James and I & II Peter

Below are questions about James, First Peter, and Second Peter. The answers to these questions are the information you need to know about these three books.

The test will be on Monday, May 3, and will be on the following books:

Hebrews
Hebrews 6
James
I Peter
II Peter

Anyway, back to James and Peter. You can find the answers to these questions in the Schippe, pp. 324-329

James & Peter

James: General Description:

How are the titles of the general letters different from the titles of other NT letters?

Where have you heard the term Twelve Tribes before?

Why does James address Christians this way?

As a letter, what is unusual about the letter of James?

What are four examples of James’ practical advice?

1.

2.

3.

4.

What is the “royal law” referred to by James?

From whom does this law come?

(Refer to Jas. 2:14-17) Can faith alone save a person, according to James?

Who does James use as examples of faith and good works? (Cf. Gen. 22:1-13 & Josh. 2:1-21)

1.

2.

How is James’ discussion of Abraham different from Paul’s discussion of Abraham?

How was Raham a model of faith?

How was James’ view on faith and works different from and similar to Paul’s view?

Acc. to James, what were the three dangers to communities of faith?

1.

2.

3.

How does James use the figure of Job?

Vocabulary Words: Eschaton, Eschatological

I Peter: General Description:

Refer to I Peter 2:21, 23-24. What do you think of this advice?

Refer to I Peter 3:18-21 and I Peter 4:6. What does Peter say Jesus did immediately after his death, before he rose?

How is baptism like the rescue provided by Noah’s ark?

II Peter: General Description

What character traits does the author list as most important in the first chapter of the letter?

What kind of false teachers does the author attack in the second portion of the letter?

What is the “fall of the angels?”

What parts of the Hebrew Scriptures does the author of II Peter refer to in his condemnation of the “false teachers?” (cf. Numbers and Proverbs 26:11)

Homework:

Read 1 Peter. Take notes and bring them on Friday (tomorrow)

Read Schippe pp. 324-329. Take notes and bring them on Monday.

Don’t forget to finish your online assignment too! Bring that to class with you on Friday (tomorrow)

The Epistles of John

I John

• John was most likely the author, and he was old.
• It seems more like an essay, rather than a letter
• Three themes, each around a key affirmation
• 1:5—God is light and in him there is no darkness
• 1:5-2:17 he talks about this
• 2:18—the antichrist is coming and even now he is in the world.
• 4:2—how do you recognize a spirit from God?
• IF a spirit acknowledges Jesus came in the flesh, he is from God.
• Don’t take this verse out of context!
• If you are born of God you should not be sinning you should be walking in the light.
• Righteousness, love, and belief.
• Watch out for Proto-Gnosticism.
• WE have people who claim to have special knowledge. They are the elite and they are better than those who do not have this knowledge. They think that they are w/o sin.
• True knowledge is always going to be from the Scripture and in accordance with apostolic teaching
• 1:7-8: as Christians we should not be walking in the darkness. But if we claim to be without sin, we make God out to be a liar

• 1:8, 2:1—True Christians sin
• 3:9—no one who is born of God will sin (the NIV has “continue to sin”)
• he has God’s see and is born of God
• 5:18—anyone born of God will not sin.
• D. Scholar, “Sins within and Sins Without” Current Issues, ia Biblical and patristic inter. Ed. G. Hawthorne
• There is a distinction between Sins that lead to death and sins that do not lead to death.
• 1 John 2:19—this is the sin that will kill you.

Hatred of God’s people—there is no way a believer can do this

II John: Hospitality

• In the Middle East, showing Hospitality is the norm. If you don’t you bring shame to your family! Even today, the norm is extreme hospitality
• When itinerant false teachers come and depend on hospitality in order to ply their trade—don’t show them hospitality
• Should we not offer hospitality to Jehovah’s Witnesses? No it doesn’t mean that. But you do not give them an opportunity to propagate their faith by supporting them financially.

Hebrews 6

2. Heb 6:4-6
3. This is a sermonic book. Therefore in a sermon the speaker has to go on what the people profess.
4. 3:1—he addresses the true brothers. But 3:12, and 3:14 imply that there are some who profess Christ yet are not true believers.
5. LOOK: The hardest people to bring to Christianity are those who have “already tried it.” That’s right! They have tasted, but they didn’t like it, and they rejected it.
6. How are Christians kept from apostacy? Other Christians!

