WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Well, I'm saying first of all that I'm glad to be here and thank you for your kind welcome and the excellent lunch we had. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:30.000 ! I was told by my friend to be challenging and to stretch you and I came and I thought that you were all then stretched already and in some ways I feel dwarfed by the audience I'm addressing because I'm 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:54.000 listening to conversations and I'm very impressed with the learning and occupying all along. So I feel, I must say, very, very inadequate today, also unusual. So forgive me, it's been a long day. I'm not quite sure what level I should pitch this at, what the real needs are. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:11.000 But my thinking was that I would work towards the question of theology and preaching. But I'm very conscious that theology as such has involved grace in the churches today, in the non-ministrators and teachers of the word. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:20.000 And I wanted them to begin by reflecting on the question, what is theology and who am I from there? 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:40.000 As the word suggests, theology is the doctrine or the knowledge of God. Or more precisely, it is the study by means of which you can come to be able to speak a word or a logos about God. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:59.379 That is, it is its practical function. Now, if one bears your mind that anybody speaks about God, then in one sense all humans are theologians. 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:12.379 And even the atheist who denies God's existence has a clear idea of which God doesn't believe it. So that's actually true as a theologian. 00:02:12.379 --> 00:02:32.379 The child who prays, in a very elementary way perhaps, and those things Jesus loves me. That child too is a theologian. She is speaking her own words about God. 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:44.379 And she cannot pray or sing her own words about God. And she cannot pray or sing her own words, although she has some kind of knowledge which that prayer and that hymn is going to articulate. 00:02:44.379 --> 00:03:01.379 And so she too is a theologian. The believer who is no academic, but sits in a few and listens and worships and prays and again sings his own words to God. 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:17.680 That believer is also a theologian. One who in his prayers uses words about God, who sings words about God, who witnesses to God human speech and human words. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:26.680 And so he too is a theologian. And so he too is a theologian. In a way the profession, if I may say so, is kind of unavoidable. 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:33.680 For an atheist for child, for a purpose called sometimes the humble or simple believer. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:35.680 Maybe the pre-preacher of the humble or simple believer. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:42.680 Maybe the pre-preacher of the world is and must be a theologian. 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:52.680 Now some of them would pre-prefess some dislike of theology as they said, and even some suspicion of it. 00:03:52.680 --> 00:04:00.340 We had a scoff at it to recently a cardinal, the one before, the last one, cardinal Tom Woody. 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:09.400 He was very contemptuous of theology and he had a return to a role as an expert on the 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:15.500 anelmetic manages, which in fact had more important role than being a theologian, so 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:24.420 that's a pretty dark place. But even the preacher who kind of is suspicious of theology and dismissive 00:04:24.420 --> 00:04:35.220 of it, would nevertheless in his own preaching reflect a theological position. And sometimes 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:43.279 they spoke, well I think in Europe, some would call to the mercy of the word. The dad and 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:51.659 Matthew received orders of the ministry of the church, the ministry of the word, and a 00:04:51.659 --> 00:04:58.579 ministry of pastoral overs and the elders of possibility primarily, and also the accredit. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:07.039 And these are some ways to seek cause with their own, each which are the particular complex 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:17.200 of gifts and divine power. And the use of the word is inevitably going to be a theology, 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:24.740 what speaks words about God. And it sometimes will be, I am certain, as a person of theology, 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:34.019 using terms which are not biblical, but never the rest, understanding the theology. For example, 00:05:34.019 --> 00:05:43.319 if we, who are not in the number of theology, can speak of the people of substitution, we are 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:51.740 then theologians. And we are then using non-biblical words to express our own positions. We have a word 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:57.740 like another word, like a mercy, many, many other words which are very much of a benefit of the 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:07.740 non-theology, and yet which are distinctly theological terms and concepts. And so what I'm saying is that 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:17.740 all of us speak words about God. The atheists, the child of praise, the worshipper, the preacher, are all 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:27.740 using words, speaking words about God. And a large part of our concern is to hone that terminology, 00:06:27.740 --> 00:06:41.740 because we are forced often to invent a new vocabulary to express the concepts and the beliefs at which we have 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:49.740 arrived. There are other causes of course, there are some problems. Well, that's a very general 00:06:49.740 --> 00:07:05.740 introduction to the field here. I want to look at the challenge that's often posed in our studies. Can there be a knowledge of God? Can God be known? 00:07:05.740 --> 00:07:17.740 There are many theologians who answer that's negative. And I would say there can be no objective knowledge of God. 