Repentance today is a byword. It conjures up images of a religious fanatic standing on a street corner with a cheap megaphone that more obscures the sound than amplifies it. But the call to repentance is divine grace. In this final chapter of Hosea, the Lord calls Israel to return to him. What a gift this is! God’s arms remain wide open. He will take away their iniquity, he will accept a sacrifice for their sins, he will heal their apostasy, he will love them freely, and make his people to reside under his shadow and to flourish. All this he does in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. So we return to God through Christ, for he has made a way for us to be accepted by the Father. 

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Hosea 13 contains mostly words of rebuke and condemnation. But there is good news there as well. The Lord rebukes his son, Israel, whom he called out of Egypt, for the sin of covenantal faithlessness. They have gone after other gods. So thorough will God’s coming judgment be that it is likened to death. But he also offers a word of hope which contains the promise of life, as death itself will be defeated. 

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Mark Winder previews his upcoming course on Zephaniah wherein he will discuss the prophecy in its context, and in doing so examine how the prophet utilizes protological themes to construct an eschatological picture pointing to the great Day of the Lord. We will begin with an introduction to covenant themes and establish the veracity of the theological assumptions and hermeneutical method employed in approaching Zephaniah.

Dr. Winder will be teaching an in-person course at the Reformed Forum headquarters in Libertyville, Illinois, August 12–13, 2022.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 06:12 An Upcoming Course on Zephaniah
• 22:25 The Structure of the Course
• 33:16 Protology and Eschatology
• 44:29 The Expectation of the Day of the Lord
• 50:45 Covenant Restoration
• 57:56 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Mark A. Winder, Ryan Noha

Lane Tipton and Camden Bucey turn to pages 289–296 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments. In this section, Vos introduces several significant interpretive practices which are critical for a proper understanding of the eschatology of the prophets. These are the principles of (1) finality and consummation, (2) prophetic idiom, and (3) the coming of the Messiah as the “gift of God.”

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:48 Finality and Consummation
• 13:53 The Forshortening of Prophetic Insight
• 22:54 Prophetic Idiom and the Future Glory of Isaiah
• 42:58 The Coming Messiah as the Gift of God
• 51:06 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Lane Tipton and Camden Bucey turn to pages 269–286 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, to consider social sin in the time of the prophets.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 05:41 Join Our Private Chat Server
• 10:07 The Corruption of Ritual Worship
• 11:53 Social Sin
• 20:34 The Problem of the City
• 25:54 Social Justice and Humanitarianism
• 33:48 Social Sin and Theonomy
• 41:47 Transformation through the New Covenant
• 50:27 The Old and New Covenants
• 55:48 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Dr. R. Carlton Wynne leads us in a study of Jeremiah 31 and the relationship between the Old and New Covenants. In discussing typology and symbolism, Wynne describes the views of John Owen with a view toward understanding better several contemporary views.

Dr. Wynne is Associate Pastor of Westminster PCA in Atlanta and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (Atlanta).

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:06:35 Jeremiah 31 and the New Covenant
• 00:11:09 What Is Not New in the New Covenant
• 00:18:28 Old Testament Types and Symbols
• 00:26:32 The Prospective Typological Aspect of OT Forms
• 00:34:03 The Connection between Type and Antitype
• 00:37:44 A Subservient View of the Mosaic Covenant
• 00:45:18 Types are More than Pedagogical Tools
• 00:51:52 OT Types Are Meaningless without Christ
• 00:54:07 Views on Obedience to the Law
• 01:00:33 John Owen on the Old and New Covenants
• 01:13:31 Christ’s Presence in Both the Old and the New
• 01:18:39 The Old Covenant Not Only Illustrates but Communicates Christ
• 01:24:11 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carlton Wynne, Will Wood

The Lord pronounces an indictment upon Israel and convicts her of her sins. He also calls her to repentance and to return to him. The coming judgment in exile reminds of Christ who was exile in death for us, that in him we might have life and restoration in the heavenly promised land. 