1. “A text without a context is a pretext.”

Hebrews

• Hebrews?
• Apollos? Silas? Paul? Who wrote this book? I don’t know. It was probably not Paul. It doesn’t start with I, Paul. There is a vast style difference. The greek of Hebrews is the most sophisticated. There are also theological differences. And, the author of Hebrews says that he got his gospel from others. Paul got his gospel from Damascus Road
• Origen: as to the human author, God only knows. Silas or Luke, the two most likely candidates.
• The letter was most likely written while the temple was still standing, 66-70.
• Purpose of the Letter: written to Jewish Christians who have been tempted to return to some form of Judaism
• One thing driving them towards that is the fact that Jews had protection under the law and Christians didn’t.
• Also, societal and family pressure. Just like ex-catholic converts.

• Overview: what you have now is good. If you were to return to idealized Judaism, that would be good. Fine good great. And there are angels involved in this. But you have the Son of God, which is FAR superior to angels or the temple or blickity black wha wah.
• Sermonic qualities:
• Time does not permit me to go on,
• Other things in the letter also seem like it is a transcript of a speech/sermon.
• Hebrews 6: easier to understand when you think that this book is a sermon to a congregation.
  

• The use of the OT in Hebrews

1. There are countless allusions to the OT in Hebrews

2. Tends to take his understanding of redemption from the Pentetuch
3. Tends to take his view of the person of Christ from the Psalms.
4. There are at least 30 quotations of the OT in Hebrews
2. The way the author quotes is actually pretty interesting. He says, “God says.” The human author is actually almost ignored in Hebrews. This is not to say that the human author is not important, but not compared to God.
3. Sometimes it’s “Christ says,” the “Son says”
1. Heb 2:12, 13a, 13b, 10:5-7—the Son
2. Heb 3:7-11, 10:16, 17—Holy Spirit
3. Heb 4:7, 8:8-12—God
4. The Holy Spirit is quoted, sometimes God is quoted the same passage. Therefore God is the Holy Spirit.

Hermeneutics

1. The OT still speaks to us. How do we know this?

1. The author quotes God by saying what he “says” not “said.”
2. The OT is authoritative
1. The whole argument of this book falls flat if the OT is not authoritative
2. The author doesn’t try to prove it but he just assumes that the readers agree.
3. The author of Hebrews is not in any way neutral when reading the OT.
1. He sees it as a Christian book
2. He is not apologetic about this
3. He knows what the new covenant is like, he knows who Jesus is, and he knows what the end looks like. Now let’s go back and take a look at the Old Testament that pointed to Christ’s messianic character.
4. Unlike Matthew he does not use the OT to try to prove his case. Rather, he uses to OT to buttress his argument
5. Before Jesus came, people were not reading Psalm 23 and Isaiah 53 as messianic prophecies. But once you know what the end looks like, you can go back and check things out.
4. God is sovereign and in control of history
1. God put certain things in history, like Melchizedek
2. These things prefigure later historical figures and events
3. The Exodus, David’s kingship, the OT sanctuary/tabernacle
5. The Bible is in unity—God spoke in the past and now God is speaking through the Son.
1. Typology—Actual historical figures
2. Allegory—There is no need to have actual historical figures in allegory. Aesop’s fables are allegories. Animal Farm by Orwell is also an allegory.
3. Type/Antitype
1. Even though the type comes first, the antitype defines the type
2. Although Melchizedek came first, Jesus is who determined what his name would be.
3. Although the earthly sanctuary came first, the heavenly sanctuary is the true type
6. The OT teaches its own incompleteness/inadequacy.
3. The promise of the Promised Land—they would have rest when they got there. Was this fulfilled? Not completely because, 400 years later, God also says that if they don’t harden their hearts there will be a rest for them.
4. If salvation had come from the Levitical system, there would not need to be another priest in the order of Melchizedek. Anytime you come up with something new that implies that the new thing will be better.
   
   
   Conclusions:

1. The OT cannot just be plopped down and applied to modern day America.

2. However it is authoritative. It is authoritative on its own, but it is only in the light of Christ that we see the true meaning of the Old Testament’s message.

