3 New D.A. Carson lectures on 3 passages in Hebrews (use of OT in NT)

Post audio links corrected (5/1)

D.A. Carson spoke at Union University this month on the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament by taking three passages in Hebrews in three lectures.

1. Plenary 1: Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 in Hebrews 1
2. Plenary 2: Psalm 95 in Hebrews 3-4
3. Plenary 3: Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 in Hebrews 7

To see all D.A. Carson audio, go here.

New D.A. Carson Audio/Video

D.A. Carson on the scholar as pastor:

1. The talk – audio|video
2. Discussion – audio|video
3. Notes on the talk

Carson at The Gospel Coalition Conference 2009 – “That By All Means I Might Win Some’: Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) – audio|video

See all the D.A. Carson audio I could find here.

D.A. Carson’s take on the gospel message we proclaim

D.A. Carson on the gospel message we proclaim:

If the gospel is the (good) news about what God has done in Christ Jesus, there is ample place for including under “the gospel” the ways in which the kingdom has dawned and is coming, for tying this kingdom to Jesus’ death and resurrection, for demonstrating that the purpose of what God has done is to reconcile sinners to himself and finally to bring under one head a renovated and transformed new heaven and new earth, for talking about God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and above all for focusing attention on what Paul (and others—though the language I’m using here reflects Paul) sees as the matter “of first importance”: Christ crucified. All of this is what God has done; it is what we proclaim; it is the news, the great news, the good news.

Read the whole thing.

I think what needs to be added to this summary of what God has done in Christ is that what God has done in Christ has been done so completely that the only way to receive this is by faith alone.  This is not the same thing as saying that a person’s faith receiving the gospel is part of the gospel, but part of what must be proclaimed is that what God did in Christ, summarized above, was done in such a way that the way in which God did it was meant to be received by faith alone.  When we look at Paul’s rebuking the Galatians for receiving a different gospel, was it not for the way in which the work of God in Christ was to be (and was being) appropriated in the life of the hearer?

Also see the T4G Affirmations and Denials, Article XII

I’ll be in Chicago this week

Lord-willing I’ll be in Chicago for The Gospel Coalition National Conference this week.  I anticipate the Lord refreshing me for our gospel initiatives here in L.A.  You can view live web casts if you want.

What year was Jesus born and what year did he die and rise?

Andreas Kostenberger believes Jesus was born 5BC and died AD33.

I reproduce his post here in full (because I go back to it often and want to make sure its available), but you should look at it on his site and read some of the interesting discussion/comments that follow if you’re interested in it.

Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter every year, but few know when Jesus was actually born and when he died. With Christmas less than 3 months away, some of you may find the following post helpful. Not that any great doctrine rests on the calculations below, but it sure is nice that we can have reasonable confidence that the dates of Jesus’ birth and death are secure and can be gleaned from a combination of biblical and extrabiblical historical data. I may not be willing to stake my life on the accuracy of the data below, but I am confident enough of these calculations that the license plate of my van reads as follows: 5BC–AD33. So here you go:

Jesus’ birth most likely took place in late November of 5 B.C. (the most authoritative treatment of which I am aware is Paul L. Maier, “The Date of the Nativity and the Chronology of Jesus’ Life,” in Chronos, karios, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan [ed. J. Vardaman and E. M. Yamauchi; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989], 113–30). This, incidentally, would allow enough time for Jesus to be born and for Herod (who died in 4 B.C.) to mount his campaign to have all the boys two years old and under in Bethlehem and vicinity killed (see Matt 2:16, 19).

Jesus’ crucifixion probably occurred on Friday, April 3, A.D. 33. Luke 3:1–3 tells us that John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner, began his ministry “in the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” Both Roman historians Tacitus (Annales 4 §4) and Suetonius (Tiberius 73) date the beginning of Tiberius’s reign at A.D. 14 (the precise date is August 19, the day of Emperor Augustus’s death). Hence the 15^th year of Tiberius’s reign, counting from August 19, A.D. 14, brings us to A.D. 29 (14 + 15 = 29).

