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  • Jesus: Appointed the Son of God?

    Romans 1:4 in the NIV 2011 reads: “and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”

    Does this mean that because of his resurrection God appointed Jesus as his Son? Prior to the resurrection Jesus was just some guy, but post-resurrection God decided Jesus was good enough so he let him into the family?

    Maybe some other translations can offer some insight:

    The NIV 1984 reads “and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”

    The NRSV reads “and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

    Here Jesus is declared to be God’s Son. The KJV, NAS and ESV all say he was “declared” as well. So then was the resurrection God’s public announcement of Jesus’ sonship? The NLT goes so far as to say that Jesus “was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead.”

    But here’s the problem: the Greek text doesn’t really say “declared,” it says he was “appointed.” Paul uses the word ὁρισθέντος, which is the participle of the verb ὁρίζω. And ὁρίζω, according to BDAG, means “to make a determination about an entity, determine, appoint, fix, set.” Every occurrence of ὁρίζω in the New Testament carries the clear meaning of appoint, decide or determine:

    Luk 22:22 For the Son of Man is to go just as it has been determined
    Act 2:23 who was handed over by the predetermined plan
    Act 10:42 he is the one appointed by God as judge
    Act 11:29 So the disciples … decided to send relief
    Act 17:26 determining their set times
    Act 17:31 by a man whom he designated
    Heb 4:7 So God again appoints a certain day

    If one accepts that “appoint” is in fact the best translation of the text (so that the NIV 2011 is really a more accurate rendering than the NIV 1984), does that leave us at a theological dead-end?

    But there is another option: “in power” is describing the Son of God, not the appointment, so that Paul is not saying that “the Son of God was powerfully appointed”” but rather that the “powerful Son of God was appointed” or, as in the NET: “who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power.” Jesus was the Son of God pre-resurrection, but it was because of the resurrection that God chose to appoint him as the Powerful Son of God. Anders Nygren summarizes this important point: “So the resurrection is the turning point in the existence of the Son of God. Before that he was the Son of God in weakness and lowliness. Through the resurrection he becomes the Son of God in power.”

    This issue not only sheds light on the way theology can influence our English translations, it also makes a crucial point about the importance of the resurrection. Christianity is not primarily about the Jesus’ public ministry or his death on the cross. Ours is, above all else, a resurrection faith — if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty (1 Cor 15:14). It is only through the resurrection that God’s plan for humanity and Jesus’ role in that plan, as the appointed Son of God in Power, can be fully realized.

  • Who’s Your Neighbor?

    “A man was going down from Great Falls, Montana to Boise, Idaho and ran off the road in a snow storm. He crashed into the ditch and lay there, bloody and wounded and half dead.

    “Now by chance a Baptist preacher was going down that road, but when he saw the accident he passed by on the other side. So too a Catholic priest, when he came up to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (more…)

  • Is Heaven Real?

    Newsweek’s October 8 cover story is by Dr. Eben Alexander, a noted neurosurgeon who had a near-death experience that he believes offers conclusive proof of the afterlife. (Not-so-coincidentally, his book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into The Afterlife comes out October 23).

    Dr. Alexander says that he “experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.” (more…)

  • Are You A Heretic?

    I’ve recently encountered several instances of Christians I know calling certain beliefs “heresy.” In one case, a pastor labeled the belief that Christians could be possessed by demons as a heresy. In another, an acquaintance called the entire Emerging Church movement heresy. But what’s the real meaning of such a divisive term? Why not just say “I think you’re wrong?”

    Presumably in the instances above the intent was to delineate true from false belief. Beliefs held by Christians that are true = orthodoxy. Beliefs held by Christians that are false = heresy. (more…)

  • Defining Evangelical

    There is perhaps no designation within Christianity that is so ubiquitous but yet so difficult to define as that of Evangelical. It is simultaneously bandied about as a term of derision, as a badge of honor, as a litmus test for orthodoxy and as a synonym for fanaticism.

    Perhaps the most widely accepted scholarly definition of Evangelical is that of David Bebbington, who defines it in terms of four “isms”: conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism. (more…)

  • Review: Putting Away Childish Things by Marcus Borg

    Borg, Marcus J. (2010). Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith. New York: HarperOne.

    In this work of fiction Borg provides insights into the positions and difficulties of modern progressive Christianity. Although Putting Away Childish Things is overly didactic at times, Borg nevertheless manages to provide an insightful examination of the intersection of faith and modernity, framing theological, philosophical and social issues in an accessible and engaging way. (more…)

  • Baptism in the Holy Spirit

    Perhaps the primary doctrinal difference separating Pentecostals and most Charismatics from the rest of Christendom is the doctrine of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. According to their view, Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a singular milestone in the Christian life that occurs subsequent to salvation and is evidenced by speaking in tongues. The Assemblies of God considers Baptism in the Holy Spirit one of their four Core Doctrines and one of their 16 Fundamental Truths:

    All believers are entitled to and should ardently expect and earnestly seek the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the normal experience of all in the early Christian Church. With it comes the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry.

    (more…)

  • Review: Faith, Form, and Time by Kurt Wise

    Wise, Kurt P. (2002). Faith, Form, and Time: What the Bible Teaches and Science Confirms about Creation and the Age of the Universe. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

    Kurt Wise lives in a binary world: either you’re a Bible-Believing Young Earth Creationist who accepts the Truth or else you’re an Evil Atheist Evolutionist who has no rational basis for any belief whatsoever. But reality, as expressed in the Bible and in nature, is considerably more complex than such a simplistic dichotomy. In Faith, Form, and Time, Wise seeks to provide a comprehensive explanation of the Young Earth Creationist position, but in doing so he fails to acknowledge, let alone explore, other viable interpretations of the Genesis creation account such as the many varieties of concordist and framework views that are widely held by knowledgeable Christians. For Wise, such views don’t really matter because his presuppositions, grounded in fideistic faith, leave no room for exploring alternative ideas or for critically examining one’s own beliefs.  (more…)

  • Which Bible Translation Is Best?

    From time to time I get asked what the best Bible translation is. This sounds like an innocent enough question, but before answering, it’s important to understand the motivation behind  the question. This inquiry generally comes from one of three types of people:

    1. Someone who is relatively new to the Bible and wants some basic advice on where to start.
    2. Someone who has been around the Bible for a while and has always used whatever Bible their church or family used is now looking to expand their engagement with the text.
    3. Someone who is trying to gauge your theological position and peg you as a hopeless liberal or an out-of-touch conservative.

    Each of those circumstances merits their own response: (more…)

  • Review: Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

    Yousef, Mosab Hassan. (2010). Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

    An absolutely amazing story conveyed in an absolutely mediocre manner. Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders of Hamas, a key operative in that organization, an Israeli spy and finally a professing Christian living in America, has lived an extraordinary life, witnessing events first-hand that most people only see on the evening news. (more…)