Review of Paul Copan's Is God a Moral Monster

This is a really good book. Copan does a great job handling the assaults of the New Atheists and working through difficult texts of the Old Testament (including the so-called terror texts). Copan deals with slavery, the Bible's treatment of women, holy war, and several other topics that often give Christians (and atheists!) problems. While I gave the book 5 stars for its basic excellence, there are a number of minor points I would raise questions about had I the time or were I myself a better scholar. I'll just mention two.

Copan frequently resorts to the language of exaggeration in his dealing with OT texts. Scripture certainly does use hyperbole in places, but I'm not convinced that it does so as often as Copan suggests. Sometimes this appears to be an argument of convenience.

Copan also goes in several directions regarding the Conquest that I felt were sort of weak, such as giving credence to the Infiltration theory of the Conquest. The account in the Bible of the crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan, in my view, pretty much vitiates the Infiltration theory. Both speak of sudden mass movements, and Joshua speaks of a sudden overthrow of the Canaanite dominance of the Promised Land. The fact that Canaanites continued to live in Canaan after the Conquest does not change the basic facts. Copan's resort to studying some of the various Hebrew words surrounding Israelite warfare merely opened the possibility for his interpretations (words do, after all, possess a semantic range), but certainly did not demand (or even suggest) his interpretations. Copan seems to acknowledge this in places with several "even if" statements.

Anyway, the book is excellent. All the chapters are good; the final chapter is outstanding. Well documented, well argued, this is certainly a book that should find a place on your apologetics shelf.

The "expulsive power of a new affection"

Iain Duguid is a new Old Testament professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. The school has released a pamphlet written by Duguid, that clarifies the WTS position on Christ in the OT. The reading below is an excerpt from this pamphlet, "Is Jesus in the Old Testament?" and deals with truth that the Gospel addresses our failures to live as we ought.

How do we address this gap between what we know and what we do? Sermons and Bible studies that focus on "law" (the demands of Scripture for our obedience), no matter how accurately biblical in content, tend to simply add to the burden of guilt felt by the average Christian. A friend of mine calls these sermons "another brick in the backpack"--you arrive at church knowing five ways in which you are falling short of God's standard for your life, and you leave knowing ten, doubly burdened.

In my experience such teaching yields little by way of life transformation, especially in terms of the joy and peace that are supposed to mark the Christian life. Focusing on the gospel, however, has the power to change our lives at a deep level. Through the gospel we come to see both the true depth of our sin (and therefore that our earlier feelings of guilt were actually far too shallow), while at the same time being reminded of the glorious good news that Jesus is our perfect substitute who removes our sin and guilt. He lived the life of obedience in our place and fulfilled the relentless clamor of the law's demands, and he took upon himself the awful punishment that our sin truly deserves. As the Holy Spirit enables us to grasp this gospel reality, he frees us from our guilt and refreshes us with a deep joy that motivates our hearts to love God anew. In this way, the gospel begins the slow transformative work of changing us from the inside out. This is what the nineteenth-century Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers called the "expulsive power of a new affection": the fact that profound change in our behavior always comes through a change in what we love most, not through external coercion.

Amen.

Review: When God Comes to Church

When God Comes to Church, by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.

If I could summarize this book with a word, it would be “Wow.” Raymond Ortlund takes the reader on a tour of a number of passages in the Old Testament prophets as he builds a case for what revival is, and what it isn’t. Mixed with his outstanding exegesis are illustrations from noted revivals of the past, and the comments of good pastors and theologians who were contemporaneous with those events. In this exploration Ortlund takes advantage of a clear-headed historical hindsight.

Part one of the book is arranged under the theme of “What God can do.” The chapter titles summarize Ortlund’s directions: God comes down to us; God reinvigorates us; God heals us; God pours out His Spirit upon us; God raises us up; God restores us. In this part Ortlund celebrates the sovereignty of God, unfolding it not as something which frustrates our efforts, but something that gives us ultimate hope even as it preserves the purity of revival itself.

Part two moves to the next step: “What we must do.” Again his chapter titles tell the tale (and by the way, they deliver what they promise): we return to God; we seek God; we humble ourselves. Ortlund again returns to surgically-precise exegesis to show us what the text actually says about these things. The last chapter, on humility, is probably one of the best pieces of literature I’ve read on the topic.

Here is what distinguishes this book from many other modern works. All too many modern books, for all the great intellectual commitments of the authors to God’s glory, remain essentially man-centered. You’ve typically got one or two verses that are followed by a chapter of illustrations and ten points of how to apply what you’ve learned (presumably, what you’ve learned from those one or two verses).

This is where Ortlund shines. He exegetes complete passages of Scripture, he’s not tossing a few verses on the salad as garnish. The power of the book rises from the power of the biblical text. His exposition is accurate, context-sensitive, and flat-out convicting. By the time Ortlund himself applies the text (which he does do, make no mistake), the Holy Spirit has already beaten him to the punch. Ortlund’s applications are firmly anchored in responsible exegesis.

