reshaped world economic structures, gave rise to totally new types of weapons, and led to the establishment of the modern state of Israel. The key battle of World War I was the First Battle of the Marne, fought on September 5-10, 1914. This battle turned back the German advance on Paris and created a stalemate on the Western Front that was to last until 1918. The most significant battle of World War II was the Battle of Britain, which was fought in the skies above England in August–September 1940. The Royal Air Force won this battle by the narrowest of margins, thereby frustrating Adolf Hitler’s ambitions to invade the British Isles and forcing him to turn his attention to targets reachable by land.

The greatest and most decisive battle in world history is still to be fought—the so-called Battle of Armageddon. This battle will occur at the end of the seven-year tribulation period, i.e., seven years after Christian believers are removed from the earth at the rapture and a treaty between Israel and the antichrist takes effect (these two events evidently occur simultaneously). The first 3½ years of the tribulation period will witness some incredibly devastating wars and battles, the likes of which will make the carnage of World War II pale by comparison. But at the midpoint of the seven years the antichrist seizes economic and religious power over the world, and he conquers much of the world to control it politically, which results in relative political stability for a few years. However, at the end of the tribulation period, the Bible describes how armies from the north and from the east will march on Israel, which is where the antichrist has moved the center of his operations (Dan 11:44-45; Rev 16:12-16). These armies evidently come to Israel with the intention of fighting the antichrist for political power; however, as the signs of Jesus’ second coming begin to appear, they decide to instead turn their firepower against the armies of heaven (Ps 2:2-3; Rev 16:14). But when Jesus actually appears they realize that they are infinitely overpowered (Rev 6:12-17), and they are killed simply by Jesus speaking the word: “Drop dead!” (Zech 12–14; Rev 14:17-20; 19:11-20). The angels proceed to gather all remaining unbelievers out of the world to be judged (Matt 13:41-42), and Jesus establishes direct political control over a new earth, which only believers may enter (Isa 65:17-25). Armageddon is the most decisive battle in the history of the world, since it will result in the complete and permanent changeover of power in the world from human government to direct divine rule (Dan 2:44-45). There will be one final battle 1,000 years later (Rev 20:7-10), but this is essentially a failed rebellion, with all the casualties on the side of the losers.

The Bible also describes a war being waged in the heavenly realms which has a much more profound effect on world events than most people realize (see Dan 10; Eph 6:10-20). This war, and the most significant battles in this war, will be the subject of a future post on this blog.

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