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Lane Tipton and Camden Bucey turn to pages 264–266 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, to consider the collective sin of the nation during the time of the prophets. Vos speaks particularly of the prophet Amos, and his indictment of false worship practices among the people.

Links

• OPC Report of the Committee to Study Republication

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:09:14 Collective National Sin
• 00:17:33 Oppression of the Poor and Sexual Immorality
• 00:24:40 Licentious Idolatry
• 00:28:24 The Covenant-Historical Context
• 00:35:26 The Motivation of the Apostates (Amos 8:1–6)
• 00:42:04 A Critical Interpretation of the Prophets’ View of Sacrifices
• 00:45:57 Manners of False Worship
• 00:55:17 Cultural Forces and the Church
• 01:00:33 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Hosea prophesied that God would call his son out of Egypt. Of course, that was long after the Exodus. But here in Chapter 11 the Exodus serves as a motif for God’s redeeming grace. It recalled the Exodus as a foreshadow of Israel’s restoration from exile. Unfortunately, the restoration fell short of the great expectation Israel had for the fulfillment of God’s promises to the patriarchs. The day when God called his Son out of Egypt would ultimately arrive in Christ, the true Son and faithful Israel of God. He was called out of Egypt after he fled there to escape Herod’s deadly grasp. And so we, in our union with Christ, are sons of the living God who have been redeemed and called out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of his Son. 

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

We turn to pages 263–264 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, to consider the sin of Israel and the resulting rupture of their covenant bond with the Lord.

Links

• OPC Study Committee Report on Republication, Chapter 8

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to pages 256–263 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, to discuss the bond between the Lord and Israel. In this chapter, Vos considers revelation during the period of the prophets, but in this section, he specifically considers the unique perspective on covenant (berith) offered by Isaiah and Hosea.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

In Hosea 10 the prophet likens Israel to a vineyard and and garden – but not a very fruitful one. In fact, her covenants with the nations has given rise to terrible idolatry, which is spiritual adultery. She is faithless and therefore fruitless. But the judgment and curse God pronounced upon her would not finally fall upon her, but on him who is the true vine. And now as branches in that vine, we have redemption and the grace to bear good fruit. 

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

We turn to pages 255–256 of Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to consider the ways in which the Old Testament prophets use anthropomorphism to describe God. The “emotional” or “affectional” dispositions of Jehovah’s nature is the next set of attributes. He says, as a guiding principle, “we are here in a sphere full of anthropomorphism” and says that “an anthropomorphism” is never without an “inner core of important truth” that “must be translated into more theological language” where we can “enrich our knowledge of God” (255).

Vos makes an absolutely critical observation here that needs sustained attention to the theological issues he raises here. They are as important in our day as in Vos’ if not more so. Anthropomorphic language ascribes the qualities of the creature to God’s acts in time. But such language is never intended by Reformed theologians to be taken in a univocal way, as though God literally possesses creaturely qualities.

1. God’s acts in time do not require him to be temporal.
2. God acts in the contingent historical order of creation do not require him to be contingent and historical.
3. God’s acts in relation to mutable and passible creatures do not require that he be mutable and passible like the creature.
4. There is no point of univocity between the Creator and the creature—no mutual sharing in mutability and temporality.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

