Posted by Jeff Short on October 25, 2019 · Leave a Comment
New Creation Eschatology and the Land: A Survey of Contemporary Perspectives by Steven L. James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From the off, this book is true to the title and is a survey of contemporary views concerning the continuity of present heaven-earth space-time and future new heaven-new earth space-time. Some may find the copious quotations and footnotes laborious. Those citations and notes are necessary in a book of this nature. The author honestly presented various sources in their own words to survey their views. James was transparent about his goal to show inconsistency on the part of new creationists who use Old Testament restoration texts to inform their eschatological reality of eternal ages with the present earth being renewed, rather than obliterated, and yet they deny particular territorial promises in those same texts concerning the Nation of Israel (twelve tribes, etc.) and territorial land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The author’s main goal was to demonstrate the hermeneutical inconsistency, though he does offer some counterpoint. His conclusion points out different areas where more work and thought needs done. This book isn’t the explanation and defense of a holistic new creationist view, which views the restoration texts of both testaments to inform a continuity in the eschaton with the present earth being renewed and particular national and territorial promises to Israel being fulfilled as part of the renewed earth. Overall this is a helpful book and I hope it will be widely read.
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Posted by Jeff Short on April 7, 2019 · Leave a Comment
How Does the New Testament Use the Old Testament?: A Survey of the Major Views by Michael Vlach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This booklet is helpful in summarizing the seven major views of how the New Testament writers used/interpreted the Old Testament. Vlach outlines the views in the words of their proponents and provides a few test cases of passages and how the different views read them. This is a complicated issue, particularly when it comes to the hard cases. However, Vlach points out that the majority of uses inarguably use a contextual interpretation. From that perspective, too much can be made of the relatively few places that are harder. These are important issues for they ultimately involve how the Bible is put together, issues of continuity and discontinuity between the testaments, and the possibility of Christians after the Apostles to follow their exegetical methods.
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Posted by Jeff Short on February 28, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Gospel and Kingdom: A Christian Interpretation of the Old Testament by Graeme Goldsworthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a good book in its central thesis of interpreting the Old Testament in light of the Gospel. This is generally a good overview of biblical theology. The kingdom is certainly a prominent theme throughout scripture we must be aware of when looking at smaller portions. His view of the kingdom is not entirely in line with Scripture, though quite consistent with reformed dichotomous covenant theology and the over realized eschatology of amillennialism. It turns as you would expect in certain places. This is still a good resource for seeing Christ in the Old Testament.
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The Bible Expositor’s Handbook, OT Edition: Old Testament Edition by Greg Harris
The Time Between the Old and New Testament: A Zondervan Digital Short by Henry H. Halley
