The Holy Spirit...he's been around a looong time...
One of the joys and pains of Seminary is writing. Not that I dislike writing, it's that I dislike writing short papers, especially of the reflective type (always 1-3 pages). Give me a research paper, tell me 10 or more pages and I'm there with more footnotes than anyone else in the class. Give me a reflection paper and I cringe.
Why? I think it's harder to do reflection because it opens up my thoughts and emotions in a personal way, as well as explaining how material impacts my views on certain topics. Not to mention that the ones reading these reflections are people who are/were pastors, first rate in their fields, and published authors.
Here is one paragraph of my soon to be finished reflection on Sinclair Ferguson's The Holy Spirit. It deals with one chapter in the book on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
Growing up in a conservative fundamentalist environment and migrating toward a Reformed Evangelical setting, I have noticed that often the Holy Spirit is regulated to the New Testament with relation to preaching and teaching in both camps. This tendency lends the learner to think of the Holy Spirit as inactive until a New Testament dispensation. Ferguson did well to correct my tendency to not view the Holy Spirit as active during all time by pointing out the obvious from Scripture that a Trinitarian understanding of God can be gleaned from the Old Testament. This is especially important because all Christians need to understand that the Godhead has been actively involved in the stories of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation from the beginning. This helps myself, as well as the people I teach develop a correct Trinitarian, and fuller Covenantal understanding of Scripture and how God, three in one, operates in real space and time. Seeing the activity of the Holy Spirit from the beginning also serves as a guard against ideas of a soft-Marcionite* dichotomy of understanding the role of the Trinity, as well as other un-Biblical nuisances of seeing the role of God the Holy Spirit through time.
*Marcion was a 2nd century heretic who taught that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New Testament.
While most evangelicals would not hold to that in theory, relegating the Holy Spirit to the New Testament, or holding to a complete change in any member of the Godhead is what I termed a "soft-Marcionite" view. I am not calling people full Marcionites, my intention was not in belief, but in practice perhaps.
And I am not denying that the Holy Spirit worked differently (i am being intentionally vague) in the New Testament, but I am contending that the Holy Spirit should be seen as active in the Old and New Testaments.
One God, three persons without beginning and without end working throughout time and through what we know as Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation.
Why? I think it's harder to do reflection because it opens up my thoughts and emotions in a personal way, as well as explaining how material impacts my views on certain topics. Not to mention that the ones reading these reflections are people who are/were pastors, first rate in their fields, and published authors.
Here is one paragraph of my soon to be finished reflection on Sinclair Ferguson's The Holy Spirit. It deals with one chapter in the book on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
Growing up in a conservative fundamentalist environment and migrating toward a Reformed Evangelical setting, I have noticed that often the Holy Spirit is regulated to the New Testament with relation to preaching and teaching in both camps. This tendency lends the learner to think of the Holy Spirit as inactive until a New Testament dispensation. Ferguson did well to correct my tendency to not view the Holy Spirit as active during all time by pointing out the obvious from Scripture that a Trinitarian understanding of God can be gleaned from the Old Testament. This is especially important because all Christians need to understand that the Godhead has been actively involved in the stories of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation from the beginning. This helps myself, as well as the people I teach develop a correct Trinitarian, and fuller Covenantal understanding of Scripture and how God, three in one, operates in real space and time. Seeing the activity of the Holy Spirit from the beginning also serves as a guard against ideas of a soft-Marcionite* dichotomy of understanding the role of the Trinity, as well as other un-Biblical nuisances of seeing the role of God the Holy Spirit through time.
*Marcion was a 2nd century heretic who taught that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New Testament.
While most evangelicals would not hold to that in theory, relegating the Holy Spirit to the New Testament, or holding to a complete change in any member of the Godhead is what I termed a "soft-Marcionite" view. I am not calling people full Marcionites, my intention was not in belief, but in practice perhaps.
And I am not denying that the Holy Spirit worked differently (i am being intentionally vague) in the New Testament, but I am contending that the Holy Spirit should be seen as active in the Old and New Testaments.
One God, three persons without beginning and without end working throughout time and through what we know as Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation.
posted by Bobby's blog at 2:59 PM
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