• DeYoung, Kevin. Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction (Crossway, April 2021). 176 pages. $19.99. Paperback.
• Gronewoller, Brian. Rhetorical Economy in Augustine’s Theology (Oxford University Press, April 2021). From the Oxford Studies in Historical Theology series. 224 pages. $99.00. Hardcover.
• Tripp, Paul David. Marriage: 6 Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs to Make (Crossway, April 2021). 384 pages. $24.99. Hardcover with jacket.
• Kruger, Michael J. Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, April 2021). 272 pages. $16.99. Paperback.
• Gallagher, Robert L. and Smither, Edward L. Sixteenth Century Mission: Explorations in Protestant and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice (Lexham, April 2021). From the Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology series. 504 pages. $29.99. Paperback.
• Crisler, Channing L. and Plummer, Robert L. Always Reforming: Reflections on Martin Luther and Biblical Studies (Lexham, April 2021). From the Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology series. 344 pages. $29.99. Paperback.
• Plumer et al. The Pastor, His Call, Character and Work (Banner of Truth, 2021). Written by faculty and friends of Old Princeton with an introduction by Sinclair Ferguson. 272 pages. $20.00. Hardcover.
• Jamieson, R. B. The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews (IVP Academic, May 2021). From the Studies in Christian and Doctrine Series. 240 pages. $30.00. Paperback.
• Helopoulos, Jason. The Promise: The Amazing Story of our Long-Awaited Savior (Crossway, May 2021). 64 pages. $15.99. Hardcover with jacket. Illustrated by Rommel Ruiz.
• Timmer, Daniel C. Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Vol 26) (IVP Academic, May 2021). 272 pages. $25.00. Paperback.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Ryan Noha

We turn to pages 250–255 of Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to consider God’s righteousness—particularly as it is revealed during the time of the Old Testament prophets.

Vos speaks of God’s righteousness as “midway between the transcendental and communicative attributes” (250). God is the righteous judge. In human terms, a judge is righteous because he adheres strictly to the standard or law over him. How does this apply to God, who has no standard or law above him? “Underlying the decisions of Jehovah lies His nature” (251). The law is righteous because it is based upon God’s nature, not the other way around.

Vos speaks of God’s forensic or judicial righteousness branching out in several directions, as a righteousness of cognizance, retribution, vindication, salvation, and benevolence.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Hosea ministers in Israel between the time of the conquest of Canaan and the exile. In chapter nine of his prophecy, he tells of the coming judgment-exile of Israel into the land of the uncircumcised. But there is hope! God will preserve a remnant—elect exiles—for his own glory and as his chosen portion. For Christ was exiled in his death because of our sins, so that we who were once far off may be brought near by the blood. And now, in Christ, we are elect exiles called to conduct ourselves honorably in the midst of wicked and perverse generation.

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Matthew Vogan speaks about David Dickson’s Sermons on Jeremiah’s Lamentations (Naphtali Press Special Editions & Reformation Heritage Books). Mr. Vogan is General Manager of Reformation Scotland, a charitable trust whose aim is to promote the restoration of the Christian Church in Scotland by informing, educating and promoting understanding of our Reformed heritage through film, print and other media.

If you are interested in connecting extracts from David Dickson’s writings with contemporary concerns, visit the David Dickson blog, which Reformation Scotland have constructed.

Naphtali Press Special Editions

Please considering sponsoring Naphtali Press Special Editions. Sponsorships are as low as $16.59 per month for 12 installments.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jim Cassidy, Matthew Vogan

We turn to pages 245–250 of Geerhardus Vos’s book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to discuss the prophet’s view of God’s holiness. Vos contrasts the concept of holiness found in pagan religions with that of the biblical prophets. The concept of holiness in Scripture is God-centered. It begins with the Lord, his transcendence, and then radiates outward to creation as he is revealed. This is how we must consider holiness when it is applied to creation—whether to man made in his image, to places, or to consecrated objects used in worship.

The liberal theologians Vos often addresses have no issue acknowledging the “holiness” of man understood as moral goodness. But for Vos, ethical goodness requires the comparison and relation to a holy God. In this sense, it is not possible to de-spiritualize Scripture and retain the Bible’s concept of holiness.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