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:27.740 They would say, yes, we can tell what many theologians think about God, or the many doctors of the church think about God. 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:44.740 We can ascertain what the Christian consciousness tells about God. We can tell what the 00:07:44.740 --> 00:08:04.740 the believers experience tells us about God. But all the time you have only anthropology. You are talking only of human mental, academic, or perhaps emotional, psychological states. 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:14.740 There are statements about human beings, not about God. And there are many of them that can't get out of that particular 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:26.740 first ailment, out of those limitations. And all God talk is, in the last analysis, of the man talk, talk of human beliefs about God. 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:38.740 Now, the basis of this scepticism lies, as you should all of you know, in Immanuel Kant's famous position. 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:52.740 That's why reason can ascertain proof about the phenomenon. It can't ascertain proof about the phenomenon. 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:56.740 If I can just for a moment, if I can just for a moment, unpack that. 00:08:56.740 --> 00:09:04.740 Kant is asking, what is the function of pure reason in the realm of religion? 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:08.740 Or, indeed, the realm of human knowledge, generally? 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:24.740 And he's saying to us that, if so far as he deals with the people of the visible, the sensible, the measurable, the quantifiable, then reason is competent. 00:09:24.740 --> 00:09:46.740 And he's saying to us that, in the realm of science. And Kant, who has some Scottish plan in itself, is saying, yes, reason is competent in the realm of science. 00:09:46.740 --> 00:10:04.740 But it can't know nothing of the human knowledge, that is, of the heavenly, of the invisible. It can't prove anything about God, or discover anything about God. 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:22.740 Now, Kant is the doubt to get the wrong here in this own context, because the context was that it was facing a religion which is built on reason alone. 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:38.740 In other words, the rationalism. And what he's saying to us is that, reason alone can't build a religion. Because it knows nothing, and can discover nothing about God. 00:10:38.740 --> 00:10:44.740 So, who is the object under a tantrum, and can't be a tantrum, and can't be a tantrum. 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:54.740 There is no Christian faith as such, but rationalism. And he's saying that reason alone is not competent in this area of religion. 00:10:54.740 --> 00:11:01.740 Now, we have some something about that, because we know that your mind is already favoured. 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:14.740 So, let's ask another question. Granted, that man, by pure reason, is thus limited, and cannot yet know God. 00:11:14.740 --> 00:11:23.740 Is God able to make himself known, or is God equally limited compared to man? 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:29.740 Reason unable to discover, and God unable to make himself known. 00:11:29.740 --> 00:11:44.740 Or is it possible that God can reveal himself, can unveil himself, can make himself visible, and make himself audible, 00:11:44.740 --> 00:11:54.740 make himself apparent to our human knowing, our human interests, and our human minds? 00:11:54.740 --> 00:12:01.740 And the answer to the question is that, yes, God can make himself known. 00:12:01.740 --> 00:12:12.740 And God has revealed himself to us. And this divine act or action overcomes, 00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:19.740 illiberates our human limitation, our human ability. 00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:28.740 Pure reason, incompetent, but God able to make himself known to us in Revelation. 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:45.740 And we believe that's what God has done. He has revealed himself, and he has also created us such as that we are able to understand that revelation. 00:12:45.740 --> 00:12:56.740 That is, that is, that is, that is a cognitively friendly, divine self-disclosure that makes human knowledge of God possible. 00:12:56.740 --> 00:13:03.740 Now, that revelation, as we call it in Hebrews, came in diverse ways. 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:12.740 It came, it comes first of all, through creation, in what we might call general revelation. 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:22.740 As you know, Karl Barth was very suspicious of this claim that God can be known through creation or general revelation. 00:13:22.740 --> 00:13:36.740 I'm not talking here of what Barth called National Theology, because that's a human achievement, the product of human ability. 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:46.740 I'm talking of God's initiative in unveiling himself and making himself known. 00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:52.740 In creating, God expresses himself. 00:13:53.740 --> 00:14:01.740 He gives himself visibility, he who is invisible, even by the things that are made. 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:10.740 He reveals, Paul says in Romans 1, his God eternal power and his Godhead. 00:14:10.740 --> 00:14:15.740 And that revelation is universal, in general. 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:19.740 It imparts every human consciousness. 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:40.740 And John Calvin, reflecting on Paul in Romans 1, brought out those great ideas that God has put in every human heart what Calvin called the senses, the etatis, or the veritatis, the awareness of deity. 00:14:40.740 --> 00:14:45.740 And that is there in every human heart. 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:51.740 What Calvin also called the implanted knowledge of God. 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:57.740 Now that implanted, the word is ipsitta, soul. 00:14:57.740 --> 00:15:02.740 That ipsitta, that soul is so not so important. 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:07.740 Because again, it's not an autonomous human achievement. 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:16.740 But God has put the senses there, and God has put the knowledge that he has sown in there. 00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:22.740 And he has put again, Calvin says, he has put there the seed of religion. 