Evangelical Review of Theology
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EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY VOLUME 6 Volume 6 • Number 1 • April 1982 Evangelical Review of Theology Articles and book reviews selected from publications worldwide for an international readership, interpreting the Christian faith for contemporary living. GENERAL EDITOR: BRUCE J. NICHOLLS Published by THE PATERNOSTER PRESS for WORLD EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP Theological Commission p. 4 ISSN: 0144–8153 Vol. 6 No. 1 April–September 1982 Copyright © 1982 World Evangelical Fellowship Editorial Address: The Evangelical Review of Theology is published in April and October by The Paternoster Press, Paternoster House, 3 Mount Radford Crescent, Exeter, UK, EX2 4JW, on behalf of the World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission, 105 Savitri Building, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi-110048, India. General Editor: Bruce J. Nicholls Assistants to the Editor: Carol Gregory, David Housholder, Kathleen Nicholls, Moti Lal Pandit Committee: (The executive committee of the WEF Theological Commission) David Gitari (Chairman), Arthur Climenhaga (Vice-Chairman), Wilson Chow, Jorgen Glenthoj, Pablo Perez. Editorial Policy: The articles in The Evangelical Review of Theology are the opinion of the authors and reviewers and do not necessarily represent those of the Editor or Publisher. The Editor welcomes recommendations of original or published articles and book reviews for inclusion in the ERT. Please send clear copies or details to the Editor, WEF Theological Commission, 105 Savitri Building, Greater Kailash-ll, New Delhi-110048, India. p. 7 2 Editorial The WEF has called churches and agencies to make 1983 a year of church renewal, believing that the renewal and revival of the church, beginning with the local church, holds the key to world evangelisation, the restraining of institutionalised evil in society and the effective meeting of human need. The Church may be numerically small, as it is here in India, but where it truly manifests the power and ethical demands of the Kingdom of God, it is like a mustard seed which has the potential of great growth and useful service. The crisis in the world-wide Church today is not so much a lack of vision, as the infiltration of a syncretistic spirit of secular humanism and hedonistic materialism. Added to this is the loss of nerve on the conviction of the uniqueness of Christ and the Gospel in a religiously pluralistic world. Our problem first and foremost is an internal one of the quality of belief and lifesyle of the Church. The renewal of the Church means a renewal of commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and obedience to the biblical Gospel and its ethical demands. But it is also a commitment to the Church in unity, holiness, love and compassion which cannot be separated from obedience to the Holy Spirit, Who convicts of sin, counsels and guides and enables the people of God to manifest the transforming power of the Gospel to re-create human nature and renew society. Such a renewal is the necessary priority for making evangelism and the establishing of new churches primary, to compassionate service and witness to justice in society. Only a renewed church can stand the test in times of suffering and persecution which has come to perhaps one half of the believing Christians in the world today. This issue of ERT focusses on some of the components of renewal. The exegesis and exposition of our Lord’s proclamation on the Church as recorded in Matthew 16, the trustworthiness of the Scriptures and the acceptance of sound hermeneutical principles are foundational components. The lessons of church survival and growth in the midst of persecution in China during the last 30 years call for careful study and reflection. In this issue we have especially focussed on the ethical demands of the Gospel in personal sexual behaviour, in education and in the public use of the communications media. Unless there is a return to faithful obedience to the moral law of God, the Church’s influence in the world will be nullified. We need to ask, why is it that with all the phenomenal growth of evangelical witness and activity involving unbelievable sums of money, evangelicals seem anaemic in their influence on public morality and the ethics of p. 8 the all-powerful communications media? The WEF is convening an international conference on the Nature and Mission of the Church under the rubric “I Will Build My Church”, 21st–30th June 1983 at the Graham Center, Wheaton, Illinois, USA. In a call for evangelical unity, the WEF has invited Evangelical Alliances and Fellowships, church bodies and para-church agencies to form the Sponsoring Body and has entrusted to them the leadership