Philemon & Colossians

PHILEMON

o slavery is wrong, yet
o Paul could not just say NO more slavery. The economy was based on the institution of Slavery

Holiness is not merely a set of dos and don’ts

Colossians

Houshold codes: kids 2 Parents, spouses

Women, Slaves

Philippians

# Philippians: 60-62

* Paul writing from prison
* Philippi: Roman Colony
* Occasion: The Phillipians have sent Epaphroditus to help Paul. But Epaphroditus got sick and is returning. So Paul is now writing back to the Phillipians telling them that Epaphroditus did a good job
* Purpose:
o Commend Epaphroditus
o thank the phillipians who have been extremely generous with their material possessions
o Also, deal with disunity in the church (in Ch. 2)
o Reassure the Philippians that even though he is in prison, he is not worried about dying. He is not despondent

# Of all Paul’s letters, this is the most personal, even more personal than the actual letters to individuals

* You see the theme over and over again of joy
* Four chapters, and 16 times in there he talks about Joy or rejoicing. He averages 4 times a chapter

# There is a digression, interruption

* Beginning ch. 3: Paul says “Finally” but he goes on for a long time after that.
* 3:1: rejoice in the Lord! It sound like he is going to end the letter. But he takes time out to ONCE AGAIN condemn the Judaizers, who are putting so much emphasis on the “mutilation of the flesh” of circumcision
* Paul brags about all the works he did before he became a Christian.
o But it was all dung compared to the righteousness he now has in Jesus Christ
o Unlike Luther, Paul thought he was doing fine living by works
* THE MOST IMPORTANT: Philippians 2:5-11!!!
o In the first four verses he addresses the problem of division, then in 5-11 he makes the comparison to Christ, who is the supreme example of putting others before himself
o Possibly this was part of a hymn.
o Paul might be doing what we sometimes do, which is refer to hymns. We don’t know and it isn’t important. He describes a divine drama. How did Jesus get from the Father, to now being the name at which every knee shall bow?
+ He took the way of a servant, which is something we must emulate
* Paul has pretty clearly in the back of his mind the comparison between the first adam and the second adam. Does it say that explicitly? No. But it is very clear that in this and in other passages, such as the temptation of Jesus, Jesus undoes what Adam did.
o What Jesus did was, though he was fully God, he took on manhood and instead of doing what Adam did, which was trying to become like God or equal to God, Jesus didn’t hold on to his position. He became a servant, even serving unto death and now he is God and Savior
o The first adam failed by grasping at what was not his by nature, whereas the second adam succeeded not by holding on to what was his by nature (godhood) but by selflessly becoming a servant and a sacrifice
* Is there anything which might indicate that Paul had this comparison in mind? Paul mentions obedience of Christ in Philippians 2:8. The only other time that he mentions this is Romans 5:18-19, where he is explicitly comparing Adam with Jesus

# Paul’s attitude toward preaching the gospel out of selfish ambition: these people were trying to minimize Paul’s position. But Paul does not argue with them. Rather he says that the important thing is that people are saved. His reputation is not what counts. He cares about whether the Gospel is being preached.
# 1:21-26 to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul understands the fact that if he were to die tomorrow, he would have no more pain, etc. He would be in the Presence of Christ

* Paul doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, he just wants to serve the Lord.

# Revelation 12 says that we can defeat Satan by not loving our lives unto death. We can take away a major weapon of his.

I & II Timothy and Titus

What are the main themes of 1 Timothy?
Warning against false teaching, the Lord’s grace to Paul, instructions on worship, OVERSEERS AND DEACONS (CHURCH OFFICES), instructions to Timothy, WIDOWS, ELDERS, SLAVES, love of money, Paul’s charge to Timothy.

What are main themes of 2 Timothy?
We’re in the last days/end times, which are terrible times, so be diligent and persevere. Timothy should visit soon. Paul’s charge to Timothy

What are the main themes of Titus?
False teachers from Crete. Teaching various things to various groups. Doing what is good/church behavior.

Ephesians 4-6

don’t get depressed, you don’t have to figure it out. Yeah, like it’s that easy. Think about it this way: even if things aren’t pre-planned, they are still just as certain if God just knows the future. The Openness of God movement says that God knows everything about the future that can be known. But he cannot know your choices beforehand or they would not be free choices. The problem with this is that it throws out a very fundamental teaching, that God knows the future! Otherwise how could he ever have any control or be able to prophecy?

But even still, even if God just knows, that gives us more free will. But even if God does influence our choices, they are still our choices. That is why Pharaoh was held accountable.

