Musings and a Bunch of Riddleblog/Blessed Hope Podcast Updates (10/11/2023)

Blog and Blessed Hope Podcast Updates:

  • In case you are wondering about the changes in the appearance of the Riddleblog, I did a dumb thing. I dropped my phone on my keyboard while editing a blog post. Whatever keys I hit changed a bunch of formatting. I’m still working on fixes with Squarespace (they’ve been wonderful!). There is a lesson here for all of you.

  • BTW-if the font size is an issue on your device, you can use the zoom feature associated with your browser to adjust the screen size and appearance.

  • I have been adding downloadable PDF versions of various essays which appear on the Riddleblog. You can find the link to the PDF at the top of each essay on the blog post to which the PDF’s have been added. I have completed the most popular articles/essays.

  • I have wrapped up the Blessed Hope Podcast series “The Future,” along with two follow-up episodes (“The Future of Israel”, and “The Antichrist”). Next up will be an episode dealing with "Eschatology by Ethos: The Misuse of Optimism and Pessimism as Eschatological Categories.”

  • The Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Podcast release schedule with be irregular through Thanksgiving since the Riddleblogger is doing some conference speaking and then taking a trip to Europe with missus Riddleblogger and some friends.

  • The Blessed Hope Podcast series on Paul’s Corinthian Letters is in the works. Watch for updates.

  • My contribution on 1 Corinthians in the Lectio Continua series (picked up by Reformation Heritage Books) has gone through a complete re-edit and proofreading. I should have a release date soon.

Currently reading:

Still at it—almost finished: G. K. Beale, Union with the Resurrected Christ: Eschatological New Creation, and New Testament Biblical Theology. I am enjoying this book immensely but finding it very slow going. Beale’s exegetical insights/conclusions frequently cause me to stop and go off on a tangent to consider (or reconsider) a number of implications his book raises. Union with the Resurrected Christ reminds me of Meredith Kline’s works—profound, and thought-provoking, and disruptive at times of previously held views.

Recently read:

Richard Gaffin’s latest book has been long awaited by his former students as well as those who love the works of Geerhardus Vos, since Gaffin has done so much to perpetuate interest in Vos’s work and stands in the Vossian tradition. In the Fullness of Time: An Introduction to the Biblical Theology of Acts and Paul, is an expanded and edited version of Gaffin’s class notes from his Acts and Paul course, which he taught for many years at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. I wish more professors would do this.

The book is packed with exegetical gems and insights drawn from Acts and Paul’s letters. These are largely tied to the central motif in Gaffin’s book—the centrality of Christ’s resurrection and its impact upon much of Paul’s theology. Although the Fullness of Time does not merely replicate Gaffin’s previous book on the subject (Resurrection and Redemption, P & R, 1978), he does expand and build upon a number of points first made in that volume.

Gaffin is particularly strong on discussing Pentecost in light of the broader course of redemptive history, noting that “Pentecost must be seen in the context of the coming of the kingdom, fully eschatological in its arrival in the person and work of Christ, the church is the dwelling place of God in the Spirit in its consummate form short of the return of Christ” (154). At Pentecost, God gives his church all it needs to thrive in union with the Lord until his return. Therefore, Pentecost is not a repeatable event, and its significance to the history of salvation must not be overlooked.

There are many insightful points Gaffin makes regarding the significance of Christ’s resurrection, but one illustration must suffice. Yet it is one which I think both theologically important, as well as comforting. “Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection in the sense that his resurrection is nothing less than `the actual beginning of the general epochal’ event”—a point he draws from Vos (306). Christ’s resurrection ensures both the certainty of the resurrection of all those presently in union with him at the end of the age, as well as Christ’s return on the last day. The one (Christ’s resurrection as the beginning, or “first-fruits”) guarantees the other (the Lord’s return as the epochal event).

My one gripe with the author reflects a long-standing difference of opinion within the Reformed camp. And that is Gaffin’s insistence that “justification flows from union with Christ” (196) and that “for Paul, justification flows from union; it does not occur prior to or apart from union” (406).

My take is that justification occurs through faith (the instrument), which establishes our union with Christ (and all his merits) through a bond now formed by the Holy Spirit. Paul speaks of God justifying the ungodly (Romans 4:5), not justifying those presently in union with Christ. I find Gaffin’s formulation confusing (especially given the priority of faith to justification in Paul’s ordo salutis), and theologically problematic because those justified are said to be sinful when justified, a point which Gaffin’s construction does not explain. Yes, union with Christ is an essential aspect of Pauline theology, and one which Gaffin correctly points out has been far too often overlooked. But the nagging question remains. “Which comes first, the chicken (justification) or the egg (union)?” I vote for the chicken. That said, it is correct to affirm that the justification of the ungodly through faith does indeed establish a union between the now justified sinner and the Risen Christ.

That criticism aside, this is an important book filled with useful exegetical insights.

Recommended Links:

Interesting Links:

The previous musings: Fall Musings 9/15/2023

Video: One of the best catches I have ever seen!

MusingsKim RiddlebargerRiddleblog updates, Blessed Hope Podcast, Gaffin, Natural theology, Old ageComment