00:15:22.740 --> 00:15:25.740 And it's in every human heart. 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:31.740 The steps of dependence, and the steps of accountability. 00:15:31.740 --> 00:15:38.740 And that's why we have, as Paul says, this excuselessness. 00:15:38.740 --> 00:15:45.740 Why God is entitled to call every human being to his own throne of judgment. 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:53.740 Because, from this point of view, they all have a knowledge of God. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:16:10.740 Now, that's not God's point of view, but it is, I think, Paul's point of view, and his counsel of view, that we have in us, each one of us, this awareness of God, and the seed of religion. 00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:17.740 But there is also, as we know, what is called special revelation. 00:16:17.740 --> 00:16:21.740 And it's special because, well, for two reasons. 00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:29.740 First of all, it comes through special agents, prophets and apostles, and the incarnate Son. 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:34.740 And also, it comes through unlimited constituency. 00:16:34.740 --> 00:16:41.740 It is not like the sun, moon and stars, universal in its impact. 00:16:41.740 --> 00:16:48.740 It is a word spoken to the Old Testament church, and then, later on, to the New Testament church. 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:52.740 And only through them spoken to the wider world. 00:16:52.740 --> 00:16:54.740 So special. 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:59.740 And it comes, again, in so many diverse forms. 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:00.740 It came in theophany. 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:03.740 It came in theophany. 00:17:03.740 --> 00:17:05.740 It came in dreams. 00:17:05.740 --> 00:17:08.740 It came in missions. 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:11.740 It came in prophecy. 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:16.740 It came through the apostles. 00:17:16.740 --> 00:17:20.740 Above all, it came through the incarnate Son of God himself. 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:30.740 Now, there are diverse forms, but all of them disclosures of the mind, and the will, and the nature of God. 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.740 Here, God is speaking about himself. 00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:34.740 But God went further. 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:48.740 He was going to give us revelation to us through apostles and prophets, but he also gives us the luxury of how that revelation committed to writing. 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:54.740 And given permanence as a consequence of that. 00:17:54.740 --> 00:18:12.740 So, this revelation, this word of God, it's not witness revelation or the record of it, but it is itself a written revelation, the living word of God. 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:21.740 And then, in that, word of God, we have the source of the norm of our theology. 00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:27.740 So, God speaking through his own creativity and artistry. 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:32.740 God speaking through chosen spokespersons. 00:18:32.740 --> 00:18:43.740 And God speaking to us now through his own written word as our living, relevant, contemporary revelation. 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:56.740 Now, it is on that word that we as theologians are called to focus, and as preachers also called to focus. 00:18:56.740 --> 00:18:59.740 This is our Torah. 00:18:59.740 --> 00:19:04.740 We meditate on this Torah day and night. 00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:09.740 Because in this Torah, in the scripture word, that is the revelation of God. 00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:19.740 So, our study of that word has two general features, which I'm not going to expand on this dimension briefly. 00:19:19.740 --> 00:19:24.740 First of all, that there has to be a reference study. 00:19:24.740 --> 00:19:30.740 A reference because we are always handling God's own word. 00:19:30.740 --> 00:19:36.740 And whatever level, we owe it, that reference. 00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:39.740 These are holy scriptures. 00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:46.740 These are holy words, like none other, the living word of God himself. 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:51.740 And so, all reverence is true, that is that word. 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:53.740 But also, rigorous. 00:19:53.740 --> 00:19:58.740 Reverent and rigorous. 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:03.740 And I mean rigorous in the academic sense. 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.740 First of all, remember John Calvin. 00:20:06.740 --> 00:20:13.740 He comes to his two's coventaries with a bank of the Renaissance Hebrew Scholarship. 00:20:13.740 --> 00:20:16.740 His first word is ascetic. 00:20:16.740 --> 00:20:25.740 And the skills and tools of those disciplines he brings to his work as an explosive God's word. 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:35.740 The same reader, they're gone into the first languages, of their grammar, their sickness, their story, their background, and so on. 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:39.740 The record of the Renaissance, the information of Jesus. 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:48.740 All that academic reader going into the searching of God's word on the part of the ministers of the world. 00:20:48.740 --> 00:20:52.740 It has to be academically rigorous. 00:20:52.740 --> 00:21:02.740 Now, again, I'm very conscious that there is a great demand today for shorting courses and distance learning and so on and so forth. 00:21:02.740 --> 00:21:10.740 And maybe sometimes, is that not going to be all the church can't really establish or even afford. 00:21:10.740 --> 00:21:22.740 But one of the curious things I find is that I get the impression that preachers think they've been overplayed. 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:25.740 And I don't understand that. 00:21:25.740 --> 00:21:29.740 Because we cannot know too much as expositors. 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:37.740 If we're going to approach the task in the relevant, rigorous way, then we need the appropriate training. 