I. The Problem

Romans 9
14a What then shall we say?
14b There is no unrighteousness with God is there?
14c Absolutely not
15a For God says to Moses (in Exodus 33:19) "I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy
15b and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion."
16a Therefore it does not depend on the one who wills
16b nor does it depend on the one who runs
16c but rather it depends solely on God who has mercy.

In Romans 9:11-13 Paul has asserted that God elected Jacob but not Esau and that this election was not due to any works done by them at all; in fact it was done before they were born. The purpose given why God acted this way is that his goals in creation and redemption might in no way hang on the "works" of men but might be wholly dependent on himself.

Quite a few people have suggested recently that "inerrant" is not a good word to use in describing Scripture. I shall seek to respond to them in this article. Before we take up the specific term "inerrant," however, it will be well for us to remind ourselves, in more general terms, of what the Reformed faith, and the Bible itself, teach us about Scripture.

The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself, "discovering the Bible as a human product," as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. "The Bible is still the center for us," Rob says, "but it's a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it."

"I grew up thinking that we've figured out the Bible," Kristen says, "that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what it means. And yet I feel like life if big again - like life used to be black and white, and now it's in color."
Christianity Today, Nov. 2004, p. 38

Tony Campolo was a plenary speaker at the 2006 Spiritual Activism Conference, which was aimed at "taking back religion from the conservative Christians. Tony tried to explain at this conference the necessity of following Scripture. But one participant retorted, "I thought this was a spiritual progressives' conference. I don't want to play the game of 'the Bible says this or that,' or that we get validation from something other than ourselves."

There you have it. Validation from ourselves simply means you make up your own god. We Christians may interpret the Bible differently; we may apply it to life differently; we may have arguments over exegesis. But the Bible has to be the ultimate authority. Otherwise we end up worshiping the goddess of tolerance and believing that tolerance takes precedence over truth.

Dorothy Sayers, the great English writer, said it best: "In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die."
Chuck Colson, Breakpoint

Over the next fifteen years, I am sure, the biggest news event will not be space exploration or the first woman president or the invention of the digital mousetrap. No, indeed. The biggest story of the next fifteen years will be, what else? The arrival of the twenty-first century! It is, of course, a non-news event. Everyone knows it's coming; nobody can stop it. But, of course, the news business thrives on non-news: the twentieth anniversary of this, the official announcement of that. So we will be up to our ears in attempts to sum up the meaning of the twentieth century and, much more, to anticipate the twenty-first. The hype starts here. Advertisers will vie with one another to show that they have anticipated the needs of the next century. And, of course, Westminster Seminary is no exception.

It is a great privilege to be covenantal with God! It involves being the objects of God's election, commitment and faithfulness. The concept of covenant is dominant in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 54 and 55 alone we may see divine, covenantal loyalty (chesed) in association with covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Israel and David. Some suggest that there is a fade-out of the concept because there are only sixteen uses of the term in the New Testament. We argue that its ceremonial use in the Lord's Supper continues to make it a dominant idea. The bifurcation of the Scriptures, in dealing with the old and new covenants, seems natural. One belongs to the age of preparation, the other to that of the fulfillment.

INTRODUCTION

The statements of Jesus' desire for unity
John 17 contains what has been called "The High Priestly Intercessory Prayer" of Jesus. This prayer, recorded in John's gospel just before the arrest of Jesus, contains timeless insights to the mission of Jesus and his intimate desires for his followers. A few of the themes in this prayer include the glorification of God the Father by the Son and the culmination of the Son's mission on the earth. Additional themes are the mission and the sanctification of the church, the desire of the Son for unity among his disciples, and the unity of "those who will believe in me through their message."

A. A. Hoekema begins his masterful monograph on biblical eschatology with the observation:

Properly to understand biblical eschatology, we must see it as an integral aspect of all of biblical revelation. Eschatology must not be thought of as something which is found only in, say, such Bible books as Daniel and Revelation, but as dominating and permeating the entire message of the Bible. ¹

Last fall I worked my way through the Old Testament prophets. As I have been studying this fascinating material I have kept asking myself: If any of these prophets were to reappear and begin preaching to the Christians of America, whose message would be the most fitting for us? I am sure we would be inspired by the lofty theology of Isaiah, and sympathize with the weeping prophet Jeremiah. We would probably be turned off by the strange antics of Ezekiel, and throw Amos out for touching too many nerves, especially of the middle and upper class. We would send Jonah back to Joppa because his message is too judgmental. Hosea's preaching has lost its edge because his marriage to a prostitute is now viewed as an alternative family life style. As I have been reading I have become increasingly convinced that the Israelite preacher evangelical Christians of this country most need to hear is Malachi. Not that we would accept his message. It is hard-hitting and sharp. There is no pulling the punches here, no tickling ears, no catering to people whose primary reason for coming to church is to be stroked, who want to feel good about themselves as they leave the service.

Spiritual Warfare as a subject for Christian reflection is not often associated with prolonged biblical exposition of any text, let alone a consideration of the book of Numbers. Rarer still is a discussion of spiritual warfare in connection with Numbers chapters one and twenty-six, the census passages. What passes for Christian teaching about confronting the forces of evil on the bookshelves most accessible to our fellow Christians and what the Bible actually teaches are often two entirely different things. When solid pastors fail to wrestle with the struggles of their congregations and declare the truth in liberating and practical ways, charlatans and novices rush in to fill the void with dangerous results. This reflection on the book of Numbers is an attempt to biblically ground our understanding of spiritual warfare in this reality: In the midst of spiritual warfare, God's covenant faithfulness is the source of our hope and strength.