Marginal Christianity

            In the beginning there was the Garden of Eden. God, the great King, father to his creatures, was present to and in fellowship with them on his good creation. We could call this the kingdom of God. He is creation’s sovereign and his rule is undisputed. We could call this God’s covenant with his human creatures, his family with whom he wanted to have fellowship. Or, we could call it what the creation stories themselves call it, the Holy of Holies of God’s garden temple where God, the Holy One, was present to and with his creation.           God placed Adam and Eve in the garden to be his priests, royal priests, in that they were children of the Great King. The four rivers out of Eden watering the as yet uninhabited lands outside Eden suggest God’s intent that these lands be inhabited and developed. And the boundaries of Eden and the garden of God’s presence would extend and gr...

The Bible has three main themes: the family of God carried by the vehicle of Covenant, the presence of God carried by the vehicle of Temple, an the rule of God carried by the vehicle of the Kingdom of God. Each of these themes begin in the creation stories and reach their fulfillment in the consummation visions of Rev.21-22. Each of these fulfilled realities begin as prefigured in the Old Testament but transfigured in the New around Jesus. The goal of each theme is the presence of God, so I would make the Presence of God through the Temple theme primary with the Family/Covenant and Rule/Kingdom themes 1a and 1b. Theme Vehicle OT Gospels Epistles Consummation Goal Family of God Covenant (Prophet) Creation, Abraham, Covenant formula Moses, David, New Cov. Jesus' Covenant renewer Lk.22:14-23 Gal.6:16 adoption Rev.21:1-3 Presence of God Presence of God (“g...

I propose that we think of Biblical Theology as train running along the tracks.   The tracks are Exegetical Theology and Systematic Theology.   The ties to which the tracks are attached are the Story of Israel.   The laying of the ties sets the direction the train will travel.   The tracks attach to the ties and enable the train to move toward its destination. Exegetical theology and systematic theology have in recent history operated as monorail systems.   They worked in studied ignorance of each other.   What was called “Biblical Theology” was an unstable hybrid monorail system, either one-sidedly directed to the biblical material or a systematic exposition of one or both testaments according to a pattern set by systematic theology. The ties which set the direction of the tracks are the Story of Israel.   This is both the form and content of Biblical Theology.   Exegetical and Systematic Theology are both grounded in this Story...