According to Luke 3:23, Jesus was “about 30 years old” when he began his ministry. If Jesus was born in 5 B.C. (as argued above) and began his ministry, as is indicated by all four Gospels, shortly after that of John the Baptist (that is, in the latter part of the year A.D. 29), this would mean that Jesus was about 33 years old when he began his public ministry (see H. W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977], 31–37 and B. Messner, “’In the Fifteenth Year’ Reconsidered: A Study of Luke 3:1,” Stone-Campbell Journal 1 [1998]: 201–11).

John’s Gospel records Jesus’ appearance at at least 3 Passovers: (1) in Jerusalem (2:13, 23); (2) in Galilee (6:4); and (3) again in Jerusalem (11:55; 12:1). In addition, it is likely that he attended a fourth Passover not recorded in John but recorded in the Synoptics (Matt 12:1 pars.?). This adds up to a length of about 3 ½ years for Jesus’ ministry. If he began his ministry in late A.D. 29, this brings us to A.D. 33 for the crucifixion. It so happens that because of astronomical calculations A.D. 30 and 33 are the only possible dates for Jesus’ crucifixion as far as the date of Passover in these two years is concerned (for the dating of the four Passovers in question see esp. C. J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, “The Jewish Calendar, a Lunar Eclipse, and the Date of Christ’s Crucifixion,” Tyndale Bulletin 43 [1992]: 331–51, esp. 335).

Finally, John 2:20 says that the temple was completed 46 years ago (see for this translation A. J. Köstenberger, John [BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004], 109–10). According to Josephus, the renovation of the temple building proper started in 20/19 B.C. (Antiquities 15.11.1 §380), with completion 18 months later in 18/17 B.C. (Antiquities 15.11.6 §421). Again, counting from 18/17 B.C., adding 46 years brings us to A.D. 29 (there was no year zero)—a great way to check our math above!

For Further Study: See the chart in A. J. Köstenberger, John (BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 11–13, and commentary at 1:19 and 2:20, and the previous post on Johannine chronology here. See also H. W. Hoehner, “Chronology,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (ed. J. B. Green, S. McKnight, and I. H. Marshall; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 118–22.

Great thoughts on church planting

Jeff Vanderstelt had a brilliant post on church planting.  I’d like to reflect on it if the Lord wills in weeks to come.

He is the King! He is my King!

or see it here in HD: That’s My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.

HT: Patrick Schreiner

The Most Evangelistic church in America?

Some other evangelical/reformed blog had this posted, but then took it down:

From Rick Warren in his interview with Sarah Pulliam:

In the past 10 years, Saddleback has baptized over 20,000 new believers. We are, without a doubt, the most evangelistic church in America. There are churches that are bigger than Saddleback, but there are no churches that reach more people for Christ than Saddleback. There are no churches that send as many people into the missions field. There’s not a church that has sent 8,000 people into the missions field.

Here’s how Pastor Rick invited people “to experience a repeat of Pentecost.” In so doing the people were able to hear Pastor Rick himself teach the class (first time in a decade), got to go to the most historic but shortest class they’ve offered, got to be with Pastor Rick who personally did baptisms that day, received a free subscription to Pastor Rick’s magazine, got a free copy of Pastor Rick’s book, got their picture with Pastor Rick, and got to get their name on a list of members in the first 30 years at Saddleback.

What is the church? (Jeff Vanderstelt’s answer)

Jeff Vanderstelt: The church is the gospel people who believe the gospel, who are a formed community around the gospel, and who demonstrate the gospel in everyday ways of life so that the world might know that the Father sent the Son.  (This doesn’t sound like the reformed view of the church, but the marks are included in the this definition of the function of the church).

For other definitions, go here.

Getting the Gospel Right and Where N.T. Wright gets it Wrong

Greg Gilbert writes:

In the NT, the good news is always the proclamation of forgiveness of sin through the substitutionary death of Jesus, and the call to repent to believe in him. Sometimes that’s all the NT mentions as the “good news”; sometimes it also seems to zoom out to include in the good news all the promises that flow to those who are so forgiven.  What the NT never holds out as the gospel, however, is the bare declaration that the kingdom has come apart from the means of entering it (faith in Christ’s substitutionary death).  Speaking biblically, the gospel is either Cross or Cross-and-Kingdom.  But it is never Kingdom alone.

Read the whole thing here.