In this episode of Vos Group, we turn to Vos’s sermon, “The Wonderful Tree,” in the collection of his sermons, Grace and Glory: Sermons Preached at Princeton Seminary. Preaching on Hosea 14:8, Vos describes the nature of religion as consisting of what God is for man and of what man is for God. Hosea features what God is for man in the metaphor of an evergreen cypress, offering life-giving sustenance and shade in all seasons. This sermon is the longest of Vos’s that we possess, and it demonstrates several surprising features, which Danny Olinger, Lane Tipton, and Camden Bucey discuss.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to pages 243–244 of Geerhardus Vos’s book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to discuss the prophet’s view of God’s relation to time and space. In terms of God’s relation to time and space, two relations occur. What we have to affirm first of all is that God is everywhere present in all of his fullness. But Vos speaks of a special relation to Zion (on earth) and heaven itself as the temple dwelling of God. Two things help us grasp the significance of this: the notion of covenant and the location of the fellowship.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Hosea brings a word of judgment upon Israel, threatening to send them into exile and judgment for their sin. Christ as the true and obedient Israel secures for his people the promised deliverance from sin’s guilt and power. Christ calls us therefore to exclusive fidelity to him.

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Jim Cassidy shows us how Israel’s folly and sinfulness renders her incapable of obeying God. In order to obey the Lord, she needs the Lord to grant to her the very thing that she herself can not do. Hosea uses striking imagery to show us Israel’s rebellion, but equally striking and parallel imagery to show the Lord’s mercy and provision for redemption.

Will Wood, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at RTS Atlanta, discusses the shaping of the book of the twelve, the canonical collection of the minor prophets (Hosea through Malachi). The Book of the Twelve is a grouping of twelve individual prophets into a single intertextually related and thematically integrated work that spans the course of a few centuries and can be appropriately called a “book.” How did this book take shape? What was the historical process by which it came to the canonical form we have today?

Participants: Camden Bucey, Will Wood

We turn to pp. 238–243 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the Old Testament prophets and their understanding of the nature and attributes of God. Vos affirms that God is Spirit. This brings into view not that God is immaterial per se, as Vos notes, but rather the “energy of life in God.” This is critical to appreciate. That God is Spirit reminds us that while he is immutable in his being, he is impassible in his actions.

He acts, and his actions condition all that he acts upon, without he himself being mutually conditioned by that on which he acts. That is, God is pure act in the sense that he immutably and sovereignly acts in such a way that he is not acted upon, and in that action, changed by the creation on which and in which his actions terminate. Vos says in his Reformed Dogmatics, there is no time distinction in God, yet his acts fall in time. And they fall in time as the acts of an all-conditioning God, who is living and active, but in a way that he is not acted upon or changed by the creature.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that God is a Spirit, “infinite, eternal and unchangeable.” This helpfully distills the essence of what Vos is after. While immutable, God is active and living and all of his acts express his immutable being and purpose. So, a key here is that immutability and spirituality require one another: God is immutable in his life; immutable in his purposes; and his agency in creation expresses immutable but living and acting Trinitarian persons, who are exhaustively and entirely the one true God.

Isaiah 57:15 is a key text: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to pp. 235–238 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the Old Testament prophets and varying views of monotheism. The prophetic era begins with Samuel and the introduction of kingship in the theocracy, and the fundamental conflict between the prophets and the kings is between those who are fundamentally theocentric and those who are fundamentally political.

And the kings concerns, representative in Saul, is a carnal, earthly concern to maintain political power. The kings long to maintain the appearance of royal splendor. They do not have a fundamentally theocentric concern about them. The increasing propension of the kings is to gain and maintain political power, outward glory, and the prestige and praise of man. Saul is the prototype of this thing. The theocracy, for the kings who follow in the pattern of Saul, do not perceive the spiritual and theocentric core of the kingdom of God. And they wind up persecuting not only David, but as Stephen makes clear, they persecute and even kill the prophets. But in Isaiah we find the theocentric concern coming to its full fruition in the Old Testament.

Vos notes that there are three unique features that stand out with Isaiah, and these, taken together, comprise the eschatological intensification of the prophetic office—these become a prolepsis of the nature of the true religion that will come by the Spirit of the ascended Messiah. First, a vivid perception of divine majesty. Second, transcendence and majesty of Jehovah in contrast to the creature. Third, unqualified service to the divine glory, which is a common theme pre- and post-exile.