of the conference. The three internal consultations, namely, the Nature and Mission of the Church in the Local Setting, in New Frontiers for Missions and in Reaching Human Need, reflect the direction and emphasis of this conference. In the following issues of ERT we would like to publish articles, whether original or reprints, that will contribute to this overall theme. Readers are invited to suggest materials that will be helpful to our international readership. p. 9 3 The Blessing, Power and Authority of the Church A study in Matthew 16:17–19 Ian S. Kemp This paper attempts an exegesis of a passage of Scripture which has been the subject of vast scholarship and conflicting interpretation. We seek to look at it afresh and to find some relevance to current issues in the Church. The Church is confused about her own constitution. Why she exists, who she belongs to, and even who belongs to her are questions that receive the most diverse answers though they concern the very heart of the Church’s being. The Church has her back to the wall. Usually a tiny minority in a pluralistic society which either ignores her, despises her, opposes her or threatens her very existence, the Church questions her inferior position and is painfully conscious of her weakness. The Church also has lost her nerve. What can she say in the world when she is rent asunder by inner division, doctrinal confusion and moral failure? What the Church of our day needs is deep conviction on those very points where she is most confused. Jesus laid those convictions like foundation stones when He first spoke to Peter about the Church in Matthew 16:17–19. “You are mine,” He said. “You are a power structure. You have enormous authority.” Our purpose in this study is to try to establish the correct meaning of this crucial statement of our Lord’s. Clarity of thought here should help the Church towards a much needed conviction. Jesus’ teaching about the Church came in direct response to Peter’s confession. Some understanding of the content of that confession will thus help us to see the issues to which Jesus responds. The confession was the first considered affirmation by any of the disciples of Jesus’ Messiahship. It is true that the Gospel writers refer to Jesus as Christ before this scene at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 1:1, 16, 18, 11:2) and that he had been so acknowledged by devils (Matt. 8:29) and by followers of Jesus (John 1:41, Matt. 9:28, 12:23, 14:33, 15:22). But these acknowledgements were spontaneous and tentative rather than considered statements. Now with Peter’s confession in Matt. 16:16, we have a deliberate conscious expression rejecting other popular possibilities that Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So far as Peter was concerned p. 10 he had come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Christ and Son of the living God. The confession involves several significant insights on Peter’s behalf. 1) It showed that Peter saw Jesus as the promised Messiah. Current popular hopes for the Messiah were for a political leader, at best an ideal human king. But Peter’s observations of Jesus the wandering teacher, miracle worker, prophet and friend led him to see in this non-political figure, one who fulfilled the Scriptural hope of Messiah. Further, Peter even went beyond the Scriptural pre-figuration of a human king in the line of David when he said that this clearly human Jesus Messiah was the Son of the living God. Peter had an insight into Jesus that was unequalled among his contemporaries. 2) It showed that Peter saw Jesus in terms of the Kingdom of God. “Son of God” in pre- Christian Judaism was a term understood as “God’s adopted vice-regent in His Kingdom.” “Son of man” the term which Jesus used in questioning His disciples about who people thought He was, is also a term implying the Kingdom of God. The well known passage in 4 Daniel 7 from which the Son of man terminology comes, sees him “given dominion and glory and kingdom … His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:14). Moreover Daniel saw that the Kingdom shall be received by “the saints of the Most High” (Dan 7:13) implying that somehow these “saints” are associated with the Son of man who receives the Kingdom. Peter’s confession thus implies that Jesus is the King exercising authority with his saints in the Kingdom of God. 3) The confession also shows that Peter saw Jesus as unique. Of all the Gospel accounts of this confession at Caesarea Philippi, it is only Matthew who records the words “Son of the living God.” Biblical thought about the living God is that God has life originally in Himself, His life is indestructible and He therefore lives eternally. It also refers to the transcendence of God’s existence over men and of His action and intervention in the affairs of men.