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Christian Theology Iii Class Lecture Notes Table of Contents CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY III CLASS LECTURE NOTES TABLE OF CONTENTS Unit 1: The Doctrine of Ecclesiology ............................................................. 1 Part A: The Nature of the Church . 1 Part B: The Church in History . .14 Part C: The Polity of the Church . .24 Part D: The Ministries of the Church . 43 Part E: The Ordinances of the Church . .52 Part F: Contemporary Issues . 64 Unit 2: The Doctrine of Eschatology . 80 Part A: Personal Eschatology . .80 Death . 81 The Intermediate State . 92 The Resurrection of the Body . 102 Judgment . 107 Eternal Destinies: Heaven . 114 Eternal Destinies: Hell . 124 Part B: Cosmic Eschatology . .140 The Rapture/Return of Christ . 141 The Millennium . .151 Copyright © John S. Hammett Wake Forest, North Carolina July, 2014 CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY III UNIT 1: ECCLESIOLOGY Are you a Baptist? If so, why? For those who live and minister in a Baptist context, ecclesiology must receive special consideration, for Baptists are distinguished from other churches primarily by their ecclesiological convictions. And despite the anti-denominational attitude of many Christians today (I'm not a Baptist, I'm a Christian), it is impossible to actually do ministry without making some ecclesiological decisions that will align you more closely with some denominations, and exclude you from others. Denominationalism may be secondary, but it is inevitable, and not necessarily sinful. Furthermore, ecclesiology deserves the serious study of all believers, for it is the church that Jesus loves and died for (Eph. 5:25); it is the building of the church that is Jesus' great goal (Matt. 16:18); and it is the church that shows God's wisdom in the heavenly realms (Eph. 3:10). Many talk about fulfilling the Great Commission without remembering that it specifically associates making disciples with “baptizing them,” which most Christians throughout history have associated with entry into a local church. The fulfillment of the Great Commission requires churches. All those who love Christ and desire to make him known must love and value his body, the church. Finally, it is the context for ministry for most of you. If you are ever going to lead a church to be what God calls it to be, you need to know what that is. Unfortunately, far too many churches are guided by the principle of pragmatism. Whatever draws a crowd, relates to the culture, or seems to “work” is what is adopted, without even asking the important ecclesiological questions of what God has called the church to be in Scripture. That will be the goal of our study--to see God's view of the church. PART A. THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH OUTLINE I. Old Testament Background. A. Elements of continuity. 1. The same father. 2. Old Testament terminology. 3. Old Testament images. B. Elements of discontinuity. 1. Christ himself. 2. The ministry of the Holy Spirit. II. New Testament Teaching. A. The word ekklesia. B. Images of the church in the New Testament. 2 1. The family 2. The people of God. 3. The body of Christ. 4. The temple of the Holy Spirit. C. What the church is not. D. Some preliminary conclusions. We use the term “church” very casually and frequently in our conversations, but does our usage and our conception of church match what the Bible means by “church?” We begin by investigating biblical teaching on the nature of the church. I. Old Testament Background. We begin with a disputed question, that of the relationship of the people of God in the Old Testament to the church. Covenant theology emphasizes the unity of God’s plan and thus the continuity between his people on the Old Testament and the church. The church is the new Israel, or spiritual Israel. Dispensational theology has as perhaps its most important principle the separation of Israel and the church. They are two distinct peoples, representing two distinct eras (or dispensations) of God’s economy, with two distinct plans. Thus they emphasize the discontinuity between the church and Israel, and usually identify the origin of the church with Pentecost, and see it as entirely a New Testament phenomenon. The approach taken here recognizes both continuity and discontinuity. A helpful analogy is that of the developmental stages of a child. The call of Abraham (Gen. 12:1) may be seen as the conception of the church, the rest of the Old Testament as the gestation, the gospels as the labor pains of the church, and Pentecost as the birth. We find elements of both continuity and discontinuity in Scripture. A. Elements of continuity. 1. The same father. Abraham is repeatedly seen in the New Testament as the father of all believers, Jew and Gentile, Israel and church (Rom. 4:16-17, Gal. 3:6-9, 29) because he is the exemplar of faith. However, he seems to be especially associated with the church because, like the church, he is “called out” by God to a mission that will bring blessing to all the families of the church. Gen. 12:1-3 may even be seen as the first hint of the Great Commission, given to the one who is the first hint of the church, who shares the same “called out” nature and the same mission. 2. Old Testament terminology. As the people of God develop in the Old Testament, we find further elements that provide background for what will emerge in the New Testament as the church. For example, there are two major biblical terms for the congregation of God’s people in the Old Testament: edah (congregation) and qahal (assembly). It is interesting that when the translators of the Septuagint sought a Greek term for these words, they used ekklesia to translate qahal seventy-seven times, but never used ekklesia for edah. What does this say about the associations surrounding the word ekklesia? Scholars say that qahal indicates those who are in fact responding to God’s call, while edah refers more to a group in which one is born. 3 This association of qahal and ekklesia persists into the New Testament. In the two places where ekklesia is associated with a verse from the Old Testament, it is used to translate qahal (Acts 7:38 is associated with Deut. 18:16, though not an exact quotation; Heb. 2:12 quotes Ps. 22:22; both Old Testament texts contain the term qahal). The point is that when the New Testament writers used the word ekklesia to refer to the people of God, they were using a term that indicated a measure of continuity with Israel. 3. Old Testament images. Beyond the biblical terms used, there are also elements of continuity in various images used for the church. There are a few verses that give the implication that the church is spiritual Israel (Rom. 2:28-29, Rom. 9:6-8), including Gal. 6:16, which seems to refer to the church as “the Israel of God.” Though dispensational commentators dispute this interpretation, it seems much the most natural. Another image that pictures the unity of the church and Israel is that of the olive tree. Israel is the original tree, but the church has been grafted in (Rom. 11:17-24). Though this image is only found in one text, it is extensively developed there. The major image indicating continuity between Israel and the church is the phrase “the people of God.” This phrase is found in a promise that appears throughout the Bible and indicates God’s eternal purpose to call to himself a people. The first hint of this promise appears in Gen. 17. God is about to begin the process of producing a people from Abraham and Sarah, despite their age. To Abraham and his descendants, God promises to “be their God” (Gen. 17:8). It appears in fuller form on the eve of the Exodus, as God promises to redeem them: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:7). After he brings the people out, he calls them “my treasured possession . a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6). Though the people failed to be God’s covenant people, he did not give up on his purpose, but promised a New Covenant, which had as one of its purposes: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jer. 31:33). Joseph was told of the baby to be born to Mary, “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). It becomes apparent in the New Testament that the people for whom Christ died, the people who are included under the New Covenant, those who can be called the people of God, are no longer just Israelites, but also the church. In Acts 15, the church’s first theological controversy was over the inclusion of Gentiles, and was resolved by an appeal to Amos 9:11-12 as justification for God “taking from the Gentiles a people for himself” (Acts 15:14-18). Rom. 9:22-25, II Cor. 6:16, and I Pet. 2:9-10 all take the “people of God” language from the Old Testament and apply it to the church. Eph. 2:19 says more bluntly that those in the church “are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people.” Yet even the church does not exhaust this promise of God, because part of God being God to his people is his dwelling among them. He did so symbolically in the tabernacle and temple, did so temporarily in Jesus, who “tabernacled among us” for a time (John 1:14), does so spiritually now in the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom.
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