I am convinced this is the best way to teach and preach, and it protects the reader/hearer from applications that go askew, the accumulation of which could potentially lead into more serious error. The topic of “revival” has seen its share of these problems in American Christianity. Ortlund’s work in “When God comes to Church” restores a proper, biblical view of revival. I recommend it thoroughly.

Immanuel

We know this name! We refer to it at Christmas time; it’s one of the names of Jesus. Matthew makes sure that we non-Hebrew speakers know what it means: “God with us” (Matt 1:23).

Was doing some Bible reading this morning, was in the book of Isaiah. What a great book! Finally understood an odd verse for the first time. In chapter seven, during the days of evil king Ahaz, Judah was invaded from the north by a coalition army made up of Israel (aka, Ephraim, or the Northern Kingdom) and Syria (also known as the Arameans).

The year was 734 BC. There was a fresh, growing power in the north: Assyria. The Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser, was consolidating his power and doing battle with his opponents to his east, in Urartu. The small kingdoms to Tiglath-pileser’s south, Syria (capital: Damascus, king: Rezin) and Israel (also known as Ephraim, capital: Samaria, king: Pekah) saw this as a good time to form an anti-Assyrian military coalition. They courted Judah (capital: Jerusalem, king: Ahaz), seeking an alliance. When Judah refused, Syria and Israel decided they could not afford to have a possible pro-Assyrian opponent to their rear, and so assaulted Judah with the intent of setting up their own puppet king, Tabeel, on the throne of Jerusalem.

To make matters worse, the Philistines to the west, and Edom, to the southeast, chose just this time to make trouble for Judah as well, with the result that the tiny mountain kingdom was now involved in a hot war on three sides.

Which brings us to Isaiah chapter seven. Reports of the advancing coalition army to the north are brought to king Ahaz and he is scared to death, along with all Judah (7:2). Isaiah is told to meet the frightened king and to encourage him. He is to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, including the intent of the aggressors to depose Ahaz (7:3-6). And then he is to give this message:

thus says the Lord God, “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin . . . , and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.” Isaiah 7:7-9 (NASB)

Sounds strange to our ears, does it not? The last sentence we get, because it has to do with faith and we understand faith, as believers in Christ. But, “the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.” What’s that all about? And “the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samariah is the son of Remaliah [aka, Pekah].” How is that comforting, or encouraging?

Isaiah invites Ahaz to ask for a sign of God’s faithfulness. Ahaz refuses, but Isaiah gives him a sign anyway.

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.” Isaiah 7:14-16 (NASB)

What is the sign? It is that a young woman, a virgin, will bring forth a child who will be named Immanuel. By the time the boy is old enough to begin distinguishing between right and wrong, the nations behind the invading coalition army will themselves have been destroyed.

Now we are in the position to understand both the odd comfort of 7:8-9 and that of verse 14.

Think! What is the capital of the Aramean army? Damascus. Who rules Damascus, thus providing help and sustenance to the Arameans? Rezin.

What is the capital of the Ephraimite army? Samaria. Who rules Samaria, thus providing help and sustenance to the Ephraimite army? Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

Or to put it another way, who is with Aram? Who is with Ephraim?

Are you seeing it yet?

Who is with Judah? The name of the child is the answer, and comprises the message of comfort for Ahaz: Immanuel, God with us, or as the margin of the NASB puts it, God is with us!

Why is this promise so secure and so powerful? Because Judah is the remnant through whom God’s covenant promise of a Davidic Kingdom will be fulfilled. Which is what makes the occurence of the phrase, “house of David” so interesting. It occurs but three times in the entire book of Isaiah. Two of those occurences are here, in Isaiah 7: once in verse 2 in which the bad news of the invasion is announced, and once in verse 13 in which the promise of deliverance is proclaimed. The promise is secure because God’s covenant with David is secure, and Ahaz belongs to the house of David.

Which is also what makes Isaiah’s child’s name so interesting: Shear-jashub (7:3) means a remnant shall return. God will always preserve His remnant. Isaiah is instructed to take that child with him to the meeting with Ahaz, as a reminder to the beleagured king.

True to God’s promise, Aram and Ephraim are destroyed within a very few years and the Assyrians are the destructive instruments in God’s hands. Unfortunately, Ahaz choses not to believe, and both Judah and he pay dearly for the king’s unbelief.

There’s much more here, but that’s enough for now.

Isaiah 7:14 is not only a Messianic announcement; it’s an announcement with a context, a context that helps us understand the Messiah. When death reigned through sin, God sent Immanuel, who accomplished the impossible and defeated sin and death and delivered us by His sacrifice on the cross, and His resurrection to life.

And again, when surrounded by overwhelming odds and certain defeat, when the Christian is in danger of being overrun by fear, tragedy, suffering, failure, death, there is that name, that reminder: Immanuel, God with us.