Flattened Theology
Filed Under (Author, Dee Dee Warren, book excerpts, book reviews) by dee dee on 14-07-2012
Tagged Under : Authors-Greg Bahnsen, Authors-J.A. Schep, Authors-Kenneth Gentry, Greek-Sarx, Hermeneutics-Fallacies, Hermeneutics-Reductionism, Hermeneutics-Typology, Hermeneutics-Word Comparisons
I am once again attempting to listen straight through Dr. Bahnsen’s audio series on Revelation. I tried this before but my life got very busy, and I didn’t get very far. So I am starting again, and will post the nuggets here.
Dr. Bahsen warned against “flattening” our theology when we compare Scripture to Scripture and to remember that it is not always true that similar phrases mean the same thing. They can…. but they always sometimes don’t. This is of course part of the interpretative error of the hyperpreterists who shoehorn everything into an AD70 mold, which error is sometimes ignorantly propogated by my orthodox preterist brethren.
Specifically Dr. Bahnsen pointed this out:
Romans 8:9 - But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit….
Revelation 1:10 - I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day….
“In the Spirit” in these two passages are not the same thing, but they are related.
In a related issue, J.A. Schep noted in his work The Nature of Resurrection Body:
As is the case with Paul’s usage of the word “sarx,” the term “body of Christ”? isused with different conclusions. It can denote Christ’s personal, literal body, in which he dies, rose from the dead, went to heaven, and will come again; the Church; and the bread in the Lord’s Supper. Though the three are related, they are not identical.
Gentry makes the same point:
Beyond the introduction of this matter relative to the philosophy of language, it is important to realize that A.D. 70 is not unrelated to the Second Advent. As the ending of the era of sacrificial rituals and Israel-exalting redemptive history, A.D. 70 is a pre-consummational type of the Second Advent’s history ending, consummational conclusion. Hence, the similarity of language and the mixing of ideas is justified on the basis of the relationship of type (A.D. 70) to antitype (Second Advent) [This phenomenon of type/anti-type is very common in Davidic/Messianic passages. In such references, what is said of the historical King David often applies to the Messianic King Jesus.]
Even so come Lord Jesus.
Originally posted March 26, 2005