The monotheism of the later prophets such as Isaiah is a sign of the great advancement of the kingdom toward the original heavenly telos that was held out to Adam under the covenant of works. The monotheism of the later prophets such as Isaiah is the movement toward the great realization of the heavenly kingdom in the person and work of Christ.

As we discuss monotheism it is not the “ethical monotheism” of the critics but the eschatological monotheism of the true religion whose center of gravity is God’s glory in heaven that comes into view. That is the fundamental concern—the central importance—of the development of monotheism. The “gods” are absolutely powerless to deliver from judgment on earth or to enable entrance into the glory-heaven of Jehovah.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to pp. 234–235 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the nature and attributes of God as understand by the Old Testament prophets.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to page 234 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the understanding of monotheism which the biblical prophets possessed. On pages 206–211 of the book, Vos dealt with the modernist conception of the issue, adding a footnote that his positive treatment would be saved for later. Now we arrive at that later portion. As we begin to address this new section, we revisit some of the ground we covered in Vos Group #55, while expanding that material.

On pages 206–211, Vos gives us the key conception of the modernist critics:

The prophets, from Amos and Hosea onwards, are credited with the discovery and establishment of the great truth of ethical monotheism, in which the distinctive and permanent value of Old Testament religion is to be found.

To explain this as crisply as possible, Vos is saying that a particular ethical conception of Jehovah gives rise to the monotheism of the later prophets in the 8th century. It is a monotheism of a particular kind–a monotheism of a specific variety. There is a concrete, historical, situated, ethical dilemma that forges an ethical conception of Jehovah that otherwise would not be formed.

In contrast, Vos emphasizes that the prophets are God-centered. They are religious—meaning they find their delight in spiritual (Spirit-wrought) communion with God. The ethical aspect of monotheism is itself subservient to the glory of God and delight in fellowship with God.

The “prophetic orientation” does not view God as a means to an end, but rather delighting in God himself, as he has revealed himself as sovereign Judge and condescended Lord and Savior of his covenant people. The prophets delight in the God they proclaim and do not re-conceive him as a means to an end other than the glory of God himself as the chief end and delight of his people.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Jim Cassidy gives us a primer on covenant theology. As Israel, shaped by the law, becomes an analogy of Adam as Adam is in covenant with God in the garden, a pattern is seen between Adam and Israel. If Adam disobeys, he is exiled from the Garden, as is also the case with Israel. God, however, is the covenant keeper, providing redemption for his people in doing what they are unable to do.

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Joel Fick, Mark A. Winder

We turn to pages 230–233 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the mode by which the Lord delivers his message to the prophet. Man is made in the image of God, which means he has a special capacity to commune with God. Vos marvels at the way in which divine speech is transmitted to those made in his image. God’s word is communicated in servant form without evacuating the message of any of its divine characteristics, such as inerrancy or infallibility. The Holy Spirit works in the prophet in such a way as to inspire and superintend the entire activity of the prophet—whether in speech or inscripturation.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Bob begins reading the 1922 edition of Grace and Glory, a collection of sermons delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary by Geerhardus Vos. The first of these sermons is on Hosea 14:8, “The Wonderful Tree.”

Participants: Robert Tarullo

We turn to pages 224–229 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to speak about the intra-mental state of the prophet, by which Vos means to inquire into “how the soul felt and reacted under the things shown within the vision” (p. 224).

Far too much attention has been given to what is represented by the Greek term ecstasis. The term served first as a translation of the Hebrew tardemah (cf. Gen. 2:21 with Adam and Genesis 15:12 with Abram). In Adam’s case, there is no visionary state. In Abram’s case, there is such a vision (expound the theology of the theophany). But tardemah does not throw any light on Abram’s state of mind.

Ecstasis, on the other hand, has a very definite conception in Greek consciousness that leads in the direction of error. That conception is that of “insanity or mania” and was applied to the oracular process—the process of receiving visions and the resultant state in which it put the seer-prophet. This led to a close association between the prophet and some feature of instability—some manic tendency that seems inherent to the process of receiving a vision.

