The Surprising God

A controversial (and often misunderstood) part of the New Testament is Matthew's account of Jesus' Olivet Discourse (found in Matthew chapters 24 and 25). This post offers an exegesis of that discourse that, hopefully, will bring clarity where often there is confusion and misplaced speculation. Painting by Simonet  (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Introduction: the great transition At the end of Matthew chapter 23, Jesus mourns the coming destruction of Jerusalem (Mat 23:37-38). He sees this terrible event as signaling a great transition from the present age into a new one. The new age, elsewhere called the "last days" (Acts 2:17; 2Pet 3:3; 2Tim 3:1), will culminate in what the Jews of the time called "the end of the age" (see Mat 24:3). To Jesus, the destruction of Jerusalem is part of the outworking of an even more monumental, age-changing event; his coming death (Mat 23:39a) followed by his resurrection and ascension. The new age beyond the cross an...

This post continues a series exploring  T.F. Torrance in Recollection and Reappraisal   by Bruce Ritchie. For other posts in this series, click a number: 1 , 2 ,  4 . Last time , we looked at Ritchie's overview of several foundational understandings in Torrance's incarnational and Trinitarian theology. This time, we'll explore T.F.'s theological method, which he refers to as theological science . Fish Magic  by Paul Klee (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Decrying the tendency in Western thought since the Enlightenment to divorce form (structure) from content (meaning), T.F. was committed to an approach to theology that utilizes the best methodologies of the natural sciences--ones "in which form and content are grasped as a unity, and in which what an object presents to us on the one hand, and its inner meaning on the other, are in harmony and are not disjoined" (pp. 41-42). Applied to theology, this methodology involves allowing God (the object of inquiry)...