This is part 2 of the series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children. We’re talking about how to read the Scriptures, about what Scripture says about the covenant of grace, its administration, and baptism. One of the first things we need to discuss is how to read a text, particularly, how to read the Scriptures. History and experience tell us that Christians study the same Bible, but we often read it differently. As we noted in the previous episode, we come to such different conclusions because we begin with different assumptions about the nature of things and authority and because we do not always agree on how to read Scripture. These different methods and starting points lead to different conclusions.
Here is the episode:
Here are the episodes in this series.
Thanks for listening!
Dr Clark
I tried explaining this to my wife and she balked at the idea that all the times we hear the Lord speak in the OT , or any theophany we read of, its actually Jesus who is doing or speaking these events. I mentioned that you used John 5:37 to back this up ‘ you have never heard his voice nor seen his form’ and explained it as meaning that no-one had ever seen the father ipso facto the OT theophanies and words from the Lord must have been from the Son. But she rightly pointed out that in J 5:37 Jesus could just have been referring to the pharisees that he was addressing. Assuming i heard you correctly what should i say back to her or does she have a valid point? Thanks again.
Hi Richie,
Try these:
What the Bible Is All About?
Is There An Apostolic Hermeneutic And Can We Imitate It?
See John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side,he has made him known.”
John 6:46: “not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father” and John 14:8–9, “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…”.
1 John 4:10 “No one has ever seen God…”.
This is why John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is God’s Word to us. Jesus is the self-revelation of the Father. No, the Pharisees were not alive during the OT theophanies. Therefore his statement cannot be restricted only to the Pharisees who were standing before him. The you to whom Jesus was referring was “the Jews.” He was prosecuting them for their unbelief.
See also 1 Cor 10:1-4. The two of you should look this up together. Who is “the rock” who was with the Israelites in the wilderness?
Thanks for issuing these so quickly!