Vos points us to God’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation in history, which does not bypass the human mind or allow the recipient to escape his humanity, but elevates him to greater communion with God.

In this episode, we turn to pages 220–223 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to discuss the reception of divine revelation through showing and seeing. The prophets were given visions and heard the Lord and angelic beings speaking to them audibly. We explore the significance of this fact with regard to our understanding of God’s progressive revelation in history.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob finish out their discussion of Malachi.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob pick up their discussion of Malachi at chapter 3:7-18. Here we engage Malachi in his denunciation of those “robbing” the Lord, as well as those who are meant to find encouragement and comfort with the promise of the coming of the Lord.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Knowledge is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end that we might know the new world of God. When we understand that we are citizens of the age to come, it changes everything about how we live our lives in the midst of this present evil age.

Participants: Adam York, Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob pick up their discussion of Malachi 2:17–3:6 where they discuss Malachi’s presentation of the coming of God, as well as the words made made well-known by Handel’s Messiah, “…He is like a refiner’s fire…”

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob discuss Malachi 2:10-16. In these verses, Malachi addresses the covenant unfaithfulness of his people as the men divorce the wives of their youth for the daughter of foreign gods.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

In this episode, we turn to pages 216–220 of Vos’s book, Biblical Theology, to discuss the reception of divine revelation through speech and hearing. Vos treats this topic because, among other things, it lies at the heart of true religion. If God is not speaking, then we do not know him. If it is merely men who speak, we do not know God and therefore are not in a religious bond of covenantal fellowship with him. It is of the essence of true religion to affirm that God speaks and that prophets hear God speaking and then speak that same Word to the church. You cannot have true religion without such supernatural verbal revelation.

This requires that God speaks to the prophet before the prophet spoke. This is critical, since it utterly destroys the liberal theories that locate the actual words in human agency alone, such as the kernel theory we talked about earlier. The speaking of God is not meant in a figurative way, “but in the literal sense it appears in various ways” (p. 217).

Vos next makes a point that the verbal communication from Jehovah is both external and internal, and that internal (to the soul or audible only to the prophet) does not collapse into the “consciousness theology” and the subjectivism of the liberal concept of “revelation” where revelation simply means a heightened moral consciousness or awareness of nearness to the ethical ideal of the prophetic religion.

Vos urges us not to probe the proportion of internal and external revelation, but to accept that both forms come to the prophets, making them bearers of words that have divine authority.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

The Book of Malachi speaks to the people of God after their return from exile in Babylon. They and their leaders are being called to account for offering their worst to the Lord. And now, in chapter 2, the priests are specifically addressed for their unfaithfulness. Rob and Bob discuss these things and many more on this week’s episode of Theology Simply Profound.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

In this episode of Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob discuss the first chapter of Malachi and the concern he has for the cold worship offered by his people and those who lead the people in this way.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob begin to discuss the Book of Malachi.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

We turn to pages 212–213 of Vos’ book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to discuss the mode of reception of the prophetic revelation. In the fourth section of his book, Vos continues to contrast the modernist conception with that of confessional orthodoxy. He stresses that revelation does not originate naturally but is in its essence, “a real communication” from God to the prophets.

Our study of Vos is focused on biblical theology, or what Vos termed “the history of special revelation.” A modernized conception of revelation construes history as natural and mechanical in character. History is encased in patterns of natural cause and effect. It is a closed reality. For the Kantian, the mind of man imposes rational categories onto nature. Others view the mind and discovering natural and immutable laws, which don’t exhibit any variation. It is an anti-supernaturalist conception of history. For the modernist, supernatural revelation cannot exist in the sphere of natural history.