Getting rid of predestination is not the way to get read of that uncertainty. So we can either believe that God controls all things according to his purpose, which includes sending billions of people to damnation, or we can believe that God merely knows what people are going to do, which insufficiently represents what the Bible really says.

God is not willing that any should perish: yet, will has two words and three different meanings.

In one sense, everything exists because God commands it. Therefore anyone who does not come to faith is disobeying God. The thing is, no one can come to faith unless the holy Spirit unshackles him first and brings him to Christ. So basically we made a bad choice in Adam. What the heck! Sometimes people talk about corporate solidarity, in that we were somehow physically present there. But really we still didn’t make the choice because we weren’t individuals

The other sense is that God Decrees it.

Sometimes it means that it brings God joy.

Did God choose the best representative? You have to trust the Goodness of God.

So, are we condemned because of Adam? Option one: we are, and when it comes to babies God makes an exception to the rule and allows them to go to heaven. Option two: God won’t send us to heaven unless we actually sin, which is why babies go to heaven because they don’t sin (they cannot distinguish right from wrong, much like animals). But then, is it ever possible not to sin? Is it our choice or is it inevitable because of our sinful nature, or both. Are we condemned because of our sinful nature, or our sin?

- Eph. 3: Paul says some dubious things, describing himself unnecessarily if he is just writing to the Ephesians who he already spent three years with.

o Ephesians 4: Unity and diversity in the Body of Christ
+ Of the gifts, let’s talk about the gift of pastor-teacher. Verse 12, job description of a pastor: prepare God’s people for works of service so that the Body of Christ may be built up.
# This contrasts with what we know now, with the pastor at the top, then the deacons, then at the bottom, the lay people. People don’t like that though.
# The pastor is not supposed to do everything on behalf of the church. Rather, he is supposed to equip the church to do good works and such truck.
# V. 15: gives us the right perspective. Don’t ignore differences? Discuss them, but speak the truth in love. Whatever we do, we don’t do it to get another notch in our belt. Nooooo my friend, we speak the truth in love. Don’t worry about converting people to our way of thinking.
# Most of the time we secretly judge people, or we call them names.
# Ch 4: don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
# Paul is a master of combining the negative with the positive. You would think in v. 28 that he would just stop at the negative command, but he switches it around.
+ In order to get rid of a certain sin, actively practice the positive alternative.
o Ch. 5: riotous living in 5:18, same as prodigal son. Paul doesn’t say don’t drink. Don’t get drunk. Be filled with the Spirit, a repeated action. Do not be under the influence of booze
+ The most basic way to get under the influence of the spirit is to heed what he says in the Bible.
+ Series of participles in 5:21
# Worship, submission to one another, children to parents, husbands and wives, slaves to masters
# It is radical for a husband to submit to his wife.
# Paul moves as far as he can toward equality. Husbands still have some ultimate role of authority to play, BUT let’s be rational.
+ Armor of God in Chapter 6
# Spiritual warfare – we’re makin’ war in the heavenlies!
# Everything is defensive except for the last thing, which is the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, the BIBLE!
# Eph. 6:17, the Word of God is the sword of the spirit.

Ephesians 1-3

o Ephesians
+ Was it really written just for the Ephesians? Probably not for three reasons:
# In our earliest and best manuscripts we do not have the words “In Ephesus” which leads us to believe that it is likely that a scribe sometime down the line added the words in parentheses and eventually the parentheses dropped out
# It is not that easy to imagine why the words would not have been there in the original if the was purely to the Ephesians
# Also, it almost seems like he is introducing himself in chapter 3. he would not have had to do this for the Ephesians because he spent THREE YEARS WITH THEM
# There are almost no greetings in the book either. Romans, written to a city to which Paul had never even been, there are tons of greetings!
+ QUESTION: why are those words in there if they are not in the original? They can’t just start pulling things out of the Bible. They have to deal with a marketplace in which people do not understand textual criticism
o Occasion for Ephesians
+ There is a lot of Baptismal imagery in the book which needs an explanation.
# There were certain rituals performed at a baptism back then. One of these was a sermon. You have one such sermon in the Book of Ephesians. Someone heard Paul’s sermon originally preached to a newly baptized convert, and someone told him to write it down and propagate it. So he did in the Book of Ephesians. The whole book is coherent.
# MYQUESTION: how do we know this is one of those sermons? WE have some descriptions, and we know the general concepts included in the sermons. But if we could prove it, we wouldn’t have to talk about theory and speculation. WE’re just trying to explain what we see
+ Theology: Chapter One: Spiritual Blessings in Christ
# Redemption in Christ—yep
# Revelation of God’s Purpose—of course
# WE have been Chosen in Christ before the Creation of the World—I don’t know about that, Paul
* Why is Paul so happy about predestination?
* Paul thinks that apart from God’s predestining love, we would all be lost and dead in our transgressions. That is a fact lady.
* The light came into the world, and the world hated the light.
* Paul’s belief in depravity: we cannot do anything without being regenerated by God
* Jesus: unless you are born again you cannot enter the kingdom
* Without the work of the Holy Spirit, you would be preaching to a cemetery.
# There are a host of questions that go along with this. Check it.
+ Ephesians 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. “
o Predestination is not Fatalism
+ Q. Did God look into the future, see who was going to believe, and then predestine those people? A. No. He looked into the future and saw that no one was going to believe.
# Our Choice was originally with Adam
+ Of all the nations in the world, God Chose Israel What’s the deal with that? They didn’t earn it. Period. Now apply that to us.
+ We see in Chapter two of Ephesians that our good works are not what with we earn our salvation. Rather, God predestined us to do those works for us to do way long time ago.
+ Romans 9 also talks about Predestination. This is a hard saying.
+ Inspiration is really another form of predestination
o Everything that happens is a result of God either allowing it to happen of causing it to happen
o MY QUESTION: why evil? Hitler? A: demonstrates how inherently evil we as humans are. Be glad that God restrains evil so that we all do not portray our Hitler-like tendencies
+ The ultimate reason that God creates people he knows will reject him is in Romans Ch. 9: we would never understand his love unless we understood his justice. So those people are merely examples! Does God even love those people!? What the heck?! I walk and talk!
+ It’s like a driver’s ed instructor. He doesn’t use the brake, he controls the car by persuading the driver.
o Fairness: it’s unfair for God to choose some people and not to choose others. And that is true, if people deserve to be chosen. But if none of us deserve it, then God can choose whomever he wants.
+ Grace is by definition, undeserved favor.
o HOW DO WE KNOW IF WE ARE CHOSEN? WE never know! So we are never encouraged to think of ourselves as chosen.

I & II Corinthians

See handout. Refer to pp. 288-292 in the Schippe.

Can a Christian Lose His Salvation?

Can you lose your salvation?
- the primary argument: if that was not true, you would lose motivation to live the Christian life
• you would become complacent.
o Matt 5:13—you are the salt of the earth, but you can lose your saltiness and will be trampled underfoot
o Mark 4—true Christians who lose their salvation when weeds, rocky soil, sun kills them
o John 15—people are abiding in Christ, then the don’t abide and they are cut off and thrown into the fire
o Romans 11—branches can be cut off the vine and the Jews can be regrafted in.
o Hebrews 6—if you fall away, it is impossible to bring you back to repentance after you have tasted the good things
- If these were the only passages we had on the subject, Bibza would say yes, you could lose your salvation
o Are we looking at a real Christian or someone who merely professes to believe
o Is Jesus describing someone who is true based on their profession or something which he knows to be a reality?
o Is it real or is it hypothetical
- Mark 4: they had no root! They weren’t real

I Thessalonians

II. I Thessalonians:
a. Women singled out as disciples
b. Many come to faith
c. OccasionPaul is in Corinth, and he gets a report from Timothy, and he gets a report from Timothy about Thessalonika.
i. Spiritual Growth good
ii. But moral and theological problems.
d. Paul writes a letter to the Thessalonians, because he cannot go back or he will be imprisoned or killed.
e. Ch. 1: he commends them for their spiritual growth. He wants to tell them to stand firm in the face of persecution, but he can’t. Paul ran away from persecution!
f. Ch. 2:1-12: Paul says he wasn’t a coward. What he did was necessary for the gospel. In fact, he didn’t want to leave, Jason and his friends basically pushed him out. Won’t get out? I’ll push you out.
g. 2:13-3:13...
h. 4:1-12: Paul turns to morality and ethics. These people didn’t have the new testament. They were used to going from one religion to another and it was no big deal. But now they have accepted Jesus and that calls for a lifestyle change. So Paul has to tell them this fact.
i. 4:13-5:11 Second Coming: Parousia
j. end of book, various words, no central topic.