00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:41.740 But I also want to be the word scientific here. 00:21:41.740 --> 00:21:45.740 That our study of God's word must be scientific. 00:21:45.740 --> 00:21:49.740 And the school, the academic scientific, that's been the same team. 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:51.740 But I do for this reason. 00:21:51.740 --> 00:21:57.740 The Lentian Torrance in particular insisted so often. 00:21:57.740 --> 00:22:10.740 But in any scientific discipline, we can achieve knowledge only between the subject on its own terms. 00:22:10.740 --> 00:22:12.740 What we are studying. 00:22:12.740 --> 00:22:18.740 We must, in the subject, dictate the terms of our knowledge. 00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:31.740 And that's why, if it's a rock, or if it's a tuber, or if it's a scar, or if it's a subatomic particle, 00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:41.740 then each must be accepted on its own terms and tell us about itself. 00:22:41.740 --> 00:22:52.740 You may, some of you have, some of you have, some of you have, some of you have, some of you have watched the American TV, a serious audio proof. 00:22:52.740 --> 00:23:03.740 And, one of the principles which we encourage in that series is, let the body speak. 00:23:03.740 --> 00:23:08.740 Because the cadaver always has something to say. 00:23:08.740 --> 00:23:12.740 And that's the basic theology, there's the basic principle. 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:15.740 Let the subject speak for itself. 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:21.740 In the theology, God must speak for itself. 00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:27.740 And we must come to know God on God's own terms. 00:23:27.740 --> 00:23:32.740 Only in and whose word can we come to our knowledge of God. 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:41.740 I'm not saying that other disciplines and the secular studies may enrich or enumerate, maybe. 00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:47.740 For example, that in the world's great fiction, that we can learn something of human nature. 00:23:47.740 --> 00:23:55.740 And that the great source, the only source, the exclusive source of real knowledge, 00:23:55.740 --> 00:23:59.740 the saving knowledge of God is what we have then in this world. 00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:06.740 Now, there are three disciplines which approach this study. 00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:09.740 And I just want to comment on them briefly. 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:12.740 First of all, there is exegesis. 00:24:12.740 --> 00:24:18.740 Now, this is of course the publication of all theology. 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:21.740 The actual text itself. 00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:28.740 The words that God has breathed out, God has written. 00:24:28.740 --> 00:24:38.740 And we have to sit under those words and ask for the same truths. 00:24:38.740 --> 00:24:47.740 I'm not going to say it very much on this, but it is the text in its final form. 00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:49.740 Not the sources. 00:24:49.740 --> 00:24:52.740 Not the pre-redactor text. 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:57.740 Not the historical setting, which starts by a second-temperate Judaism. 00:24:57.740 --> 00:25:00.740 Or the first century context of meaning. 00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:03.740 But what is this word? 00:25:03.740 --> 00:25:07.740 What did it say to its first readers? 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:10.740 And what is it saying to us today? 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:19.740 Those words, these words, in the dramatic settings, in the context, what are these words saying? 00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:26.740 And now every sermon must begin with a literal wrestling with the text. 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:29.740 To let the text speak to us. 00:25:29.740 --> 00:25:34.740 And say to us what God wants to say to us. 00:25:34.740 --> 00:25:35.740 Food. 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:37.740 So that's where it all starts. 00:25:37.740 --> 00:25:41.740 This thorough ransacking of God's word. 00:25:41.740 --> 00:25:46.740 And we can talk about the actual text, the details of that text. 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:51.740 And as those of you who have done this know, sometimes the reposition is important. 00:25:51.740 --> 00:25:54.740 Sometimes a case is important. 00:25:54.740 --> 00:26:01.740 Accusative, originative, number, singular, plural, singular, we. 00:26:02.740 --> 00:26:07.740 All these details have considerable homo-erical significance. 00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:13.740 If you go back, for example, to the Lord's words, Peter Luke's Gospel. 00:26:13.740 --> 00:26:17.740 Simon, Satan has shot you out. 00:26:17.740 --> 00:26:20.740 He's trying to have you. 00:26:20.740 --> 00:26:22.740 That has got you. 00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:23.740 He has you. 00:26:23.740 --> 00:26:29.740 But in the verses, he says, I have prayed for you. 00:26:29.740 --> 00:26:32.740 Satan has you. 00:26:32.740 --> 00:26:33.740 Plural. 00:26:33.740 --> 00:26:35.740 He has them all. 00:26:35.740 --> 00:26:36.740 All the disciples. 00:26:36.740 --> 00:26:40.740 He had already ex-satuses in the verse. 00:26:40.740 --> 00:26:42.740 He has sought you out. 00:26:42.740 --> 00:26:46.740 But I have prayed for you, for you, for you, Peter singular. 00:26:46.740 --> 00:26:58.740 That personal, particular possession of the risen Savior, as he is now, on behalf of each one of his children. 00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:01.740 Satan has you, plural. 00:27:01.740 --> 00:27:05.740 Peter, I have prayed for you. 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:12.740 And we need to explore the opportunity, the potential of nuances of that can work. 00:27:12.740 --> 00:27:13.740 I've got to go through all the rituals. 00:27:13.740 --> 00:27:15.740 But at least put them all yourselves. 00:27:15.740 --> 00:27:18.740 Just how fascinating they are. 00:27:18.740 --> 00:27:25.740 And then, at somewhat greater length, what is known today as biblical theology. 00:27:25.740 --> 00:27:35.740 I'm writing you, just interested with the overall theological etiopédia. 00:27:35.740 --> 00:27:42.740 And very much preferred by some over against systematic theology. 00:27:42.740 --> 00:27:50.740 The real theology, it's not unsystematic. 00:27:50.740 --> 00:27:52.740 It is systematic. 00:27:52.740 --> 00:27:57.740 It does erase the material in a very ordinary way. 00:27:57.740 --> 00:28:02.740 But it has two distinctive features. 00:28:02.740 --> 00:28:14.740 First of all, it does justice, or seeks to, to the historical dimension of knowing of the Jew. 00:28:14.740 --> 00:28:21.740 It is very much concerned with the progress of Revelation. 00:28:21.740 --> 00:28:23.740 It is historical progress. 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:25.740 It is onward march. 00:28:25.740 --> 00:28:39.740 As God makes himself known, he does so, not just in one or every moment, but he does so when he adapts the authorised version of God. 00:28:39.740 --> 00:28:46.740 For all of my purposes, lie upon lie, precept upon precept. 00:28:46.740 --> 00:29:00.740 Now, this is not the evolution of theology or Revelation, because evolution is, of course, a different procedure from the realism itself. 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:06.740 This is not even man's progress in knowledge of God. 00:29:06.740 --> 00:29:13.740 It is God progressively teaching his people. 00:29:13.740 --> 00:29:20.740 God accommodating himself to what Calvin called the rudeness of his ancient people. 00:29:20.740 --> 00:29:30.740 And then gradually disclosing more and more of the glory of the coming Messiah. 00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:43.740 And that revelation moves on from the elemental verse of Genesis 3 through the whole range of revelation, 00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:49.740 and down to its culmination in the writings of John, from John's epistles. 00:29:49.740 --> 00:29:50.740 And there is a historical line here. 00:29:50.740 --> 00:29:59.740 And the biblical theology wants to trace that line. 00:29:59.740 --> 00:30:12.740 The successive eras of Revelation, the patriarchs, the mosaic, and the prophetic, the incarnation, the apostolic. 00:30:12.740 --> 00:30:19.740 That progressive line for Revelation, that is its trajectory. 00:30:19.740 --> 00:30:24.740 And it is one that is eminently biblical. 00:30:24.740 --> 00:30:32.740 Because the Bible is itself a historical document, one that has its own historical momentum. 00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:37.740 And so you trace that line of development. 00:30:37.740 --> 00:30:43.740 When it comes to preaching, we have to bear this redemptory mind. 00:30:43.740 --> 00:30:51.740 We have to ask ourselves, where does this stand on the line of progress? 00:30:51.740 --> 00:31:01.740 And more particularly, what did this man know when he said this? 00:31:01.740 --> 00:31:05.740 When Job said, I know that my Redeemer lives, for example. 00:31:05.740 --> 00:31:08.740 How could he stand on the line? 00:31:08.740 --> 00:31:13.740 And can I assume that he knew George Prologue? 00:31:13.740 --> 00:31:18.740 And was really reflecting the same truth. 00:31:18.740 --> 00:31:20.740 And shall I preach? 00:31:20.740 --> 00:31:29.740 As if Job had, in fact, been conversed with the Old Testament Christologists. 00:31:29.740 --> 00:31:32.740 Well, he obviously hadn't been. 00:31:32.740 --> 00:31:35.740 And I'm, in a way, suggesting to you, 00:31:35.740 --> 00:31:44.740 Does it not sometimes make you wonder how strong the faith of these men was, 00:31:44.740 --> 00:31:48.740 when it compared to us in a new solitude? 00:31:48.740 --> 00:31:54.740 When the new solitude, for example, about life after death. 00:31:54.740 --> 00:31:57.740 About the resurrection of the body. 00:31:57.740 --> 00:32:00.740 About justification by faith alone. 00:32:00.740 --> 00:32:05.740 About being able to call God Abba. 00:32:05.740 --> 00:32:08.740 Which no Old Testament state does. 00:32:08.740 --> 00:32:11.740 And we have the choice, you see. 00:32:11.740 --> 00:32:12.740 Can we pretend? 00:32:12.740 --> 00:32:17.740 Oh yes, they do just want to read you and preach accordingly. 00:32:17.740 --> 00:32:21.740 Or shall we stand where they stood on the timeline. 00:32:21.740 --> 00:32:25.740 And preach from that point on the timeline. 00:32:25.740 --> 00:32:28.740 That's part of the challenge. 00:32:28.740 --> 00:32:33.740 And that's the first point with regard to communal theology. 00:32:33.740 --> 00:32:39.740 It does justice to the progressive nature of Revelation. 00:32:39.740 --> 00:32:42.740 It's historical timeline. 00:32:42.740 --> 00:32:51.740 It also, secondly, does justice to the variety of Scripture. 00:32:51.740 --> 00:32:55.740 The variations within the Scriptures themselves. 00:32:55.740 --> 00:32:59.740 Now, the Bible is full of variety. 00:32:59.740 --> 00:33:04.740 It's sometimes in different ways. 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:14.740 And we don't have a Bible in a Bible, where everything is just the same in every book. 00:33:14.740 --> 00:33:18.740 It's sometimes of almost infinite variety. 00:33:18.740 --> 00:33:27.740 We have the variations between the different eras. 00:33:27.740 --> 00:33:30.740 And we have the justice to them. 00:33:30.740 --> 00:33:35.740 We have the variations between the authors. 00:33:35.740 --> 00:33:38.740 And these are considerable variations. 00:33:38.740 --> 00:33:41.740 The great prophets, for example. 00:33:41.740 --> 00:33:43.740 The different personalities. 00:33:43.740 --> 00:33:49.740 The Isaiah, Jeremiah, and so on. 00:33:49.740 --> 00:33:50.740 And so on. 00:33:50.740 --> 00:33:56.740 Now, we will ask in here, in biblical theology, what is the distinctive patriarchal message? 00:33:56.740 --> 00:33:59.740 The distinctive Osaic one. 00:33:59.740 --> 00:34:02.740 The distinctive prophetic message. 00:34:02.740 --> 00:34:12.739 What is the distinctive contributions of each of these eras to the divine revelation? 00:34:12.739 --> 00:34:15.739 And then we come on to the incarnation. 00:34:15.739 --> 00:34:17.739 What is this distinctive contribution? 00:34:17.739 --> 00:34:18.739 What is new here? 00:34:18.739 --> 00:34:19.739 What is fresh here? 00:34:19.739 --> 00:34:23.739 Then it's the advent of God's source of the Son. 00:34:23.739 --> 00:34:24.739 And then the epistory. 00:34:24.739 --> 00:34:34.739 So, all the time, we are trying to look at the historical timeline and the distinctive contributions 00:34:34.739 --> 00:34:38.739 of the component parts of Revelation. 00:34:38.739 --> 00:34:46.739 Now, if we look at the many writers, each with its own experience, its own personality, 00:34:46.739 --> 00:34:53.739 its own writing style, each playing even a sword world game. 00:34:53.739 --> 00:35:00.739 Then you are the great face of Isaiah, the servant of the Lord. 00:35:00.739 --> 00:35:01.739 What a mystery. 00:35:01.739 --> 00:35:09.739 And in history, Mr. Anderson, you explore the Isaiah's contribution. 00:35:09.739 --> 00:35:19.739 Jeremiah, with his explanations, with his inward-lookingness, with his Christ of abhorrence, sometimes, 00:35:19.739 --> 00:35:22.739 again, so different in this language. 00:35:22.739 --> 00:35:27.739 And you come to your testament, you find even more variation. 00:35:27.739 --> 00:35:32.739 And here you ask, what are the Gospels saying? 00:35:32.739 --> 00:35:33.739 The synoptics. 00:35:33.739 --> 00:35:35.739 And what is John saying? 00:35:35.739 --> 00:35:38.739 Because he has simply told the synoptics. 00:35:38.739 --> 00:35:43.739 And then Paul, with his own distinctive vocabulary. 00:35:43.739 --> 00:35:47.739 Paul alone speaks of reconciliation. 00:35:47.739 --> 00:35:51.739 Paul has his passage of the word flesh. 00:35:51.739 --> 00:35:55.739 Paul alone speaks of the old man and the new man. 00:35:55.739 --> 00:36:01.739 Paul alone speaks of kenosis, Christ making himself nothing. 00:36:01.739 --> 00:36:12.739 And here you look at the use of those titles of the Messiah, the Master of God, the Lord, and so on. 00:36:12.739 --> 00:36:19.739 What is the distinctive conviction of each of those component parts? 00:36:19.739 --> 00:36:23.179 and that is the task of biblical theology. 00:36:24.679 --> 00:36:27.279 Now, these are very vulnerable tasks. 00:36:28.559 --> 00:36:33.459 As I said, it is not unsystematic, but it's two great features. 00:36:33.459 --> 00:36:37.319 First of all, it's focused on the historical timeline 00:36:37.319 --> 00:36:42.359 and it's focused on the secret features of various contributors. 00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:53.200 If we come to systematics, we are in many ways a much more converted territory. 00:36:53.200 --> 00:36:58.800 But I think that perhaps I'll pause this point and see what feedback we have 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:01.420 in what I've written to this other video. 00:37:01.420 --> 00:37:06.380 So, you've served long and patiently, so if you want to raise some questions here, 00:37:06.380 --> 00:37:10.019 I'd be very happy to try to understand them 00:37:10.019 --> 00:37:13.019 and then try to reply to them and respond to them. 00:37:16.019 --> 00:37:17.019 Yes? 00:37:17.019 --> 00:37:22.900 Hi. You mentioned that it is essential that people have the future 00:37:22.900 --> 00:37:25.900 and good grasp of original languages. 00:37:25.900 --> 00:37:31.500 Would you say that that's an art and cultural situation 00:37:31.500 --> 00:37:35.340 an essential thing to be done to that? 00:37:35.340 --> 00:37:39.539 Do all people who are listeners have a good working relationship to languages? 00:37:40.019 --> 00:37:45.019 I would say it's essential because that's really a very strong term. 00:37:45.019 --> 00:37:49.019 There are teachers who haven't had that equipment. 00:37:49.019 --> 00:37:52.900 I mean, Augustine, for example, didn't know Hebrew allegedly 00:37:52.900 --> 00:37:55.900 and even his brief was kind of walking. 00:37:55.900 --> 00:38:04.900 So, it can be in that sense essential but it certainly is desirable to a very high degree. 00:38:04.900 --> 00:38:10.900 Because, at the most fundamental level, if you can translate your text, you can speak 00:38:10.900 --> 00:38:13.900 and learn authoritatively. 00:38:13.900 --> 00:38:19.900 But, it's not simply a question of, you know, legal requirements on the part of the position 00:38:19.900 --> 00:38:21.900 of right of a nation. 00:38:21.900 --> 00:38:25.900 It is the sheer satisfaction and clue that comes. 00:38:25.900 --> 00:38:26.900 I'm not an expert in these languages. 00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:34.900 I know that it has been so rewarding to be able to follow the arguments based on, for example, 00:38:34.900 --> 00:38:40.900 grammar and xikonomi and so on and so forth because they do so illuminate the mind of God. 00:38:40.900 --> 00:38:45.900 Because, at one level, it's a human word selection. 00:38:45.900 --> 00:38:47.900 Why this word and not that word? 00:38:47.900 --> 00:38:49.900 Why this text and not that other text? 00:38:49.900 --> 00:38:52.900 But, Bill, but it's also a divine word selection. 00:38:52.900 --> 00:38:59.900 And, you pick up, you know, all these modern versions. 00:38:59.900 --> 00:39:05.900 How do you decide, you know, which is pretty much it really is. 00:39:05.900 --> 00:39:14.900 So, it's, I think it's a real enrichment of preaching to be able to go and analyze the text 00:39:14.900 --> 00:39:17.900 in its original component parts. 00:39:17.900 --> 00:39:32.900 And, yes, the points you want to raise? 00:39:32.900 --> 00:39:40.900 I'm here as an effective, I don't know how necessarily that is, but, yes. 00:39:40.900 --> 00:39:47.900 You said that these days you hear ministers being trained and saying that they feel like 00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:49.900 they're over-trained for the task. 00:39:49.900 --> 00:39:51.900 Can you maybe expand on that a little? 00:39:51.900 --> 00:39:58.900 In your 30 years of training to get the ministry, what do you think has led to ministers saying 00:39:58.900 --> 00:40:01.900 and being over-trained to go and depart here? 00:40:01.900 --> 00:40:03.900 And what was some of the details of that? 00:40:03.900 --> 00:40:12.900 They won't use that to merge themselves because, but, they could be the impression that they 00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:17.900 feel they were over-trained and that they shouldn't have had to do this or have to do that. 00:40:17.900 --> 00:40:22.900 And I think that to me that it was all that was necessary. 00:40:22.900 --> 00:40:35.900 That we can respect for people and respect for Greek, possibly competent. 00:40:35.900 --> 00:40:37.900 And, of course, we can be competent. 00:40:37.900 --> 00:40:41.900 There are always ways for them to be shortcomings, of course, for all of us. 00:40:41.900 --> 00:40:52.900 But the mentality, which is my debating partner here, my dialogue partner, there is a mentality 00:40:52.900 --> 00:40:57.900 that wants more practice and less theory. 00:40:57.900 --> 00:41:04.900 And I'm saying repeatedly that the study of the practice was a good theory, because all 00:41:04.900 --> 00:41:07.900 practice was based on an appropriate theory. 00:41:07.900 --> 00:41:15.900 And you can't have classes on how to speak to young people, or speak to old people, that 00:41:15.900 --> 00:41:17.900 kind of level of hands-on. 00:41:17.900 --> 00:41:21.900 You can't get experience over your life in a classroom. 00:41:21.900 --> 00:41:24.900 You can only get experience over your life until you arrive. 00:41:24.900 --> 00:41:35.900 So, what I'm responding to is the feedback that says, give us more practice, less academic 00:41:35.900 --> 00:41:37.900 stuff, less learning stuff, less technology. 00:41:37.900 --> 00:41:46.900 And if we don't watch what will happen, it's that you like that with colleges which are giving 00:41:46.900 --> 00:41:48.900 some tips on teachers. 00:41:48.900 --> 00:42:04.900 And if you don't have a high school, I think that's a long time to wait for them to hurry. 00:42:04.900 --> 00:42:09.900 And so people will be wanting short of coaches, of course, that's natural enough for you to 00:42:09.900 --> 00:42:10.900 want them. 00:42:10.900 --> 00:42:13.900 But you can't be trained on tips. 00:42:13.900 --> 00:42:17.900 You can't say you can't command as tips for commanders. 00:42:17.900 --> 00:42:20.900 You can't train on some kind of boot camp or other. 00:42:20.900 --> 00:42:24.900 And I think that some of our guys found college a boot camp. 00:42:24.900 --> 00:42:30.900 I don't know if David would agree with that, but that's how some have found a boot camp. 00:42:30.900 --> 00:42:49.900 Do any of you admit that you are enamored of biblical theology, but of Protestantism and 00:42:49.900 --> 00:42:50.900 theology? 00:42:50.900 --> 00:42:57.900 Or do you not find any tension between these two? 00:42:57.900 --> 00:43:01.900 Are you suspicious of systematics? 00:43:01.900 --> 00:43:10.900 I've certainly told more than once to, as a preacher, you might just focus on the specific 00:43:10.900 --> 00:43:11.900 text that comes to you. 00:43:11.900 --> 00:43:17.900 So if you're preaching, chapter 15 of Luke, verse 1, where you don't let your system out 00:43:17.900 --> 00:43:23.900 of the or of you come in and kind of take over the text. 00:43:23.900 --> 00:43:30.900 Or there's a telling suspicion, sometimes, that theology undermines exegesis. 00:43:30.900 --> 00:43:31.900 Yeah. 00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:34.900 I think I'll come back to that later, not if you don't mind. 00:43:34.900 --> 00:43:38.900 It's a very important point in the ways there, so we put it on hold for a little. 00:43:38.900 --> 00:43:43.900 Okay. 00:43:43.900 --> 00:43:50.900 Just a question just from something before. 00:43:50.900 --> 00:43:56.900 You said that we have to let the kind of object to study in format. 00:43:56.900 --> 00:43:57.900 Yeah. 00:43:57.900 --> 00:44:02.900 So that it was every aspect of science and all these things. 00:44:02.900 --> 00:44:06.900 But just the knowledge that we don't come to anything mutually, that we all come with 00:44:06.900 --> 00:44:12.900 our own by presupposition, our own by baggage, so whether it's a scientific endeavour or even 00:44:12.900 --> 00:44:17.900 we've got to work with, just how does that affect how we, how do we do that? 00:44:17.900 --> 00:44:18.900 How do we do that? 00:44:18.900 --> 00:44:19.900 How do we do that? 00:44:19.900 --> 00:44:20.900 How do we do that? 00:44:20.900 --> 00:44:26.900 I'm a little bit about that in my stead because what is led to that emphasis is, again, 00:44:26.900 --> 00:44:32.900 a kind of value of scepticism that all knowledge is subject to condition, but therefore, you 00:44:32.900 --> 00:44:35.900 know, we can never know the truth. 00:44:35.900 --> 00:44:41.900 And I said simply with that, we always have presuppositions, and that will come back to that 00:44:41.900 --> 00:44:42.900 in a lot of square. 00:44:42.900 --> 00:44:50.900 But people that are in science that are absolute truths, that are established laws. 00:44:50.900 --> 00:44:58.900 And despite all our post-modernism, we still accept these laws as laws. 00:44:58.900 --> 00:45:03.900 But yes, I must always be aware that when I come to a text, that I come and go with my 00:45:03.900 --> 00:45:08.900 own biases and petitions to the text, and I must be glad I was just there for that bias 00:45:08.900 --> 00:45:11.900 in my own inflection. 00:45:11.900 --> 00:45:18.900 So, on the other hand, of course, if one brings what's taught to itself to it, what's taught 00:45:18.900 --> 00:45:25.900 to itself is our religious self, you know, we have lived and experienced with the pen of 00:45:25.900 --> 00:45:27.900 a God's grace and so on. 00:45:27.900 --> 00:45:31.900 So, they're not necessarily drawbacks, the baggage we bring. 00:45:31.900 --> 00:45:34.900 We think good baggage as well as bad baggage in the text. 00:45:34.900 --> 00:45:43.900 But yes, we have to be aware all the time that our standpoint will affect the way we see 00:45:43.900 --> 00:45:47.900 things and our experience affects our standpoint. 00:45:47.900 --> 00:45:52.900 And also, there's a difference in the other hand, that when we actually come to expounding 00:45:52.900 --> 00:45:58.900 a preaching of text, we have to be audio specific. 00:45:58.900 --> 00:46:05.900 You know, no two pictures address the same audience at the same time, the same space. 00:46:05.900 --> 00:46:11.900 So, I allowed my own subjectivity, and I allowed my own subjectivity, and I allowed my own subjectivity 00:46:11.900 --> 00:46:13.900 for the audience I was speaking to. 00:46:13.900 --> 00:46:17.900 And the emphasis will vary depending on that audience. 00:46:17.900 --> 00:46:23.900 You will suppress some this in some audiences, and you will emphasize them in other audiences, 00:46:23.900 --> 00:46:26.900 depending on the need of a particular congregation. 00:46:26.900 --> 00:46:49.900 So, I find that I'm suspicious of all theology and all Bible commentary, when it tends to become an end in itself, 00:46:49.900 --> 00:47:02.900 and fails to remember that the purpose of all of our theology and all of our Bible study is to enable us to love God with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength, 00:47:02.900 --> 00:47:04.900 and to love our neighbors and our self. 00:47:04.900 --> 00:47:10.900 And whenever that end is forgotten, then I am worried. 00:47:10.900 --> 00:47:13.900 I am worried, this is what I guess. 00:47:13.900 --> 00:47:16.900 I think that's a story too, but of course, it works for the way. 00:47:16.900 --> 00:47:18.900 You can't love God in your own hope. 00:47:18.900 --> 00:47:19.900 What? 00:47:19.900 --> 00:47:21.900 You can't love the other hope. 00:47:21.900 --> 00:47:29.900 And I think that the whole point is that we want to know more to evermore. 00:47:29.900 --> 00:47:37.900 So, as you say, the object is to come off to your business ever later than now. 00:47:37.900 --> 00:47:44.900 But there should be a tension between theological progress and personal spiritual progress, 00:47:44.900 --> 00:47:46.900 and one should treat the other. 00:47:46.900 --> 00:47:51.900 Because it is like eternal to know God. 00:47:51.900 --> 00:47:58.900 And certainly we can have demons who believe at the temple, 00:47:58.900 --> 00:48:07.900 we can have academics who are very erudite and very ambitious, 00:48:07.900 --> 00:48:11.900 and they have a career focus for us. 00:48:11.900 --> 00:48:17.900 But on the other hand, every believer, the simplest child God needs knowledge. 00:48:17.900 --> 00:48:20.900 That's why God knew that the spiritual push was to us, 00:48:20.900 --> 00:48:28.900 that through knowledge in the mind would come to the affective and emotional state. 00:48:28.900 --> 00:48:34.900 It's a truth that to use Islam, it is joy and hope and confidence. 00:48:34.900 --> 00:48:44.900 I've got a question here. 00:48:44.900 --> 00:48:48.900 You mentioned about preaching the Old Testament, 00:48:48.900 --> 00:48:58.900 and making sure that one of the parts of the biblical theology is to understand the unfolding nature of that. 00:48:58.900 --> 00:49:08.900 And so, to remember that Old Testament saints, well, how much did they know, and to give them to Job. 00:49:08.900 --> 00:49:12.900 I wonder if you were going to say a little bit more about that, how we actually, 00:49:12.900 --> 00:49:17.900 how you would preach on Job when you say, I know that my Redeemer lives. 00:49:17.900 --> 00:49:27.900 When ministers of the new covenant and so, we want to bring things through to the new covenant context. 00:49:27.900 --> 00:49:30.900 Can you say a little bit more about those? 00:49:30.900 --> 00:49:34.900 Yeah, of course, with Job we don't quite know, 00:49:34.900 --> 00:49:36.900 or pretty good sin, just to admit on the story of the Bible, 00:49:36.900 --> 00:49:38.900 the first verse, you know, in the Old Testament, 00:49:38.900 --> 00:49:40.900 and we're not on that line. 00:49:40.900 --> 00:49:43.900 But we know that he's an old covenant saint. 00:49:43.900 --> 00:49:47.900 He's an incarnation saint, and by all accounts, 00:49:47.900 --> 00:49:50.900 he comes in a very, very point in the timeline. 00:49:50.900 --> 00:49:55.900 And so his knowledge of life after death and so on, 00:49:55.900 --> 00:50:00.900 is not at all compromise, or knowledge of all these doctrines. 00:50:00.900 --> 00:50:03.900 The incarnation, for example, the cross, 00:50:03.900 --> 00:50:07.900 these things were not part of the biblical movement. 00:50:07.900 --> 00:50:11.900 Even, you can't always have a error from the fact that these words, 00:50:11.900 --> 00:50:14.900 which point to the cross, that they understood themselves 00:50:14.900 --> 00:50:17.900 in the message that were actually coming in words. 00:50:17.900 --> 00:50:20.900 The first people warned advice in that, that the prophets asked, 00:50:20.900 --> 00:50:22.900 what do these words mean? 00:50:22.900 --> 00:50:26.900 So, I'm just, I was trying to suggest, 00:50:26.900 --> 00:50:29.900 what I'm going to say to myself. 00:50:29.900 --> 00:50:33.900 These Old Testament saints, in so many ways, 00:50:33.900 --> 00:50:38.900 those give us in their fortitude and courage, 00:50:38.900 --> 00:50:43.900 and the closeness of their walk with God. 00:50:43.900 --> 00:50:47.900 And yet, the objective knowledge of their procession 00:50:47.900 --> 00:50:51.900 was not equal to our objective knowledge. 00:50:51.900 --> 00:50:56.900 It's possible, the approach that the wave between time and eternity 00:50:56.900 --> 00:50:59.900 was very much thinner for them than it is for us. 00:50:59.900 --> 00:51:01.900 We can ask part of it. 00:51:01.900 --> 00:51:07.900 But I'm seeing really that it's really astonishing, remarkable, 00:51:07.900 --> 00:51:12.900 that knowing in a way so little, yet they display such fortitude. 00:51:12.900 --> 00:51:16.900 And I'm saying, don't treat them as if they were Paul's contemporaries, 00:51:16.900 --> 00:51:19.900 they weren't, or Charles contemporaries. 00:51:19.900 --> 00:51:22.900 Treat them in their own sort of context, 00:51:22.900 --> 00:51:26.900 and try to pitch from the Vietnam and Euro context. 00:51:28.900 --> 00:51:30.900 Anybody want to come back to that or two? 00:51:30.900 --> 00:51:33.900 In our way, John, and Charles? 00:51:35.900 --> 00:51:38.900 What did you mean by the veil between time and eternity? 00:51:38.900 --> 00:51:39.900 Pardon? 00:51:39.900 --> 00:51:40.900 Pardon? 00:51:40.900 --> 00:51:42.900 What did you mean when you said the veil between time and eternity? 00:51:42.900 --> 00:51:44.900 It must be thinner for them? 00:51:44.900 --> 00:51:57.900 I think that it's a possibility that God was near on them. 00:51:57.900 --> 00:52:01.900 I think that what goes back, at times of the Bible, for example, 00:52:01.900 --> 00:52:03.900 in the New Testament church, one finds, 00:52:03.900 --> 00:52:07.900 less than the veiled pre-densdens when people did seem to carry intimately 00:52:07.900 --> 00:52:10.900 and bear a copy beside them. 00:52:10.900 --> 00:52:15.900 And for someone like Jeho, perhaps, who was with such anguish, 00:52:15.900 --> 00:52:19.900 although theology itself was undeveloped, 00:52:19.900 --> 00:52:24.900 that there was, nevertheless, a closeness, 00:52:24.900 --> 00:52:27.900 a sense of the dearness of God, 00:52:27.900 --> 00:52:35.900 and of the same sense and distance that we have ourselves, that I have myself, between myself and God. 00:52:35.900 --> 00:52:42.900 Now, of course, there was no exception, but we had to remind as well that these were not to be the Old Testament saints. 00:52:42.900 --> 00:52:50.900 They were, like, normally the Old Testament saints, but yet there was very much less equipment that we have theologically. 00:52:50.900 --> 00:53:04.900 This veil to the time of eternity, ourselves and God, I mean, in your own minds you'll find that same variation. 00:53:04.900 --> 00:53:11.900 But sometimes you are, maybe in constant accomplishment, or in other times you are in constant accomplishment, 00:53:11.900 --> 00:53:17.900 because the veil is perhaps thicker sometimes in other times. 00:53:20.900 --> 00:53:30.900 Anything else you would like to raise? Yes? 00:53:30.900 --> 00:53:36.900 I've been hearing you say that the biblical theology and the biblical theology are in competition with each other. 00:53:36.900 --> 00:53:38.900 How do they move together? 00:53:38.900 --> 00:53:44.900 Well, I'm hoping to come back over that, but I'm coming at this whole thing from that standpoint, 00:53:44.900 --> 00:53:48.900 that they are set against each other by so many today. 00:53:48.900 --> 00:53:53.900 And I've tried to argue, or come through, that they are feeling complimenting. 00:53:53.900 --> 00:53:56.900 They are not at all in opposition to each other. 00:53:56.900 --> 00:54:06.900 But the very word biblical gives, shall I say, them an advantage over me. 00:54:06.900 --> 00:54:16.900 Because system and our events are going, we don't, we don't like systems.