Vos, however, is unwavering in his commitment to the self-attesting word of God, which is a supernatural word from the transcendent God, who nevertheless condescends voluntarily to speak to those made in his image.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

We turn to pages 206–211 of Vos’ book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to continue our discussion of critical theories of prophetism. Vos tackles a modernist, critical theory of the development of monotheism under the prophets. Vos wants the reader to enter into a modernist world–a critical world. In that world, there are three main things you will face:

• A finite and developing conception of deity
• A mechanical and purely natural conception of history
• An errant and merely human conception of the Bible

These are the key features of a “critical” approach to the prophets. But, as Machen pointed out so clearly, these three conceptions represent a different religion: a fundamentally Pelagian conception of religion.

Vos helps us see, by contrast, that the kingdom of God and the demand that he be worshipped exclusively is built into man as the image of God. Adam, from the start, was bound to God in a religious relation by creation that the covenant of works was to advance. Man, from the beginning, exists to worship God–to glorify and enjoy God forever in covenantal fellowship. For the liberal to reverse this relation and insist that God must serve the purpose of man is to lay bare that the critics truly do have a different religion. On this, Vos and Machen are one.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

In Episode 75 we see that because of our sin imputed to Christ, he stood condemned under the wrath of God. But Christ’s resurrection is the Word of Grace—Christ’s vindication. Christ is condemned by the cross, but vindicated by the Spirit.

Participants: Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

We turn to pages 202–205 of Vos’ book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to continue our discussion of critical theories of prophetism. Vos answers critics who believe that Israel derived its understanding of prophetism from Canaanite religion by focusing our attention upon God’s word revealed in history. Contrary to the false prophets, true prophetism is centered on true religion, union and communion with God according to his word.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Andrew Compton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, speaks about the nature of the prophecy in Isaiah 44:24–45:7 wherein the Lord declares that he will raise up Cyrus. Rev. Compton addresses the challenges of critical scholars, who often see this passage as a later addition.

Participants: Andrew Compton, Camden Bucey

In Episode 68, Jim Cassidy takes us through Hosea 4, where we see that God is judging his people because of their lack of a knowledge of him. Scripture shows us that the love of God and the knowledge of God are not contrary to one another, but “sweetly comply” with one another.

Participants: Adam York, Glen Clary, Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

Participants: Adam York, Jim Cassidy, Mark A. Winder

In this episode of #VosGroup, we turn to pages 200–201 of Vos’ book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to continue our discussion of critical theories of prophetism.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

In this installment of #VosGroup, we turn to pages 198–199 of Vos’ book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to consider critical theories of prophetism. We extend and amplify the material in these pages more than usual by connecting Vos’s teaching to the theology of Karl Barth and other modernist approaches.

Broadly, the term can be associated with “instrument of revelation” and this is so important to note. For Vos, contra Barth, there is a direct, organic disclosure of God’s revealed truth in our calendar-time history. It is not in a distinct, third-time dimension that Barth calls Geschichte that “revelation” occurs. For Barth, revelation is Jesus Christ in a distinct time dimension, God’s third time for us, that “revelation” occurs. Revelation is Jesus Christ. The Scriptures, the prophets and calendar time history are not themselves revelation–they only point to revelation. Revelation is a “supra-historical” event in a time dimension altogether different from our calendar time.

But Vos would say this is fundamentally wrong–it is a different religious conception of “revelation” altogether. God speaks directly to Adam in the Garden of Eden in terms of positive, special, verbal revelation. God’s voice can be heard, speaking with inerrant and inescapable authority, in Eden. It is this initial self-revelation from God, in the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall, that supplies us with our conception of revelation. God both acts and speaks in calendar time history, and that special is initially given to Adam under the covenant of works. God’s revelation in nature (image of God) is by divine design subordinate to God’s revelation in positive categories. In other words, Genesis 2:7 (image of God) and Genesis 2:15–17 (Covenant) demand the idea that God reveals himself with absolute authority and clarity directly in history.

Vos says, “But the Reformed have always insisted upon it that at no point shall a recognition of the historical delivery and apprehension of truth be permitted to degenerate into a relativity of truth. The history remains a history of revelation. Its total product agrees absolutely in every respect with the sum of truth as it lies in the eternal mind and purpose of God.”

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton